Favourite Westerns

Wedwood

As we head to Christmas, looking for and offering suggestions for some good westerns to watch over the holiday period.

My offerings:

Pale Rider:
One of Clint Eastwood's lesser known westerns made in the mid 1980's. Eastwood's Preacher arrives following the prayers of a young girl looking for a miracle to rid her town of the thugs terrorising the town.

The Searchers:
I bought this on blu ray to see how a restored classic looks on hi def and was blown away with how good this is and how well it holds up as a movie today. Forget the Quiet Man, this is John Wayne's finest performance.

Del.Monte

"Unforgiven" (1992) the anti-hero Clint Eastwood movie is one of the best of all his Westerns. Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris and Morgan Freeman. One of the best movies of any genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftTX4FoBWlE

"Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale. They just don't make movies like this anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNGQ1hUyx-k

Links234

Tombstone

Val Kilmer just steals the show

sonic85

Links234 wrote: »

Tombstone

Val Kilmer just steals the show

One of my favourite movies.

Appaloosa is another top notch western in my opinion. Great cast - Ed Harris Viggo Mortensen Jeremy Irons Renee Zellweger Lance Henriksen and Timothy Spall too I think. Harris and Mortensen especially are great

Links234

I liked Appaloosa, but I didn't love it. It had a great cast, but the story was a bit by the numbers.

Might not be the most popular opinion, but I adored the remake of True Grit. Must've watched it half a dozen times, seen it in the cinema, have the Bluray.

This thread reminds me, I still have to see Pale Rider.

sonic85

Links234 wrote: »

I liked Appaloosa, but I didn't love it. It had a great cast, but the story was a bit by the numbers.

Might not be the most popular opinion, but I adored the remake of True Grit. Must've watched it half a dozen times, seen it in the cinema, have the Bluray.

This thread reminds me, I still have to see Pale Rider.

Yeah Appaloosa wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea but I liked it. Then again I'd watch Viggo reading the phone book so maybe that coloured my view of it!

Yeah I loved True Grit too - Jeff Bridges made that film I thought. He was great in it. The remake of 3:10 to Yuma is brilliant too.

There's a couple of dvds I bought for xmas - Slow West with Michael Fassbender and The Salvation with Mads Mikkelsen. Don't know what they're like as I've yet to watch them but they're worth keeping in mind.

I liked Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner. Bit long but still a decent watch.

Young Guns is grand. A good popcorn flick - Emilio Estevez is a bit hyper in it as Billy the Kid.

I always wanted to see Gore Vidals Billy the Kid but I can't get it on dvd and anytime I find it on tv I switch on too late and it's half over. I heard good things about it though. Val Kilmer plays Billy and supposedly gives a great performance

Skerries

Obviously the Dollars Trilogy is up there but I also love A fist full of Dynamite aka Duck you Sucker!

3:10 to Yuma (2007) is a great remake

Seraphim Falls (2006) is a great revenge movie with Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson, the transition from the snowy mountains to the desert setting all on foot is memorable

The Wild Bunch is one of those films that inspired Tarantino due to its violence

mrg123

The classic trilogy featuring the man with no name: good the bad the ugly, hang em high, for a few dollars more. Love anything with Clint in it.
Great film, not really a western but it's got Woody Harrelson in a cowboy hat so I'll still post it, No country for old men. Quality film.

Telecaster58

Someone mentioned Wyatt Earp which is a very much underrated film.
There is another Kevin Costner film of more recent vintage which is probably the best western since Unforgiven and that is Open Range.

Del.Monte

Another underrated classic Western - and no Mickey Mouse production either running to an incredible two and half hours!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXMUv_cKtLM

Conall Cernach

The Searchers is probably my favourite, it has so many great scenes, shots and lines of dialogue.

Shane is surely worthy of a mention. The build up to the final gunfight is so tense.
Shane: So you're Jack Wilson.
Jack Wilson: What's that mean to you, Shane?
Shane: I've heard about you.
Jack Wilson: What have you heard, Shane?
Shane: I've heard that you're a low-down Yankee liar.
Jack Wilson: Prove it.

Winchester '73 is another classic with Jimmy Stewart as the leading man hunting down the man who killed his father. Shelley Winters, Rock Hudson (as an Indian chief) and Ton Curtis (credited as Anthony Curtis) all have supporting roles.

High Noon with Gary Cooper waiting for Frank Miller to arrive on the noon train.

JohnFalstaff

Unforgiven is definitely up there with the best alright... and Clint's earlier film The Outlaw Josey Wales is worth a mention too. I always thought of Unforgiven as a sort of spiritual sequel to Josey Wales.

If people are looking for a new Western to watch this Christmas, I would recommend tuning in to TG4 on Stephens' night. They are showing a new film called An Klondike. It was on TG4 earlier this year as a four part series and was excellent, so I'll be interested to see how it works as a film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0R-nbXSAls

shazzerman

Some really good westerns that rarely get a mention on these boards:
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973): the last western masterpiece to date, Peckinpah's final word on the western "hero" out of his time.
Hombre (1967): the Hud team reunite for an exciting and thoughtful western, with great performances all round.
A Bullet for the General (1966); great spaghetti western with an ideological slant.
Keoma (1976): another unsung spaghetti western with an interesting temporal structure.
Fort Apache (1948): not as visually striking as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, but a superb Ford western which looked forward to the themes contained in his crowning achievement - and best western ever made - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

shrapnel222

butch cassidy and the sundance kid

duck you sucker!

my name is nobody

MadDog76

Silverado

Open Range

Legends Of The Fall

3:10 To Yuma

Little Big Man

True Grit (2010)

A Fistful Of Dynamite

Tombstone

Dances With Wolves

A Fistful Of Dollars

Unforgiven

For A Few Dollars More

Django Unchained

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Wyatt Earp (1994)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Young Guns

The Quick And The Dead

Maverick

Ride With The Devil

Desperado

The Last Of The Mohicans

Ravenous

Appaloosa

Seraphim Falls

Hidalgo

Can't wait to see The Hateful Eight!!

Wedwood

Just to add a few more.

The Magnificent Seven: great movie, great Elmer Bernstein score.

The Sons of Katie Elder: Another great John Wayne movie, with another great Bernstein score. Wayne's character not a million miles from his role in The Searchers.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon: My favourite of John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy, pity this hasn't yet been released on blu ray.

Manach

In no order but my list is:
The Searchers.
The Man who shot Liberty Valance
High Noon
The Horse Soldiers
Serenity [cowboys in space]

FortuneChip

No real surprises for me.
Unforgiven has always been one or my favourites. Gene Hackman is too drawer, some great scenes with Richard Harris and that final scene, menacing!
At the risk of being shot at dawn, I've never really like John Wayne, dunno why.

Loved Eastwood's Man with No Name movies as well.

Once Upon A Time...

And Tombstone. Val Kilmer you legend

check_six

JohnFalstaff wrote: »

Unforgiven is definitely up there with the best alright... and Clint's earlier film The Outlaw Josey Wales is worth a mention too. I always thought of Unforgiven as a sort of spiritual sequel to Josey Wales.

I like the contrast between Josey Wales and William Munny when they are asked how they select what order they are going to shoot their enemies. Josey describes a flap holster, a guy with fear in his eyes, and a guy with crazy eyes when trying to calculate who to shoot first. William Munny says he doesn't know how he chooses them, he was just always lucky like that.

Both Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josey Wales are great movies.

WHIP IT!

Am I the only person who was pretty underwhelmed by Unforgiven? Love Eastwood, but it just didn't do a whole lot for me... so many people love it, maybe I just need to give it another watch!

Tombstone is the ultimate Western for me. Watched the Searchers again about 2 months ago, still great... Love the Young Guns series, Butch and Sundance.. the list goes on... if we were allowed to use lists on Boards that is... :pac:

Jawgap

+1 for The Searchers

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

The Wild Bunch

The Magnificent Seven

Rio Bravo (brilliant movie)

Bad Day at Black Rock

The Shootist

Once Upon a Time in the West

True Grit (original and remake).......

Ned: Well, Rooster, will you give us the road? I have business elsewhere.

Rooster: Farrell, you and your brother stand clear. I've got no interest in you today. Stand clear and you won't get hurt.

Harold: Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Ned: What's your intention, Rooster? You think one on four is a dog-fall?

Rooster: I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned, or see you hanged at Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?

Ned: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!

Rooster: Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!

Lamper.sffc

On Stephens Day, pull the curtains, lock the doors and break out Lonesome Dove and watch all 6+ hours. Anyone calls tell them to feck off

WacoKid

Blazing Saddles - highest grossing western of all time

Paddy Samurai

Valdez is Coming is a great western ,buts its impossible to see the full version nowday's. Only the cut version is available.:mad:

Paddy Samurai

Some great ones already mentioned.Two more that I would recommend

Jeremiah Johnson Love this film ,beauifully shot scenes.

and The Scalphunters which is a good mix of comedy and action.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Unforgiven: I think It's Clint Eastwoods best film and gives a fresh take on the genre where it tears up the gunslinger idea while still maintaining a classic western feel.Gene Hackmans performance as Little Bill Daggett is one of my favourite performances of all time and it also features my favourite line from Clint "deserves got nothin to do with it"

Dirty Dingus McGee

I'd also add to my list after Unforgiven

The Searchers: In spite of the unneccesary slapstick comedy bits.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Red River
The Man with No Name Trilogy
True Grit (Cohen Brothers) although the book is superior to both films in my opinion.
The Proposition (if it counts as a western)
The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Shane
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Rio Bravo

Dirty Dingus McGee

I saw High Noon mentioned and I know it;s considered a classic but I absolutely hated it.

90% of the film consists of Gary cooper running around asking for help in a shootout where everybody knows what the outcome of it will be.

It bored the arse off me.

MintyMagnum

I liked th'injun in The Outlaw Josey Wales, funny guy

Dirty Dingus McGee

MintyMagnum wrote: »

I liked th'injun in The Outlaw Josey Wales, funny guy

Chief Dan George.

Josey Wales: When I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.

Lone Watie: I notice when you get to DISlikin' someone they ain't around for long neither.

darkdubh

Wouldn't exactly say its a classic and as much blaxploitation as western but worth a mention for the title alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy0DqQ4NqTA