Top 5 Westerns

Or vice versa depending on who watches them.

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I remember Kurt going "No No No No" as the bullets flew past him.

This is taken from the end of Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia, where Warren Oates dodges bullets saying "No No No". Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And Bring Me is another great western by Peckinpah, although set in 1972 and requiring a bit of love for the director and lead actor to truly appreciate. I'm a big fan of Bring Me.

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Yes I love Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Great film. Holden introduced me to that one.

I haven't watched it in awhile either, I can't remember if Warren Oates is killed in the end or not, though I seem to think he is.

American Western sort directors?
Er.....Hmmm.......

Anthony Mann
Howard Hawks
Clint Eastwood (minus "The Unforgiven" that is)
Sam Pekinpah

Ford is the Big Daddy...but his films just never really click with me except those two I mentioned. And all his cavalry films with Wayne flip between sugary sickness, cheese, twee and cliche. Singing horsemen is NOT a good thing.

I like Don Siegel's Westerns too...but he's not really a Western director as such. And the occasional Henry Hathaway.

Gotta disagree with you on Costner's Wyatt Earp. Oh, it's brooding and somber enough, and that may be why despite several tries I've never been able to sit through it. It's plot development is glacial, and Costner just never struck me as the somber, brooding deep-thinker type. Never could get into Young Guns either; kept thinking someone would order the brat pack to detention after school.

Originally Posted by GodsOtherMonkey

I thought Silverado was cute because of the whole side story about the dog and Paden’s (Kline) soft spot for Stella (Linda Hunt). Also, Jake (Costner) was designed to be a cute character. All the dripping sentiment, too.

Now I agree with you on this. Silverado reminded me of the Saturday matinee westerns I used to go to when I was a kid. All the good guys are up-right square-jawed do-gooders with God on their side, and all the bad guys seemed almost to hiss like the snakes they are. Just unashamedly flamboyant and over the top. It also was good to see in a bit part Sheb Wooley who appeared in Errol Flynn's last Western Rocky Mountain and was the first of the four gunmen Gary Cooper shot down in High Noon. I liked Jeff Goldblum in his offbeat role as Slick the gambler, but when they ran the credits I looked in vain to see who in hell played the fur coat he wore!

Originally Posted by GodsOtherMonkey

Tombstone is another story. Here we have a borderline comical performance from Val as Doc Holiday. It is a good performance, but very much a caricature and somewhat silly. Kurt Russell is simply not believable, for me. He’s just Kurt Russell and has made his career on trying to be cute. Not that I don’t like him or his performances. Stephen Lang was, however, totally awesome as Ike Clanton. Lang is probably one of the most underrated actors – and he is a real master.

You're right--the main character wasn't Wyatt Earp. It was Kurt Russell in a big wax mustache. I agree Lang's Ike Clanton was a standout. But Sam Elliott's Virgil anchored the quartet of good guys and gave them their only air of believability. At least Elliott always gives me the impression he could actually ride a horse. I also liked Powers Booth's Curly Bill Brocius; his portrayal actually was pretty close to what comtemporaries said the real Curly Bill was like, although all of the cowboys were portrayed as more organized and vicious than they really were. (The reality was closer to the cowboy gang in Warlock--man gets posted out of town and his pride brings him in.)

Thing I liked most about Tombstone was its effective mix of reality and theater. The OK corral gunfight was about as accurate as Hollywood will ever get--Ike Clanton really did run, told Wyatt he was unarmed to which Wyatt replied "fight or run." in real life Clinton kept running, didn't stop nearby to curse the Earps.

The red sashes were a nice touch. There really was a bunch of cowboys gone bad that wore red sashes, but they were way up north--Montana, I think--not in Arizona. However, the opening where the gang kills a bunch of federales at a wedding and rape the widow was just a white supremacy scene. Mexican federales were tough and dangerous especially in dealing with gringoes after years of running battles with Texas Rangers and Texas outlaws.

Eastwood and john wayne is my favorite

I thought Silverado was good and it did have a good music score.



I found the trailer to Silverado.

Tombstone trailer in case you want to watch it.

I like both these films, Tombstone & Silverado; both are entertaining.

But they sure ain't Ulzana's Raid (1972).

I love Ulzana's Raid too. It's also really interesting to watch Apache (1954) along with it to see how much better Robert Aldrich and Burt Lancaster got in 18 years.

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I recently saw Once Upon a Time in the West and found it to be unintentionally hilarious.

When everyone is waiting in that bar and all the noise commences outside, you hear the horses hooves thundering and the sounds of struggle and everyone is just sitting tight in the bar and after all that in pops unassuming Jason Robards. They threw in every sound effect possible; I expected it to end with this http://www.sounddogs.com/sound-effec...UNDDOGS_Me.mp3
The sound of a hubcap spinning and coming to rest. Too funny.

And that Irish family looked about as Irish as the Von Trapps. My friend and I argued over whether they looked more German or Swedish.

I also have to say Henry Fonda's pillow talk was ultra creepy and kooky funny. Still Fonda always read human being to me. I can't really believe him as a sociopath. Now Charles Bronson is another story; he looks as if hell is behind his eyes. It's his preternatural stillness that does it. Claudia Cardinale should give the rest of the Italian cast a lesson in film acting. Just be. Don't act. It's the thing that drives me crazy when watching older Italian films. Too antic

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1) The Searchers
2)The Ox Bow Incident
3) Unforgiven
4) Red River
5) The Outlaw Josey Wales
6) True Grit
7) High Noon
8) Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
9) any Leone (with the exception the Pancho Villa thing)
10) The Great Train Robbery
11) . . .

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I am critically ignorant when it comes to Westerns & am very, very new to the genre. Two years ago, the only "Westerns" I had seen were the Young Guns type of stuff. Tombstone too. Some friends whetted my curiosity & made me realise that I might be missing out on something special. So I got some recommendations & started watching some of the classics, mostly from the 70s. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed many of them.

My favourites so far:
High Plains Drifter
The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
Unforgiven
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Open Range


I realise that including the more modern films is anathema to huge fans of the genre, but Im still getting my feet wet, really.

Others I liked a lot are:

Two Mules for Sister Sara (any Eastwood Western worked out well for me)
McCabe & Mrs Miller
Jeremiah Johnson
Wyatt Earp
Once Upon A Time in the West


Anyway, I got some good recommendations from reading through this thread, so I will continue to watch & learn.

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Hi 'Nothing'.

hey, kick out that damn, ****ing, pissing, shitting, damn thing always turns up, kiss my ass, ****ing "Unforgiven"........And you have a couple of damn fine lists of like there!

You're off to a good start.

Top 10 Westerns Alphabetical Order:

Dances with Wolves
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Naked Spur
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Rio Bravo
The Searchers
The Shootist
Stagecoach
The Wild Bunch

Here's a list of seriously under appreciated westerns in my opinion:

Three Godfathers
The Gunfighter
Vera Cruz
The Bravados
The Law and Jake Wade
Warlock
Lonely Are the Brave
Alvarez Kelly
Nevada Smith
Scalphunters
Monte Walsh
Soldier Blue
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
High Plains Drifter

Of the new era westerns these are the ones I like the most:

Quigley Down Under (I know it's not that great but it's entertaining and Rickman plays it to the tilt.)

Unforgiven

Open Range

Geronimo: An American Legend (Walter Hill made so may films that played like westerns and acted like westerns it was due time that he would simply make a western and was it a western.)

Of all the major western director's the guy that seems to get overlooked that has one of the most interesting, versitle and best bodies of work is Anthony Mann he made Winchester '73, Naked Spur, Bend of the River, The Far Country, Man of the West and The Man from Laramie. If your starting out into the whole western thing and you don't know quite where to start this is a great place to begin.

I have a question has anyone seen the expanded version of Major Dundee and if so how was it ?

I'm wanting to recommended a few other films Peckinpah's debut The Deadly Companions is quite interesting and a lot of people have mentioned Tombstone as a favorite if you liked that films you should check out Hour of the Gun, My Darling Clementine and The Gunfight at the O.K. Correl.

To all the people who mentioned Hombre huge props what a terrific film.

There's lots of films I haven't mention that I love and I feel quite bad that I haven't list them but at last you can't put them all down.

I agree with you Smoke. Tombstone was an excellent movie and probably my favorite. I think I even know all of the words to it.

1. Tombstone
2. Open Range
3. The Shootist
4. The Outlaw Josey Wales
5. Lonesome Dove

Just to name a few of my favorites.

I love westerns..although you've pretty much named all my favorites here. I didn't see "The Cowboys" 1972 John Wayne though. Loved that movie!

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1 - Once Upon a Time in the West
2 - The Good the Bad, and the Ugly
3 - The Outlaw Josey Wales
4 - Rio Bravo
5 - Stagecoach

Cat Ballou

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Old Yeller

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