What are some of the more classic westerns out there?

Heroes in westerns are more heroic and villains more badass than in the real world. They are a mix of violence, blood, peace and beauty. The good, the bad and the ugly: westerns are simply the voice of the American spirit.

Red River (1948)

Directed by Howard Hawks

Starring John Wayne

Produced by United Artists (Donald Sutherland)

This is a tragic tale of rivalry and rebellion between father and son. and rebellion between father and son. The autocratic Tom Dawson (John Wayne) leaves his lover for the cattle-ranching paradise of Texas and longs to make a name for himself. He adopts Matthew, a boy who escaped from an Indian massacre, and treats him like a son. Years later, Matthew grows into a man, no longer tame, but fiercely defiant. Crisis is imminent. There's nothing like a father and son driving a herd of cattle to a foreign land. This classic scene is a cold, arduous journey of heroic poetry, with dangers on the outside and tense characters on the inside, a bit like "Odyssey". Red River has almost all the elements of a Western: gunfights, crowds, sneak attacks, hangings, betrayal, revenge, love, glory, and if there's one thing that stands out, it's John Wayne's brilliant performance. If Wayne broke away from the lowbrow Westerns with Flying High, then Red River catapulted him to number one box office stardom. The movie solidified his screen persona: irascible in tone, headstrong in personality, and rich in greatness, captivating masculinity and inner appeal.

2. The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Directed by Sam Peckinpah

Starring William Holden

Ernest Borgnine

Produced by Warner

People say this movie is a milestone in the expansion of screen violence, and that's short-sighted. Peckinpah's graphic violence of white-hot, bloody gunfights is a masterpiece, a beautifully written, ballet-like piece of art. Peckinpah's slow-motion and Lou Lombardo's editing are regarded as milestones of the Western, and Peckinpah has transcended the traditional Western and stepped into the realm of slow-motion with its pure cinematic impact.

Not only that, but the story is a fascinating one, "the story of a bunch of bad men in a turbulent time," as the gang of a fallen Texas gang of robbers prepares to break up for one last time in 1913. The leader of the gang, Pike (William Holden), has made a name for himself, but this time they're ambushed and routed. Peckinpah's film is as epic as it is familiar: a betrayal of loyalties, a fight against the odds, and a fight to the end to defend a reputation (albeit a declining one).

Many of Pai's films feature a male group. The movie's portrayal of Pike's friendship with his best friend, who goes from friend to foe, is the icing on the cake. The Wild Bunch, which should not be strictly defined as a violent film, is a masterpiece that delineates a mythic equilibrium, overflowing with rich characterization, dialogue, and bittersweet irony about the lawless tradition of the end of the road.

3. The Gunfighter

The Gunfighter (1950)

Directed by Henry King

Starring Gregory Peck

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Gregory Peck. Peck plays the anti-hero protagonist, weary fast shooter Jimmy Ring's desire and struggle to escape from fame, with great insight. In his old age, Jimmy Ringo is still the West's vaunted No. 1 fast shooter, and his legend is everywhere. But he's tired of it all, and wants to avoid the burden of fame and spend the rest of his life with his wife and children, whom he hasn't seen in years. However, wherever he went, he was followed by a group of egotistical juniors who wanted to compete with him. As the saying goes, there is no turning back, since he has gone out, there is no way back. I don't know if it was out of a sense of falsehood that people began to recognize the film's extraordinary qualities much later. It makes sense that audiences in the '50s would not have been able to accept what we understand today: that a good reputation is a good reputation, but a bad reputation is a bad reputation, and that Monica Lewinsky, who aspired to be nothing more than an ordinary human being, would not be able to do so. Let's recall one of Ringo's most famous lines: "Everywhere I go, I run into conceited guys like you, what can I do? What are you going to do? Brag about it to your friends?" Cowboy or not, Jimmy Ringo senses your pain.

4. 'Winchester, '73'

'Winchester, '73' (Winchester '73 , 1950)

Directed by Anthoy Mann

Starring James Stewart

Produced by Universal

'Winchester, '73' The Year" is the best of the five Westerns made in the 1950s by James Stewart's acclaimed collaboration with Anthony Mann (the remaining four, in order, are Bend of the River, The Man From Laramie, The Naked Spur, and The Far Country), and is considered to be the best of the five Westerns made in the 1950s. The Far Country, are credited with spurring the box office comeback of Westerns. The movie also set a historical precedent: from that point on, stars were no longer paid a salary (albeit a ridiculously high one), but rather a share of the movie's box office profits. It was a move that made James Stewart a fortune and changed the way Hollywood deals were made forever. The movie itself is impressive. Anthony Mann's sharp and psychologically rich portrayal of a tough man caught in the crossfire. Cowboy Lin McDamm (James Stewart) tracks down a valuable Winchester 1873 repeating rifle, thus beginning a series of adventures. The final scene is spectacular: the two men shoot each other from a cliff face, and the view of the mountains is breathtaking at every turn. Winchester '73 put James Stewart in the top ten at the box office after the studio doubted his acting talent. Like the real 1873 Winchester rifle, Winchester '73 is "the one and only" of the millennium.

5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967)

Directed by Sergio Leone

Starring Clint Eastwood

Produced by Company: United Artists

Italian director Sergio Leone's work is characterized by a distinctive style known as "spaghetti westerns". The culmination of his "Dollars" series, the film tells the story of three robbers, Clint Eastwood (good), Lee Van Cleef (bad), and Eli Wallich (ugly), who form a treacherous alliance to seize a load of gold from the federal government during the American Revolution. Typical of Lyon's films are the contemplative retrospectives, the unhurried pace of the narrative, the powerful images of violence, and the unforgettable score by Ennio Morricone. Lyon's "Spaghetti" starts with the ingredients of three very different characters (Clint Eastwood, of course, is the main ingredient, but Elie Wolrich makes the role of "Ugly" a richly meaningful one, and his odd partnership with Eastwood is the focus of the movie), then adds a surrealistic sauce. Then a surrealist sauce is stirred in, and the narrative is sliced and diced and flung like a roll of the dice. Finally, there's a sprinkling of tangy, exotic seasoning. The dubbing, for example, is so uninterested in the English language that it's peppered with non-English speakers: "Ugly" Elie Wolich, aka Tuco Benedito Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez; and the soundtrack, which is synthesized by Elio Morris with random outbursts of wacky yelling. extremely funny and extremely amazing. And of course there's the famous cemetery duel scene in which faces, guns, hands, and eyes, as the camera flashes back rapidly, drive the tension to a magnificent climax. All in all, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" fits in nicely with the 1960s, when the psychedelic atmosphere was at its peak.

6. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Directed by George Roy Hill

Starring Paul Newman

Robert Redford. p>Robert Redford

Katharine Ross

Production company: Twentieth Century Fox

Light comedy style western. Both protagonists typify the anti-hero category and are delightful individualists. Paul Newman, in particular, is pretentious, eternally optimistic, has never killed anyone, and spends his days fantasizing that all the world's banks are ripe for the picking, an idle dreamer in every sense of the word. He and his partner, sharpshooter Robert Redford, are in love with the same woman, and what they do best is to have witty banter along the way when they're fighting or fleeing, which is definitely different from the outlaws in traditional Westerns. The movie is warm and funny, and it shines with the performances of Newman and Redford. The two men are undoubtedly handsome and charming as the main attraction, but they do also benefit from the witty wit of screenwriter William Goldman and the superb direction. The movie eventually won Oscars for Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Music. People have pushed it as the chief non-mainstream Western, but really, what's more mainstream than the box office?

7. "The Searchers"

"The Searchers (1956)

Directed by John Ford

Starring John Wayne

Jeffrey Hunter

Natalie Wood

Produced by Warner

Another masterpiece from John Ford. During an Indian raid, Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), a war veteran who hates all things Indian, has his brother and sister-in-law killed and his niece pillaged. So Ethan, accompanied by his brother's adopted son Martin (who has Indian blood), begins a grueling search for his niece. Over the years, the search becomes a frenzied act with an ulterior motive. His niece has become a member of the Indian tribe, and he seeks her only to kill her. Ford has a unique talent for crafting a typical revenge story into a thoughtful meditation on racism and blind hatred, capturing the mood of a nation with an absurd past and an uncertain future, and transforming the film into a modern allegory that transcends time and space. The movie brought Wayne to the peak of his acting powers, and the outstanding visual effects (the final gunfight is one of the best in all of westerns) have become a model for future generations. If anyone says there's a better movie than it, look for Edson's famous rejoinder, "Wait for that day!"

8. "Off the Mountain"

"Off the Mountain" (a.k.a. "Stagecoach") (Stagecoach, 1939)

Directed by John Ford

Starring John Wayne

Clair Trevor (Claire Trevor)

Thomas Mitchell

Company: United Artists

A standout of the early Westerns, costly and stylistically original. It launched the legendary collaboration between John Ford and John Wayne, and set the standard for the best and worst of all the Westerns that followed. Ford created the modern Western in the mode of "adventure + social reflection". Ford's belief that salvation is possible in all wild places, both physical and spiritual, is expressed in the stagecoach. It is the stagecoach that expresses the hopeful promise of America. As Wayne and Trevor ride off into the brilliant evening sun, our hearts are close to them. The movie established Ford as a brilliant director and helped John Wayne break out of the endless morass of low-brow Westerns and establish a screen presence with extraordinary charisma. It also successfully utilized the use of light and dark and low ceilings, a technique borrowed heavily by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane (1941). The "stagecoach" model has been used many times since (Hotel, Airport, etc.), and it's not something you'd think of if you used it too often, but you have to realize how remarkable it was that westerns were able to make this breakthrough as early as 1939.

9. "Unforgiven"

"Unforgiven" (1992)

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Starring Clint Eastwood

Gene Hackman

The movie was a great success. Hackman)

Morgan Freeman

Produced by Warner

William Munny (Clint Eastwood), a notorious thug who kills people and goods, marries and has a child and turns his back on evil, with the intention of living a normal life. But soon his wife died and his family fell apart, and in order to take care of his young children, Munny, who had said goodbye to his career as a gunfighter for 11 years, accepts a bounty from a disfigured prostitute in a small town who is pursuing her killer, and fights to regain the prostitute's dignity, and resumes killing in the jungle. It's a grungy western, including the tone, the imagery, and the moral issues involved. As a new generation of epic western dramas, the film challenges the clichés of westerns about morality and tries to break through the myths created by the old westerns from every angle. While the latter made every move to add to the mythology of their heroes, Eastwood was more realistic: showing tired scars, realizing murder scenes, and the heroes being cursed by women, an extreme rarity in previous Westerns, which almost all of the main characters were as ashamed of as not being allowed to shoot and ride horses. Can you imagine John Wayne being bitten by anyone and never fighting back?

The script for the movie was completed back in 1976. Eastwood got the rights to shoot it and held off until he was old enough to match the character. Certainly it was worth the wait: The movie was also nominated for nine Oscars and eventually won four, for best picture, best director, best supporting actor and best editing.

10. High Noon

High Noon (1952)

Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Starring Gary Cooper

Grace Kelly

Produced by: United Artists

The film is the first of its kind in the world. >Produced by: United Artists

The arch-enemy of small-town sheriff Will Kane (Jaley Cooper) comes to break off his feud at high noon on the day of his wedding, the very day Kane is set to retire from his job and start a new life with his bride. When he's abandoned by an ungrateful town (even his new wife doesn't understand or support him) and left to fend for himself, he must decide between his sense of self-righteousness and his loyalty to his bride (a pacifist). As noon approaches and a lonely Kane walks down a bare street, we can't get the scene out of our minds; it's knee-slapping.

"High Noon" captures all the elements of the classic Western: the hero who stands alone in a perilous situation, the tense ending, the socially rich themes: simple, straightforward, and devastating. The film's screenwriter, Carl Furman, who was blacklisted and arrested in Hollywood during the McCarthyist era, brings his own tension to the drama.

Many saw the film as a satirical reflection of McCarthyism's passive tolerance, a modern parable of Hollywood's persecuted artists "hanging on for dear life". Its strong political implications have made it go down in history as the first "adult" Western.

Western:

Also known as cowboy films, it is compared with the comedy film is very obvious symbolic features: that can see the horizon of the vast wilderness, the legendary image of the cowboys and the horse galloped with a gun fight intense scenes and so on. As a special genre of Hollywood movies, the deep symbols and signs of westerns are the epic apotheosis of the development of the west by Americans. Most of the films are based on western literature and folklore, and combine the imaginative amplitude of literary language with the hallucinatory amplitude of the movie screen. The apotheosis of the Western is not a true reflection of history, but rather the creation of an ideal moral code to reflect the national character and spiritual inclination of Americans. Any kind of apotheosis is expressed through a specific dramatic formula. In the deification of westerns, what we see is that most of the good white settlers were threatened by violence, and the heroic cowboys and law enforcers were always able to eliminate the violence, and the result was almost always the annihilation of the enemy. The cowboy, who is mostly a provincial, does the right thing and walks away after doing the right thing, often with the feeling that one doesn't know where he came from or where he's going, like a nomad. In the midst of all this, the movie has to devote a certain length to cowboy encounters, love at first sight for an innocent girl or woman, and so on. And in the midst of the violence, the cowboy's demeanor is shown as much as possible. One of the most representative westerns of all time is John Ford's "Flyin' Over the Mountain", also known as "Stagecoach" (1938), which expresses the individual's manners and morals, as well as the values of a community. The entire conflict of the movie is expressed in the action. The open wilderness, the closed stagecoach, and the dark town all provide different settings for the conflict. The deification of the Western is also about the horse. It can be said that there is no Western without the horse, and the horse brings a strong form of movement and rhythmic effect to the Western. Westerns have highly recognizable pictorial symbols, and the plots and characters are handled in a completely patterned and formulaic manner. Thomas Schatz once described it in this way: "A lone westerner rides into an idyllic river valley and is accused by an anxious farmer of being a gunfighter in the employ of an anarchic rancher (The Lone Ranger, dir. George Stevens, 1953); a lone westerner rides into an idyllic river valley and is accused by an anxious farmer of being a gunfighter in the employ of an anarchic rancher (The Wild Bunch, dir. 1953); the lone rider pauses on a hillside to watch railroad workers blowing up a tunnel above him, while below him a gang of bandits robs a stagecoach (Johnny Guitar, dir. Nicholas Rey, 1954); and in the distance there is the sound of a train whistle, as a black, serpentine train snakes its way through the vastness of the plains (The Man Who Shot the Freedom Fighters, dir. John Ford, 1962)". The Man Who Killed the Freedom Fighters, directed by John Ford, 1962)". The opening passages of the Western are a clear indication of the narrative conflict and the basic narrative features that will unfold. It also represents the formal characteristics of standardized production.

Later, Italy produced a similar type of Western, known as the spaghetti Western because of the Italians' love of spaghetti.