Rio Bravo

When I first started watching westerns, I mostly stuck with spaghetti westerns. Classic westerns, especially John Wayne westerns, were for old people like my father (nothing personal, dad). It took Howard Hawks' 1959 classic Rio Bravo to show me just how wrong I was. The film, essentially a rebuke of High Noon's politics, finds a diverse group of characters (Wayne's stern sheriff, Dean Martin's recovering drunk, Angie Dickinson's lady gambler, Ricky Nelson's fresh faced cowhand, and Walter Brennan's grizzled yet comical old timer) defending a stronghold and each other. The interplay between the characters is what makes the movie so good, but it also helps that there is plenty of action and comedy, a little romance and even a musical number.

Rating: 95%

(Image from obsessedwithfilm.com)

The Searchers

Everybody knows this is supposedly the "best" western ever made, and one of the "best" films ever made, but I'm going to have to say absolutely not on both accounts. Sure, I guess it's deep because John Wayne's character is so racist and psychotic, but on the other hand the film is pretty racist against Indians, like how they kill women and children mercilessly, and how it's "funny" when Jeffrey Hunter kicks that Indian woman down the hill. Also, there's a big happy ending (spoilers) when they finally "rescue" John Wayne's niece. I think it could have been deep if it was made a decade later, although I will give it points for being charming and beautifully directed.

RATING: 62%