Movie The best western movies

[Ocha905]

I don't really consider NCFOM a Western; it's a crime film with Western elements.

Likewise with Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid; allthough that is a lot more close to a Western. I feel like it's a crime film set in the old West.

All Westerns are derivative of crime films- name me one Western that doesn't have crime in it. NCFOM is in some backwater part of Texas/Mexico. How is that not Western. Yes it's more modern and subverts the genre by not having the "goodies" win but it has all the western tropes.

Btw my second favourite western is Brokeback Mountain.

 

[Kong]

I tend to limit my classifcation to being in the age of the Old West (though not necessarily the geographical location), almost always with a main character arriving in a town for one of greed, revenge or redemption.

NCFOM ticks a few of those boxes, but not all (for me).

 

[Roobs321]

I don't really consider NCFOM a Western; it's a crime film with Western elements.

Likewise with Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid; allthough that is a lot more close to a Western. I feel like it's a crime film set in the old West.

I don't include NCFOM either. Butch Cassidy tests the limits of my scope, but it has enough western-ness for me to admit entry.

 

[Jughead77]

I love my westerns, wish they made more of them these days. A few of my favourites that haven't been mentioned,

Shenandoah(my fav)
The man from Laramie
Major Dundee
River of No Return
Warlock
The Red Badge of Courage
How the West was Won
The Man who shot Liberty Valance
Pale Rider
Maverick


These others ones are probably on the fringes of being called a western,

Last of the Mohicans
55 days in Peking
Glory
Gangs on New York
The Revenant

 

[RobbyRoy]

How the West was Won
Pale Rider

I quite liked these two as well. HTWWW is a little too sprawling but has plenty to offer. Pale Rider is classic Eastwood, heavy on the thematics, both traditional to Westerns and some more contemporary.

 

[STFU Donnie]

I love my westerns, wish they made more of them these days. A few of my favourites that haven't been mentioned,

Shenandoah(my fav)
The man from Laramie
Major Dundee
River of No Return
Warlock
The Red Badge of Courage
How the West was Won
The Man who shot Liberty Valance
Pale Rider
Maverick


These others ones are probably on the fringes of being called a western,

Last of the Mohicans
55 days in Peking
Glory
Gangs on New York
The Revenant

Maverick? Being on your list of favourites is one thing, but that film does not belong in a thread dedicated to great westerns!

Anyway, like the rest of your list. Mostly.

 

[STFU Donnie]

The Big Country is on Ch92 right now with the duel between Gregory Peck and Chuck Connors about to happen. Just a fantastic film. Ticks all my boxes.

 

[Roobs321]

The Big Country is on Ch92 right now with the duel between Gregory Peck and Chuck Connors about to happen. Just a fantastic film. Ticks all my boxes.

Every couple years I return to it expecting it to lower in quality, but it never does. The only westerns I prefer are OUATITW, Duck, You Sucker!, The Proposition, McCabe & Mrs Miller & Johnny Guitar

Wyler was one of the true greats. Could do almost any genre whilst being a prestige studio director. My other most preferred Wylers are The Childrens Hour & The Collector, and all 3 are very different films.

 

[STFU Donnie]

Gunfight at the OK Corral has just started now. It's an OK film (pun intended) but for me its main interest is seeing DeForest Kelley (Bones McCoy) in a non Star Trek role.

 

[Roobs321]

Gunfight at the OK Corral has just started now. It's an OK film (pun intended) but for me its main interest is seeing DeForest Kelley (Bones McCoy) in a non Star Trek role.

Must be at least 7 or 8 famous film versions of that gunfight by now. Most recent one I caught up with was Hour of the Gun, a fairly standard James Garner western. Includes almost the debut film role of Jon Voight.

 

[STFU Donnie]

Must be at least 7 or 8 famous film versions of that gunfight by now. Most recent one I caught up with was Hour of the Gun, a fairly standard James Garner western. Includes almost the debut film role of Jon Voight.

Probably more? John Ford's My Darling Clementine, starring Henry Fonda is a good one. I also liked the Kurt Russell Tombstone. Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp not so much.

 

[Caesar]

I have seen most of those above Ford westerns, but I just can't find room for them personally, sorry. I do prefer some of his non-Westerns.

Any specific reason? Stagecoach in particular is arguably the most influential Western ever made.

 

[Roobs321]

Any specific reason? Stagecoach in particular is arguably the most influential Western ever made.

I guess influential is one thing. Timeless quality is another.

Stagecoach and 3 Bad Men are probably the best westerns I've seen from him. Ford's style lended well to silent cinema. His talky westerns with time increasingly fell into the just fine category with me.

 

[Freshwater]

I quite liked these two as well. HTWWW is a little too sprawling but has plenty to offer. Pale Rider is classic Eastwood, heavy on the thematics, both traditional to Westerns and some more contemporary.

Pale Rider is also one of my favourites. It’s an 80’s version of 1950’s Shane. I love Shane as just about my top western.
My favourite Clint Eastwood westerns are Hang ‘em high, The Outlaw Josie Wales and Pale Rider.

 

[JoondalupJ]

Must be at least 7 or 8 famous film versions of that gunfight by now. Most recent one I caught up with was Hour of the Gun, a fairly standard James Garner western. Includes almost the debut film role of Jon Voight.

I have read somewhere that John Ford or some other famous director, but, I think it was Ford.
Actually got an account of the OK coral from the man himself Wyatt Earp, sometime before Earp died?
Which would be before 1927 or 1929 I'm not sure.

But My Darling Clementine was an authentic-looking piece of film making, with the brilliance of Henry Fonda,
and the feel of the thing, it was one of those movies, that when watching you forget your interest in the hows and whats of movie making
and cameras angles etc.
And it puts you instead in the place and the time itself, that is what I call clever, with its oldish style
Look I can't remember whether it was made in colour, but I saw it for the first time when black and white TV was the only thing you could watch.
Sometimes that gives a feel of authenticity, you know its a movie but it is quality in every way. And I believe Walter Brennan was a Clanton.

How could you go past that standard of performance, the more you remember good movies its actually remembering the qualities that made it real,
acting and directing!

 

[Roobs321]

Yeah that wouldn't surprise, as Ford was already a fairly good director come the mid 20s and the Earp stuff was still living memory, whether first or second hand.

I don't mind My Darling Clementine (it has been nearly a decade since I last saw it, but recall it being B&W (many great westerns are B&W)), and count myself as a Henry Fonda fan, but Ford made a lot of okay-to-good westerns and that is one of them to me. I recognise some people just love it though (the key appearance in a M*A*S*H episode where Potter says it is his favourite film has always stuck with me).

It seems to be a pretty significant who-shot-who-and-why event in American folklore, particularly regarding the western mythos, so even if filmmakers did regard it as the best depiction, new generations of filmmakers will probably try and tell a revisionist or more meticulous story or from a different character angle.

 

[darko]

Outlaw Josey Wales is my favorite with Unforgiven close second.

Other good ones are Pale Rider, The Long Riders, Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, 3.10 to Yuma (new one).

If we are including No Country for Old Men and Hell or High Water then those 2 are right up there.

 

[Roobs321]

To me, the only reason Pale Rider was remembered is that Clint Eastwood's 1980-1991 was a fairly barren stretch of mediocrity in his career. Directing Bird aside, there is nothing even remotely decent from him in that period. The western genre was pretty barren then itself. Pale Rider was solid enough to shine for an audience craving that sort of film from Clint, but in some other eras it wouldn't compare, would've been a blip on the radar.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Good, Bad and Ugly, Unforgiven and Josey Wales best three Eastwood westerns for me. Both Fist full of dollars closely behind. Didn’t mind Pale and Hang em High but not in same class.

One movie I’ve never watched for some reason is Altman’s movie McCabe & Mrs Miller. Seems to have received high praise.