Best Westerns (not about hotels)

[Weeping Sore]

The most original one I've seen was Dead Man with Johnny Depp.

This ones probably not for everybody but I loved it.

Iggy Pop as some sort of old west religious drag queen

Easily the best Western of the 90s. Great soundtrack by Neil Young, too.

And no, I'm not forgetting about Tombstone. Val Kilmer is funny, but everything else about it is terrible, including the action which is muddled and poorly edited.

[Ser Areo Mace]

When is comes to Westerns, John Wayne is King. He is my dad's hero, and our house is full of John Wayne stuff. He owns almost all of his movies.

My Five Favorite John Wayne movies:

Hondo

Rio Bravo

McLintock!

Big Jake

The Searchers(He should have won the Best Actor award for this role)

Other Favorite:

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Red River

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

El Dorado

The Shootist

Sons of Katie Elder

The Horse Soldiers

Winchester '73

Bandolero!

Fort Dobbs

The Outlaw Josey Wales

Stagecoach(original)

The Professionals

The Magnificent Seven

Blazing Saddles

Tombstone(probably the best western since the 70's)

True Grit(Coen Bros version)

Silverado

Seraphim Falls

[elmis]

I love that the OP mentioned Unforgiven. I had never heard of it, and decided to watch it due to it being a western and having won the Oscar in '92. Such a great movie.

[Nictarion]

I love that the OP mentioned Unforgiven. I had never heard of it, and decided to watch it due to it being a western and having won the Oscar in '92. Such a great movie.

Great movie. Eastwood might be an even better director than he was an actor, and that's saying a lot.

[Mentat]

High Noon cause Gary Cooper

:agree:

Vera Cruz is also great.

Also, The Wild Bunch should have been mentioned already.

[Nictarion]

I would add Django Unchained to my list, if you count it. Not really a western, but the timeframe is right.

[red snow]

Great list - I still need to see a lot of the classics. They are usually on weekend afternoons in the UK which is why I never see them yet think "i'll watch it next time it is on"

I loved "lonesome dove" as a kid and it's long overdue a rewatch as I'm sure there will be things I couldn't fully appreciate at the time.

"Deadwood" is great. "hell on wheels" looks gorgeous but is deeply flawed - I have to check out season 3 as it has a new showrunner and may have improved.

Oddly one of the best westerns of the last few years is "Red Dead Redemption". It's a video game but it encapsulates everything about the western genre perfectly and has a great storyline with the added fun of playing the character. For anyone who likes games or westerns I'd say it's a must.

EDIT: I think Firefly counts as well.

[David Selig]

The thing you have to realize about Westerns is that in the history of American movies, there have been more Westerns made than non-Westerns, even to this day (Hollywood used to make a lot more movies than it does now). That means there's a lot of good ones if you do some digging.

This sounds really hard to believe. Westerns were popular, sure, but as far as I know, they were never even close to being more than half of the movies produced by Hollywood in a given year or a decade .

Anyway, my favourites are High Noon, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Shane, Unforgiven, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

[polishgenius]

I love Westerns but I've not seen that many. I've never seen a John Wayne film, for example... :dunno:

My favourites would be Once Upon a Time in the West, obviously, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid if it counts, Unforgiven, No Country for Old Men, and Deadwood.

Also The Proposition, which is set in Australia but is very definitely a Western in tone and theme, and a work of genius.

[Nictarion]

I love Westerns but I've not seen that many. I've never seen a John Wayne film, for example... :dunno:

My favourites would be Once Upon a Time in the West, obviously, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid if it counts, Unforgiven, No Country for Old Men, and Deadwood.

Also The Proposition, which is set in Australia but is very definitely a Western in tone and theme, and a work of genius.

How do you consider No Country for Old Men a western?

[Inkdaub7]

Nothing new from me. I love the Dollars trilogy, Tombstone and Unforgiven. I love Silverado, too. I am trying to think of an Eastwood western I don't like and coming up empty. I can't stand John Wayne, though.

Open Range was pretty good. I liked Lonesome Dove.

[polishgenius]

How do you not? Sheriffs, bandits, and the continuation of a lonely frontier life even when the frontier is gone... in a lot of ways it's a film about the fall of the West.

There's a fairly hefty shot of Noir in there as well, mind, but for me it's Western first. Making it kind of the opposite of Drive, which in looks and setting and most of the plot is very definitely neo-noir but the main relationship between Driver and Irene is pure Man With No Name/poor lonesome cowboy story.

[Nictarion]

How do you not? Sheriffs, bandits, and the continuation of a lonely frontier life even when the frontier is gone... in a lot of ways it's a film about the fall of the West.

There's a fairly hefty shot of Noir in there as well, mind, but for me it's Western first. Making it kind of the opposite of Drive, which in looks and setting and most of the plot is very definitely neo-noir but the main relationship between Driver and Irene is pure Man With No Name/poor lonesome cowboy story.

Good points. It feels more like a crime thriller to me though.

[Ramsay B.]

All the good ones are mentioned. Glad The Proposition is getting so many props. Dances with Wolves has to be considered a western and still holds up today.

[paddington]

I am not a big John Wayne fan, I've seen most of his westerns when I was young, but haven't gone back to watch them now I am old.

I liked most of the recent westerns, Unforgiven being the stand out one. Dead man was good as well, if a little wierd. I also like Kevin Costner westerns, enjoyed Open Range, Dances with wolves and I perfered Wyatt Earp over Tombstone (I still like Tombstone).

One that hasn't been mentioned is Tom Horn with Steve McQueen, I love that film.

I'll watch an Eastwood western over just about anything else, my favourite could well be High plains Drifter, but it kind of changes based on what one I've seen most recently. So tommorrow it could well be Pale rider.

I've got Pale rider, Outlaw josey Wales to watch on my recorder.

Red Hill was a decent Aussie revenge western that I watched on the weekend. There's no suprises in it, but very watchable.

[Weeping Sore]

This sounds really hard to believe. Westerns were popular, sure, but as far as I know, they were never even close to being more than half of the movies produced by Hollywood in a given year or a decade .

You have to include silent Westerns, quickie B Westerns, and Western Serials (kind of like TV shows before TV) for it to come out. There were a truly massive amount made from the teens through the 30s to fill matinee time. Huge B Western production continued through the 40s to mid-50s to fill out double features.

[Reposado]

obviously, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid if it counts,

why would it not count? like most great westerns, it is about the end of the west. the one that would be, "if it counts for me" is treasure of the sierra madre. set in the west essentially, but not really a western. or bad day at black rock, set in modern times, but a western in spirit.

i'm a big eastwood guy so most of his already mentioned would top my list.

not mentioned so far: ride the high country. perhaps the best "b" western ever made. at a time when westerns were starting to be revisionist or "about westerns," rather than "about the west", RTHC was a very straightforward western tale. peckinpah made a bunch of good ones, including the already mentioned, the wild bunch

duck, you sucker. the other leone western. not as good as the three from the trilogy but still really really good

hard to pick a favorite but it would be one of these three

the good the bad and the ugly

once upon a time in the west

high noon

[FloridaAg]

The Western genre dominated early film and television, though it has now been eclipsed by other genres. Some of my all time favorite movies and television shows are Westerns.

I appreciate the classic spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, like "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" and "Once upon a time in the West". You can't talk about Westerns without mentioning the Duke, the original "True Grit" and "The Searchers" are must see films for any true western fan. "The Quick and the Dead" is notable for its strong female lead, rare in a genre where most women are damsels in distress or prostitutes. Then there is the Australian Western genre, exemplified by "Quigley Down Under" and "The Proposition".

There are more recent westerns, both remakes like the Coen bros. version of "True Grit" and "3:10 to Yuma" starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, as well as original films like "Appaloosa" starring Ed Harris and Vigo Mortensen.

Westerns in television span all the way from "Gunsmoke" to "Deadwood", and no thread about westerns can possibly be complete without mentioning the epic "Lonesome Dove" mini-series.

For my money though, Clint Eastwood is the master of western film, "Unforgiven" is widely acknowledged as a classic, as is "Pale Rider". The greatest western of all time is Eastwood's directorial debut "The Outlaw Josey Wales", in my opinion. A strong story was supported by a stellar cast. Eastwood himself delivered the goods as always, but some of the best acting came from supporting characters. Chief Dan George brought the Lone Watie character to life, while Paula Trueman is memorable as the irascible Grandma Sara. I especially appreciated the nuanced view of Native Americans in the film, the Comanche were not card-board villains for instance.

Do you like Westerns? What are your favorites?

You name the best 3 in the OP. I would not try to rank. My favorite Westers have always been: 1. Once Upon a Time in the West; 2. The Outlaw Josey Wales; and 3. The good the Bad and the Ugly.

For the music, theme, opening scene and the boot scene - I would give it to Once Upon a Time in the West.

[thecryptile]

I'm seeing a lot of good stuff that I missed in the OP, and some that I'll need to check out on Netflix. I'm not too picky with definitions, "Django Unchained", "There will be blood", and "No Country for Old Men" are close enough for me. I enjoyed the latter two, though I haven't seen "Django Unchained" yet. Also the "Red Dead Redemption" game deserved to be mentioned in the OP.

I realize that I left out a rather fun western subgenre, which I like to call "East meets Western", the Kung-Fu/Western crossover. David Carradine in the original "Kung Fu" television series is probably the classic of this subgenre, though I've seen a few others notably "The Warrior's Way" a campy romp that owes as much to Kurosawa as Leone.

[Weeping Sore]

I liked Down in the Valley (2005), a Western set in modern L.A. starring Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood. Kind of a sleeper.

Is this a good time to mention that I've always wanted to write a "Middle-Eastern", with Israeli cowboys and Palestinian Indians?