I recently came across this reference and quotation from Charlton Heston regarding westerns, and it made me think very carefully about what he was saying.
“Late in 1956, Charlton Heston was asked why he had elected to follow his career-defining performance as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments with a western, Three Violent People. ‘Well, I’ll tell you,’ Heston replied. ‘I have always enjoyed westerns. On anybody’s list of the ten best pictures ever made, there will be at least three westerns. You name them — everybody’s taste differs — but I guarantee the list will have at least three.’ “
It is certainly true that more westerns were made, and enjoyed, in the first half of the twentieth century than any other genre of film, yet I am dubious that Heston’s statement was true even when he said it in 1956. It is certainly less true today, as western dominance ended in the 1960s, and as few stars have regularly ridden the range since that era. But I was curious to see just how Heston’s “guarantee” would hold up — then and now, so I did some checking.
Now, of course, it is an obvious fallacy. Just as an example, the American Film Institute created “Top 100” lists in 1998 and 2008, and only eight westerns made the list in 1998, dropping to six in 2008 — none higher than # 27 on either list. Shared movies include High Noon, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Shane, Unforgiven, The Wild Bunch and an oddball drama that barely qualifies as a western, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Stagecoach and Dances With Wolves made the initial list, but were dropped in the 10th anniversary version.
It should be worth noting, of course, that European-made westerns were not included in the AFI lists. Thus, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West and For a Few Dollars More were not mentioned, although these three movies, plus Unforgiven and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre are in the Internet Movie Database’s (IMDb) current list of their top 250 vote getters, with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at # 9 (with an 8.8 rating out of 10). But even there, five westerns in the top 250 movies of all time is a measly 2%. Westerns, nowadays, are no longer seen with the same affection and respect that they were back in the day.
Why? Two reasons come to mind. First, they are not being made in the quantity that they were. Many younger moviegoers may have never seen a western because their favorite film stars haven’t been making any. Second, in this modern “woke” era, they are seen as passé, or worse, racist, and so are being bypassed as younger viewers learn and experience their cinematic past. Now, on cable channels that exhibit westerns, I have seen a new “guideline” being noted alongside the pre-show warnings about content (V for violence, S for sexual situations, etc.). I’ve recently seen two westerns noted as “OC” for “outdated cultural depictions.” That label would probably apply to most westerns, and I think it is noteworthy that an entire film genre is seen in that light.
So, what with few westerns being made at all and the thousands that do exist are now seen in a state of ill repute, it is not surprising at all that few westerns are revered as they once were. But were they really? Charlton Heston insists that they were. Just for fun, I consulted “Film Facts,” a 1980 reference by Cobbett S. Steinberg, published by Film Facts, that compiles all sorts of arcane information about this sort of thing,
Of the top 200 moneymaking films of all time, as of 1980, nine were westerns, the oldest being How the West Was Won from 1962. Everything else dated from 1969 forward, mixing one John Wayne title (True Grit) with comedies (Blazing Saddles, The Apple Dumpling Gang) to musicals (Paint Your Wagon) and outdoor adventure (Jeremiah Johnson). Ticket sales have nothing to do with quality, of course, but it is interesting that only Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is recognized as a top popular success as well as a top critical success.
“Film Facts” includes “top ten” lists from several sources. The famous “Sight and Sound” Survey, taken every ten years from 1952 through 1972, is here, and it includes no westerns until 1972 when The Searchers tied for seventh place. Individual critics did name some: in 1962, Eric Rohmer included Red River in his ten best list. Peter Bogdanovich (in 1972) chose Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers and Rio Bravo. Also in 1972, Richard Corliss and Andrew Sarris chose The Searchers, and Paul Schrader selected My Darling Clementine, while Jay Cocks picked two: The Searchers and The Wild Bunch.
Other categories produced similar results. In surveys of international or purely American films, a lot of great films are noted, but few westerns. I’ve viewed other “top ten” lists of critics and movie stars alike, but those results echo what I have already detailed. In critical circles, few westerns have been afforded the respect that other films (mostly dramas) have found.
Perhaps Mr. Heston was referring not to “best pictures ever made” but one’s favorites, a delineation I try to make but one which many other viewers view as one and the same. It has been so long since I created my own list of best films of all time that I could not find it; however, I do not recall having a western in the top ten. Of my personal favorites list, however, Mr. Heston is closer to the mark. In my final print issue of Filmbobbery (Spring 2009; Volume 10, Issue 4) I detailed my favorite fifteen films, two of which were westerns (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance at # 10, Duel at Diablo at # 5). Now, eleven years later, I would move The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance down a bit and insert El Dorado into that spot, leaving me with two in my top ten rather than Mr. Heston’s insistence of three (but probably three in my top fifteen!).
Ultimately, then, I think Mr. Heston was wrong when he “guaranteed” that everyone’s top ten movie list would include three westerns; certainly his statement is wrong now. Older viewers and aficionados of the West may disagree, and that’s fine. I love westerns and hope that younger viewers would learn to find and appreciate the romance that brings them alive — but I am not hopeful. Clint Eastwood isn’t making westerns anymore. The other still-active stars who have, people like Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner, may not have many left in their stables. It has never been a genre amenable to women, either, which is another factor against its renaissance. It’s a shame that this genre is fading into the sunset.
Oh, and, for the record, if I am being asked to choose the best westerns which I have ever seen — a task which I have done before but which has also altered over the years — I would choose Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) as the three best I have ever seen, with a group close behind that includes Winchester ’73 (1950), The Big Country (1958), Rio Bravo (1959), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Unforgiven (1991). That’s ten, and that doesn’t include the two favorites I mentioned before, nor many other worthy titles.
What are your choices for the three top westerns of all time?