Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Movie, Book, and Music Review The Best Westerns Ever Made

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.