Top Ten Best Westerns ...

[DudleySmith]

No, not the motel chain, assholes; the movies.

My top ten 'best westerns' list, in no particular order:

Monte Walsh- never makes any of the professional critics lists, and I'm mystified by that.

My Darling Clementine-

The Shootist- Pretty much the only John Wayne movie I really like, and maybe that's only because it's the only movie he actually acts in that makes it notable.

Shane

High Noon

Magnificent Seven

Ride the High Country

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

Open Range- Don't particularly like Costner in westerns, and Duvall's performance wasn't that great, but I like the movie overall.

The Westerners

The Virginian-the 1929 Gary Cooper one

Rawhide-not the TV series, the 1951 movie.

The Professionals

One Eyed Jacks-Brando is ridiculously bad even for Brando in this movie, but I like it anyway, don't know why, just do.

Okay, it's more than ten, but what the hell.

[Breckinridge Elkins]

No, not the motel chain, assholes; the movies.

My top ten 'best westerns' list, in no particular order:

Monte Walsh- never makes any of the professional critics lists, and I'm mystified by that.

My Darling Clementine-

The Shootist- Pretty much the only John Wayne movie I really like, and maybe that's only because it's the only movie he actually acts in that makes it notable.

Shane

High Noon

Magnificent Seven

Ride the High Country

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

Open Range- Don't particularly like Costner in westerns, and Duvall's performance wasn't that great, but I like the movie overall.

The Westerners

The Virginian-the 1929 Gary Cooper one

Rawhide-not the TV series, the 1951 movie.

The Professionals

One Eyed Jacks-Brando is ridiculously bad even for Brando in this movie, but I like it anyway, don't know why, just do.

Okay, it's more than ten, but what the hell.

Pat Garret and Billy the Kid.

Junior Bonner

Jeremiah Johnson.

The Long Riders.

The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James.

The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Mountain Men.

Hombre

Will Penny

Shadow Riders.

Conagher.

[dinsdale piranha]

?????

The Good the Bad and the Ugly! has to be on any ten best westerns list. Good call on The Shootist. IIRC, Ron Howards first directing job, I knew he had some talent with the performance he got out of Duke. Underated movie but is very very good.

Also, what was the one with Duvall and that guy that was in SIDEWAYS? The dude with three first names? That was a good western, the one with the Chinese chicks.

[Breckinridge Elkins]

?????

The Good the Bad and the Ugly! has to be on any ten best westerns list. Good call on The Shootist. IIRC, Ron Howards first directing job, I knew he had some talent with the performance he got out of Duke. Underated movie but is very very good.

Also, what was the one with Duvall and that guy that was in SIDEWAYS? The dude with three first names? That was a good western, the one with the Chinese chicks.

Don Seigel directed The Shootist.

[Zed]

Unforgiven- I just love how William Munny walks in on the posse preparing to hunt him down and gets revenge for his friend. Some great lines, too.

Pale Rider- remake of Shane with a supernatural twist.

Extreme Prejudice and American Justice(aka Jackals). Yeah, they're set in the modern era, but they're westerns all the same.

Young Guns 1 and 2

A Fistful of Dollars

Crossfire Trail

Wild Bill

Lonesome Dove

[ZOG]

High Noon

No, just no.

There are many very good Westerns, High Noon was not one of them.

[ZOG]

Also, what was the one with Duvall and that guy that was in SIDEWAYS?

Open Range.

[MASTY]

1) True Grit.
2)Young Guns.
3)3:10 To Yuma.
4)Young Guns II.
5)The Good And The Bad....."

[Breckinridge Elkins]

1) True Grit.
2)Young Guns.
3)3:10 To Yuma.
4)Young Guns II.
5)The Good And The Bad....."

I'm oiling my .45s for the next Euroweenie who mentions Young Guns in a Western context.

[Zed]

Open Range.

I think he means Broken Trail

Settle down, Elkins. Young Guns was pretty good, lots of action and a fairly accurate storyline.

This may be a good time to ask wtf Bale said to Crowe that made him decide not to escape before getting to the train in 3ten to yuma

[The Exorcist]

Lonesome Dove

Definitely in my top ten :agree:

[MASTY]

I'm oiling my .45s for the next Euroweenie who mentions Young Guns in a Western context.You didn't like Young Guns? What about True Grit, Brecker?

[Jaybird]

Blazing Saddles
High Plains Drifter
Pale Rider
The Alamo

[Breckinridge Elkins]

You didn't like Young Guns? What about True Grit, Brecker?

John Wayne never made a bad movie. Mind you, most of them weren't that great, either, but True Grit was his best.

[dinsdale piranha]

Don Seigel directed The Shootist.

Hmm. Ok, what was Ron doing? He was in the film also, but there some other bidness, producer?? Something like that?

[dinsdale piranha]

The Good the Bad and the Ugly !!!

[dinsdale piranha]

Open Range.

?? Wasn't that the Costner movie. The one I mean didnt have Costner, only Duvall and the other dude with three first names.

[Jaybird]

?? Wasn't that the Costner movie. The one I mean didnt have Costner, only Duvall and the other dude with three first names.
Kevin Costner was in it. It was disappointing as all Kevin Costner movies are. The shootout scene was completely ripped off Pale Rider if I recall correctly. Dances with Wolves and Open Range would've been better if they'd just edited out all the scenes with him in it. Dances also had an anti-white agenda, it would've been cool to see a movie just about Indians doing Indian stuff for once instead of always having to fight the Round Eyes.

[Pasdaran]

The Wild Bunch > All.

[DudleySmith]

What was wrong with High Noon, Otto?

I liked the spaghetti westerns, I just don't think they were great. I liked most of the movies people listed here, in any case.

John Wayne always had great supporting casts, good direction, and pretty decent camera work. I never think of him as any kind of an actor, just a 'Star' type there to sell tickets, while everything else actually made the movies.

Dances with Wolves and Open Range would've been better if they'd just edited out all the scenes with him in it. Dances also had an anti-white agenda, it would've been cool to see a movie just about Indians doing Indian stuff for once instead of always having to fight the Round Eyes.

Yep.

And to add some more:

Union Pacific- great 'Epic' stuff.

Gun For A Coward-Fred McMurray in a great role, and a movie that shows the real working West, which is rare for a western.

Garden Of Evil

Four Faces West

Billy The Kid- the 1930 one with Wallace Beery and Johnny Mack Brown. The most realistic movie presentation of that era in the West.

Wild Bunch

[dinsdale piranha]

Kevin Costner was in it. ........


BROKEN TRAIL not Open Range.

Robert Duvall, Thomas Haden Church and Greta Scacchi and a bunch of Chinese chicks.

2006, 184 min.

I guess he dont have three first names, I dunt know why I said that. Thomas Haden Church. Open Range was good but this is a good one too, I like it better because Costner is wooden as hell in everything.

[O'Zebedee]

No particular order:

My Darling Clementine

Red River

Unforgiven

Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Hang 'em High

For a Few Dollars More/Fistful of Dollars

Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Winchester 73

Ride the High Country

Rio Bravo (yeah, it's been tiresomely overrated, but I still like it)

High Plains Drifter

Plus, I have a soft spot for Silverado - back when Kevin Costner put some energy in his acting.

[O'Zebedee]

Looking back over everyone else's lists, I'd definitely rate Outlaw Josey Wales, Junior Bonner, and Magnificent Seven up there as well.

[Jake Featherston]

"Chato's Land," starring Charles Bronson, is a good one.

I recently watched "Hang 'Em High," and it wasn't as good as I'd remembered.

Yeah, and "The Shootist" is very good.

[Jake Featherston]

Young Guns 1 and 2

"Young Guns" I can forgive, but "Young Guns 2?"

[Jake Featherston]

"The Ox Bow Incident" should be on the list. Starring Harry Morgan ("Sherman T. Potter") back in the late 1940s.

[Jake Featherston]

Hmm. Ok, what was Ron doing? He was in the film also, but there some other bidness, producer?? Something like that?

Ron Howard was pretty much the protagonist of the film. John Wayne got top billing, of course, but the film was as much about Ron Howard's character as that of The Duke (typed without irony).

[Jake Featherston]

it would've been cool to see a movie just about Indians doing Indian stuff for once instead of always having to fight the Round Eyes.

Yeah, a movie about intra-Indian wars taking place in like the 1300s would be cool.

[gmork]

This'll probably be me for saying this, :chainsawcarnage: (on the receving end) but Tombstone is a movie I can watch over and over. And since that's the metric I use for judging "best" anything these days, fuck it, I'll put it on the top of my list.

Don't have any huge disagreements w/anybody else's list...excepting Young Guns II? Huh? What am I missing about that one?

Personally can't watch a lot of the old Westerns (say pre-1960) these days, I guess I can give them a nod as "classics" but truly doubt I could sit through one, maybe excepting Shane.

And of Eastwood's three spaghetti westerns, my personal favorite is For a Few Dollars More, mostly b/c of Lee Van Cleef, though. That scene where he lights a match off the hunchback, truly a classic.

[Breckinridge Elkins]

Tombstone was probably the last great Western.

Wasn't perfect by a long shot. Everything looked too shiny, but it was good.

[O'Zebedee]

That scene where he lights a match off the hunchback, truly a classic.

The hunchback was everyone's favorite psycho, Klaus Kinski.

[Breckinridge Elkins]

The hunchback was everyone's favorite psycho, Klaus Kinski.

That scene was classic because Kinski made it real.

I've seen that exact same expression on his face a dozen times on a dozen psycho's faces.

[O'Zebedee]

He probably had all of two minutes in the film, but he stole it from every other actor while in it.

Have you read I, Kinski? I got it from the library 15 years or so ago, and now it's been stolen. It's also out of print, likely due to the amount of libel in it.

I'd sure love to read it again.

[Breckinridge Elkins]

Have you read I, Kinski?

Noooooo. I take phone calls from less-talented versions of him everyday.

[gmork]

The hunchback was everyone's favorite psycho, Klaus Kinski.

Yep. On a seast of the pant basis, it seems like guys with hawt sisters have a higher rate of being psycho than average, doesn't it?

Hmmm, might be thesis for some budding sociologist...if they original research hasn't already been done.

edit: Oops. He was her father? I'll be. :lmao:

[il ragno]

Even better than the hunchback: the kid with the extremely fucked-up teeth Van Cleef shoots in the street with the "bridge shot". Also the damn dirty Jew who tries to correct him about the train not stopping at Tucumcari.

It isn't often you get Jews or horrific teeth in a Western, y'know. Let alone both.

Besides FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, the remainder of mine own list:

THE WILD BUNCH
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE
THE NAKED SPUR
THE BEGUILED
RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY
FORT APACHE
DUCK YOU SUCKER
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
THE KENTUCKIAN
THE MERCENARY
THE SHEEPMAN

[Breckinridge Elkins]

That was a Jew?

Anyway, the Mercenaries was one of the best non-Leone Italian Westerns.

I have a Winchester Shotgun loaded with rocksalt for the first poster who mentions Django, though.

[il ragno]

Anyway, the Mercenaries was one of the best non-Leone Italian Westerns.

Franco Nero: as badass as Eastwood, thick accent and all.

[Zed]

Don't have any huge disagreements w/anybody else's list...excepting Young Guns II? Huh? What am I missing about that one?

"It's your gang, Dave! Lead us out of here!"
"No, it's your gang, Billy!"

[Hermanric and Horse]

This'll probably be me for saying this, :chainsawcarnage: (on the receving end) but Tombstone is a movie I can watch over and over. And since that's the metric I use for judging "best" anything these days, fuck it, I'll put it on the top of my list.
Tombstone was probably the last great Western.

Wasn't perfect by a long shot. Everything looked too shiny, but it was good.I just watched Tombstone the other day for the first time; I don't know how I missed it before now. I can see some structural problems from where they had to cut back on the original script, so, yeah, it isn't perfect. But, man, this is a great movie - and I usually don't care for Westerns (except for Clint Eastwood Westerns).

Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday in Tombstone is a classic (quoting from memory):

Ike: "That's the 12th hand in a row you've won; no one is that lucky!"
Doc: "Why, Ike, whatevuh do you mean?"..."Ike, I guess Pokuhs just not yuh game....I know, let's have uh spelling contest!"

Ringo: "Are you retired too?"
Doc: "Not me; I'm in muh prime"

Cowboy: "you're so drunk you're seeing double."
Doc: "I have two guns; one fuh each of yuh!"

Doc: "Kate! You're not wearing a bussle. How lewd!"

Doc: "You know Ed, if ah thought you were not my friend, ah just don't think ah could bear it!"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-927494601447449452

[O'Zebedee]

He beats Victor Mature's Doc.

I love the scene where he shows up out of nowhere for a gunfight:

"I'm you're huckleberry."

[DudleySmith]

So far nobody mentioned 'Once Upon A Time In The West' and 'Stagecoach'.

Congratulations on your tastes, people.

If some tasteless asshole does come along and lists those, could there be an automatic banning implemented?

[O'Zebedee]

I'm fine with both - especially Once Upon a Time... - but they're nowhere near my favorites.

[il ragno]

I hadn't seen STAGECOACH in some time....maybe 20 years had gone by between viewings at one point....and I was stunned (and saddened) to see it was now a UCLA Archive rescue job.

Don't misunderstand: UCLA did their usual fine job, and I'm grateful that they did. But how could a classic and film-history landmark like STAGECOACH lie in such utter neglectful disrepair that it would require a full restoration?

So the next time you're made to swallow hymieganda about how the Jews invented movies, and Hollywood, and entertainment, and human happiness in general - and how we all owe them eternal gratitude for deigning to bless us with the gifts of their creativity - bear in mind that this is how Jews feel about "their" artform. Unless the lawyers and the big vulgarian machers they work for get paid first, they'd just as soon it all turned to breadmold in rusted film cans.

[DudleySmith]

I'm fine with both - especially Once Upon a Time... - but they're nowhere near my favorites.

You also liked Silverado. But, I have One Eyed Jacks as one of my favorites, so I'm not completely immune to really bad tastes in westerns, either.:)

[The Retard]

I grew up in the 80's when westerns weren't cool anymore.

[DudleySmith]

I hadn't seen STAGECOACH in some time....maybe 20 years had gone by between viewings at one point....and I was stunned (and saddened) to see it was now a UCLA Archive rescue job.

Don't misunderstand: UCLA did their usual fine job, and I'm grateful that they did. But how could a classic and film-history landmark like STAGECOACH lie in such utter neglectful disrepair that it would require a full restoration?



Which Stagecoach? I know of three.

The second one was better than the first, the last one sucked even more than the first. I figure there's a reason nobody's seen it in decades. The big highlight of the original was being able to laugh at the tire tracks in the roads and across the 'countryside'. Don't get me wrong, I hate to see any film disappear for all time, but maybe if you saw it again you'll see why it hasn't been on in 20-30 years, that I know of.

[DudleySmith]

I grew up in the 80's when westerns weren't cool anymore.

They're not really that different than space operas; pretty much the same thing, actually.

[Hermanric and Horse]

They're not really that different than space operas; pretty much the same thing, actually.
Or Samurai films.

[il ragno]

Which Stagecoach? I know of three.

The one from 1939, of course.

Not even my wanting very much to fuck the 1966 Ann-Margret could have made that '66 version worth the pain of enduring it.

[O'Zebedee]

You also liked Silverado. But, I have One Eyed Jacks as one of my favorites, so I'm not completely immune to really bad tastes in westerns, either.:)

I still haven't seen One Eyed Jacks, but it's on the lists, same as the The Hired Hand.

I think there's even a television version of Stagecoach, which I have a vague memory of...

[Breckinridge Elkins]

I think there's even a television version of Stagecoach, which I have a vague memory of...


Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris K.

I haven't seen it...

[DudleySmith]

I still haven't seen One Eyed Jacks, but it's on the lists, same as the The Hired Hand.

It's Brando's 'method acting' running amuck. Also you'll enjoy his interpretation of a 'gunfighter's stance' no end, and his 'western accent'. Slim Pickens plays a 'bad guy deputy', and Karl Malden is the local law.

[DudleySmith]

Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris K.



Yep, that's it.

[Hachiko]

Yeah, a movie about intra-Indian wars taking place in like the 1300s would be cool.

But about as PC as flogging a nigger with a noose outside a KFC. Cinema history has taught us well the Indians and Africans only faced White Devils, never each other.

[Jaybird]

My favorite:

http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/images/cinema/wild-wild-west.jpg

[O'Zebedee]

I liked the giant mechanical spider in My Darling Clementine much better.

[Jaybird]

But about as PC as flogging a nigger with a noose outside a KFC. Cinema history has taught us well the Indians and Africans only faced White Devils, never each other.
Yeah, sort of an Apocalypto for prairie niggers.

Does this count as a "Western"?

http://www.impawards.com/1963/posters/hud.jpg

[il ragno]

Well, at least there's no disagreement over which are the Worst Westerns Ever Made: LIEBOWITZ RIDES ALONE, BROKEBACK 2: HE WORE HER YELLOW RIBBON,
THE NEW JERSEYAN, STAND PERFECTLY STILL – SARTANA WISHES TO SHOOT YOU, RIO PERVO and that awful remake of THE SHOOTIST with Peter North.

[O'Zebedee]

BROKEBACK 2: HE WORE HER YELLOW RIBBON

Great cinematography from Haskell Wexler, though.

[O'Zebedee]

Please, somebody help me come up with an appropriate porn film name for Haskell Wexler.

[il ragno]

Haskell Waxleer?

[Hachiko]

Please, somebody help me come up with an appropriate porn film name for Haskell Wexler.

Ass Waxer?