To all you Western fans....

[SnoopDog]

...I'm actually pretty new to the movie-genre 'Western' so I don't really know anything excpet the classics.

But I wonder, what - to you - is the best Western ever?

Do you go with the Hollywood-classics, like 'The Searchers',

or is it rather the Italo-Western, like 'C'era una volta il West', (spelling?)

or do you prefer the late Anti-Western, like 'Unforgiven' ????


I, myself, think that there is no better Western than Leone's 'C'era una volta il West'

It's got all the classic images, perfect cinematography, a great story, superb dialogue, the best score ever and of course the most beauitiful Claudia Cardinale.

But I also heard someone (and his profession is films) say that to him 'The Searchers' with the Duke is the best Western ever.

Your call?


Snoopy

 

[Boota]

My favorites:

The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Unforgiven

The Long Riders

True Grit

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I can't say I've seen enough Westerns to really be a "Western Fan," but it was the Young Guns movies that initially turned me on to the genre. Tombstone was excellent, especially when compared to Costner's Wyatt Earp opposition. And yeah, Unforgiven... Excellent. You can go almost anywhere and announce that they killed Ned and people will know what you're talking about.

Q_C

 

[rgraham666]

They killed Ned?!

You bastards!

 

[cheerful_deviant]

'Lonesome Dove' is also a Western that is not to be missed. Just make sure to set some time asside, it's about 6 hours long.

 

[Carmenica Diaz]

The Searchers
Stagecoach
Tombstone
Unforgiven
Pale Rider (Love the spiritual elements - hate Eastwood for putting his current ladies in the films despite their complete lack of acting ability)
Once Upon a Time in the West

I don't mind the really old ones. A long lost lover of mine was a film critic and he had an entire library of old films on videos.
I came to love the old films (How to Marry A Millionaire) and some old westerns for their naivety and innocence – Rio Bravo etc.

(The videos were better than the sex but that’s another story.)

 

[oggbashan]

The Paleface
Cat Ballou
The Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns
The Magnificent Seven

and an oddity:

Tampopo - a Japanese Noodle/Trucker/Gangster/Western

Og

 

[McKenna]

I can't pick a favorite, Snoop, I like a lot of them:


The Magnificent Seven
Silverado
Young Guns I & II
Lonesome Dove (good call CD!)
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Fist Full of Dollars
My name is Nobody
They Call Me Trinity
Blazing Saddles
Tombstone
Wyatt Earp
And while it's maybe not technically a Western, it certainly deals with Western indigenous life: The Last of the Dogmen


I haven't heard of the Italian Western you mentioned. I may have to look it up.

 

[zeb1094]

Dances with Wolves
Red River
McClintock
Big Jake
Hang 'em High
High Plains Drifter

 

[Evil Alpaca]

Unforgiven
Paint Your Wagon (laugh at your own peril)
Tombstone (Val Kilmer in the hiz-ouse!)
Blazing Saddles
Silverado
Blind Justice
Rooster Cogburn
The Magnificent Seven

 

[cookiejar]

 

[Guest]

Snoop, I won't rate one or two films as the best, but you cannot comprehend 'the western', or great cinema to say the least, without a good selection from John Ford. Check him out. My faves, but don't limit yourself to:

Stagecoach - the first shot of John Wayne leaves me breathless still.

My Darling Clementine - Perfection. Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp; Walter Brennan as Evil, stunning.

The Searchers - Cinematic poetry. I doubt there's a great director ever who would not credit this film as inspiration or influence.

If you see these films enough times they should change your consciousness about cinema. I'm serious. Also, I know you're young; I recommend strongly that you see these films at least once a decade.

Perdita

 

[Evil Alpaca]

And on the NEGATIVE side of Westerns . . .

Open Range

This was one of the most gosh-awful and almost terminally boring movies ever made by anybody.

 

[Liar]

Blazing Saddles

Was waiting for that.

/Liar, western ignorant

 

[Colleen Thomas]

The Sacketts is a very good adaptation for the Screen of an excellent book series by louis Lamour.

The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Shadow Riders
Connagher

The Quick and the Dead (burt Lancaster & Kirk Douglas version)


The War Wagon
Rio Lobo
Big Jake (one of my favorites)


Tombstone
High Plains Drifter

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Movies

Unforgiven
Stagecoach
The Shootist

Books

Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey
Haunted Mesa - Louis L'Amour
Seven of Diamonds - Max Brand

 

[McKenna]

Although I'm a fan of the Western genre, I'm not a fan of John Wayne.

Is that an oxymoron?



Colly: The Sacketts... mmmm mmmm good. Any movie starring Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot gets two thumbs up in my book! I forgot about Connagher. I really like that one, too. Especially the part about the woman who'd write messages and tie them to tumbleweeds. I can relate to that on so many levels.

 

[Guest]

Although I'm a fan of the Western genre, I'm not a fan of John Wayne. Is that an oxymoron?

No. I cared nada for the man or personality, but in his best films (i.e., with Ford), he transcended "John Wayne" as image, persona, etc. (like the cacti and mesa ).

Perdita

 

[McKenna]

No. I cared nada for the man or personality, but in his best films (i.e., with Ford), he transcended "John Wayne" as image, persona, etc. (like the cacti and mesa ).

Perdita

I saw him in a couple of films a few weeks ago, and was reminded of why I didn't much care for him. Though I will say I did like him with K. Hepburn in Rooster Cogburn. He seemed less arrogant and more amusing in that one. Thanks for the reminder, P.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Although I'm a fan of the Western genre, I'm not a fan of John Wayne.

Is that an oxymoron?



Colly: The Sacketts... mmmm mmmm good. Any movie starring Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot gets two thumbs up in my book! I forgot about Connagher. I really like that one, too. Especially the part about the woman who'd write messages and tie them to tumbleweeds. I can relate to that on so many levels.

The books are even better. I would have never thought to cast Tom Sellick as Orin, but I have to say, Sam Elliot as Tell is the first time I can ever remember a screen character looking just like my image of him from the books was

 

[Weird Harold]

But I wonder, what - to you - is the best Western ever?

I'd say The Wild Bunch, but Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a close second.

Of course, I grew up with Saturday Matiniee serials and the golden age of westerns on television -- Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, Branded, Bonanza, Have Gun Will Travel, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Disney's version of Zorro, and dozens I can't name off-hand, all shaped my idea of what a "Western" was and should be. The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and theSundance Kid, and the "spaghetti westerns" from Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood went against all of the cliches and stereotypes of what a "Western" should be.

 

[Belegon]

most of these are already listed...

Silverado
Young Guns
Unforgiven
The Outlaw Josey Wales (or any "Man with No Name")
The Long Riders
Tombstone

and from the old school

High Noon
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

and...
despite Clint Eastwood singing...

Paint Your Wagon

 

[Evil Alpaca]

most of these are already listed...

and...
despite Clint Eastwood singing...

Paint Your Wagon

I had that one too!


Great minds think alike.

 

[Belegon]

I had that one too!


Great minds think alike.

...we could scare some people bra...but if the Bolts ever make another Super Bowl, you and I are gonna give some bar a very rousing chorus of "No Name City"! Preferably in celebration after the game...last time things went downhill quick, despite the hope in the early third quarter...


(BTW, I'm rooting Steelers...just because BP420 loves them...)

 

[Evil Alpaca]

...we could scare some people bra...but if the Bolts ever make another Super Bowl, you and I are gonna give some bar a very rousing chorus of "No Name City"! Preferably in celebration after the game...last time things went downhill quick, despite the hope in the early third quarter...


(BTW, I'm rooting Steelers...just because BP420 loves them...)

If the bolts ever make the superbowl again, I'll definitely have to get out to SD for the Superbowl party.

I'm just rootin' for a good game. I can't really root against either team. Bettis's last game versus the Seahawks first-ever superbowl? Could be fun.