What say you?

1. The Searchers
2. The Wild Bunch
3. The Outlaw Josey Wales
4. The Unforgiven
5. Once Upon a Time in the West
6. The Long Riders
7. True Grit
8. Shane
9. Hombre
10. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
11. Winchester '73
12. The Big Country
13. Duel in the Sun
14. Flaming Star
16. The Professionals
17. Major Dundee
18. The Man From Laramie
19. Garden of Evil
20. The Far Country

I'm not sure of the qualifying criteria but the first thing that I noticed was that Lonesome Dove was not on your list, one of the greats IMO.I'm just a pup but so while I do not recognise all of the ones you have listed there are several there the I do and agree with.



What about guns, when do we get guns?

You should check out some of those you don't recognize. They're classics. I think most of them are universal choices. "Garden of Evil" may be offbeat, and "The Unforgiven" and some others may not make everybody's top twenty, but lots of people like them besides me.

If Lonesome Dove was my favorite, I still wouldn't have listed it because it was a mini-series as opposed to a movie. I liked LD, but it wouldn't have made my list anyway. Lots of people disagree but, I put it in the same general category as "Dances With Wolves". Both are solid movies which benefitted greatly from the times in which they were released. Neither would have been nearly as popular or thought of as being as good critically, if they'd been released back in the heyday of westerns in the 50's. As it was, they were both released during times when the American audience was starved for fresh westerns. They got a lot more hype that way. Both DWW and LD are revisionist in nature. Nothing wrong with setting the story straight, but I have a problem with people who revise just to make the past over into their own vision. I think McMurtry in particular, is guilty of that at times. although he is a wonderful writer.

JMO and glad to have yours.

How The West Was Wet

Look behind the curtains, top shelf....

I'd add a couple more personal favorites-

"Ride the High Country"-maybe my favorite of all
"Pat Garret and Billy the Kid"
"The Man who Shot Liberty Valance"
"Will Penny"
"The Fastest Gun Alive"

almost forgot- "Conagher" and "Jeremiah Johnson"

Kinda liked "Tom Horn" too.

"Missouri Breaks"

Sycamore

"Monte Walsh" (Lee Marvin)

"Yellow Sky" (Gregory Peck)

"The Gunfighter" (Gregory Peck)

"Rawhide" (Tyrone Power & Susan Hayward)

"Vera Cruz" (Gary Cooper & Burt Lancaster)

"The Plainsman" (Gary Cooper)

"Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" (Warren Oates)

"Man Without A Star" (Kirk Douglas)

"Warlock" (Henry Fonda & Anthony Quinn)

"One Eyed Jacks" (Marlon Brando)

"Viva Zapata" (Marlon Brando)

"The Tall Men" (Clark Gable)

"Joe Kidd" (Clint Eastwood & Rober Duvall)

Just a few of so many very good western flicks, in addition to many of the above posters' favorties.

L.W.

Most of those mentioned make my top 250 all-time favorites. "Man Without a Star" is unique because it was remade a scant 10 or so years later with Tony Franciosa and was probably just as good as the original.

Of those mentioned, I especially like "The Yellow Sky" and "Rawhide". Another one that is a goodie is "The Hanging Tree".

"Quigley" dang neart makes it. It's kinda in the category of DWW, but it was danged good.

ETHAN EDWARDS - "Man Without a Star" is unique because it was remade a scant 10 or so years later with Tony Franciosa and was probably just as good as the original."

Hmmm. I never saw the remake of "Man Without A Star," with Tony Franciosa. (Did you ever read the novel?? Very good, and interesting read.)

Here are a couple more I liked a lot. Both John Wayne flicks.

"Three Godfathers," and "Angel And The Bad Man."

BTW, virtually all the flicks mentioned in this thread... I've seen on "big screen," when they were released. Kinda shows my age, huh? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

(Been lots of "spinoffs" of those two, too, including a "modern" spinoff called "Witness," with Harrison Ford, from "Angel And The Bad Man.)

L.W.

I've never read it. "A Man Called Gannon" was the name of its re-make.

I was raised on westerns. I saw them mainly in the evenings on our local UHF channel, in the days before cable. There was a show called, "Stagecoach West" which would showcase two or three westerns every night. Mom and Dad had seen most of these at the theatres too, in the era before TV. I guess they thought these movies were a lot better for a kid to watch than the morally ambiguous fare of the 60's and 70's being turned out then.

"Red River", "Stagecoach", "Rio Grande", "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", "Rio Bravo", "El Dorado", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", and "Hondo" would all make my expanded list.

One more that I forgot, which would easily bump into my top twenty: "The Alamo". I don't care that the critics hated it. I don't care whether the powder magazine really blew up or not or whether Davey Crockett blew it up. It was a great show. The only thing I would do differently is Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie. Now that I think of it, I just can't see it. When Laurence Harvey kills the Mexican officer with a dueling pistol, well...it's one of the most suspensful and rousing moments of the show. "Duguello" being played by the Mexicans is downright eerie. Anybody who doesn't want to close the border should view this film. They aren't all just simple people seeking a better life.

Yep, "The Alamo," was a good one, albeit, kinda "tweaked" for the screen. Then so was "My Darling Clementine," with Henry Fonda and Walter Brennan. That has always been my favorite "Wyatt at the O.K. Corral" flick, although it was REALLY tweaked!

We left out "Stagecoach," with John Wayne, and "Blood On The Moon," with Robert Mitchum. Have to include those, for sure.

Too bad you didn't have a chance to see all those great flicks "on big screen," as they really are more enjoyable on a 45' wide silver screen, especially as you gaze up from your seat holding a bag of popcorn in one hand and a cup of Coke in the other with a Hersey Bar in your shirt pocket... all for five cents per item and a 10 cent ticket!! Not much entertainment in the world better than that!

Westerns today, what very few are made, don't do anything for me. Kinda spoiled, I suppose. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

L.W.

I've seen most of the movies listed here. I like the classic old movies. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" is a favorite. "Red River" is another. John Wayne, "The Cowboys" was a pretty darned good flick. I liked the "Shootist" pretty well also. "Tom Horn" the version with Steve McQueen and his big bore Winchester lever action is top notch. There are lots of great old flicks, not many new western movies that cut it IMHO. Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot are a couple of good fits for western movies.

Some others that I recall were Winchester 73 with Jimmy Stewart that was about the rifle. I liked High Noon with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. In the movie Death Hunt a 99 Savage was carried by Charles Bronson.

The TV series Have Gun Will Travel was something that I have never seen in reruns and would like to. It stared Richard Boone.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller. If for no other reason than the sound track. Excellent.
M

Nobody mentioned "Tom Horn"? Or the Trinity movies? The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly?

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is number 10 on my list.

Here is a link to the DVD of "Have Gun Will Travel", the first season (1957).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050025/dvd

IMO , you should have put 'Red River" in the number 1 spot.........

Mine have been pretty much covered.

1. The Searchers
2. The Man Who shot Liberty Valance
3. The Good, the Band, and the Ugly
4. The Magnificent Seven

"Bite the Bullet" with Gene Hackman and Lee Marvin is another I favor.

Not really a classic, but Silverado (1985) is good fun.

The cast is pretty deep too: Scott Glenn, Kevin Cline, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, John Cleese, Rosanna Arquette, Brian Dennehy, and Jeff Goldblum are all in it.

I'll toss in Nevada Smith and Tombstone as favorites of mine including those wonderful films mentioned in earlier posts.

Henry Fonda in all these movies

"My Darling Clemintine" (1946) also starred
Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, and Victor Mature.

"The Gunfighter" (1950)

"My Name is Nobody" (1974) withTerrence Hill.

" Drums along the Mowhawk" (1939)
......................................................


John Wayne in
"Hondo" (1953)
"The Searchers" (1956)
"Rio Bravo" (1959)
"Big Jake"
....................................



"High Noon" (1952)

"Shane" (1953)

First Western Movies that come to mind are:
How the West was Won
The Cowboys
True Grit
John Wayne flicks are hard to beat. Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot have done some good ones lately based on Louis L'Amour stories.

Ulzana's Raid
Tom Horn
The Unforgiven
Little Big Man
Ride With the Devil
True Grit
Rooster Cogburn
The Shootist
Jeremiah Johnson
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
Lonesome Dove
Streets of Laredo

Don't know if it qualifies but "Legends of the Fall"was a good flick. Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins. Can't go wrong withany of those listed above. Also " Death Hunt".

No one put High Plains Drifter?

Also Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott and AnthonyMann/Jimmy Stewart. Will Penny also. Hombre too.

"Ride With The Devil" is one of my favorite movies. I guess I considered it more of a Civil War movie than a western. Otherwise, it would've made the top twenty. Same can be said for "Last of the Mohicans" and "Drums Along the Mohawk". The original "Last of the Mohicans" and "Drums Along the Mohawk" were really scary to me as a kid, watching the late movie on Friday or Saturday night. Something about those night scenes as they defended the fort and floating into Ft. William Henry on the logs. Very scary. The 1992 version of "Last of the Mohicans" is better though.

I've been to many of the locations where "Ride With The Devil" was filmed. Talked to several of the extras too. It was filmed on location near Kansas City.

"High Plains Drifter" is one of my favorites but didn't quite make the cut.

1. All the John Wayne "A" movies (and a couple "B"s)
2. Lonesome Dove
3. Open Range
4. Tombstone

The spaghetti westerns are fun, but I dont' understand their cult following. IMO, the whole "man with no name" series was trumped by one Italian flick:

5. Once Upon A Time In The West.

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned Ulzana's Raid, that 70's Burt Lancaster flick.

No other movie that I can recall has detailed so well the intricacies of tracking a mounted war party. The scene where the Chief of Scouts played by Burt cuts the trail of the Apache horse string, pursues it to within rifle range at a gallop (aided by the fact that the Apache youth bringing up the rear had fallen asleep) and then begins to methodically shoot the horses is a classic.

Along those same lines, Robert Duvall as Cheif of Apache scouts Al Seiber, steals the movie "Geronimo: An American Legend" and makes it worth a look just to see his role.

'Course, among the BEST Westerns of all time was "The Seven Samurai", but thats gist for another thread.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Birdwatcher

I forgot about Geronimo with Duvall. It IS a great movie, and confirms why I rate him one of the top five living actors.

Another movie that I love for it's "fantasy factor," and still kinda qualifies as a western is:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114235/

As to "Once Upon a Time in the West", Leone wanted John Wayne to play Henry Fonda's "Frank" character, Henry Fonda to play "Cheyenne", Jason Robard's character, and Clint Eastwood to play "Harmonica".

I always liked the John Wayne classics. You just knew he was going to kick some @$$ in a way that only JW could, with a Winchester and a six gun. The Sons of Katie Elder, Rio Bravo, McLintock, El Dorado, Cahill U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn to name a few.
A great Western needs that star that makes it all bigger than life. Nobody did it better than JW!

I guess Tom Selleck and, to a lesser extent, Sam Elliott, have done what they can do bring back the western, but to me, they don't quite make it. I watched "Crossfire Trail", I think it was, and it seemed more like a Cowboy Action Shoot, than a movie.''

You really have to wonder what John Wayne could've done if he were alive today and in his prime. What with all the historical research and the greater emphasis in accuracy in costuming and props.

Where did you here this? I would love to read about. NYS

Me too.

I'm glad the cast ended up like it did. Any other combo and it wouldn't have worked as well. I don't want to see JW as a bad guy. It's just wrong!

As a side note, that movie has one of the best soundtracks of all time. The music sets a tone that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

Tombstone
The Cowboys
True Grit
The Shootist
Unforgiven
Three mules for sister Sarah
Anything with JW, Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck

A lot of good to great westerns have already been named. One I don't think has been mentioned but makes my list is "Sargent Rutledge". Woody Strode's character on the witness stand talking about being top soldier always gets me.

I can't believe no one here has said-

"Quigley Down Under"

Shame,shame on you all! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

WB.

WHEELCHAIRBANDIT - "I can't believe no one here has said- QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER!

That's because it wasn't a western!

It was a south-of-the-Equatorern. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

L.W.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Mea culpa... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

.....or, as they would say in "The Seven Samurai"..... er.... something really quick and mumbled in Japanese while bowing...... followed by a whole bunch of abrupt shouting, more frenzied bowing and then maybe a quick swish of a suddenly drawn sword...

Seems to me a lot of "westerns" took place in-

The Eastern seaboard
The south east
And for a few,even the north east
And Gary Cooper made one or two that took place in South America and I remember a couple more gen-u-ine westerns that took place in South American/Pan-American countries.

SO,if Quigley ain't a western,I'll eat my hat.

There are also several other Australian based westerns that are superb-"The Man From Snowy River" comes immediatley to mind.

WB.

henry fonda was slap mean in once upon a time, which is on my top 10 off all genres, of all time.
gotta add open range to the westrn mix.
unforgiven (ain't no the in it) and the searchers are my top 2.
quigley does belong in the western genre.

I might like "The Searchers" better if the actual model for the story was one "[bleep]" Britt Johson, a former slave who went out alone into Comanche country in 1865 in search of his abducted wife and two children...


TR Fehrenbach in his excellent work "Comanches: The Destruction of a People" recounts it this way...

"...Britt Johnson returned to the Fitzpatrick ranch to find his son buried, his wife and two small children gone. Johnson was determined to rescue his family. With the help of the Hambys and others, he got together a pack horse, provisions, a rifle and two six-shooters, and stuck out north northwest, into the vast wilderness that lay beyond the Brazos settlements...

...he came across a lone Comanche guarding a horse herd. Johnson could "talk Mexican" which most Comanches and Kiowas understood, and he made the peace sign and advanced boldly. The warrior, and a party of Comanches who rode up, were more curious than hostile, and they accepted truce with the Black man... He found Elizabeth Fitzpatrick in the camp, which lay somewhere on the high Canadian...

...from her he learned.. on the retreat the Comanches had killed little Joe Carter, Mrs Fitzpatrick's son from a previous marriage, because the boy took sick. The two Durgan children and Johnson's family had been taken by the Kiowas. Elizabeth Fitzpatrick begged Johnson to ransom all of them, she was a relatively rich woman in Texas and would pay any price...

Johnson now made four incredible journeys into the heart of Comancheria, searching for the captives. He could not have succeeded without the good offices of the friendly Pehnahterkuh [Comanches] who not only instructed him in dealings with the "tricky Kiowas" but gave him two warriors for escort.

He made a deal for Elizabeth Fitzpatrick and bought her out. He located his wife and bought her back for the equivalent of two dollars and a half. He also ransomed his children and little Lottie Durgan, Mrs Fitzpatricks grandaughter...."

Johson met his demise six years later at the hands of a large Kiowa war party, 173 empty cartridges laying on the ground around the defensive postiion he had taken behind his dead horse.

Now THAT guy's life could make a good movie.

Birdwatcher

BW, that was a good read.

Here's one I always thougth would make a good movie, bet Disney could do a good job on this one.

The story of Jack Abernathy.

http://www.open.org/%7Eglennab/catchemalivejack.htm

The Life of John R. (Catch-'em-alive-Jack) Abernathy

All data is paraphrased from Frontier Biography

John R. Abernathy was born on January 28, 1876 in Bosque County, Texas, descended from Scottish ancestors, his family relocated in 1882 to Sweetwater, Nolan County, Texas. Sweetwater, in 1882, was a booming railroad town with many construction crews and frontier men. Jack was musically talented and by the age of 6, he could play the piano while his brother often joined him on the violin or accordion as they provided saloon entertainment. One Christmas week, a shoot-out occured in which there were several victims. The boys parents learned then where the youngsters were spending their evenings, and removed them from saloon business forever. By the age of 7, Jack had seen a cattle stampede, and by 9 he had hired out as a very young cowboy in the making, saying abut the experience that he had "no trouble holding a job on the range, for I was clever with a rope." By the time he was 11, he participated in his first trail drive and by the age of 15 in 1891, he was "a full fledged cowboy." His boss at that time was Charles Goodnight on the J-A ranch where Jack broke horses, some 308 of them.
It was while he was working on the ranch that he learned his famous wolf catching trick. Two of the ranch dogs attacked a stray wolf and Jack tried to separate them just as the wolf whired to attack. Jack quickly moved toward the wolf and jammed his right hand into the wolf's mouth and "thanks to good luck the hand was far enough inside the mouth to avoid being caught between the long sharp canine teeth." Jack held the upper jaw of the wolf with his right hand and the lower jaw with his right hand, and the wolf was powerless to injure him. "It was that accidental hand-thrust, back of the canine teeth, that taught me how to grapple wolves," he later remembered. He wired the wolf's mouth shut and bound its legs, and later found the wolf outweighed him- 137 lbs. to 130 lbs.
After this incident, he began to be a wolf-catcher full time, and on December 1, 1891, accompanied by three new dogs, he began trapping the wolves at $50 per wolf and $5 per coyote, which proved to be very profitable; During his lifetime, he caught more than 1,000 wolves alive in the above described manner and became famous nationally for this skill. When he tried to show others how to do it, noone else was successful at the trick, mainly because they would become frightened after the wolf clamped down on their hand, and they would quit instead of holding fast, and the wolf would usually maim their hand. Jack sold the live wolves and coyotes to zoos, traveling shows and outfits that wanted them for breeding stock. When Jack caught the wolves, he sometimes wore a thin glove, but usually didn't wear anything, and he attributed his skill to unusual physical strength, developed from the sport of wrestling, and quickenss of eye.
John still wanted to acquire a musical education, so he quit the wolf-catching for a while and entered the Patterson's Institute, in Hillsboro, Texas, where he married a young woman, sold pianos and organs. Later he returned to breaking horses and chasing wolves, and in 1898 he settled in Greer County, Oklahoma, where he started a cattle ranch. There, he came a deputy U.S. marshal, and had numerous adventures there and as a deputy sheriff in southwestern Oklahoma. In 1905, he set up a wolf hunt for President Theodore Roosevelt who had learned of his skill and had written to him asking if he could see the wolf catching. Joining the party with Teddy was Quahnah Parker, the Comanche chief and several noted stockmen of Oklahoma and Texas. During a period of several days, Jack delighted the President by catching several wolves. After the wolf hunt, Roosevelt appointed Abernathy as marshal of Oklahoma, and for a time, Chris Madsen was his chief deputy and Heck Thomas and several other famous lawmen worked for him for a while. During the years he was a lawman he "captured hundreds of outlaws single-handed and alone, and placed 782 men in the penitentiary," and he never killed a single person during that time, though he escaped murder attempts several times. On December 4, 1906, he arrested a notorious killer named Jim Miller, while at Hobart, Oklahoma. Some time after that, Jack resigned as Oklahoma marshal and became a Secret Service agent in New York, then worked for the Mexican secret service during the Madero administration.
In 1919 he moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, about 1919, becoming a wildcat oil driller, having some success and made a lot of money, but he lost it during the Depression of the 1930's. In 1929, he was almost fatally injured in a a drilling-rig accident in Bastrop County, Texas, and was pronounced dead by an attending physician, and his body was being sent to a mortuary when the attendant observed him breathing again. Eventually, he recovered entirely after a long time. In his old age he moved to Long Beach California, where hie died on January 11, 1941. He was buried at Wichita Falls. His first wife had given him four daughters and three sons before she died in the year before he was appointed Oklahoma marshal, and Jack raised the children successfully and eventually remarried.

There is a whole lot more to this man that's not mentioned here.

This is about Jack's boy's.

What a family..........

Bud and Me by Alta Abernathy

"Bud and Me" is one of the 20th Century�s most exciting true stories of raw courage and equestrian adventure!

In the Spring of 1909, five year old Temple and his nine year old brother, Bud, rode from Guthrie, Oklahoma to Santa Fe, New Mexico � ALONE!

That was just the beginning. During the next four years the Abernathy Boys traveled more than 12,000 miles by horseback, automobile and motorcycle with the encouragement and understanding of their famous father, �Catch-�em-Alive� Jack Abernathy, U.S. Marshal of Oklahoma.

However their most famous equestrian adventure was their record-breaking ride from New York to San Francisco. Departing on August 11th, 1911 the two diminutive equestrian explorers sat out to cross the vast North American continent, once again without any adult assistance. Despite a series of hair-raising adventures, including losing their horses and being on foot for three days in the deserts of Utah, the diminutive adventurers galloped into San Francisco to a thunderous welcome. Bud and Temple Abernathy had ridden 4,500 miles across the United States in only 62 days, an equestrian feat which has never been equaled!

"Bud and Me", by Alta Abernathy, Temple�s wife, and Barbara Abernathy Harris, Temple�s daughter, is thus a story of bravery, perseverance and character. It is a rare tale of equestrian adventure that will be enjoyed by the entire family.



It doesnt mention how the boys rode to Washington DC, rode up to the White House and introduced themselves to the President. They ended up buying a car a driving it back to
Oklahoma.

Golly, what a story.

Nowadays the only people pulling off incredible journeys like that are probably illegal aliens.

A few I didn't notice mentioned that are worth watching:

1) Wyatt Earp (Kevin Costner,etc.)
2) Mr. Horn (David Carradine; Alternate interpretation of "Tom Horn")
3) Valdez Is Coming (Burt Lancaster)
4) Nevada Smith (Steve McQueen)
5) The Oxbow Incident ( Henry Fonda; Eastwood's stated favotite!)

I don't know if it rightly qualifies as a Western but still enjoy watching Jeremiah Johnson.

Some are previously mentioned, but put me down for:
My Name is Nobody
Open Range ("you the man that shot our friend?")
Big Jake ("who the hell are you?")
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid
The Unforgiven

Sergeant Rutlege is indeed a pretty good movie.

Dances With Wolves (Costner)
Open Range (Costner, Duvall)
Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood)
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)

The Road To Silverado.

John Wayne's character in "The Searchers" is named "Ethan Edwards". I wonder.....a coincidence, maybe?

Well...in my prime I looked more like Mad Max than my avatar.

I would Say 'Once Upon A Time In The West' is my favorite, and I watch it every so often, but for some reason I like Clint's 'Paint Your Wagon' in a Spaceballs funny kinda way. laugh at that movie all the time.

Gregory Peck starred in The Gunfighter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042531/

Not the best but one of my all-time favorites:

Coop's own Along Came Jones

One of my favorite lines:

Coop's sidekick (William Demarest) � "I got involved in a shootin' once, an' I can't tell you how quick I got tired of the whole thing."

One of my favorite quotes is from Support Your Local Sheriff.
Jake (Jack Elam) says, "I was busy trying to save your life-------I wasn't exactly trying to group my shots."

A very funny movie, with LOTS of great lines.

Like alot here that were mentioned. Would also add though that Gary Cooper in Northwest Mounted Police, was a great western IMHO.

Reguards, Rob

Gary Cooper made some good ones. High Noon isn't my cup of tea, but it is great. The Plainsman, Vera Cruz, Garden of Evil, Dallas, Along Came Jones, and The Hanging Tree are all great shows.

I just watched "Last Stand At Saber River" this weekend and though it was one of Selleck's better westerns. The Carradines showed up again, and the plot was easy to anticipate. I love westerns, so I kinda overlook the fact that in a general sense they're all pretty much the same. One thing that makes Selleck's flicks different is the smaller cast and smaller town where the stories take place. The costumes and gear seem more accurate (a trend in all newer westerns), and the cinematic "tone" just feels different. I appreciate that Selleck is trying to keep the classic western alive. Obviously the market is weak for such movies because they show up on video rather than the theater, but I'm glad someone is making the effort. This goes for Sam Elliot too.

Here's the link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119501

Well Uncle Ethan, I have to go with The Searchers and The Shootist. The Western is Americas Iliad if you will Stories of Heroic Myth. As for the best recent western, Why Tombstone dose it for me. I find it very telling that an actor who made his last movie 30 years ago is still in the top ten most popular actors. Goes to show you that he was something of value and left a body of work that few if any will ever be able to match. Give credit were credit is due Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot are very good under used actors. They along with John Millius are keeping the western alive. The Rough Riders was a good one. As for Quigley well what can you say when you can get a two hour movie about a sharps rifle.

The Mountain Men - Charleton Hesston and Brian Keith
Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood version
Lonesome Dove
Tombstone
Quigley

Two westerns that are classics, that one would never have thought of being so are The Apaloosa and One-Eyed Jacks. Both Marlon Brando films with Brando having directed Jacks. He really did a great job with both, IMO.

I think all of the great westerns have been mentioned, some several times. A couple of more obscure movies that come to mind but won't make anyone's best list are, The Stalking Moon with Gregory Peck, and The Grey Fox, with Richard Farnsworth. They're both good movies and are shown infrequently, if at all anymore.

Actually, there is a site called the Internet Movie Database, which has as a feature your top 250, where you can post your favorite movies. The Stalking Moon made my list. Excellent work with the Sharps.

1. Anything with Clint Eastwood
2. Deadwood Series
3. Tombstone
4. Open Range