Best Western of all time & where're they now??

Is the 'Western' genre dead?

How come they don't make them like they used to anymore ?

With films like 'The Wild Bunch', 'Magnificent 7' and the Man with no name trilogy, they had a formula!

Any views on this topic?
or that reviving Westerns now is no different to flogging a dead horse?

What about The Unforgiven!

I loved The Magnificent Seven, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly are also great films (plus the other one - I forget).

Tombstone?
The Young Guns / Ones? (name escapes me)

What about Maverick - a great film!

And don't forget Back to the Future III...

Hmm, I never realised how much I liked this genre - thanks for bringing it up!

I've never really been a fan of the Western. I don't know why, but I just don't usually like them.

And while the occasional western gets made these days, the genre is not nearly as popular as it once was.

'Once upon a time in the west' is the art of the western at its pinnacle. then again anything leone is art. Good the bad and ugly is still a major piece of modern art too. The way I see it the problem with westerns and why theyre fading to obscurity is the lack of risk taking on the part of filmmakers to try and go Leone one further. I mean even eastwood still directs the drab ol' basic, plain, dull cinemagraphic approach to westerns...in other words I'd like to see a western whereby some one tryed to get some 'real' actors and mix em up with an off key style that went to new levels of experimentation. Peckinpah did it with sqibs and leone did it with closeups,wacko musical strains and crazy graphical titles usage...theres got to be more angles to approach. raimis western was probably the most entertaining approach done in a while. and dances with wolves the most emotional. Im waiting for another Mag 7 remake, that'd be somthing to work with thats proven.
[Edited by philmaphobic on 02-11-2001]

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Before I start with a few of favourites that havent been mentioned I would like to say that no western discussion would be complete without John Ford & Howard Hawkes both changed & defined the Genre in their time.
Now Im only a 30 year old aussie but I also say John Wayne & James Stewart both deserve a mention just for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance if nothing else.

Now on with some more of my personal faves.

Johnny Guitar with Sterling Hayden & Joan Crawford, directed by Nic Ray. Dark, moody & enthralling.

Red River starring Montgomery Clift & John Wayne,directed by Howard Hawkes also The Searchers.

Stagecoach directed by John Ford, in fact anything with Wayne in The saddle is watchable & many are exceptional. El Dorado is great Fun.

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid directed by George Roy Hill & starring Newman & Redford, this is everything a fun western should be.

The Left Handed Gun with Newman

Nevada Smith with Steve McQueen, violent & powerful. Based on the Carperbaggers.

Peckinpahs Ride The High Country with Randolph Scott & also Pat Garret & Billy The Kid with Kris Kristoffosen both are insightful & sentimental.

Last Man Standing directed by Walter Hill who co wrote The Wild Bunch & worked with Peckinpah in a number of capacitys. This was a balatant remake of Fistful of Dollars that I for one appreciated for what it was. Bruce Willis & Chris Walken are great adversaries. Hill also directed Extreme Predjudice if that counts as western.

Holy Moly never realised just how much I love this genre, I dont put them in the old video that much anymore but Ill have to start it again.
When it comes to getting a western fix I tend to overlook some of the above in my collection & go for the obvious like: Anything with McQueen,Wayne or Eastwood. Anything directed by Peckinpah or Leone. Im going to watch One Eyed Jacks directed by & Starring Marlon Brando.

Fun topic thanx.

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I think that the reason why we don't see any more westerns is because the genre has really been explored almost to its' full potential. I say almost because someone could still come up with a western and it could become a hit, but it would have to be really good to equal or surpass the ones that have gone before it.

Also, it could be that people are pretty much tired of seeing movies about the wild west?! In this day and age, it's probably too risky for producers to invest so much money in something that could easily flop with audiences...

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I searched and found these classified as westerns:

Texas Rangers 2001
All the Pretty Horses 2000
Cowboy Up 2000
South of Heaven, West of Hell 2000
Wild Wild West 1999
Buck And the Magic Bracelet 1998
Ebenezer 1998
The Hi-Lo Country 1998
The Newton Boys 1998
Los Locos 1997
Walking Thunder 1997
Dead Man 1996
Lone Justice: Showdown at Plum Creek 1996
Riders of the Purple Sage 1996
The Lazarus Man 1996
A Good Day to Die 1995
Avenging Angel 1995
Backlash: Oblivion 2 1995
Black Fox 1995
Buffalo Girls 1995
Frank & Jesse 1995
Gunfighter's Moon 1995
Hard Bounty 1995
Larry Mcmurtry's Streets of Laredo 1995
Lone Justice 2 1995
Sons of Trinity 1995
The Fighter 1995
The Good Old Boys 1995
The Magic of the Golden Bear: Goldy III 1995
The Other Side of the Law 1995
The Quick and the Dead 1995
Wild Bill 1995
8 Seconds 1994
Bad Girls 1994
Blind Justice 1994
Cheyenne Warrior 1994
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold 1994
Dead Man's Revenge 1994
Guns of Honor 1994
Legends of the Fall 1994
Lightning Jack 1994
Lone Justice 1994
Maverick 1994
Oblivion 1994
Silent Tongue 1994
Sodbusters 1994
The Cowboy Way 1994
The Desperate Trail 1994
The Substitute Wife 1994
Trigger Fast 1994
Troublemakers 1994
Wagons East! 1994
Wyatt Earp 1994
Geronimo: An American Legend 1993
Ghost Brigade 1993
Mad at the Moon 1993
Posse 1993
Tombstone 1993
Uninvited 1993
The Giant of Thunder Mountain 1992
Unforgiven 1992
Lucky Luke 1991
The Long Road Home 1991
Dances With Wolves 1990
Grim Prairie Tales 1990
Quigley Down Under 1990
Young Guns II 1990


I think space movies replaced the westerns. It was kind of the new frontier.

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RoadRunner nailed it with the space movies comment, I failed to notice this but come to think of it now it's really true!

yo road runner....is that a mopar moniker or are you jest a looneytuneaholic?

A far as westerns....the space frontier angle makes sense but doesnt explain away the post st wars dances with wolves' box office, or half the reasonable films on that list a few posts back.

possibly the NEW new frontier is innerspace like the Matrix. Actualy matrix is a kinda western with different props. still the same show down.

The vast majority of those movies listed were ones that I've never heard of. Many others were not really Westerns in the true sense (movies like Wild, Wild West or even Maverick, The Cowboy Way, City Slickers II or Back to the Future III). Many that were real westerns were flops at the box office. 8 Seconds only played well in the Texas Panhandle. All The Pretty Horses flopped. The Newton Boys flopped. Bad Girls flopped. The Quick and the Dead didn't do too much in the way of business (but I liked that one). Lightning Jack flopped. Wagon's East flopped (despite being John Candy's last film). Quigley Down Under was a flop. Even Tombstone and Wyatt Earp didn't do much of anything. Posse didn't do much, either.

So while westerns get made, few want to see them. From time to time you'll get a critically acclaimed western or a box office success western (A Dances With Wolves or an Unforgiven), but any genre is going to produce a few hits here and there over the course of a decade. But the fact remains that people don't want to see westerns the vast majority of the time. It's only on the rare ocassion in the past decade that a real western does anything at the box office. There have likely been as many successful movies about cannibals over the course of the last decade as there has been successful westerns.

I'll say that High Noon is the best western of all time. Also a lot of the John Wayne movies are classics.

In all JOHN FORD films,JOHN WAYNE was in all of them i think and also another fine actor by the name of WARD BOND was in all his films as well. another piece of useless imformation

High Noon was wonderful.

And how come nobody's mentioned the Searchers?

John Wayne = GOD!

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Very soon Rimpa will be spamming his Algorithm defined Top 10 westerns.

I think western genre is dead. Where are no westerns in 2009 or 2010. The last good western was "3:10 to Yuma" in 2007.

Not true or even close.

So you not going to share your Top 10??

There was The Assassination of Jesse James which released after 3:10.

Appaloosa was released after 3:10 also... which, IMO, was a pretty good western....

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Do you really think that? Or is your "thought" based on some calculation or DB search?

Yes.. I liked that one too.

I am sure there are many more.