Top 5 Westerns

What are the top 5 Westerns of all Time?

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1. The Searchers
2. Unforgiven
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
4. Red River
5. High Noon

1. Once Upon A Time in the West
1968 - Sergio Leone
2. Unforgiven
1992 - Clint Eastwood
3. The Wild Bunch
1969 - Sam Peckinpah
4. Little Big Man
1970 - Arthur Penn
5. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
1971 - Robert Altman

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1. once upon a time in the west
2. high noon
3. the wild bunch
4. unforgiven
5. one eyed jacks

1. Red River
2. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
3. Tombstone
4. Unforgiven
5. The Gunfighter

Unforgiven is the best western of all time. Does Deadwood count?? That shows beter than most of the westerns out there.

i'd just say that For a Few Dollars More should be on there, other than that, i'm not much of a western fan, but that should be on the top 5

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i agree nearly entirely with holden.
the biggest problem for me was that the first western i watched was once upon a time in the west and since then there has never been anything to match it, especially attempting to compare it to the rest of sergio leones work

I'm not much of a western fan, nor was I born in the time when they were popular but I'd definitely recommend Tombstone as one of the greats. I don't have the expertise of western films but I do know that was just a great movie, a little long but a great great movie and should be in the top five. The good the bad and the ugly was also great. I also liked the quick and the dead. I'm not saying the quick and the dead is one of the best, all I'm saying is I enjoyed it and I'm pretty critical about movies. Tell ya the truth, I don't know what the hell I'm trying to say, ha ha ha. I think I should checkout some westerns.

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Actually, I've seen lots and lots of Westerns, and Tombstone is just plain and simple a steaming piece of *****...Western or otherwise. It's an embarrassingly awful hack job, the only minor highlight being Val Kilmer's anachronistic oddball performance from the planet Mars, which is totally incongruous with the hamfisted goings on and feels like it belongs in another movie but is at least amusing.

Tombstone is a Western for folks who don't know or like Westerns. Anyone who really enjoys it (or the two Young Guns flicks or American Outlaws or Texas Rangers or even Raimi's The Quick & the Dead) really shouldn't ever watch a real Western. Ever. When I see Tombstone in the Westerns section of a video store, I feel the same way I do when I see frippin' Kenny G in the Jazz section of a music store: it just plain don't belong.


Not that I have any strong feelings on the subject.

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Whoa. Simpatico.

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[quote=Holden Pike]
Tombstone is a Western for folks who don't know or like Westerns. Anyone who really enjoys it (or the two Young Guns flicks or American Outlaws or Texas Rangers or Raimi's The Quick & the Dead) really shouldn't ever watch a real Western. Ever. [quote]


I like the Young Gun movies.
However your right Holden, I do not consider Young Guns to be a western, rather an action flick based from that period but not a definement of it.

I'm not an overly western movie fan, which just gives credence to your argument there Holden, but I do like some.

Here's my top five. I've not seen too many westerns so under no curcumstances will it be applicable as a list of the greatest western movies ever, only my particular taste of the ones I haveseen.

Pale Rider
Unforgiven
The Magnificent Seven
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Dances With Wolves

Generic I know, and a couple not quite apt for the medium but I like them regardless.

I have not seen the following movies already mentioned, which is why my list is missing some popular choices by those more expertised in the genre.

The Wild Bunch
Once Upon A Time In The West
High Noon
Little Big Man
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Red River
The Gunfighter
One Eyed Jacks
The Searchers
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

It's quite possible I may have seen one or to of these but that is now lost in the recesses of mind. I would love to see most of them if I could though.

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Originally posted by Holden 1. Once Upon A Time in the West (1968 - Leone) 2. Unforgiven (1992 - Eastwood) 3. The Wild Bunch (1969 - Peckinpah) 4. Little Big Man (1970 - Arthur Penn) 5. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971 - Robert Altman)

I love 'The Wild Bunch' and 'Once Upon a Time in The West' (which is rapidly rising on my list of favorites). I've never seen McCabe and Mrs. Miller (can't await to see it). But, Little Big Man a better Western than all John Ford's classics (Searchers, Red River, Liberty Valance, Fort Apache)? I liked Little Big Man but I didn't think it was in same class with Fords' (I also liked Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande better).

Over at MJ didn't you have The Good the Bad and the Ugly as number four in this thread? I'm not being nitpicky or trying to be a dork or anything like that, and I know that was a year or so. Just curious though what made you take it off and bump the others up.


As for me, yes westerns are my favorite genre, though I love traditional westerns and revisionist almost equally, I tend to side with the traditional horse operas cause they started it all, and often times all the themes that run in the revisionist westerns are also present in the oldies but are more subdued and hidden.

Anyway here's my list of the best 10 westerns ever.

1. Shane 1953 dir. George Stevens
2. The Searchers 1956 dir. John Ford
3. Red River 1948 dir. Howard Hawks
4. Once Upon a Time in the West 1968 dir. Sergio Leone
5. The Wild Bunch 1969 dir. Sam Peckinpah
6. McCabe & Mrs. Miller 1972 dir. Robert Altman
7. Stagecoach 1939 dir. John Ford
8. The Magnificent Seven 1960 dir. John Sturges
9. The Gunfighter 1950 dir. Henry King
10. Unforgiven 1992 dir. Clint Eastwood[/quote]


For my money Shane is the best western ever, because thematically it is everything a western should be and to me represents the entire genre perfectly. When I think of westerns I think of Shane as the textbook example. The beautiful landscapes, the boy/man hero worshiping, the myth of the gunfighter, bar fights, and unspoken messages, but perhaps what sets Shane apart most of all is the lonliness and isolation of the hero in the film. I don't care what anyone says, and I'll argue it to my grave, but it's the best and I don't think it would be possible to make a better one. There's so many underlying values and conflicts in the movie it'd make your head spin to try to examine them all.

Not to mention it has the single greatest fight in history.

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I agree that fight scene of Alan Ladd and Jack Palance is best one on one gunfight scene ever.

Wild Bunch has my favorite Western gun battle scene.

In no particular order...

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
1966 - Sergio Leone

The Wild Bunch
1969 - Sam Peckinpah

Once Upon A Time in The West
1968 - Sergio Leone

Unforgiven
1992 - Clint Eastwood

Rio Bravo
1959 - Howard Hawks

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I love the western genre.

Let me start off with the American Film Institute's westerns in the Top 100 all time (please understand these are American-made films):

High Noon - #33
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - #50
Stagecoach - #63
Shane - #69
Dances with Wolves - #75
The Wild Bunch - #80
The Searchers - #96
Unforgiven - #98

Here is IMDb.com's westerns in the Top 250 User Ratings:

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - #21
Once Upon a Time in the West - #33
High Noon - #85
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - #112
The Searchers - #125
Unforgiven - #128
The Wild Bunch - #144
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Stagecoach
Rio Bravo - #227
Red River - #233

Interestingly, Shane has a User Rating of 7.8 out of 10, which is high enough to be included in the Top 250, but it's not listed. Also, Dances With Wolves has a User Rating of 7.7, which is the same as films #231 through #250, but it's not on the list either.

Films mentioned in other posts that are not on AFI or IMDb.com's lists include the following:

For a Few Dollars More - 7.9, but not listed in top 250 (?)
Little Big Man - 7.7
McCabe and Mrs. Miller - 7.5
The Magnificent Seven - 7.8, but not listed in top 250 (?)
The Gunfighter - 7.6
Tombstone - 7.4
Young Guns 6.4 - Sequel - 5.8
The Quick and the Dead - 6.0
One-Eyed Jacks - 7.1
Pale Rider - 6.9
Fort Apache - 7.6

My Top 5 Favorite Westerns:

Dances With Wolves
Once Upon a Time in the West
Unforgiven
Shane
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Notables:

Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
Red River
High Noon
My Darling Clementine
The Big Country
Little Big Man
High Plains Drifter

Haven't seen yet that was mentioned:

McCabe and Mrs. Miller
The Gunfighter
Fort Apache

Although these probably wouldn't make anyone's top 5, here are some westerns I'd like to see that haven't been mentioned:

The Ox-Box Incident
Destry Rides Again
Duel in the Sun
Bad Day at Black Rock
Bend of the River
3:10 to Yuma
Rio Grande
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys
Ride the High Country
Comancheros
How the West Was Won
The Shooting
My Name is Nobody
Jeremiah Johnson
Silverado
Missouri Breaks
Quigley Down Under
The Man from Snowy River

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My Name Is Nobody, The Ox-Bow Incident, Jeremiah Johnson, Destry Rides Again, 3:10 to Yuma and the modern 'Western' Bad Day at Black Rock are the best from that list, all very good to great flicks.

Hombre (1967) starring Paul Newman and Richard Boone should definitely be on your to-see list as well, and another oft-forgotten great modern Western is Lonely Are the Brave (1962) with Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau. Budd Boetticher has a group of stark and psychological Westerns including The Tall T, Ride Lonesome, Decision at Sundown and Seven Men From Now (all starring Randolph Scott), and Anthony Mann has a bunch of offbeat good ones to seek out too, including The Man From Laramie, The Naked Spur, Bend in the River, The Far Country and Winchester '73 (all starring Jimmy Stewart in non-comedic mode) and The Tin Star with Hank Fonda & Tony Perkins.

01 Once Upon A Time In The West
02 Unforgiven
03 The Wild Bunch
04 The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
05 Keoma
07 Companeros
08 Great Silence
09 Boot Hill
10 Valdez Is Coming

(subject to change)


Ditto. Bugs the hell out of me.

actually I meant the barfight, but that's good too.