Recently I viewed a show hosted by Glenn Ford gathering as many of the old TV Western stars in a barroom setting as were still available. It was fun to watch and many of them were pretty ancient when it was filmed. They even had folks like Michael Ansara and Iron Eyes Cody showing up.
At one point Glenn said that in 1957, there were over 30 different Western TV series appearing every week. I think that helped dry up the Westerns, since there simply were too many. I still like them, but let's face it, some of the plots were pretty lame.
Nowadays the crime shows like NCIS have taken their place. I still look for good Western movies, but I don't expect much in the way of TV series.
BTW, one of my very favorite films, along with the Sackett series, is The Big Country, with Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston, Chuck Connors, Burl Ives and many other great actors.
Norm
Norman Solberg International lawyer, lately for 25 years in Japan, now working on trusts in the US, the 3rd greatest tax haven. NRA Life Member for over 50 years, NRA Endowment (2014), Patron (2016).
Lonesome Dove was the last western worth a hoot. I'm old school, and freely admit it. John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Henry Fonda....now those were the real stars worth seeing. I was never an Eastwood fan, as those spaghetti westerns were so damn fake that they made him look bad.
The Searchers was not only the best western ever made, but one of the best movies ever.
James Jr I could not agree more they just don't make them like that any more and it's ashamed the world was a better place back then I know I was there. Widow
Forgot another favorite of mine; Crossfire Trail...
I watched that one last night. Open Range is good. The Quick and the Dead with Sam Elliott is another. Note that I said with Sam Elliott and not that farce with the same name with Sharon Stone. Broken trail is good. The Long Riders, The Wild Bunch as well are worth watching. I even have a lot of the early John Wayne stuff, you know the Saturday matinee westerns. One worth watching if you can find it is The Big Trail. Acting not so hot but did a better than average job of portraying the hardships those pioneers in covered wagons had to go through to get out west. That was Wayne's first full length movie BTW. Do I like westerns? Oh yeah! Paul B.
Our forefathers did not politely protest the British.They did not vote them out of office, nor did they impeach the king,march on the capitol or ask permission for their rights. ----------------They just shot them. MOLON LABE
I guess John Wayne's last movie The Cowboys was really good. Bruce Dern true to form made a fine outlaw. That and the Shootist were some of his best work.
Try "The Homesman" with Tommy Lee Jones. I like the movies made about Aussie, New Zealand, S Africa settlers. Quigley is well known, but there are others if you look. "The Proposition", and "The Tracker" (2 movies with that name, I can't find the other yet) with Ray Winstone. "Mad Dog Kelly". There is a movie I can't find taken from the Aussie who made boiler plate armor.
I like to spot the firearms and other props, some are period correct, some not, and some of them in the days past had to be real deals before replicas were available.
It's a shame that they don't make as many good westerns as they used to. But I would like to add a positive note to this discussion. Open Range (2003) is one of the best westerns that I know of, really good and fairly recent for this genre. Check out a movie entitled Wind River. It's a western that takes place today. Pretty good. Another good modern day western is Hell or High Water. Also pretty good. Both are available on Netflix. Hostiles is another recent western. It's OK too.
KC.... if you have Netflix then what is your take on Godless?
Godless is entertaining, but another example of rewriting history to match today's anti white male narrative.
Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.
