Best Westerns – IOTW Report

Best Westerns

Saturday, 24 March 2018, 18:30 Dr. Tar Uncategorized 67

 

At their best, they’re a morality play with iconic heroes forged from adversity. At their worst, a lot of horse chases and dudes in big cowboy hats pointing their six guns and firing endless rounds. Just as you think you’ve chosen ten best, there’s always another you have to figure out how to fit on your list and let another beloved movie go.

This list of the Top 10 Westerns reads like the writer hasn’t been to the movies in 50 years (someone needs to tell her they still make a good western now and again) but it’s a good place for us to start our conversation. More

What are your top ten westerns?

67 Comments on Best Westerns

  6. High Plains Drifter…
    Open Range…
    True Grit….the Jeff Bridges edition…
    Once Upon a Time in the West…
    The Outlaw Josie Wells…
    Unforgiven…
    Paint your Wagon…

    8

  7. I always liked that one about the Big Muddy, The Big Country with Burl Ives as patriarch of the family fighting the evil powerful Terrills for water rights. Gregory Peck dumps the Terrill girl for the heroine and the music is great, too.

    5

  12. Lonesome Dove
    Open Range
    The Outlaw Josey Wales
    The other Duval movie with the Chinese girls. Forget the name.
    The Man From Laramie
    High Noon. But find it was un American for that period.
    Shane. Real American
    Winchester 73. I own a replica.
    Barney Fife. The one bullet deputy sheriff, like the guys a Broward County, Florida. “Don’t advance on the shooter. set up a perimeter defense and cover your ass, and sut off your body cams. Gimmeafookenbreak!

    7

  15. I LOVE MOST OF THE ABOVE,BUT ALSO THINK GEORGE ROY HILL DID A GREAT JOB WITH BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID — HAD A THING FOR KATHERINE ROSS WHO USED TO VISIT THE SAFEWAY IN PACIFIC PALISADES WHEN I WAS A BAG BOY..FOUND THE BARN WHERE BUTCH SHOWED OFF ON THE BICYCLE!!! TOOK SOME TRESPASSING TO GET THERE!!

    9

  16. That “Big John” is in 3 of the top 4 , to me, says valid list. I like the CSA Medal of Honor Big John shows in “the Searchers” (as I recall, and I am old) it is early in the movie). I buy a lot of booze from a place in OC run by former friends of the Duke. Has his former front door as their door. Their booze is very good , so I have been told by drinkers.

    7

  17. Yep, Unforgiven, ass kickin’ Clint.
    The one where Wayne is dying of cancer. Rooster Cockburn?
    Great movie.
    The Man who shot Liberty Valiance. Loved Lee Marvin. Enough, I could go on all night.
    Oh A Northern, Death Hunt. Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.
    Northwest Mounted Police.

    8

  18. Loved Lonesome Dove. Neighbor is a good friend of Ricky Schroeder (Newt) so I said bullshit put him on the phone. Had a great talk with Ricky and is good dude, pro 2A, military, etc.

    4

  23. I recently read The Unforgiven by Alan LeMay, who also wrote The Searchers. Not to be confused with the Clint Eastwood movie, this was made into a movie in the 50s with Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, Burt Lancaster. LeMay is a vivid writer.

    Along with most of the above movies I also love My Name is Nobody and Fistful of Dynamite, two lesser-known spaghetti westerns with Morricone soundtracks.

    1

  24. Westerns were hollywood’s greatest output, because it was a genre unique to American history and appreciated by the people that made them. Most of the writers of the books and screenplays back then lived close enough to the era to have understood not only the lifestyle of the period, but the dialogue/language. Most of the early actors were actual horse loving cowboys.
    Asking me to narrow to 10 is equivalent to asking which breath in my life was my favorite.

    7

  29. Every Clint Eastwood western is a classic – I got to watch “Joe Kidd” the other day – hadn’t see it in at least 15 years, and I’d forgotten how good IT was.

    John Wayne’s westerns are the same, but the sensibility reflects an earlier, more innocent age. They’re great to watch with my teenage sons, though.

    “Open Range,” “Dances with Wolves,” and of course, “Tombstone” round out the best westerns of the past 30 years. Being an old Confederate descendant, I ALWAYS tear up at the end of “The Outlaw Josey Wales”… 😉

    6

  30. As someone who grew up on a cattle ranch around real cowboys, and someone who has read hundreds of books about all aspects of Western American history, I love Western movies. But I hate ones that are not authentic. Whenever I see a nylon rope or a quick change stirrup on a saddle, I have to ask what the hell was wrong with the production assistant and the property man on that movie? Another big blunder is always that the damned firearms are not properly dated. Don’t these people ever look at photographic histories of the subjects they are filming? These are all good Western movies that never seem make most top ten lists:
    Yellow Sky
    The Devil’s Doorway
    Blood on the Moon
    Ulzana’s Raid
    The Stalking Moon
    The Gunfighter
    The Hanging Tree
    Gold Is Where You Find It
    Sergeant Rutledge
    Rawhide
    The Bravados
    The Furies
    Monte Walsh
    Man of the West
    The Ballad of Cable Hogue
    Pursued
    Silver River
    Colorado Territory
    The Unforgiven
    Western Union
    Warlock
    The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
    The Hi-Lo Country
    The Culpepper Cattle Company
    Recently, I greatly enjoyed watching Hostiles, although it wasn’t completely believable, it was a very authentic movie as far as the clothing, equipment and military life on the late frontier was concerned.

    9

  33. I’m your huckleberry

    Nice thread, Dr. Tar. Not a definitive list by any means but Westerns I’ve enjoyed a lot, in no particular order.
    The Searchers
    Lonesome Dove
    The Shootist
    Hombre
    Rio Bravo
    Bandolero
    Jeremiah Johnson
    Butch Cassidy
    Tombstone
    Dances with wolves

    3

  37. The Cowboys
    Rooster Cogburn
    El Dorado (Rio Bravo)
    The Horse Soldiers
    True Grit (Both)
    McLintock
    The Comancheros
    The Train Robbers
    The Sons of Katie Elder
    Big Jake
    Rio Lobo
    Hondo
    The Shootist
    North to Alaska
    The Cheyenne Social Club
    Support Your Local Sheriff
    Support You Local Gunfighter
    Two Mules for Sister Sara
    Jeremiah Johnson
    Pale Rider
    The Magnificent Seven
    Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
    Tom Horn
    Shanghai Noon (Maybe not great, but still fun)
    Against a Crooked Sky
    Little Big Man
    Treasure of the Sierra Madre

    10

  40. I think my all time favorite is Little Big Man. My parents took me and my brother to see it in the theater when I was five or six. I love all the old Clint Eastwood westerns, too.

    3

  41. MARCO

    I have some good pics of my Dad’s dad wearing chaps. His rode chaps – Sheepskin wool on the outside – and his workin chaps – plain lether. Of course he wears a 10 gal hat and high heel boots!

    3

  42. Moe the movie you were thinking about was, The Broken Trail, the ranch is still in operation. A great movie. As all of the above are.
    One of the best is The Ox Bow Incident.

    3

  43. since we lost track of the original question …
    My Top Ten … in no particular order (& it’s a tough call; Top 20 would be easier)

    The Magnificent Seven (the original)
    Rio Grande
    She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
    Fort Apache
    Stagecoach (the John Wayne one)
    The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
    Tombstone
    The Searchers
    Open Range
    Major Dundee

    … & don’t get me started on the TV Westerns 😄

    5

  46. Related tangentially

    A man I think was a great “Western” writer lived a few mile from my home almost 20 years. I like his books. My wife loved “Hoppy” and ; America’s best President -RONNIE- awarded him 2 medals! He did write a movie which stared “Big John”. HONDO. He died 30 years ago.
    What was the name of my neighbor? Hint, He changed the spelling of his name from Gaelic to Gallic.

    L. L’Amour. Born la Moore

    3

  47. 3:10 to Yuma(recent version). “The Outlaw Josey Wales. And my true favorite:”Gunfight”. A 70’s made for TV movie with Johnny Cash and Kirk Douglas. Yes, I said Cash and Douglas! Can’t go wrong with those two and they give awesome performances. An obscure but great Western.

    2

  49. One of my favorite westerns is The Oxbow Incident, also The Westerner with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, Winchester 73, Rio Bravo, High Noon, Quigley Down Under, Jeremiah Johnson, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, a remake of The Westerner, all the Jimmy Stewart Westerns, and B movie Westerns with Audie Murphy. Do cheesy Westerns with Roy Rogers count, as well as Gene Autry Westerns? And Randolph Scott Westerns just because. And one last Western, Ride The High Country with Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea.

    8

  52. And don’t forget Selleck’s movies based on Lamoure books and his Monte Walsh. Better than the one with Lee Marvin, I think, though I’m a big Marvin fan. Selleck’s films always get the guns right and most of the clothes, for that matter. But if I only had one to watch, it’d be Once Upon A Time In The West, great as all the others listed above were

    Selleck’s Monte Walsh is very underrated. He’s very good in that film – Dr. Tar

    4

  57. Took 2/3 of the comments so far, but you fine folks have named every one of my favorite movies. Puzzled that Blazing Saddles was only mentioned once, though.

    EDIT: Well look at that. Only took me ’til 2018 to figure out how to do an avatar.

    3

  60. never got ‘Once Upon A Time …’ unless you find a 3 hour movie w/ 2 hours of eye shifting close-ups, with a highly irritating torture-inducing 3-note harmonica blaring for 10 minutes at a time, every 15 minutes highly entertaining ….

    now, we need a post on best Western Theme music! … (movie or tv)

    The Big Country has one of the best scores of all time. Sure G,B and U is iconic and Magnificent Seven, but The Big Country’s opening theme grabs you by the back of the pants and puts you in the saddle, figuratively. – Dr. Tar

    3

  61. A little known movie from way back in 1979 called ‘Eagle’s Wing” starring Martin Sheen was one of the best western movies I ever saw. If you can find it, you will be glad you did.

    1

  62. No one likes brokeback mountain?

    Just kidding.

    Shenandoah
    The Searchers
    Shane
    Lonesome Dove
    How the West was Won
    The Dollars trilogy
    Magnificent Seven
    The Wild Bunch

    2

  63. Most of the westerns I like are already listed, but I have to add the Lee Van Cleef movie – Sabata. It’s a fun movie because of Van Cleef’s tricks and clever weapons, always one step ahead of the villians. Plus the cast of characters like the Banjo, or the crazy war vet and his Indian sidekick (not Elizabeth Warren) make it an entertaining movie.

    I also like the Quick and the Dead, more so for the characters than the story line. Great memorable lines make it good too.

    The Quick and Dead is under rated. It has what makes for a good Western – Dr. Tar

    2

  64. Well I had all night to pull my list together.

    Wild Bunch
    Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece)
    Blazing Saddles
    Darling Clementine
    Once Upon A Time In The West
    The Big Country
    True Grit (the Coen Brother’s version)
    Long Riders
    Tombstone
    Lonesome Dove

    1

  65. Jeremiah Johnson is a story about a real character/mountain man named Liver eating Johnson who was a mortal enemy of the Crow Indians who after he would kill them would eat their livers. And how could you not like the crazy mountain man, the Original Bad Bob in that movie? The best Indian actors in Westerns were Iron Eyes Cody, Chief Dan George (I love his character in The Outlaw Josey Wales) and Graham Greene, one of the best Indian character actors ever. And John Wayne and Chuck Connors both stunk at playing Indians in Western movies. And there has to be a shout out for both Harry Carey Jr. and Jack Elam (with his evil drooping eye) as supporting actors in many, many Westerns. And Lee Van Cleef was always a major league badass in every Western he ever was in.

    2

  67. Does the semi mashup Western Cowboys and Aliens by Steven Spielberg with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig count as a good or bad Western or just being a guilty pleasure being so outrageously a stinkeroo? The same goes for the newest version of The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp as Tonto. I can watch that only if I treat it as an old fashioned Saturday afternoon B movie Western serial and totally disengage my mind and enjoy it, otherwise it stinks.

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