I swear I knew nothing about Rich’s Clint Eastwood love-thread! but it’s like that when you blog together for awhile. With women, it’s your cycle that syncs up; with bloggers, it’s theme posts.
This is for film performances you love, or love to hate, or that otherwise resonate in your soul, from the Great American Movie Genre: Westerns. TV shows don’t count, therefore ruling out my personal Top Three (Duvall & Jones from Lonesome Dove and McShane from Deadwood). Suck it up!
5. Terence Hill as “Trinity” in They Call Me Trinity (1970): A blue-eyed sure-shot who was the same hilarious yet dead-accurate cowboy in countless Italian sequels, including My Name is Nobody with some guy named Fonda.
4. Some Guy Named Fonda as “Harley Sullivan” in The Cheyenne Social Club (1970): The joke was to make the normally taciturn Hank play a chatterbox; his opening monologue to James Stewart is all the funnier for being completely out of character.
3. Victor Mature as “Doc Holliday” in My Darling Clementine (1946): Was anyone else in this movie? Loved the bar scene; loved that bit where he helps out the memory-challenged old Shakespearean by finishing the soliloquy. And doing a better job of it.
2. Kevin Costner as “Jake” in Silverado (1985): Lawrence Kasdan’s “gift” for editing the star out of Big Chill. Actors can all only hope to find such a role as this under the tree! His goofball little brother was funny AND the best shot around. If you don’t like Costner, and you’ve never seen this, watch it. It may change your mind.
1. Val Kilmer as “Doc Holliday” in Tombstone (1993): Yet another brilliant, eloquent, tragic drunk! and it’s the same one. Gee, Wanks, — a pattern? >edited to add: Told my stylist Mr Eric about the double-Doc, and he said, “Well, with that character, it’s like you’re already halfway there.” Brilliant in all ways.
A movie with lots of quotable lines, and 99% of them are uttered by Kilmer’s gunslinger.
Print
Digg
StumbleUpon
del.icio.us
Facebook
Yahoo! Buzz
Twitter
Google Bookmarks
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
MSN Reporter
MySpace
Orkut
Ping.fm
Reddit
RSS
Slashdot
Technorati
Tumblr
Webnews.de
John Wayne as CPT Nathan Brittles in “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”. His portrayal of an Army Officer at the end of his career that he loves and his interaction with his Irish 1st SGT is something that we rarely see anymore in the movies. Throw in the great Ben Johnson in his re-occurring role in the entire John Ford cavalry trilogy as the head scout, expert horseman and Indian expert Trooper Tyree while your at it.
Additionally, John Wayne as the lead character in “The Searchers” Ethan Edwards , quite the bitter driven man. Not everyone’s cup of tea but I find this movie and John Wayne’s role endlessly entertaining.
You could make an entire John Wayne top five by including Rooster Cogburn from “True Grit”, Wil Andersen from “The Cowboys” and as George Washington McLintock in “McLintock!” Hell, make it six and include his charcter from “The Shootist”, JB Books.
1. Gotta agree with Outlaw on Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) in The Searchers (and will leave him out so as to make room for others in any top 5 non-Wayne performances) and in John Wayne roles in general… Kirby Yorke especially…
the rest in no particular order…
2. Clint Eastwood as William Munny in Unforgiven
3. Casey Affleck as Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
4. Dean Martin as Dude — Borachon — in Rio Bravo. Love the story line, the singing, the redemption… he just looks like he needs a drink.
5. Clint Eastwood — Josey Wales
Caveat time: Leaving out John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. They could each have their own Top 5 lists in this category before you found space for anyone else.
5. Horst Buchholz in The Magnificent Seven. He’s the guy the audience can identify with, and the only one who really gets a happy ending. Plus, he’s basically “Jake” (young, fulla jukes, wears a fancy two-gun rig) 25 years earlier.
4. Lee Van Cleef as “Colonel Douglas Mortimer” in For a Few Dollars More. I’m a sucker for notorious “bad guy” actors playing good guys.
3. Second Wankette on Kevin Costner’s “Jake” in Silverado. Great movie with a great cast and, for my money, Costner’s most enjoyable performance, ever.
2. Eli Wallach in The Good, the Bad & the Ugly – Turned a disgusting, brutal, murdering sociopath into a sympathetic, memorable, likable character. That ain’t easy.
1. Val Kilmer in Tombstone. This is like saying “Stairway to Heaven” is your favorite Led Zeppelin song, but hey, he was freakin’ awesome.wanks here: Too true; this is also #2 on my list of Most Egregiously Overlooked for an Oscar…check to see what I added to the original post.
Val Kilmer Val Kilmer Val Kilmer.
I’m not a huge fan of westerns in general, but that one was great. I hate Val otherwise. wanks here: OMG, Me 2! ANother reason why this performance was such a gut-check!
1. John Wayne as Ethan Edwards. Can’t agree more with Outlaw and Floyd on this one. “The Searchers” is the movie that made me a fan of westerns.
2. John Wayne as Robert Marmaduke Hightower in “3 Godfathers” – a great Christmas themed western.
3. Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance. Enough said. Even his shadow was menacing.
4. Jimmy Stewart as Tom Destry, Jr. in “Destry Rides Again”. Destry is a sheriff who refuses to carry a gun.
5. Marlene Dietrich as Frenchy in “Destry Rides Again”.
This character had to be the inspiration for Madeline Kahn’s role in “Blazing Saddles”.wanks here: That’s what Mel said!
Good pics there CW. Destry was a great movie.
1. Clint Eastwood as Josey Wales.
2. Charles Bronson as Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West.
3. John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.
4. John Wayne as Thomas Dunson in Red River.
5. Clint Eastwood as The Man with No Name.
This list subject to revision when I wake up properly.
Oh boy this is tough, too tough for me to pare down to five without just loading up on everyone from just one or two movies. So like Jake, I’m going to arbitrarily leave out John Wayne and Clint Eastwood because they deserve their own top five western lists by themselves.
wanks here: I know, that’s why Searchers & Stagecoach, and Ethan and Ringo, weren’t on my list
1. Ward Bond would have to be on this list somewhere. Either for The Searchers (eating that donut and swirling that coffee) or else maybe for My Darling Clementine; he just so totally has his brother Wyatt’s back in that movie; I love how he slides that gun down the bar to Wyatt during their first meeting with Doc Holliday, and how he whinnies at Linda Darnell as they pass on the sidewalk, and ends up with a kisser full of milk, and how he loads up on breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
2. Ben Johnson was always outstanding as Trooper Tyree (“git ‘er done, Johnny Reb!”) in the Cavalry Trilogy; I was glad he got to star in “Wagon Master.”
3. Wankette, I’m glad you mentioned Cheyenne Social Club, which I always found to be a downright enjoyable movie. But I suppose I like Henry Fonda better in My Darling Clementine. All the bits of business he performs lead you to think he couldn’t be the killer that his reputation would have it — and then he turns out to be a stonecold killer after all.
4. Walter Brennan was also pretty great in MDC, but he was great also in Support Your Local Sheriff as well as in Rio Bravo. My son likes to quote Brennan: “when you pull a gun, kill a man!”
5. I also loved to see Victor McGlaglen as the big brawling Irish immigrant calvalry sergeant in the Cavalry trilogy. Loved when, in order to protect John Wayne’s son, he “explains” the rules of the fistfight to the German-immigrant soldier; loved when he referred to “that great Irish poet, Sir Walter Riley;” loved every time he called John Wayne “Captain Darlin’”.
Finally, it’s not enough to call it a full “performance,” but Jimmy Stewart as the doctor in “The Shootist” has always stayed with me. Particularly, the moment when he tells John Wayne, “You have a cancer.” He spits out the line with the oddest mix of bitterness, helplessness, and even anger. It’s like a lifetime of acting distilled down to that one scene.
It’s cheating, buy maybe some kind of lifetime achievement award for Woody Strode – Liberty Valance, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Professionals, et al. If he had been born forty years later he’d be a household name. As it is, he did more with fewer lines than anybody I can think of from that era.
Yes, Woody Strode. Also great in Sgt. Rutlidge, a forgotten John Ford movie.
Oh, yes,…Ward Bond, Walter Brennan and Victor McGlaglen.
It’s too difficult to restrict this to just five.
Special Lifetime Achievement Award to Gabby Hayes, the greatest sidekick of them all. As I understand it, when he got the job supporting Bill Boyd in the Hopalong Cassidy films, he went out and had his teeth pulled, to add verisimilitude to his old coot shtick.
That’s devotion to your craft!
What about Cheif Dan George in “Little Big Man?” Also, I thought Russel Means was pretty good in “Dances With Wolves.”
Since nobody else has said it, I have to mention Jason Robards in Once Upon A Time In The West. Tragic, funny and badass, sometimes all three in the same scene.
And you have to give Hank Fonda credit for his breakthrough first “creepy s.o.b.” performance.
ZZ Top as the band in Back to the Future III.
“Mal Craigs?”
Chuck Huston in “Will Penny”
5. Bob Hope in, Alias Jesse James (1959) — I love the ending with all the cameos (Ward Bond’s last movie). http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=205999
4. James Stewart in, Destry Rides Again (1939)
3. Lee Marvin in, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
2. William Holden in, The Wild Bunch (1969)
1. John Wayne in, Stagecoach (1939) — his character’s introductory camera shot is one of the best in film history.
that’s true of Wayne’s camera shot — blows me away every time!, AND Holden’s opening line (“If they move, kill ‘em!”)
1: John Wayne, the Searchers
2: John Wayne The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
3: Jimmy Stewart The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
4: Robert Duvall, Gus McCrae Lonesome Dove
5: Val Kilmer Doc Holliday, Tombstone.
And it’s Val Kilmer for the win, with Wayne’s Ethan, the Champion Emeritus.
An honorary mention to Errol Flynn, who did his share of Horse Operas, and never tried to fake American for it. I don’t count his Custer in They Died With Their Boots On, which is really more of a war picture.
My vote for best western of all time:
* Clint Eastwood *AND* Lee Van Cleefe in “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.”
* Rock Hudson in The Undefeated. (That John Wayne fellow was in there, too)
and just for weirdness’s sake,
* Bruce Cambell in *Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat”
I think it’s only fair to mention what an outstanding job Dennis Quaid did as Doc Holliday in “Wyatt Earp.” That’s not meant to denigrate Kilmer’s performance at all, but if I had to bet which portrayal came closer to the historical reality, I’d go for Quaid’s.Well, like Mr Eric says: With that role, you’re halfway there.
“W.E.” was pretty much a disaster otherwise–all that effort and time put into creating an impression of authenticity, but all in all, “Tombstone” (which is much more fun) probably has a slight edge in historical factuality.
And they actually took on the Great Challenge–giving Wyatt Earp a hat that looked (kinda, in a way) like the one he wears in the old photographs.
In no particular order, sans the Duke:
Mr. Sideous in For a Few Dollars More
Victor Mature as Doc Holiday in My Darling Clemintine
Edmund O’Brien in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Robert Ryan in The Wild Bunch
And because I hate to leave out Ward Bond, I’ll throw him in for 3 Godfathers for some character-acting goodness.