Your Favorite Clint Eastwood Western(s)

High Plains Drifter, Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josie Wales My Favorite? The one that's on right now.

 

For A Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Unforgiven
High Plains Drifter
Joe Kidd
The Outlaw Jose Wales

 

High Plains Drifter. There are no others. To me

 

My favourite - Hang 'Em High - Troublesome ideas about justice and Ed Begley was great as a villain.

What one was it that he gets to say to the bounty hunter, 'Dyin' ain't much of a livin'? The Outlaw Josey Wales? Second, not as good as above.

 

High plains

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales. That Indian, that dog, and the one-liners Clint spits out literally are funny.

 

I've never really cared for most Eastwood films aside from the Leones and Thunderbolt & Lightfoot. I personally would not rank him in the Western pantheon with Cooper, Wayne, Stewart, Randolph Scott, or other immortals.

I respect him for occasionally trying to revive the western with Pale Rider and Unforgiven, even if I didn't much like the films.

Someone mentioned Rawhide as a sort of joke. IMHO there are actually some Rawhides that are better than the Oscar-winning Unforgiven. I keep meaning to write about Rawhide for the TV western thread, but I never get around to it. Some of my favorite episodes off the top of my head (don't feel like looking up the titles; IMDb is your friend):

* Albert Salmi as a robber killed by Rowdy (Eastwood) who mysteriously comes back to life and joins the drive. Rawhide was unique among TV oaters in implying supernatural elements to some stories.

* An early episode with Dan Duryea as a vengeful gunman trailing the herd. A variation on the great Audie Murphy western No Name On The Bullet, this may have been shot first.

* Another one with Dan Duryea vowing revenge, this time against drover Warren Oates. Features moody day-for-night B&W photography, giving the vibe of a sagebrush Twilight Zone.

My favorite Eastwood performance was probably in this, showcasing his versatility:

 

My favorite is The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, but that's because of Eli Wallach as Tuco. Stole that movie right out from under Eastwood. And the great Morricone score, of course.

Going just by Clint Eastwood's involvement, it's Unforgiven.

 

Funnest to Watch - A Fistful of Dollars
The Weirdest (in a good way) - For A Few Dollars More
Most Epic (and my vote for greatest western of all time) - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Best Opening Scene - Hang Em' High
Most Disturbing - High Plains Drifter
Most Quotable - The Outlaw Josey Wales
Best acted - Unforgiven

Honorable mention to: Two Mules for Sister Sara and Pale Rider

Clint is my favorite cowboy by far.

 

Forgot about Joe Kidd - Clint was a great fit for that role.

I *love* the long shot he makes in that movie - in the top three rifle shot scenes...in my book.

 

This one seems to get broadcast the most on cable TV lately. I almost never see Josey Wales broadcast but High Plains Drifter I see regularly.

 

The Good The Bad And The Ugly
High Plains Drifter

 

back from the dead a thirteen year old thread...

 

Much like his characters in High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider

An eerie coincidence?

I don't think so.

 

LOL...

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales is probably my favorite.

 

What didn't you like about his westerns, the Italian films good, but not their USA counterpart movies in relation to Wayne & co .,his anti hero take, or his acting ?

 

Aside. Why was "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance " shot in b&w .,to capture darkness in the storyline, budget constraints?

 

Well first off I doubt if even Clint himself thinks he was a great actor. I don't even think he's really all that interesting a screen presence.

Most of Clint's US westerns are at least passable time-killers for me. Sister Sara and Joe Kidd are diverting enough, although Eastwood himself is upstaged by his co-star in both. Robert Duvall in the latter is one of the great villains in western history (I actually think he is better here than in the same year's Godfather).

Hang 'em High actually started out as a pilot for a TV series, which you can tell -- the format would have been the Eastwood character bringing in outlaws for the Judge. When Eastwood needed a western script quickly for his US star debut it was hurriedly padded out so that it seems awkwardly structured.

Josey Wales is OK -- maybe it's the directorial style that doesn't appeal to me, or Eastwood himself. You can say the same thing for High Plains Drifter. Unforgiven I think is just plain overrated, from the script to the overall film.

Eastwood's ascension to stardom helped extend the western's popularity for another decade or so and as I said, I appreciate his continued respect for the form in interviews (he was especially good in the TCM documentary on Budd Boetticher).

RE Liberty Valance: Ford had been trying to film the story for years, but studios considered it too downbeat and uncommercial. He was finally able to raise the money by casting two established (and expensive) western stars on a B&W budget. Casting Wayne works, but Stewart is too old for his role, and too familiar a western star presence to play a tenderfoot. Stewart (and probably Ford too) realized this, but the film could not have been made otherwise.

The B&W actually helps overall, especially in the gunfight, its TV studio set giving it an eerie Twilight Zone ambiance. However I have no doubt that if Ford had been able to use color, he would have.

 

For me in order:

High Plains Drifter
Pale Rider
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Hang 'Em High
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

It's been a long while since I've seen the other films in the "man with no name trilogy" so I really can't determine where I would place them.
Still need to see Two Mules For Sister Sarah

 

It's a good one...

 

I personally would put For A Few Dollars More right up there with Good, Bad & Ugly. Fistful of Dollars is fun but not as good as either.

I forgot about Hang Em High. I remember hating it when I was younger, but recently researched it and liked it. I'd still have to rate it last among his Westerns though.

 

Space Cowboys.

Tommy Lee Jones

Donald Sutherland

James Garner

What's not to like?

 

All of them.

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales - easy #1. Don't see that ever changing. It's my favorite Western whether Clint is in it or not.
Unforgiven
High Plains Drifter