The Five Best Western Directors

Stewart in Winchester '73.

1. Anthony Mann - Mann helped define the "Adult Western" of the 1950s with his seminal work Winchester '73. His output included five outstanding Westerns with James Stewart and classics with Gary Cooper (Man of the West) and Henry Fonda (The Tin Star). His heroes were often hard men with a questionable past seeking redemption (e.g., Bend of the River). He painted his tales against a backdrop of an American West in transition, in which budding towns would compete with the cattle empires.

2.  John Ford - Ford was a dominant figure in the Western genre for four decades. He brought prominence to the Western with Stagecoach, paved the way for Adult Westerns with his Cavalry Trilogy, and directed two iconic films late in his career (The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance). Ford's incorporation of Western landscapes (he shot several masterpieces in Monument Valley in Arizona) became his trademark. In fact, a popular lookout was named after him: John Ford Point. I suspect many film fans would have Ford at No. 1.

Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More.

3.  Sergio Leone -With Mann, Ford, and Hawks in the twilight of their careers in the '60s, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone reinvented the Western genre visually and thematically. His protagonists were morally questionable men who usually did the right thing, even while portraying themselves as profiteers (e.g., Clint Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More). He showed the big towns, but also the decrepit shacks amid the dusty, windswept plains--where a bounty hunter or an outlaw could buy a shot of cheap whiskey. Like Mann and later Peckinpah, Leone was intrigued with the last days of the Old West and the men who didn't want to tame it.

4.  Sam Peckinpah - An uneven director, Peckinpah was at his best when working in the Western genre. While his films also took place in the dying days of the Old West, they focused on the relationships among the characters:  two old friends in Ride the High Country, a band of outlaws in The Wild Bunch; and an unlikely businessman, a prostitute, and a would-be preacher in his masterpiece The Ballad of Cable Hogue. In the former two films, most of the characters are unwilling to adapt to the coming of civilization. However, the hero of Cable Hogue embraces it and finds happiness in doing so (though the ending is bittersweet).

Delmer Daves' The Hanging Tree.

5.  Howard Hawks and Delmer Daves (tie) - A tie may be a bit of a cheat, but it was impossible to omit either of these two from our list. Neither director specialized in Westerns, but they made important contributions to the genre. Hawks' Red River (1948) paved the way for Mann's dark Westerns. His Rio Bravo is one of the most fondly remembered Westerns of the 1950s. And after other Western directors had hung up their spurs, Hawks continued to make Westerns with John Wayne up until 1970. Delmer Daves, another versatile director, dabbled in the Western genre often, his films ranging from intriguing (the Shakespearean Jubal) to unique (Cowboy with Jack Lemmon and Glenn Ford). He secured his place on this list, though, with two beautifully-crafted classics: the thriller-like 3:10 to Yuma and The Hanging Tree, a tale of redemption and love.

Honorable Mentions:  Budd Boetticher, John Sturges, Clint Eastwood, and Henry Hathaway.

For a Few Dollars More

Eastwood in his iconic role.

Sergio Leone's second collaboration with Clint Eastwood sometimes get lost in the pantheon of his Spaghetti Westerns. It wasn't his first notable Western--that'd be A Fistful of Dollars (1964). And it's rarely included in the discussion of which film is his masterpiece; that honor seems to be reserved for either The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) or Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). It's a shame, really, since For a Few Dollars More is a well-crafted, entertaining, and often humorous take on the Western genre. While it lacks the grandiose themes of Leone's later classics, it lays the foundation that made those movies possible.

The opening scenes cross-cut between two men who are searching for a notorious outlaw called El Indio (Gian Maria Volontè). Monco (Eastwood) is a bounty hunter who wants to collect the $10,000 reward--dead or alive--for El Indio. The well-mannered Colonel Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) has more personal reasons for finding the outlaw.

Van Cleef as Colonel Mortimer.

After impressing each other with their marksmanship (the famous "hat shooting" scene), the Colonel proposes a partnership. Monco can keep the reward for El Indio, but Mortimer gets the money for the rest of the gang. The latter then hatches a plan in which Monco will infiltrate the gang, so "there's one on the outside and one on the inside." But just who can trust who?

As in Once Upon a Time in the West, the connection between Mortimer and El Indio isn't revealed until the climatic confrontation between the two men. But Leone provides key information along the way in the form of flashbacks and a pair of gold pocket watches. Each man possesses one of the watches, which play the same disturbing little tune. Leone expands on this objectification of revenge in the later Once Upon a Time, in which Charles Bronson's character wears a harmonica around his neck--an instrument which also carries significant meaning in terms of the narrative.

Frequent Leone collaborator Ennio Morricone contributes one of his finest scores, perhaps rivaled only by his work in (again) Once Upon a Time in the West. However, it's Leone's use of Morricone's haunting music that sets it apart from scores which simply enhance a film's atmosphere. Whenever El Indio confronts a man with murderous intentions, he opens his watch and waits until its melody winds down before drawing his gun. Leone uses this to great effect in the big showdown between El Indio and Mortimer. As the music gradually slows down almost to a stop, another iteration of it starts to play again as the camera pulls back to show Monco's hand holding Mortimer's watch. It's one of my favorite scenes in all of Leone's films.

Monco's hand and the watch, with Mortimer and El Indio
in the background.

Casting is key in character-driven films like this and the dry Lee Van Cleef brilliantly complements Eastwood's cynical character. Although Van Cleef was only five years older than Eastwood, Monco constantly refers to the Colonel (almost affectionately) as "Old Man." The mutual respect between the characters is established during the aforementioned scene in which they shoot each other's hats.

Gian Maria Volontè.

Of course, one must have a good villain and For a Dollars More has that in spades with Gian Maria Volontè's hypnotic portrayal of the creepy El Indio. Volontè had worked with Leone and Eastwood previously in A Fist of Dollars. His subsequent films departed from the Western genre and included the critically-lauded 1970 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion.

For a Few Dollars More received mixed reviews on its initial release. Roger Ebert found it "delicious" and described it as "a gloriously greasy, sweaty, hairy, bloody and violent Western." It was a huge international hit, establishing Van Cleef as a star and enhancing Eastwood's reputation. It may not be as widely acclaimed as Leone's other Westerns, but I'd rank it as his second best. Yes, Once Upon a Time in the West holds down the top spot for me.

Fonda and Bronson Face Off in Leone's Masterpiece "Once Upon a Time in the West"

"Big," "epic," and "sprawling" are the words critics frequently use to describe this now-revered 1968 Spaghetti Western. Yet, despite its lengthy running time and visually massive backdrop, Once Upon a Time in the West focuses tightly on the relationships among four people over a relatively short period of time. These characters are: Frank (Henry Fonda), a ruthless gunfighter who aspires to be a powerful businessman; Cheyenne (Jason Robards), a rascally outlaw with killer instincts; Jill (Claudia Cardinale), a former prostitute in search of a more meaningful life; and a mysterious revenge-minded stranger whom Cheyenne calls Harmonica (Charles Bronson).

Each character is introduced to the accompaniment of his or her own musical theme, memorably composed by Ennio Morricone. The mood of these themes range from playful (for Cheyenne) to bold and abrupt (Frank) to sweetly old-fashioned (Jill) to eerily disturbing (Harmonica). The last theme--an almost off-key four-note piece--is often played by Bronson's character on the harmonica he wears around his neck.

In addition to the musical motifs, director Sergio Leone employs natural sounds in unique ways throughout the film. For example, the film's opening fourteen-minute sequence contains virtually no dialogue--but we hear cracking knuckles, buzzing flies, water drops plopping, birds, and a train whistle. Later, Leone introduces Cheyenne by letting us listen to a ferocious gunfight from inside a quiet desert cantina.

As in most Leone Westerns, the storyline takes a back seat to the interesting characters and overarching theme, Leone's stylish direction, and some marvelous set pieces. For the record, Jill inherits a valuable property from a husband she hardly knew. Frank, working for a railroad baron, wants the property for its future value as a railroad way station. Cheyenne takes an interest in Jill and decides to protect her.

Harmonica helps Jill and Cheyenne, but his motive is revenge against Frank. Indeed, his reason for wanting to kill Frank is a riddle that lurks in the background until their epic showdown at the film's conclusion. Then, in a concise flashback that immediately procedes the gun shots, Leone reveals the incident that fueled Harmonica’s vengeance.

Bronson and Robards give fine performances, but Henry Fonda steals the film in a great change-of-pace role as a villain who kills defenseless children and kicks out the crutches from underneath cripples. When Frank is making love to Jill, he remarks casually: “I think I might be a little sorry killing you.”

The only subpar performance is from Cardinale, who is also burndened with the least interesting character. Nevertheless, Jill is the strongest female character in any Leone Western and central to the film’s theme. Unlike the male characters, Jill is willing and able to adapt to the “New West.” Frank wants to become a businessman, for example, but he can’t change his violent ways.

Once Upon a Time in the West features one of the best openings of any Western: the aforementioned fourteen-minute sequence in which three gunfighters arrive at a train station to kill Harmonica after he unboards. They walk around the empty town and then wait and wait--and we wait with them as the credits appear slowly across on the screen. After thirteen minutes, the trains finally arrives, but Harmonica is nowhere in sight. As the train pulls out of the station and the gunfighters turn to leave, they hear Harmonica play his eerie tune. They turn around and he becomes visible on the other side of the tracks as the train rolls out of view. That leads to the following exchange:

Harmonica: "Did you bring a horse for me?"

Head Gunfighter (laughing): "Looks like we're shy one horse."

Harmonica (shaking his head): "You brought two too many."

In a flash, guns are blazing and four bodies hit the ground in a matter of seconds. It's a textbook example of how a filmmaker can manipulate his audience's perception of time and space--and it's also an incredible way to start a movie.

Amazingly, Once Upon a Time in the West flopped miserably when released in the U.S. in 1969. Part of its failure can be attributed to Paramount’s poor decision to cut thirty minutes from the film’s running time, thus rendering some of its plot incomprehensible. Still, the film did brisk business in Europe and helped make Charles Bronson an international star (ironically, Leone had tried to convince Bronson to play the Eastwood role in the earlier A Fistful of Dollars). As Leone’s status as a Spaghetti Western auteur grew in the 1970s and 1980s, Once Upon a Time in the West came to be rightfully hailed as his masterpiece.