Favourite Western's

[deepsepia]

It's very hard to find realistic depictions of native Americans, "dances with wolves" tries, but the closest I've seen to the "feeling" of the encounter with natives is a Bruce beresford film, set in Canada, called "Black Robe"

When you think about it, it's our history, but we have very few good films. There's no good film of Custer's Last Stand, for example [correction: there is a pretty good television miniseries, called "Son of the Morning Star" about Custer -- but even that says something. One of the most celebrated battles of the West, and there's one effort, 30 years ago] No good film of the "trail of tears", no good film of Louis and Clark, no good film about Geronimo, Chief Joseph, of the most celebrated Indian warrior, Tecumseh.

"Westerns" are mostly set in a largely imaginary world that eastern newspaper reporters created for audiences who had only the vaguest acquaintance with the facts, so they're a kind of nostalgia for what was fiction. Even the celebrated gunfights bore only a casual relationship to the received stories.

I give "the assassination of Jesse James" high marks for at least trying to get some of the history right. Deadwood also gets points on that score.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

When you think about it, it's our history, but we have very few good films..."Westerns" are mostly set in a largely imaginary world that eastern newspaper reporters created for audiences who had only the vaguest acquaintance with the facts, so they're a kind of nostalgia for what was fiction. Even the celebrated gunfights bore only a casual relationship to the received stories.

Ransom Stoddard: You're not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?
Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

~ from The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance.



Liberty Vallance is another of my top westerns, even though I think a lot of it drags and lacks tension. Whenever it does start moving, it goes straight into Warp Factor Nine, thanks partly to one of Lee Marvin's best and most villainous outings in film as the laughing, giggling psychopath, Liberty Vallance, a man Mahatma Ghandi would probably shoot.

Vallance: pick up my steak!

Replacement link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mejzuQ9kVbs

Apologies for the crap sound quality, but the scene is still electrifying, with superb playing by all the parties. I am always spellbound by the sheer cool of John Wayne in the way he faces down the murderous hate of Lee Marvin's Vallance, and the bizarre gracefulness with which he boots the face of Vallance's henchman (Strother Martin, who went on to play the prison "Captain" in Cool Hand Luke) as though he were flicking dogshit off his shoes. Woody Strode, playing "my boy, Pompey", radiates a quiet and deadly resolve so chilling that even Liberty Vallance knows he's up against it. I'd watch Liberty Vallance for this scene alone; but there are other great moments in it, not least the final train scene, which looks like a symbolic time-tunnel moment in which James Steward and Vera Miles are fast forwarding out of the Old West and into the disappointing mundanity of modern America.

[Ennath]

Some favorites includes:
Tombstone
The Shootist
Rio Bravo
Red River
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Fort Apache
Support Your Local Sheriff
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Big Country

[Navvet]

Some of my favorite Western movies, in no particular order:

Rio Bravo
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Tall in the Saddle
Once Upon a Time in the West
Tombstone
Breakheart Pass

And my favorite Western TV shows;
Cheyenne
Have Gun Will Travel
The Virginian
F Troop

[wowser]

Blazing Saddles

[FineHamAbounds]

Does Giant count? It's not technically a true frontier western, but it's set in the west. Excellent film: Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor marry and get a ranch together. Then their hand, James Dean, leaves them and becomes an oil tycoon and opens a hotel. They have kids too. And the movie spans out over about 30 years.
It's almost three and half hours long, but y'all do yourself a great service and watch it if you haven't! It's a classic!
If that doesn't count, uuuuum, Cat Ballou. High Noon. I just watched Destry Rides Again the other day. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

[ultrawildcat]

the outlaw josie wales
tombstone[val kilmer's doc holliday was brilliant]
the long riders[love when a shot all to hell carradine says" where the hell's missouri"]
the searchers
the good, the bad and the ugly
hang 'em high
pale rider
the shootist
the wild bunch, every scene a masterpiece
unforgiven, brilliant exchanges between clint and gene hackman
and a few others that escape me at the moment
should add man in the wilderness, although not technically a western, along with jeremiah johnson

[renno61]

here some of my fav westerns in no order
quigley down under
once upon a time in the west
for a few dollars more
the good the bad and the ugly
death rides a horse
Support Your Local Sheriff!
the professionals
The Great Silence
outlaw josie wales
unforgiven
winchester 73
ride lonesome
high plains drifter

[tygrkhat40]

Unforgiven
Silverado
Dances With Wolves
Blazing Saddles
Maverick

[snorkie]

Branded: A good movie in it's own right; however, what fascinates me is the scene where Mona Freeman sizes up Alan Ladd. She decides then and there that he's for her.

The Anthony Mann/James Stewart Westerns (Winchester 73, Bend of the River, The Far Country, The Naked Spur, and The Man From Laramie): The more you watch these little genre films the more interesting each one becomes.

Tall in the Saddle: A very ornery John Wayne gets the girl anyway.

One additional comment about a previously mentioned favorite "Hang 'Em High": I thoroughly enjoy Clint Eastwood and Pat Hingle wrangling over crime and punishment - adds depth to the film.

cheers