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Summary
It is highly rarefied forWesternmovies to end with their villains triumphant , but this has happen on occasion . The westerly musical style has been through legion cycles from the B - moving-picture show of the 30 and ’ 40s , to the Golden Age of the ’ fifty , to the spaghetti Westerns of the ‘ 60s , to the downbeat revisionist Westerns of the ‘ 70s . Even now , young post - forward-looking westerly movies are being release in the 2020s , with hits like 2021’sThe Power of the DogandThe Harder They Fallkeeping the writing style live .
However , while the Western has been through many earned run average , the basic narrative knife thrust of the genre always remains the same . Ever sincethe earliest B - Western movies , the literary genre has been associated with stories of renegades on either side of the jurisprudence standing up for what ’s right-hand . Sometimes the submarine are sheriffs trying to instill law and ordination in the Wild West and other times they are opportunistic triggerman with a concealed center of gold . However , only a vanishingly small number of Westerns stop with their hero defeat by the baddie .
10The Great Silence — Tigero
This Western’s twist ending leaves the hero dead and the villain victorious
Director Sergio Corbucci’sThe Great Silencesees its hero , Silence , team up with a widow woman to take on the gang of bounty hunters terrorise her small town . In a singularly seditious blow , The Great Silenceends with the hero and his gang of outlaws massacred by the bounty hunters . While Corbucci shot a great number of Westerns throughout his life history , the savagery ofThe slap-up Silence ’s devastating political emblem do this his greatest field day .
9The Proposition — Eden Fletcher
None of this Australian Western’s characters come close to stopping the real villain
There are a lot ofunderrated great Australian Westerns , but none of them are more barbarous thanThe Proposition . This sick retaliation story sees a lawman , Morris , give an criminal , Charlie , three days to vote out Charlie ’s notorious honest-to-goodness brother , Arthur . Otherwise , his immature , innocent pal , Mike , will be killed or else . Morris ’s boss , Eden Fletcher , ends up consecrate Morris to flog Mike , killing him . In a soul - crushing ending , Arthur murder Morris and Charlie kill Arthur , while Eden Fletcher never faces any consequences .
8El Topo — The Townspeople
Jodorowsky’s Western ends with the hero’s quest proven pointless
Alejandro Jodorowsky ’s infamously weird acid WesternEl Topofollows the floor of the titulary castaway , who tries to free a lot of cave - dwelling outcasts from their claustrophobic prison . When he succeed , the town keep to immediately murder the Ishmael the present moment they escape . A horror-stricken El Topo call on his gun on the town before immolating himself , providing Jodorowsky ’s trippy nightmare with one of the bare endings in the literary genre ’s long history .
7No Country For Old Men — Anton Chigurgh
Javier Bardem’s villain emerges victorious in this Coen Bros movie
Cast
For most of its runtime , 2007 ’s Cormac McCarthy adaptationNo Country For Old Men seems to be sharpen on Josh Brolin ’s taciturn antihero Llewellyn Moss . Then , in adeath that change the motion-picture show ’s storey midway through , Moss is suddenly vote down off - CRT screen by the nefarious hitman Anton Chigurgh . Chigurgh go on to vote down the Italian sandwich ’s wife and finally escapes a car crash , laughing at his lot as the local sheriff is incapacitated to stop his crime fling .
6The Villain — Cactus Jack
This Western comedy offers a funnier version of victorious villains
1979’sThe Villaincould not be less like many of the movies number here , as it is a goofy Western pastiche starring Kirk Douglas as a grinning anti - villain , Cactus Jack . still , this underrated literary genre mockery does see Cactus Jack emerge exulting when the hero chooses him over the movie ’s seeming hero , Arnold Schwarzenegger ’s Handsome Stranger . While this whirl may not be as devastating asNo Country for Old Men ’s termination , it is still a fun , unexpected twisting on the musical style ’s well - worn tropes .
5Heaven’s Gate — The U.S. Army
No one is happy in Cimino’s flop, but the villains do come out on top
Director Michael Cimino ’s infamous 1980 flopHeaven ’s Gateis nowhere near as bad as it was made out to be , but it is incredibly bleak . The story of a marshal and an enforcer who stand up against land power in Wyoming , Heaven ’s Gatepits amoral developer against a trey of comparatively idealistic heroes . In a uncommon wrench , even some land barons die in the ensuing bloodshed , but the timely comer of the US Army see thattheir plan to pass over out a Wyoming town ’s colonist universe is still a succeeder .
4Dead Birds — The Demon
This Western horror’s heroes never stood a chance
2004 ’s horror western hybridDead Birdssees a group of camber robber hole up in a abandoned orchard , only to find themselves face up to face with a body - hopping demonic presence . While the admirer are far from heroic , it is still tough to catch as they are picked off one by one , assail by a strength they ca n’t hope to understand , let alone fight . By the sentence the last of the movie ’s remain characters is get hold , it is barely a surprise whenDead Birdsreveals he was already killed by the devil .
3McCabe and Mrs. Miller — The Harrison Shaughnessy Mining Company
Warren Beatty’s antihero loses in this bleak anti-Western
Director Robert Altman’sMcCabe and Mrs. Milleris among thegreatest anti - Westerns ever . The unrelenting storey of a conman and a prostitute whose successful business organization partnership is destroyed by the reaching of a ruthless pot , McCabe and Mrs. Millerpits Warren Beatty ’s McCabe and Julie Christie ’s Mrs. Miller against the combined forces of The Harrison Shaughnessy Mining Company . SinceAltman ’s film ends with McCabe killed by the company ’s agentsand Ms. Miller getting high to soothe her painfulness , it is fair to say the corporation wins .
2Ravenous — Colquhon/ Ives
This blackly comic Western horror’s villain proves his point
1999’sRavenousis a freaky horror / westerly loanblend inspired by the real - life consecutive killer Alferd Packer . Guy Pearce ’s Captain Boyd and his mismatched work party of soldier hap upon the ailing stranger Colonel Ives and serve him regain his strength , only to identify he hides a dark arcanum . James Ives is a Wendigo , a supernatural creature that gain strength by consume human pulp . He convinces all of the movie ’s heroes to spoil in cannibalism , include Boyd , who only survives the movie due to consuming his colleague ’s stay .
1Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia — El Jefe
Peckinpah’s nastiest Western ends without a sliver of hope
1974’sBring Me the Head of Alfredo Garciais the glum of director Sam Peckinpah ’s Westerns , and that is a pretty extraordinary achievement . The plot follow Bennie , a bitter bounty hunting watch who kills the nominal character and must fight to collect the bountifulness on his top dog , eventually conduct to the death of his love interest . When he gives the offense boss El Jefe the head , El Jefe tells him to throw it in the codswallop . Disgusted by this disregard for biography , Bennie assault El Jefe and his men and is immediately killedin theWesterngenre ’s coldest ending .
Isabelle Huppert and Kris Kristofferson in ‘Heaven’s Gate’.
