by Sam Juliano
Note: The ‘Anthology Heaven’ series, which was temporarily abandoned before the U.K. trip will resume next Saturday, September 7th.
The western countdown is tentatively slated to launch on Monday, September 16th. However, it is not expected that the first entry will be the film that finished Number 50. The reason for this is that some writers in our circle may opt to write essays on the twenty “runners-up” that follow from Numbers 51 to 70. The titles of those films will follow at the end of this post. Though I am anticipating that only a handful will be covered (maybe four or five) I could be wrong. There may be more than that, or there may be not a single one reserved. I won’t know this answer in all likelihood until people begin to answer the group e mail that I will send out soon. I cannot of course unveil the titles of the films that finished 1 to 50, as one of the delights of the countdown is the surprise and suspense. The circle of writers do know the full results but I will not post them at the site, and allow the actual countdown to succeed. If my projections are right the Top 50 will probably start around Monday September 23. But as I say it could be earlier or later depending on who claims some of the following twenty runner’s up. As to the claims made on the Top 50, I will ask all the writers to respond to the group e mail with reiterations of what they had claimed weeks ago (I no longer have those e mails) and of new requests. Any films in the Top 50 that are not ultimately claimed will be represented at the site with the title, number and a screen cap. This will still maintain the possibility of an active comment section, even without an essay. But I would expect such occurrences to be relatively rare.
So, here are the 20 runners-up that finished 51 to 70 in the tabulation conducted early this month by Voting Tabulator Extraordinaire Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr:
51 The Westerner (Wyler; 1940)
52 Forty Guns (Fuller; 1957)
53 Django (Corbucci; 1966)
54 The Big Trail (Walsh; 1930)
55 Blazing Saddles (Brooks; 1974)
56 The Last Picture Show (Bogdonovich; 1971)
57 Bad Day at Black Rock (J. Sturges; 1955)
58 Canyon Passage (Tourneur; 1946) 59 Hud (Ritt; 1963)
60 Duck, You Sucka (Leone; 1971)
61 Tombstone (Cosmatos; 1993)
62 The Shootist (Siegel; 1976)
63 The Magnificent Seven (Sturges; 1960)
64 Rancho Notorious (Lang; 1952)
65 3 Bad Men (Ford; 1926)
66 Brokeback Mountain (Lee; 2005)
67 Little Big Man (Penn; 1970)
68 Colorado Territory (Walsh; 1949)
69 The Long Riders (Hill; 1980)
70 The Furies (Mann; 1950)
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Greatly looking forward to this countdown Sam. Let’s hope you get your kidney stone business all done before September 30.
Thanks Frank. I anticipate the matter being resolved before the end of the month.
Wow, surprised at a few of these that didn’t make it. Canyon Passage and The Shootist are favorites of mine, and The Magnificent Seven and Blazing Saddles have always been so popular I would have thought they were shoo-ins. Glad Little Big Man didn’t get in, though, always hated that movie.
Have to assume most haven’t seen Rancho Notorious, though. I saw it a couple months ago and it is a flat-out masterpiece.
Oh, and that email still never made it through to me, Sam. No idea why. Care to try again?
Hey Stephen! Great hearing from you as always! I just tried again, and hopefully the e mail has reached you. There are still two assignments that have not been claimed (THE GREAT SILENCE and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE) though as discussed in previous e mails, Allan is hoping that people will also claim HEAVEN’S GATE and DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, as he would rather not re-post his own reviews of those. So basically there are four left.
As a frequent visitor, though fairly silent one, I’m really anticipating this series. Even more so after reading this list of what didn’t make it, which include a few of my favorites, such as Hud and The Long Riders.
Great to have you stop in John, and much appreciate the compliments on the countdown! Yep, with only 50 westerns making the final cut, there were bound to be some eye-catching omissions. Hopefully some of the writers will see fit to pen essays for some of these during the two week window that precedes the countdown. Thanks again my friend.