Your Top 3 westerns of all time?

HELL OR HIGH WATER is definitely a modern / contemporary western. My favorite film of 2016. There have been a number of outstanding modern westerns -- ARENA 3-D (1953), THE LUSTY MEN, THE MISFITS, LONELY ARE THE BRAVE, HUD, THE ROUNDERS, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, J.W. COOP, JUNIOR BONNER, WHEN THE LEGENDS DIE, LONE STAR (1996), MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWBOYS to name a few. And now HELL OR HIGH WATER which is brilliant and relevant reflects the life of many people I know. A modern western is about life in the contemporary west, about being a westerner in modern times.

 

I hated it. A complete mis-reading of the novel. The Coen brothers took all the heroism out of Rooster Cogburn, degraded the character and turned him into a wuss. The little girl was cute, but so what, little girls are always cute. There is nothing authentic about it's attitudes or the stupid comedy they inserted into the story.

The original film captures the spirit of the novel and is just a better film in every way.

 

Forgot to mention THE HI-LO COUNTRY (1999) and ALL THE PRETTY HORSES (2000) in the list of modern, contemporary westerns.

 

I love Westerns (I even watch things like old Tim Holt oaters), but the one I could not live without is The Wild Bunch. Well, maybe I could, since it's pretty much burned into my brain.

I drove two hours to NYC to watch the recent showing of the 70mm version. First time I had seen that one, although I saw the 35mm the week it hit wide release.

Of course it was incredible, but the most amazing thing was that at the end, the audience--who were mostly young and undoubtedly hadn't seen it in a theater before--stood up and applauded. Don't see that much in movie theaters these days. Sam would have been proud.

 

For a Few Dollars More (1965)
The Bravados (1958)
Evil Roy Slade (1972)

 

I hear you. The Wild Bunch fell on me like a ton of bricks. It was a life-altering film, and it still is. Gut-wrenching brain-food. I wish Sam Peckinpah had lived to direct a dozen more westerns. He was authentic from the inside out. There's nobody else like him, and there's no other film even remotely like The Wild Bunch. It's in a class of its own. Twenty minutes in and you know you're going through something.

 

My respect for Peckinpah increased tenfold when he acknowledged that he was influenced by Italian westerns, which were derided by "serious" film critics at the time.

 

Bend of the River (aka Where the River Bends)
Ride the High Country (aka Guns in the Afternoon)
Johnny Guitar

I've never understood why The Searchers gets raved about.

I'd also like separate categories for spaghetti or European westerns. And also for comedy or parody westerns. Anyone remember Cowboy with Jack Lemmon and Glenn Ford?

 

The Searchers
Rio Bravo
Man of the West

 

Yeah. Great film. Really dynamic interaction between the Lemon and Ford characters. Would like to see that again.

 

I've never been a fan of westerns, but two have caught my eye as I've aged:

HIGH NOON - an old Criterion promo caught my eye and I knew I'd have to see the film someday. I now have the Laserdisc, several DVD versions and a Blu-ray.

MY DARLING CLEMENTINE - every time I saw the M*A*S*H episode "Movie Tonight", it made me want to watch MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. Good film.

 

I remember it being more a comedy-drama than a traditional western - kind of questioning the romance of the Wild West. Dick York of television's Bewitched had a good part in it too.

 

The only comedy I can recall is a minor recurring theme of Ford/Lemmon taking a bath in a hotel, and shooting bugs off the wall with a pistol. But its been a while so there may have been more.

 

I'm not very big on westerns, but here's 5 I own off the top of my head:

The Westerner 1940

The Magnificent 7 1960

Hang Em High 1968

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly 1966

Rio Bravo 1959

 

1. The Good The Bad & The Ugly
2. Once Upon A Time In The West
3. Hang 'Em High

 

Peckinpah was not influenced by Italian westerns. He said that the popularity of spaghetti westerns made THE WILD BUNCH possible. Before the Leone films arrived on these shores no studio would have backed it.

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales
Tombstone
Jeremiah Johnson..I guess it's a western.

So many good one's left out.

 

3 most entertaining
Clint Eastwood westerns.....

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Unforgiven
High Plains Drifter

 

I've never been a Clint fan. What people see in him is just lost on me. In the 1960s and 1970s James Garner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Warren Oates and others always acted circles around Clint. I find Kris Kristofferson, Robert Duvall, Sam Elliott, Kevin Costner, and yes even Tom Selleck much more believable as westerners and as cowboys. Clint made fewer western films than any of them, and he's such a twinkle-toes.

 

1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. A Fistful of Dynamite/Duck You Sucker
3. Stagecoach (1939)

apologies to Clint Eastwood- not sure how I could leave out "High Plains Drifter" "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" or "Unforgiven"

 

Yes to the first two but I'd squeeze in Josey Wales before HPD. Just.

 

Said by no one, ever.

If we were in a movie with Clint, this is the part where he drops his head, and throws his poncho over his shoulder. Then looks up with his facial expression completely changed. Your move.

 

My five favorite westerns are:

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Open Range
Fistful of Dollars
True Grit (2010)
The Outlaw Josey Wales

Honorable mentions in no certain order:

For A Few Dollars More
Unforgiven
Hang Em' High
High Noon
Winchester '76
Tombstone
High Plains Drifter

 

Said by me, time and again. And I'll go one step further.

"Favorite westerns" threads always deteriorate into a twinkle-toes competition. What's your favorite Clint? I'd put this Clint behind that Clint and that Clint ahead of this Clint. You're all out of your minds over Clint. It's as if some people never saw any westerns but the fistful of Clints'. Like I said, a twinkle-toes competition.

A true and authentic thread about Favorite Westerns would make a rule: no twinkle-toes. Pick westerns with No Clint Content.

Westerns aside from Clint.

 

your favorite CLINT EASTWOOD western ? »