Westerns

[Johnny Ringo]

It's been a long time since I saw a good western. The Last good ones were "Wyatt Earp" with Kevin Costner and Tombstone with Val Kilmer. Anyone else like a good Western Movie? What were some of your favorites?
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[RonG]

I think this post belongs on the thread about age but I was going to say that the last good westerns were Shane and Shenandoah. If you youngsters want a lesson in being a badass, watch Jack Palance in Shane.

Whatever happened to Randolph Scott?

 

[Johnny Ringo]

Youngster? I'm 38. Grew up on John Wayne and Gunsmoke.

 

[RonG]

Apology offered. Anyone named Johnny Ringo must have at least some sense of history. I am 37 so we probably have hit the same general time frame. I just appreciate the older westerns.

Not a big Duke fan though - actually The Conqueror is one of the funniest bad movies to watch just for the awful dialogue.

I wrote the previous post after seeing an item in USA Today about a TNT remake of High Noon where a bunch of goofball young actors criticize the original for being too slow and not showing enough range of emotions. Gary Cooper should come back and kick all of their butts.

Actually, the best western of the last thirty years was on TV today - Blazing Saddles.

 

[Endlessly]

*giggle* The last good western was.. That one with Kevin Costner and Jeff Goldblum.

Because Jeff Goldblum was in it.

 

[Lasher]

That was "Silverado", Endlessly.

We actually watched it in my History of the American West class when I was in college. The professor I had used three films to illustrate some point he was trying to make on myths about the West and blah, blah, blah. The three films he chose for this were "Silverado", "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (classic John Wayne, and I think the middle flick from the Fort Apache trilogy - directed by John Ford, btw), and "Blazing Saddles". Everyone thought it was such a blow-off when he did it, but he just fucking slammed most of the class with the questions he asked about the films on the final.

 

[CreamyLady]

I thought Tombstone was much better than Wyatt Earp, but it could have been because Val Kilmer just stole it.

The first version of Stagecoach seemed marginally better than the 1960's remake. Audie Murphy in Seven Ways from Sundown was pretty good.

I also liked Fort Apache better than She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.

As for Silverado, it was interesting, but it went on just a little too long.

 

[Lasher]

Oh, I forgot to answer the question....

Best recent Western was "Unforgiven".

 

[Rosebud]

The Cowboys...enough said...

 

[Laurel]

I'm not a big Western fan, though I did like "The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly". Clint Eastwood is a bad ass in nearly everything he does (except for "Paint Your Wagon" - Lee Marvin was the ass-kicker in that one, and it's a musical... a musical I like, so I guess I have to amend my previous "I hate musicals" stance to "I hate musicals except good ones with Lee Marvin in them"). And I dug Kurosawa's "The Seventh Samurai", which was the basis for "The Magnificent Seven". Actually, most everything Kurosawa is pretty good, but that's another thread...

 

[Laurel]

The three films he chose for this were "Silverado", "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (classic John Wayne, and I think the middle flick from the Fort Apache trilogy - directed by John Ford, btw), and "Blazing Saddles"

Wait, wait... are we considering "Blazing Saddles" to be a western? If so, then that's my favorite western. Damn, that movie still cracks me up, and I've seen it countless times on cable...

 

[Lasher]

are we considering "Blazing Saddles" to be a western?

Dr Crawford seemed to think so... And it's already come up twice on this thread. So I guess that would be a Yes, LOL.

 

[Havocman]

"Scuse me while I whip this out..."--Blazing Saddles

"Nothing like a good piece of hickory."--Pale Rider

"Jacob McCandles? I thought you was dead."--Big Jake

"Around here we got something we call a Missouri boatride"--The Outlaw Josey Wales

"Who ARE those guys???"--Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

"I'm your huckleberry...that's just my game"--Tombstone

5 Westerns from the "modern" era that I'll watch anytime I happen to come across one of 'em while channel surfing.

Got to agree on that Jack Palance badass in "Shane" opinion though...my favorite "classic" era western

Havoc

 

[GR81]

What about the Rounders, with Henry Ford? That was a good one!!!

 

[Randyrandy]

The one western that really hits home with me was the SHOOTIST staring John Wayne. It had a special meaning in that John Wayne was playing Wild Bill Hickock in Wild bills last dying days. What most didn't know was that John Wayne himself was dying from cancer when he made this movie. It really presented the life of a dying man well. How could it not have.

I love westerns and probably watched most westerns several times. We have lost some of our greatest western movie stars the past few years. They are gone now , Ben Johnson,Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne and more, we will all miss them and be happy that we once had such men.

 

[Skibum]

These four are from my favorite movies list on that thread:

Big Jake
Blazing Saddles
Chisum (really bad history of the Lincoln County War, but a fun movie)
The Horse Soldiers (really a war movie, but close!)

Westrens are the most uniquely American media form, even the ones made in Spain by Italian producers. The myth of the Old West is recognized all over the world, and even believed in some places.

 

[Deborah]

The best western of recent years is, of course, "Bad Girls" starring Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore. That movie just makes we want to strap on a gun and jump on a horse.

The older westerns you see on the Western Channel are total BS, what with the portrayal of Native Americans. BTW, I just spent two days on an Indian reservation, whooping it up and drinking firewater.

 

[Gingersnap]

Blazing Saddles has my vote and it still makes me laugh...

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

"The Outlaw Josey Wales" is about as perfect a movie as you can get ("I reckon"), though to me it isn't exactly a "western" -- more of an essay on post-Civil War America, a perfect cousin to "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". ("If you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk")

Oh, I could list movies from "Shane" ("Pop's got work for you, Shane") to the amazing "Unforgiven" ("We all got it coming, kid"), but the one that reverberates the most with me has always been "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". ("This is the WEST, sir.") A Perfect Western, except for the distinct under-use of horses.

As far as comedies go, "Blazing Saddles" (It's twue! It's twue!) is great, but I can never, never resist "Support Your Local Sherrif" when it's on TV.

Now -- when the hell is SOMEONE going to do the film version of F-Troop? ("Who says I'm dumb?")

 

[Johnny Ringo]

Then their was "The Unforgiven" with Clint Eastwood
Another good Eastwood flick was "Pale Rider" a follow up of What ever Happened to the man with no-name from the spaghetti westerns.

Tombstone and Wyatt Earp were very Hollywood. The real Wyatt Earp was a con artist, a liar and a bunco artist and murderer.

While some will say that the fight at th OK Corral was a matter of law Enforcement, The Murder of Frank Stillwell in Tucson Arizona is a fact that Wyatt escaped trial for.

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[Johnny Ringo]

OHHHHH! I FORGOT!!!!!!!
The Man who shot Liberty Valance!

http://www.johnnyringo.com

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Wish I'd thought of that.

 

[Thumper]

Ike Clanton still lives!!!

As I recall Frank Stillwell was implicated in the ambush that killed Morgan Earp...nuff said...after all it was the West

Didn't Hickock die from being shot in the back as he was playing cards....?

Loved paint your wagon...though it wasn't really a classic western. And anything with Clint Eastwood...except Hang'em High. Favorite Eastwood film was the one where He painted the town red..I forget the name. A blonde thing ya know

 

[Johnny Ringo]

Hickok

Hickok was shot in the back of the head in 1876.
He was playing cards at the Number 10 saloon (Deadwood S. Dakota) when Jack McCall snuck up on him and emptied his brain pan on the card table. Hickok was holding two pair, Aces and Eights. Known to this day as the deadmans hand.
He was still in his 30s.
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