Reacquaint yourself with these classic western films turning 50 in 2022.
Throughout 2022, we’ll be celebrating 50th anniversaries for many other films besides The Cowboys that also may be of special interest to C&I readers. Here are some of the most notable that are available for streaming. Just press the title to see where you can find them.
Bad Company
Texas native Robert Benton (co-scripter of Bonnie and Clyde, Oscar winner for Kramer vs. Kramer and Places in the Heart) justly received acclaim for his debut as a feature director, a picaresque drama about two Civil War draft dodgers (Jeff Bridges, Barry Brown) who turn to outlawry as they head West.
Buck and the Preacher
Sidney Poitier (who also directed) rides tall as a former solider devoted to leading wagon trains of former slaves westward during the post-Civil War era. And Harry Belafonte provides robust comic relief as a shady fake clergyman who helps Buck (Poitier) battle a vicious white gunman (Cameron Mitchell) hired to scare the ex-slaves back to Louisiana.
Chato’s Land
Two years before they collaborated on Death Wish, Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner (Lawman) joined forces to make this violent western about a half-Apache badass (Bronson, of course) who shoots a sheriff in self-defense, then flees a bloodthirsty posse led by a former Confederate officer (Jack Palance).
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
Filmmaker Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) draws on the legends of Cole Younger and Jesse James in this colorfully written, richly detailed and robustly performed western. Cliff Robertson plays Younger, who advises his men to take a vacation from outlawry while the Missouri Legislature considers a bill to grant them amnesty. But hot-headed Jesse James (Robert Duvall) is eager to plunder Northfield, Minnesota, site of the biggest bank west of the Mississippi.
J.W. Coop
Oscar winner Cliff Robertson directed, produced, co-wrote (along with Bud Shrake and Cary Cartwright), and played the title role in his deeply felt road movie about a former professional cowboy who, after serving a lengthy prison term for passing bad checks, seeks a shot at redemption by returning to the rodeo circuit.
Jeremiah Johnson
Between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, Robert Redford added another significant notch to his list of signature roles with his authoritative performance in the title role of director Sydney Pollack’s rugged western inspired by the real-life exploits of a legendary mountain man.
Joe Kidd
A hard-drinking but straight-shooting anti-hero (Clint Eastwood) has a change of heart after agreeing to help a railroad tycoon (Robert Duvall) ride roughshod over Mexican landowners defended by a bold revolutionary (John Saxon). John Sturges (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Magnificent Seven) directed from a screenplay by Elmore Leonard (3:10 to Yuma, Justified).
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Directed by John Huston and scripted by Jeremiah Johnson screenwriter John Milius, this star-studded extravaganza offers a seriocomic take on Wild West mythology, with Paul Newman giving an aptly overstated performance as the title character, an outlaw turned town tamer who metes out rough justice as “the law west of the Pecos.”
The Magnificent Seven Ride!
For the third and final sequel to The Magnificent Seven (1960), Lee Van Cleef assumes the Chris Adams role previously played by Yul Brynner and George Kennedy. After his wife (Mariette Hartley) is killed by a gang of outlaws (including Gary Busey), Adams — accompanied by a reporter (Michael Callan) determined to write about his exploits — “convinces” five convicts (Ed Lauter, Luke Askew, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., William Lucking and James Sikking) to join him on the vengeance trail.
Pocket Money
Paul Newman and Lee Marvin develop an easygoing give-and-take in this seriocomic contemporary western, directed by Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke), about two none-too-bright drifters who get less than they bargained for when they agree to smuggle cattle across the border from Mexico for a shady rancher (Strother Martin).
The Revengers
The Wild Bunch stars William Holden and Ernest Borgnine reteamed in director Daniel Mann’s brutal drama about a Colorado rancher (Holden) who employs six hardened convicts — Borgnine, Woody Strode, Jorge Luke, Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, Roger Hanin, and Reinhard Kolldehoff — as a posse to pursue the Comancheros who killed his family.
From our February/March 2022 issue
Photography: (Cover image) courtesy Columbia Pictures
