Image Credit: Dan Duggan

This is the fifth article in our examination of the AFI’s Ten Top Tens. You can read the introduction here, the first article in the series on animation here, the second article in the series on romantic comedies here, the third article on sports movies here, and the fourth article on mysteries here.

The AFI defines a western as a film “set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier.”

Westerns usually take place from around 1820s to around 1900.  That’s rather broad scope of time, but I would say for the most part it’s correct.  Even within the genre there is a sub-genre of the Civil War drama.  Dances with Wolves and Ride with the Devil are good examples of these.

But what is meant by “the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier”? What is it mean that a film embodies these things? The key thing to understand here is that the Western, unique among most genres, is at its heart about the struggle between barbarism and civilization. In virtually every Western, the heart of the struggle is between law and lawlessness; justice and vengeance; civility and rapaciousness. The best Westerns are the ones that epitomize these struggles.

Here’s what the AFI selected as the Top Ten Westerns:

Rank	Film	Year
1	The Searchers	1956
2	High Noon	1952
3	Shane	1953
4	Unforgiven	1992
5	Red River	1948
6	The Wild Bunch	1969
7	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	1969
8	McCabe and Mrs. Miller	1971
9	Stagecoach	1939
10	Cat Ballou	1965

The AFI even gives this a narrow definition, but it’s exacting.  I think the genre’s significance hinges on the success of westerns in early media - namely television and movies.  However, since the 1970s, it just hasn’t had the widespread appeal that it once had.  Moving on to the list itself…

Cat Ballou?!  Frakking Cat Ballou?!!  They leave off True Grit and The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, and the put in Cat Ballou!?  What in the hell were they smoking?  They don’t put in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or A Fist Full of Dollars, and For a Few Dollars More, or Hang ‘Em High, or The Outlaw Josey Wales, or Dances With Wolves, but they put in Cat Ballou?!!

I am by no means a true western movie buff, but this just seems like the most obvious, pointless selection on the whole list.  It’s like they had to put in the token “woman protagonist” on the list so that it’s not dominated by male selections.  I certainly hope this is not the case, but I haven’t the slightest idea why it would be there rather than the others I named. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not actually that bad a movie, but does it encompass the struggles of the American West like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?  I think not.  My theory is that since Lee Marvin won multiple awards and since Jane Fonda went on to become Hanoi Jane in the years to follow, this film sticks out in people’s minds.  I’ve heard lots of great things about the film, but when someone shouts “western!” Cat Ballou simply doesn’t not pop into my head.

This may seem a shallow and unthoughtful way of thinking about this, but really, how else are we to judge?  We are judging the movies that best define the genre.  I think, and correct me if I’m wrong here, that the “recall” quality is an important factor.  If I say, “Gimme an example of a Horror film,” you are going to make a list of films unconsciously in order to describe what you understand of the genre.  Matter of fact, let’s do that now to demonstrate the point.

Rank	Film	Year
1	The Birds	1963
2	Halloween	1978
3	A Nightmare on Elm Street	1984
4	Friday the 13th	1980
5	Saw	2001
6	Texas Chainsaw Massacre	1974
7	The Shining	1980
8	The Exorcist	1973
9	28 Days Later	2002
10	Poltergeist	1982

This is just off the top of my head.  Methinks there will be a clear void of awards but they’re horror films.  We don’t expect that from them.  But what you do see here is a list that absolutely defines this genre.  There’s really no mistake that each of them belongs with a fairly high certainty that each cannot be replaced.  Perhaps 28 Days Later should be replaced with Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, but other than that, there really isn’t any dispute.  We could argue the order, but I’m not really judging on that.  How can anyone judge what’s best in matters of taste?

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is another that I would rather leave off the Western list.  Paul Newman and Robert Redford are great together, but we have The Sting to enjoy that.  Sundance hardly embodies the struggle of the American West.  Perhaps it illustrates its demise at the hands of outlaws, but I don’t know.  I would much rather have had Open Range on there.  Robert Duval’s Boss Spearman is replete with the honor and values that embody the American West and the urgency to “go west.”  It’s about liberty and self-reliance.

My brother and I have discussed many a time on how Open Range is Kevin Costner’s answer to The Unforgiven.  Instead of a bad man trying to do good just to do bad again, Open Range is about good men refusing to back down to bad men, but resisting the desire to do bad to them in return.  It’s about justice.  And if there is any central theme to be had in the Western, it’s justice.

Speaking of justice, another remarkable oversight by the AFI is The Ox-Bow Incident.  While everyone was busy going ga-ga over Jane Fonda in Cat Ballou, real film historians would have chosen The Ox-Bow Incident instead.  As a matter of fact, the National Film Registry accepted The Ox-Bow Incident as being historically and culturally significant.  AFI obviously did no such thing.  Can we say “dropped the ball?”

When talking of justice and the demise of the American West, look no further than the lessons learned from The Ox-Bow Incident. The entire film is about the struggle between civilization and barbarism–and in this movie, barbarism wins. As it does in real life sometimes. This is why The Ox-Bow Incident, like so many great westerns, has such power. Its themes are true regardless of the ending. In a great Western, there is triumph even in tragedy because the struggle for civilization always continues.