A Century of Film: Westerns

 

The Genre:

Westerns are a uniquely American art form.  It has been said that the three things America has contributed to world culture are baseball, Jazz and Westerns.  The very start of Westerns goes back to the start of narrative story-telling in American film with The Great Train Robbery perhaps the first great narrative American film.

I had written a paragraph about what I see as the basic Western (as opposed to the sub-genres listed below) but then I found this bit on page 195 of The Rough Guide to Westerns that summed it up much better than I had:

Pulp writer Frank Gruber says there are seven essential Western plots:

1. The Union Pacific story (the railroad/stagecoach comes to town or wagon train adventures)
2. The ranch story (conflict between ranchers or ranchers vs. others)
3. The empire story (an epic version of the ranch story)
4. The revenge story
5. The cavalry and indians story
6. The outlaw story
7. The marshal story.

Those pretty much sums it up.  The fifth one is a specific sub-genre below and the third one really kind of fits into the “Epic” sub-genre.  But otherwise, those are pretty much the films that don’t have a sub-genre.  Ironically, most of the films starring the biggest Western stars (also listed below) aren’t in any of the sub-genres but fit those basic story types.  You can also get much more detailed by going here, though most of what is down below you will only find here which is why I wrote all this.

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The Nighthawk Awards: 2008

No one knows how to bring you back around better than Danny Boyle.

You can read more about this year in film here.  The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees.  First there are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom – it might be eligible in a different year.  Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section).  Films in blue were nominated.  Films (or directors) in olive are links to earlier posts that I don’t want to have show up in blue and be mistaken for a nominee.  Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.

I’m listing the top 20 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture

1. Slumdog Millionaire  **
2. The Dark Knight
3. Wall-E  *
4. Milk  *
5. Revolutionary Road
6. Rachel Getting Married
7. Let the Right One In
8. I’ve Loved You So Long
9. Happy-Go-Lucky
10. The Visitor
11. In Bruges
12. Iron Man
13. Doubt
14. Burn After Reading
15. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
16. A Christmas Tale
17. The Reader
18. The Wrestler
19. Changeling
20. Paranoid Park

 

The Nighthawk Awards: 2006

You definitely don’t want to be the other guy.

You can read more about this year in film here.  The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees.  First there are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom – it might be eligible in a different year.  Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section).  Films in blue were nominated.  Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.

I’m listing the top 20 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture

1. The Departed  **
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
3. Children of Men
4. The Fountain
5. The Queen  *
6. The Prestige
7. Casino Royale
8. United 93
9. Army of Shadows
10. Perfume – The Story of a Murderer
11. Volver
12. The Lives of Others
13. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
14. Stranger than Fiction
15. The Painted Veil
16. Brick
17. Sophie Scholl – The Final Days
18. Blood Diamond
19. Babel  *
20. Joyeux Noel

Analysis:  The Departed has the lowest Consensus total in five years but that doesn’t mean it’s a competitive race.  It just means that there was a lack of consensus, with a record eight different films winning a Best Picture award (1974 is the only other year with more than six and that was because different eligibility years lead to three films winning the BAFTA).  The Departed wins the Oscar, BFCA, LAFC and CFC while Letters from Iwo Jima wins the LAFC, NBR and the Globe for Best Foreign Film.  The other award winners are The Queen (BAFTA), Little Miss Sunshine (PGA), Babel (Globe – Drama), Dreamgirls (Globe – Comedy / Musical), United 93 (NYFC) and Pan’s Labyrinth (NSFC).  Every Consensus winner after this (through 2016) will score at least 585 points (The Departed has 485) and every year will have at least one film that wins five awards.

 

The Nighthawk Awards: 2004

The DiCaprio side of the DiCaprio-Scorsese collaborations takes a quantum leap.

You can read more about this year in film here.  The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees.  First there are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom – it might be eligible in a different year.  Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section).  Films in blue were nominated.  Films (or directors) in olive are links to earlier posts that I don’t want to have show up in blue and be mistaken for a nominee.  Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.

I’m listing the top 20 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture

1. The Aviator  *
2. A Very Long Engagement
3. Sideways  **
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind  *
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
6. House of Flying Daggers
7. Closer
8. The Incredibles
9. Kill Bill Volume 2
10. Silver City
11. Hero
12. Hotel Rwanda
13. Million Dollar Baby  *
14. Spider-Man 2
15. Kinsey
16. Bad Education
17. Finding Neverland  *
18. Vera Drake
19. Shrek 2
20. Mar Adentro

Analysis:  Ray and Eternal Sunshine actually tied for the 5th Consensus nominee spot.  Million Dollar Baby, with a third place finish, is the first Oscar winner not to be #1 or #2 at the Consensus Awards since 1995, and no film has finished below 2nd since (through 2016).
All 20 of these films are **** and there are no other **** films.  It’s a magnificent Top 10 and the third best Top 20 to-date.

 

The Nighthawk Awards: 2003

“We set out to save the shire. And it has been saved. But for not for me.”

You can read more about this year in film here.  The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees.  First there are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom – it might be eligible in a different year.  Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section).  Films in blue were nominated.  Films (or directors) in olive are links to earlier posts that I don’t want to have show up in blue and be mistaken for a nominee.  Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.

I’m listing the top 20 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King  **
2. Mystic River  *
3. Lost in Translation  *
4. In America
5. City of God
6. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World  *
7. Finding Nemo
8. Kill Bill Volume 1
9. A Mighty Wind
10. Whale Rider
11. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
12. American Splendor  *
13. Dirty Pretty Things
14. The Station Agent
15. Nowhere in Africa
16. The Triplets of Belleville
17. Tokyo Godfathers
18. The Barbarian Invasions
19. The Last Samurai
20. 21 Grams

Analysis:  After three straight years where the Consensus race came down to less than 100 points, Return of the King almost doubles any other film.  Master and Commander, on the other hand, becomes another film to earn nominations from the five awards groups but win none of them.
The Top 10 is eight points lower than the year before and it still tied for the second best to-date (and third best ever).  The Top 20 is 14 points lower than 2002 and 13 points lower than 2001 but still the third best to-date.  The Top 5, though, is actually the best since 1996 and tied for the third best ever.
The first 18 films are **** films.  The last two are ***.5.

 

The Nighthawk Awards: 1993

Oskar Schindler watches, in horror, the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto.

You can read more about this year in film here.  The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees.  First there are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom – it might be eligible in a different year.  Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section).  Films in blue were nominated.  Films (or directors) in olive are links to earlier posts that I don’t want to have show up in blue and be mistaken for a nominee.  Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.

I’m listing the top 12 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture

1. Schindler’s List  **
2. The Age of Innocence
3. In the Name of the Father  *
4. Much Ado About Nothing
5. A Perfect World
6. The Remains of the Day  *
7. My Neighbor Totoro
8. Nightmare Before Christmas
9. Three Colors: Blue
10. Shadowlands
11. In the Line of Fire
12. Menace II Society

Analysis:  Schindler’s List crushes all previous Consensus records.  It sweeps the six major critics awards (a first) and wins all 10 awards.  While its total nominations have been beaten, the two other films which would sweep the critics awards (L.A. Confidential, The Social Network) would lose the Oscar and PGA and still fall short of the 10 wins for Schindler.  It still holds the Consensus record for points and it earns 49.19% of all the points, while no other post-1947 film has earned over 40%.  Even with the addition of the BFCA and the expansion of the guilds, only one film has managed to earn more total awards points in the years since (The Social Network).  Schindler’s List, even without the BFCA is still 9th all-time in total awards nominations and 2nd in wins (behind only Sideways).  It is still 5th all-time in total critics points.
It kills me to have to pick between Schindler and The Age of Innocence.  This is the second year in a row where the top two films have the same score.  The Age of Innocence is the best #2 in this category since Annie Hall.
This list has all twelve of the **** films for the year.

 

The Nighthawk Awards: 1992

We all got it comin, kid.

You can read more about this year in film here.  The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees.  First there are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom – it might be eligible in a different year.  Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section).  Films in blue were nominated.  Films (or directors) in olive are links to earlier posts that I don’t want to have show up in blue and be mistaken for a nominee.  Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.

I’m listing the top 10 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture

1. Unforgiven  **
2. The Crying Game  *
3. The Player  *
4. The Last of the Mohicans
5. Howards End  *
6. Reservoir Dogs
7. Raise the Red Lantern
8. Aladdin
9. Flirting
10. Singles

Analysis:  These are the only **** films.  There’s a four point drop from the #10 to the #11 film.  The #11 film is also an Oscar and Consensus nominee: A Few Good Men.