Favorite Western Movies

[Spanky]

I would list favorite "movies", but I can't, there are too many good ones over the years.  So, I invite others to list their favorite Westerns, maybe why or something about them.  The evolution of the Western in film has been fairly easy to follow.  From Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and other two dimensional portrayals where Indians fell like dominoes, to the advent of the "adult" Western with such as "High Noon", and "Shane" with heroes torn between loyalties, real characters. 

So, a few of my favorites.  You may not find them the "best", but they are my favorites, and I think would fall somewhere in the "best" category of westerns. 

One-Eyed Jacks--Marlon, Karl Malden, Slim Pickens, Ben Johnson in a rare role as a bad guy



Missouri Breaks--Nicholson, Brando, Harry Dean Stanton



Tombstone--With Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, his best performance ever



The Wild Bunch--I met Sam Peckinpah's sister Susan when she was a psych student in Fresno



True Grit--Not a John Wayne fan, but he deserved the Oscar he got for this one



The Unforgiven--Clint Eastwood's in case of confusion with the other Unforgiven. Came in second in recent rating of best 100 westerns. 
Should have been #1.

[barq2]

True Grit--Not a John Wayne fan, but he deserved the Oscar he got for this one



The Unforgiven--Clint Eastwood's in case of confusion with the other Unforgiven. Came in second in recent rating of best 100 westerns. 
Should have been #1.

Hi Spanky,

I absolutely agree about Unforgiven. Superb film making.

True Grit - I also like the new version. Usually I'm critical of remakes. Why remake a great film? Generally I think it would be better to take a bad film that had an interesting concept, and remake that - but do it better. Anyway, I make an exception for this because the new one approaches the story differently, which is fair enough because it adds something.

For a classic Western, I suggest John Ford's The Searchers. If you watch that you'll see how many films have been influenced by it, including Star Wars (which I think is essentially a Western in space).

Of the neo-Westerns, I think The Quick and the Dead (1995) is a good example of a film that plays with the genre. Sharon Stone is cast into a role you would normally associate with Eastwood's "Man With No Name" and it very consciously adopts the style of spaghetti westerns.

[Spanky]

True Grit--Not a John Wayne fan, but he deserved the Oscar he got for this one



The Unforgiven--Clint Eastwood's in case of confusion with the other Unforgiven. Came in second in recent rating of best 100 westerns. 
Should have been #1.

Hi Spanky,

I absolutely agree about Unforgiven. Superb film making.

True Grit - I also like the new version. Usually I'm critical of remakes. Why remake a great film? Generally I think it would be better to take a bad film that had an interesting concept, and remake that - but do it better. Anyway, I make an exception for this because the new one approaches the story differently, which is fair enough because it adds something.

For a classic Western, I suggest John Ford's The Searchers. If you watch that you'll see how many films have been influenced by it, including Star Wars (which I think is essentially a Western in space).

Of the neo-Westerns, I think The Quick and the Dead (1995) is a good example of a film that plays with the genre. Sharon Stone is cast into a role you would normally associate with Eastwood's "Man With No Name" and it very consciously adopts the style of spaghetti westerns.

Hi Barq, all agreed.  Actually, "The Searchers" got number one in the "100 Favorite Western" roundup that came out about three years ago.

Spank

---

True Grit--Not a John Wayne fan, but he deserved the Oscar he got for this one



The Unforgiven--Clint Eastwood's in case of confusion with the other Unforgiven. Came in second in recent rating of best 100 westerns. 
Should have been #1.

Hi Spanky,

I absolutely agree about Unforgiven. Superb film making.

True Grit - I also like the new version. Usually I'm critical of remakes. Why remake a great film? Generally I think it would be better to take a bad film that had an interesting concept, and remake that - but do it better. Anyway, I make an exception for this because the new one approaches the story differently, which is fair enough because it adds something.

For a classic Western, I suggest John Ford's The Searchers. If you watch that you'll see how many films have been influenced by it, including Star Wars (which I think is essentially a Western in space).

Of the neo-Westerns, I think The Quick and the Dead (1995) is a good example of a film that plays with the genre. Sharon Stone is cast into a role you would normally associate with Eastwood's "Man With No Name" and it very consciously adopts the style of spaghetti westerns.

Hi Barq, all agreed.  Actually, "The Searchers" got number one in the "100 Favorite Western" roundup that came out about three years ago.

Spank

Oh, on last Unforgiven note.  Gene Hackman, the story goes, on first reading the script and being offered the part of "Little Bob", refused it, thinking the character was such a bastard he didn't want to be associated with him, even fictionally.  Which, of course, made him the perfect Little Bob, ha.

[Spanky]

True Grit--Not a John Wayne fan, but he deserved the Oscar he got for this one



The Unforgiven--Clint Eastwood's in case of confusion with the other Unforgiven. Came in second in recent rating of best 100 westerns. 
Should have been #1.

Hi Spanky,

I absolutely agree about Unforgiven. Superb film making.

True Grit - I also like the new version. Usually I'm critical of remakes. Why remake a great film? Generally I think it would be better to take a bad film that had an interesting concept, and remake that - but do it better. Anyway, I make an exception for this because the new one approaches the story differently, which is fair enough because it adds something.

For a classic Western, I suggest John Ford's The Searchers. If you watch that you'll see how many films have been influenced by it, including Star Wars (which I think is essentially a Western in space).

Of the neo-Westerns, I think The Quick and the Dead (1995) is a good example of a film that plays with the genre. Sharon Stone is cast into a role you would normally associate with Eastwood's "Man With No Name" and it very consciously adopts the style of spaghetti westerns.

Hi Barq, all agreed.  Actually, "The Searchers" got number one in the "100 Favorite Western" roundup that came out about three years ago.

Spank

---

True Grit--Not a John Wayne fan, but he deserved the Oscar he got for this one



The Unforgiven--Clint Eastwood's in case of confusion with the other Unforgiven. Came in second in recent rating of best 100 westerns. 
Should have been #1.

Hi Spanky,

I absolutely agree about Unforgiven. Superb film making.

True Grit - I also like the new version. Usually I'm critical of remakes. Why remake a great film? Generally I think it would be better to take a bad film that had an interesting concept, and remake that - but do it better. Anyway, I make an exception for this because the new one approaches the story differently, which is fair enough because it adds something.

For a classic Western, I suggest John Ford's The Searchers. If you watch that you'll see how many films have been influenced by it, including Star Wars (which I think is essentially a Western in space).

Of the neo-Westerns, I think The Quick and the Dead (1995) is a good example of a film that plays with the genre. Sharon Stone is cast into a role you would normally associate with Eastwood's "Man With No Name" and it very consciously adopts the style of spaghetti westerns.

Hi Barq, all agreed.  Actually, "The Searchers" got number one in the "100 Favorite Western" roundup that came out about three years ago.

Spank

Oh, on last Unforgiven note.  Gene Hackman, the story goes, on first reading the script and being offered the part of "Little Bob", refused it, thinking the character was such a bastard he didn't want to be associated with him, even fictionally.  Which, of course, made him the perfect Little Bob, ha.

And of course by "Little Bob" I mean "Little Billl"

[Linville]

Hey Spanky......

I liked the movie called , Lonesome Dove.


Great great western .....

[Spanky]

Hey Spanky......

I liked the movie called ,  Lonesome Dove.


Great great western .....

Hi Linville,

I agree with you, it's a great mini series, and about any time you give Robert Duvall a leading role, you got a hit, as with the bit later, "Open Range" with Kevin Costner.  All the movies mentioned--excepting the Sharon Stone fantasy, which I also liked, were essential, straight-forward American epics, it's what American film makers do best.  They have always tried to widen the view even as they've learned to develop characters.  Look at the recent "American Hustle".  Extreme characters in wide open spaces, broken down, built back up.  All sweeping looks at the variety of behavior.  Lots of countries have made and will make great movies, but for me the evolution of America's best is the quest to capture the universal stuff, the legend, and bring it home in a character. 

Spanker

[Linville]

Yes Spanky the character development in all Lonesome Dove was so so good.

I used it in a class I was taking that we had to write why we liked a movie...in a report to be given.

Maybe humanities don't remember now but maybe it was writing class on composition ....

That move gave me tons of fuel.

[Popster]

I have seen EVERY good western ever made.  There are so many good ones that I couldn't pick THE best.....but "Unforgiven" would be up at the top with many others.....it also has one of the best scripts written for ANY movie.

Which leads me to post one of my all time favorite movie scenes (a western...can you guess?)  it's so funny.

[Linville]

Very Funny Popster.....

[Dancing Wolf]

Sometimes I just get a craving for good western and the movies listed already on this thread are all films I really enjoyed.

Tombstone with Val Kilmer is one of my favorites.
Searchers was a great mention, too.

Was "High Noon" with Gary Cooper
or "Fastest Gun in the West" with Glenn Ford mentioned?

What about "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" with Paul Newman and yummy Robert Redford?

"Duel in the Sun" with Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones (have to factor in its age, but classic movie).


There are some other older westerns I like, but drawing a blank at the moment.


More modern era, "3:10 to Yuma" was a nice watch IMHO with good storyline and actors.
"Even a bad man loves his mother"  LOL

"Dancing With Wolves" deserves a mention here, I believe.  Kevin Cosner

That Kurt Russell movie "Bone Tomahawk" was weird, but good also.  I've always enjoyed his movies. 

Is "Old Yeller" a western?  Or just beautifully sad story of a great dog in the west?
I loved "Savage Sam" (son of Old Yeller), which was the 'sequel' or second movie about Coates' family adventures (I think that was their name).

Anyone here see "Seraphim Falls"?  That was good, too.  Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan. 
Story of revenge between 2 men over a wrong by one of them.

*spoiler*
I liked "Purgatory" where the town has famous old west characters being given a second chance to atone for their misdeeds and make it to Heaven, or not. Some decent actors and keeps your interest.

Does "Young Riders" (#1 and #2) count as western or teen cult classic?  HAHAHA 

I remember now - what about those brothers.... "The Sacketts" I think? I believe it was made for TV movie but still enjoyed it.
Had Sam Elliot as oldest and Tom Selleck as middle brother (both of them make really good cowboys, you notice?)
Then it was followed up by "The Shadow Riders" with Katharine Ross.  For that era of movie-making, it was good entertainment.

"How the West was Won" with huge cast of great actors like Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda etc

"The Tin Star" with Anthony Perkins as young sheriff and Henry Fonda the cynical former lawman.

There are so many I love.  It's difficult to stop.    

"North to Alaska" is called 'a western set in the Alaskan wilderness'...  anyway, I always thought it was sooo funny!  John Wayne, Stewart Granger, Ernie Kovaks and Fabian as gold miners, don't remember actress' name - but the "love triangle" with her, Fabian and John Wayne is hilarious!

I believe I'll stop on that one - how often do you laugh during a western  (oh, "Blazing Saddles"  LOL)

Westerns - great entertainment!

Addition:
(Would the "The Revenant" be considered a western?  I watched that recently.  Quite a story, esp since based on real person & events)