We're No. 1!
The American Film Institute has released it's Top Ten Films in Ten Genres list and Utah came shining through.Yes, Utah.
The Searchers is judged the best Western ever made—in no small part because director John Ford cast Utah's Monument Valley as the setting for his exploration of obsession and racism.
Utah, of course, is a stunt double for Texas. HA! I know Texas and the Staked Plains ain't no Monument Valley.
The Searchers is a pretty great movie that every Utahn should see. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, despite its Utah connections, came in No. 7.
Above: John Wayne gets in the way of the scenery.
2 Comments:
I love it whenever a major organization agrees with me about the greatest western ever made. Of course, "Shane" and "Unforgiven" should be up there, too. But "The Searchers" is the finest
Shane is by far the best western film. Unforgiven is second and The Searchers is next, for me.
Shane has it all: love, hate, revenge, emotions, western lore, Jack Palance and Alan Ladd. And the scenery, below the beautiful Tetons in Western Wyoming, is as beautiful as any. But what really steals it is the fist-fight scene over who is going to town. Shot from between horses legs, the bull trying leap the coral, the music (and lack of)and the mom and boy. Super film. Palance was masterful. How frightening! Two guns, hanging low, black gloves, and that LOOK! He was meanness from the top of his black hat to his muddy boots.
Clint Eastwood's is a masterpiece, no doubt and I love that film. No scenery, to speak of, just a grand story line and gifted acting.
What spoils it for me about The Searchers is Jack Ford's propensity for bulldozing, literally, the crew's way all over Monument Valley. Bulldoing, backloading, dynamiting. Ford could care less about what he did to that magnificent backdrop. Wayne, of course, was great. But his buddy Ward Bond does his best to swipe the movie.
And, I have to toss in High Noon. Courage, honor, thick plot and Gary
Cooper. Black and white, real cowboys. Directed by Fred Zinnemann. He's the father of the guy who gave us the great The Day of the Jackal, Fred Zinnemann.
I also like Winchester '73, except that Rock Hudson was cast as an Indian chief!
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