The western movies Martin Scorsese wants you to watch
Martin Scorsese, the maestro of both classic and modern cinema, is renowned for his intricate storytelling and masterful direction. Although his filmography predominantly steers clear of the traditional western genre, Scorsese’s deep appreciation for film has led him to champion a select few of the sun-baked genre that have captured his imagination.
Delving into the archives, the director has frequently spoken about westerns that stand apart in their narrative complexity and visual artistry. Nicholas Ray’s 1954 masterpiece, Johnny Guitar, featuring the indomitable Joan Crawford, paints a riveting tale of a saloon owner entangled in suspicion and crime. Speaking about the film, Scorsese commented, “I remember when I first saw it, I enjoyed it.”
“In the US, people weren’t expecting a western – but it may seem like a western and may look like a western [but it’s not], so people either ignored it or laughed at it.” He described it as an “unconventional, stylish picture, full of ambiguities that render it extremely modern.”
One-Eyed Jacks, the only film ever directed by Marlon Brando in 1961, underwent restoration by Scorsese’s Film Foundation. Showcasing it at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and the 2016 New York Film Festival, the director expressed his admiration for the film’s visual splendour, noting, “This is visually stunning, what he did.” Scorsese further contextualised it as a bridge between classic and contemporary Hollywood styles, stating it as “kind of a cross between the old style of production and the new styles that were going to come in in the 1960s.”
It’s impossible to discuss westerns without mentioning John Ford’s iconic movie, The Searchers. Scorsese, echoing the opinion of many, heralded the film, especially its haunting conclusion: “Only an artist as great as John Ford would dare to end a film on such a note. In its final moment, The Searchers suddenly becomes a ghost story.”
During a 2017 conversation with Italian outlet La Civiltà Cattolica, Scorsese reflected upon Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country, particularly a scene that resonated with his understanding of relationships, change, and self-acceptance. He reminisced, “There’s a scene where Edgar Buchanan, a drunken minister, is marrying Mariette Hartley’s character to this man, and he says, ‘You’ve got to understand something about marriage – people change.'” The director explained how this helped him realise and come to terms with the fact that the shifting “other needs” of his close friends wasn’t a case of “betrayal” but simply “change”.
With Scorsese’s forthcoming film, Killers of the Flower Moon, anticipation abounds. Given his affinity for westerns that challenge conventions and delve deep into the human psyche, one can’t help but speculate whether this film will be his own ode to the western genre. The director himself has never outright explored the genre, so this might be his closest homage to the classic western yet.
Martin Scorsese’s favourite westerns:
- Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
- One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)
- The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
- Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962)
