Scenes that Encapsulate or Epitomize the Western (spoilers)

[Sloper]

This seems like the best place to put this... I just saw The Vanishing American (1925), an epic about the decline of Native Americans under the rule of naïve or unscrupulous whites. It’s far from a perfect film (connoisseurs of bad acting should check out Noah Beery’s outstandingly dreadful performance as the villain), but I found its use of the Monument Valley landscape as impressive as anything in Ford.

Those who find it hard to swallow the philosophical significance with which the film invests its setting may disagree, but the final sequence of shots is one of the most beautiful and evocative passages in the western genre. I can’t say too much more about this without spoiling the ending, but it seems to say so much, so simply, about the ambiguous relationship between this forbidding, timeless landscape and the people who inhabit it, as well as between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Americans.

[Yojimbo]

I'm not sure I can think of any moments that might encapsulate or epitomize The Western. If I could, the example would probably prove as unimaginative as the genre - at this stage of the game - has become.

But I do have favorite moments (naturally). And I believe there's something, at least, iconic about them that makes them rather unforgettable.

Sam Peckinpah, who surprisingly has not been mentioned yet, was responsible for so many great Western scenes that I'll just mention two that come to mind immediately.

The first is the final scene in The Wild Bunch, one of the greatest (and most violent) Westerns ever made, where the gang of outlaws prepare for the final confrontation with authority and William Holden remarks, "It's a good day to die." Except for the fact that no one has yet mentioned such a famous moment, I almost feel silly for mentioning it.

The second is from Peckinpah's Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (a highly underrated film), which upon further consideration, doesn't appear to be a Western at all. But I think it fits all the necessary criteria.

At any rate, the most memorable sequence begins with Warren Oates, who plays the hero seeking revenge for the slaying of a former friend and love rival, driving to a final confrontation with his enemies with the bloody, fly drawing head of said Garcia in a cloth sack next to him in the front seat. With two groups of enemies chasing Oates in pursuit of his prize (the head), they all collide in a cross-section at a ravine on the side of a mountain. The shootout is expertly crafted by Peckinpah as almost all of Oates enemies are gunned down except for a one hundred year old relative of Garcia, who is isn't touched amidst all the gunfire and is left standing with his hands up when the smoke clears and Oates cruizes away.
Classic.


Oates in Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia

speaking of Sam The Man, one of my very favourite scenes is the shootout between James Coburn and Jack elam in 'Pat Garrett', with the whole family looking on, as if watching a football game.
Another great, and little-known favourite, is the massacre scene in 'Fort Apache' which I'm certain was a major influence on Kurosawa, at least in 'Seven Samurai', and 'Kagemusha'
(not to mention Welles 'Chimes At Midnight').

Ford's many 'print the legend' type scenes;

Henry Hull's newspaper editor in 'Jesse James'

the iconic barroom brawl in 'Dodge City'

the dance in 'My Darling Clementine'
Henry Fonda on the porch in 'My Darling Clementine'


I luhve 'Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia': a valued member of my All-Time Top 100

[GoldenPilgrim]

Walter Hill's Wild Bill is worth watching. Wild Bill taking part in mythologizing himself then coming to terms with the limitations of your own mythology. It's like he's trapped within the western's code. Which isn't the newest idea in film, I mean look at The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "When the Legend becomes fact, Print the legend." It pretty much says it all. But in any case, Wild Bill deserves more credit than it's often given, even if it's not so great to look at.

Also...

Can anyone PLEASE help me track down The Last Night At The Alamo. I am desperate to watch it. A group of drunks relying on a guy named Cowboy (whose never removed hat hides his bald head) to prevent their favorite bar, The Alamo, from being demolished. It sounds like a great reworking of the genre and mockery of the Alamo legend.
Has anyone seen it?

[ando]

speaking of High Noon: Do you think the townspeople at the end ever put out the massive fire engulfing their town as their bid farewell to our hero?

I forgot about that damned fire! Yes, a bit of a misstep there. I just watched High Noon for the first time last night and I have to say I forgot all about the fire. The film was much better than I expected, although it's true that, as Howard Hawks once grumbled, He (Gary Cooper) runs around like a chicken for most of the film. It's really the townspeople who are chicken. Though the mayor's argument that settling Cooper's score was Cooper's personal problem and not a collective or community problem was convincing enough - it was certainly manipulative - what a pack of hyenas. Perhaps director, Zinneman, wanted to leave the blazing fire as some kind of metaphor for the ongoing problem of human selfishness and fear. The film was clearly an extended allegory of the then raging Red Scare. So it's probably fitting that the fire issue was left unresolved.

There are so many great moments in this one that I'm forced to choose between many. I suppose my favorite is the whistle of the arriving train at high noon as the film cuts to alternating closeups to the various characters' reactions of dread, fear, anticipation, exitement or desperation. With Cooper, I think it was all of the above at once. It's a pretty impressive performance. He certainly doesn't resort to the fake machismo striding of Wayne. In fact, my second favorite moment comes when someone (Beau Bridges, I believe) asks Cooper if he's scared to meet the small gang of outlaws alone. Cooper replies almost matter-of-factly, but with something like abject terror in his entire countenance, "Yes". Fortunately, (like any self-respecting Taurus ) his determination trumps everything.