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

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/