30 Great Westerns
The link on the title is to Images Journal, a great site for flickaholics who like to read when they can’t be watching. The article provides hyperlinked insights to each Western they chose for this list. I’ve augmented this with links to Netflix, when available, and ImDB when they are not. You might notice that there are no entries for the past 12 years and only one since 1972. It’s kinda like soap operas, you either watch ‘em or live ‘em, I guess.
I’ve been studiously avoiding any discussion of the alligator in the swimming pool. It’s not as big as an 800-pound gorilla, but neither is it a vegetarian. The alligator is not a real alligator. Maybe it is more like the infamous Frankenfish, accidentally imported from the Orient, a vicious little sumbitch in its own right.
Since the New York Times article on Friday about GBD computers being on the verge of a sellout of their PC business to the Chinese corporation formerly known as Legend, work has been a real gas, as Sammy Davis Jr. liked to say. In this instance, however, the gas that comes to mind is more like Zyklon B. Well, not that bad. I exaggerate, for humor.
Hanging in the balance is the livelihood of about 3,000 GBD employees at Research Triangle Park, including myself. The rumors, of course, have been circulating for months. Too many of “us” going to China to teach way too much; too many of “them” coming here to learn way too much. But the rumors always had GBD hanging on to the laptop business, which is the one that pays my rent.
Since the story broke, the rumors have become wilder. $100 million of business lost due to orders cancelled or put on hold. Apocryphal apocalypses, entire departments told to submit paperwork for their final reviews. Purple Kool-Aid in the cafeteria, etc.
Still no official announcement, as the fear and anger build. However, we did get an invitation to meet in the main cafeteria on December 15, two days after the date of the official announcement according to the official rumor, for a “Mingle.” It’s a potluck! The really cool part is that, if you bring a dessert, you can enter it in a contest. I’m very excited by that! I’ve already decided to enter the cranberry-eggnog tart I made for Thanksgiving dinner. I think it has a serious shot at winning.
Here is the list of Westerns. Netflix only bagged 19 of these. That’s understandable since no one even bothered to put many of them out on DVD. Perhaps you can find the missing ones on VHS at a local video store, if you still have one.
I never cared for Westerns much myself. Maybe the reason not many are made anymore, certainly not any great ones, is that showdowns and cattle rustling have lost their mystique in the age of spam and identity theft. Maybe people would rather see a whole shitload of people blown up by a special effects smart bomb than to see just one bad guy clutch his chest, falling to the ground from the good guy’s single bullet at high noon on the streets of Tombstone. Then again, maybe they were just dumb to begin with and we should celebrate their passing.
The Covered Wagon (1923)
The Iron Horse (1924)
Tumbleweeds (1925)
Stagecoach (1939)
Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Pursued (1947)
Red River (1948)
The Gunfighter (1950)
High Noon (1952)
Rancho Notorious (1952)
Hondo (1953)
Shane (1953)
Johnny Guitar (1954)
Vera Cruz (1954)
The Man From Laramie (1955)
The Searchers (1956)
Forty Guns (1957)
The Tall T (1957)
Man of the West (1958)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Ride Lonesome (1959)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Ride the High Country (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
The Wild Bunch (1968)
High Plains Drifter (1972)
Unforgiven (1992)
8:28:30 PM 
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