SHANE the Greatest Western Movie of All Time, Western Writers of America Announces

SHANE the Greatest Western Movie of All Time, Western Writers of America Announces

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., June 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SHANE, director George Stevens' classic 1953 movie about a weary gunfighter caught up in a land war between Wyoming ranchers and farmers, is the greatest Western movie of all time, Western Writers of America has announced.

For top honors SHANE, which Pulitzer Prize-winning Western novelist A.B. Guthrie Jr. adapted for the screen from Jack Schaefer's novel, edged HIGH NOON, the 1952 movie that won Gary Cooper his second Academy Award as Best Actor.

Western Writers of America, a nonprofit organization of more than 600 professional writers, founded in the 1950s to promote and honor the best literature about the American West -- including screenwriting -- announced the 100 Greatest Western Movies of All Time on Thursday, June 12, at Scottsdale's Chaparral Suites during the association's annual convention.

"This year has been incredible," WWA Executive Director Paul Hutton said. "Cormac McCarthy's brutal little contemporary Western NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN did great at the box office, taking in over $60 million and was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Directors Joel and Ethan Coen got nominations, too. Paul Thomas Anderson also was nominated for THERE WILL BE BLOOD, his amazing adaptation of Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil, with his lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis winning the Oscar."

Members voted on their top 10 Western movies, and the ballots were tabulated at the WWA offices at the University of New Mexico.

No. 3 was THE SEARCHERS, director John Ford's powerful 1956 story about a vengeful Texan's quest to find his two nieces, taken by Comanche Indians, based on Alan LeMay's novel. No. 4 was BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, the 1969 movie that first teamed Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Kevin Costner's Academy Award-winning DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990), from Michael Blake's novel, rounded out the top five.

Rounding out the top 10 were director Sam Peckinpah's bloody, end-of-the-West opera THE WILD BUNCH (1969); Howard Hawk's first Western, RED RIVER (1948), which gave John Wayne one of his best roles; the surprise cult O.K. Corral favorite TOMBSTONE (1993), starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer; THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), a Western retelling of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's brilliant SEVEN SAMURAI, and OPEN RANGE (2003), which starred Robert Duvall in another Costner-directed movie.

"It's not the Top 10 I would come up with," says incoming WWA president Johnny D. Boggs, "but that's the fun of lists like these. It prompts lively debate, and members of Western Writers of America can be as passionate about Western film as they are about literature of the West."

WWA's membership roster is filled with writers who are no stranger to Hollywood, including screenwriters Kirk Ellis, Steve Harrigan, C. Courtney Joyner, Andrew J. Fenady, Stephen Lodge, and Miles Hood Swarthout, whose father, the late Glendon Swarthout, wrote the novel THE SHOOTIST, which became John Wayne's last movie. Bill Gulick (BEND OF THE RIVER, THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL) and Max Evans (THE ROUNDERS, THE HI-LO COUNTRY) saw two of their novels adapted for the screen. Hutton, Boggs and fellow members Michael F. Blake, Win Blevins, Brian Garfield, and Arthur Winfield Knight have written extensively about Western film.

In 2009, WWA plans to announce the 100 Greatest Western Television Movies, Series and Miniseries of All Time during the convention in Oklahoma City.

For information on the WWA convention, call the organization's executive director's office at (505) 277-5234 or log on to http://www.westernwriters.org/.

   The complete list follows:    WWA Top 100 Westerns    1. Shane   2. High Noon   3. The Searchers   4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid   5. Dances with Wolves   6. The Wild Bunch   7. Red River   8. Tombstone   9. The Magnificent Seven   10. Open Range    11. Treasure of the Sierra Madre   12. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly   13. True Grit   14. The Shootist   15. Stagecoach (1939)   16. Unforgiven   17. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance   18. The Outlaw Josey Wales   19. Ride the High Country   20. Jeremiah Johnson    21. The Cowboys   22. My Darling Clementine   23. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)   24. Rio Bravo   25. The Ox-Bow Incident   26. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon   27. Lonely are the Brave   28. Will Penny   29. Hud   30. Winchester '73    31. Little Big Man   32. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)   33. The Grey Fox   34. The Alamo (1960)   35. Silverado   36. Ulzana's Raid   37. Once upon a Time in the West   38. Rio Grande   39. The Rounders   40. The Big Country    41. The Hi-Lo Country   42. Duel in the Sun   43. Fort Apache   44. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)   45. The Last Picture Show   46. The Grapes of Wrath   47. Bad Day at Black Rock   48. The Long Riders   49. The Tall T   50. Cat Ballou    51. Tumbleweeds   52. The Iron Horse   53. Man of the West   54. Seven Men from Now   55. The Big Trail   56. Three Godfathers   57. Hell's Hinges   58. The Wind (1928)   59. The Westerner   60. Support Your Local Sheriff    61. They Died with Their Boots On   62. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral   63. The Professionals   64. The Cheyenne Social Club   65. El Dorado   66. Thunderheart   67. The Virginian (1929)   68. A Man Called Horse   69. Hombre   70. Barbarosa    71. Chisum   72. The Big Sky   73. Young Guns   74. Destry Rides Again   75. Junior Bonner   76. Angel and the Badman   77. Warlock   78. The Misfits   79. No Country for Old Men   80. Monte Walsh    81. Four Faces West   82. The Naked Spur   83. The Gunfighter   84. High Plains Drifter   85. Devil's Doorway   86. Law and Order (1932)   87. Coroner Creek   88. Valdez is Coming   89. Hondo   90. The Man from Laramie    91. The Unforgiven (1960)   92. Broken Arrow   93. Bend of the River   94. Giant   95. Blazing Saddles   96. The Culpepper Cattle Company   97. Three Bad Men   98. Pursued   99. McCabe and Mrs. Miller   100. The Great Train Robbery (1903)  

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Source: Western Writers of America

CONTACT: Melody Groves of Western Writers of America, +1-575-523-0069,
or +1-505-298-3022, melodygroves@comcast.net

Web site: http://www.westernwriters.org/

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Profile: International Entertainment