Ridley Scott names the greatest westerns ever made
By now, Ridley Scott has done it all. He’s succeeded in just about every genre going, but there’s one he’s still dreaming about dominating.
“Western – western, western, western,” he declared to Rolling Stone back in 2012. When asked what dream was next up to achieve, the genre stood like a shiny goal post still to strive towards.
But specifically, the desire comes down to a childish one, connecting to his earliest memories of cinema where cowboy flicks were his gateway. “I lived and breathed westerns as a kid,” he said, “I adored, you know, fuckin’ Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and then Rawhide with Clint Eastwood.”
Like so many other kids, there was a certain appeal to western movies. Maybe it’s the majesty of the hero, with his big horse and charisma. Or maybe it’s the battle between good and evil, played out dramatically with shiny guns and saloon fights.
As they get older, the appeal likely becomes more nuanced as the depth involved in so many of these films reveals itself, becoming more about the messages they hold about morality, or the more complex relationships they often depict beyond the shootouts.
Since he was a child, Scott has been obsessed and remains obsessed today. He’s nailed sci-fi, action, horror, historical epics, crime drama, even romance to a certain extend with Someone To Watch Over Me. But in his spanning filmography, he’s yet to tackle the genre that first got him hooked on cinema.
In particular, there were certain films that got him. “The Searchers is the American gem. It’s inaccurate in many ways, but I don’t give a shit. It’s all about the search,” he said, picking out the 1956 film as a favourite and proving he’s able to put accuracy aside for a good plot and a good experience.
“Then there’s all of Clint Eastwood, Every Which Way but Loose, I loved that, especially Clyde the orangutan,” he said. That’s a later one, coming in 1978 and almost barely counting as a traditional western. But given that Eastwood is still playing a rough and ready cowboy-type trucker in the American west, it just about counts.
Choosing another Eastwood flick, he also shouted out another mid-70s picture from the actor. “The Outlaw Josey Wales, “ he selected, adding, “I loved that”.
Picking two choices from the man he considers the genre’s ultimate master, he joked, “Clint would say to me, ‘You’ve just mentioned the two films that I made that never made money!’”
Perhaps one day, Scott will pivot towards making Westerns. He once complained that there aren’t any good ones nowadays, stating, “Now it’s procedural detectives and fuckin’ vampires and fuckin’ zombies.” So maybe it’s time for him to become the director that brings it back with a classic gun-slinging cowboy film.
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