***Completed***
Something I love to do personally is make ranked lists of genres, years, countries, directors, etc. It's just a hyperinterest of mine. And so, what I've decided I want to start doing is that, every year, I want to put a bit of a focus on certain genres so that by the end of the year, I can be familiar enough with that genre to make such a ranked list.
And so, for 2024: Westerns! I've loved westerns since I was a kid, but here on Letterbox, I've only watched a few dozen, something that must be corrected. This year, I intend to watch 52 brand new western movies, on top of the ones I've already watched so that…
***Completed***
Something I love to do personally is make ranked lists of genres, years, countries, directors, etc. It's just a hyperinterest of mine. And so, what I've decided I want to start doing is that, every year, I want to put a bit of a focus on certain genres so that by the end of the year, I can be familiar enough with that genre to make such a ranked list.
And so, for 2024: Westerns! I've loved westerns since I was a kid, but here on Letterbox, I've only watched a few dozen, something that must be corrected. This year, I intend to watch 52 brand new western movies, on top of the ones I've already watched so that at the end of the year, I can make a Top 100 Westerns List. For fun. Anyone is free to join but this is really just for my own personal interest.
As for the rules:
1. Please tag the lists and reviews with either "annual genre challenge 2024" or "agc2024"
2. The films must obviously be westerns. For the sake of simplicity, that'll be by Letterbox definition, even though Letterbox can be weird about genres sometimes.
3. The films can be watched in any order.
4. The films must be first time watches. Whole point of the challenge is to be better familiarized with each theme.
And the Challenges!
1. A 1910's film
2. A 1920's film
3. A 1930's film
4. A 1940's film
5. A 1950's film
6. A 1960's film
7. A 1970's film
8. A 1980's film
9. A 1990's film
10. A 2000's film
11. A 2010's film
12. A 2020's film
13. Directed by John Ford
14. Starring John Wayne
15. Directed by Budd Boetticher
16. Starring Walter Brennan
17. Directed by Sergio Corbucci
18. Starring Franco Nero
19. Directed by Anthony Mann
20. Starring Clint Eastwood
21. Directed by John Sturges
22. Starring Katy Jurado
23. A TV Movie
24. A Comedy
25. A Historical movie
26. A Musical
27. A Horror
28. A Weird Western (Examples: What the Western??!!, Home on the Strange, Weird Westerns)
29. A Revisionist or NeoWestern (Examples: Revisionist Western, Neo-Western films, Revisionist Westerns)
30. An Acid Western (Examples: acid western, Acid Western)
31. A Spaghetti Western (Examples: Extensive Spaghetti Western List, Top 100 Spaghetti Westerns, The 50 Essential Spaghetti Westerns)
32. A Meat Pie Western (Examples: Meat Pie Westerns, Kangaroo Westerns, Australian Westerns, Gunfights Down Under, 10 Great Australian Westerns)
33. A Chili Western (Examples: Chili Western. Second Franco-Mexican War, Mexican Westerns)
34. A Northwestern (Examples: Northwesterns, Best Alaska/Pacific Northwest Films)
35. A Red Western (Examples: The Wild East, Osterns and Red Westerns)
36. Black Led Western (Examples: Black Life on Screen, Black Westerns)
37. Female Led Western (Examples: Female Frontier, Westerns with Strong Female Leads, Woman in Westerns)
38. Native American Led Western (Examples: Native Americans on Screen)
39. LGBTQ+ Western
40. Letterboxd Top 100 Westerns
41. American Cowboy Magazine's 100 Greatest Westerns of All Time
42. Cowboys & Indians' 100 Best Westerns Ever Made
43. Vulture's 50 Best Western Movies
44. BFI Screen Guides 100 Westerns
45. From the Criterion Collection
46. From the National Film Registry
47. Oscar Nominated
48. Roger Ebert's Great Westerns
49. Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Westerns
50. Included on the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List
51. Included on the They Shoot Pictures Don't They List
52. Any Off Watchlist
Participants:
RFValhalla//Julianne Wallace//SoRefined//meyi☆//P G//linjitah
Progress: 52/52
This challenge took from January 6, 2024 to October 30, 2024. The average score I gave for this challenge was a 3.9.
The biggest surprise was Time to Die. Less because I was expecting it to be bad, since I really had no expectations for it in general, and more that the film's specific qualities were a huge surprise to me, given the stark realism despite the writer being a famed magical realist author. Masterpiece either way though. The biggest disappointment was The Alamo. My dad loves this one so I was hoping I would too, but unfortunately, that was not at all the case... at all. God, I hated that one. Just... has not aged well at all.
Top Three:
1. Walker
2. Red Sun
3. Time to Die
Bottom Three:
1. The Alamo
2. Apache
3. Fort Vengeance
Other Superlatives:
Best Performances: Toshiro Mifune in Red Sun/Barbara Stanwyck in The Furies
Worst Performances: John Wayne in The Alamo/Jean Peters in Apache
Most Beautiful: Johnny Guitar
Most Thought-Provoking: Walker
Made Me Cry: Old Henry
Most Fun: The Harder They Fall
