AFI Top Ten Westerns II

1. The Searchers: deserving of any and all praise lavished upon it.

2. High Noon: well-crafted, well-acted movie. Continually entertaining.

3. Shane: my personal favourite.

4. Unforgiven: perhaps worthy, but I would consider bumping for "My Darling Clementine" or "The Ox Bow Incident".

5. Red River: gets better with age (or is that me?). Good choice.

6. The Wild Bunch: I would bump for the superior Peckinpah, "Ride the High Country".

7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: puhleeze! Even Strother Martin can't make up for "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head". Replace with "Will Penny".

8. McCabe and Mrs. Miller: pales next to William Wyler's "The Big Country".

9. Stagecoach: excellent. Would place higher.

10. Cat Ballou: not even the best comedy-western (which would be "Support Your Local Sheriff", which wasn't on the short list). Begone in favour of Boetticher's "The Tall T".

Lookee here, folks. The opening is better than half the movies up there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6vREiRNMFc

I know. I know. Let it go, caftanwoman. Let it go.