Great Westerns

[GringoTex]

Once again, I run across some second-class network (AMC) airing John Ford's "The Searchers," making me drag out the DVD for proper viewing and compiling yet another "greatest westerns list":

The Searchers
3:10 to Yuma
The Unforgiven (NOT by Eastwood - by Huston)
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Red River
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Naked Spur
Johnny Guitar
Forty Guns
Ride Lonesome

[Metro]

I think the Man With No Name series is amazing.
Fist Full of Dollars
A Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Now I want to watch them again. I also want to check out Once Upon a Time in the West. I've seen bits of it and really liked it.

[drdi]

rio grande
sargeant rutledge
stagecoach
high noon
my darling clementine
the magificent seven
the wild bunch

[Excape Goat]

I am not a western fan....

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is one of my favorite movie.


The three-way gun battle was a classic.....

[Iceblink]

Since you seem to be into westerns, perhaps you can answer this question...

What in the world is so fabulous about Shane? I have actually taught the book to 7th graders... and, when we finished, we watched the movie.

I thought it was absolutely terrible... just awful. They miscast it throughout... they changed things unnnecessarily...

Yet it seems to be listed as a great western.

I can't imagine that I would like it even if I didn't know the book backwards and forwards.

[GringoTex]

Originally posted by Iceblink
Since you seem to be into westerns, perhaps you can answer this question...

What in the world is so fabulous about Shane? I have actually taught the book to 7th graders... and, when we finished, we watched the movie.

I thought it was absolutely terrible... just awful. They miscast it throughout... they changed things unnnecessarily...


Shane is considered the first Western to wear its mythology on it's sleave- and critics love those "postmodern" touches. Personally, I hate the film.

[cj herrera]

My favorite western may be The Wild Bunch, from the great titles and ants/scorpion intro to the Gatling gun ending.

I got sucked into about half of The Searchers again on AMC the other night, too. Wayne could sure turn on the hate.

"She's been livin' with a buck!!"

Wow.

[HogNose]

Sorry guys, I like Shane. The movie will certainly pass the test of time better than the book.

Also, since most of these lists are heavy with John Ford movies, what do you think of Liberty Valance or The Horse Soldiers?

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by GringoTex
The Searchers


That'll be the day.

I would also add The Professionals.

[Bahnzo]

Wow, a buncha westerns that I have to admit I haven't seen....a trip to the local video store is in order for some rentals.

Unforgiven (Clint version....can you explain the Huston version?)
Pale Rider
Any of the Man with No Name movies
True Grit
Rio Bravo
The Outlaw Josey Wales

I *just* watched Shane the other nite....not bad but certainly not as good as the tvguide review(gave it 4 stars)

How about "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"? Etta Place, the school teacher they shack up with, is my great-great-grandmother. A shady existance her life was.....

Also.....I've always said that one of the biggest stars in any western is the scenery. Anyone agree/dis that point?

[GringoTex]

Originally posted by Bahnzo

Unforgiven (Clint version....can you explain the Huston version?)


Sort of an inverse version of The Searchers, whereby Audrey Hepburn plays a squaw captured by soldiers and raised by a white family. Also stars Burt Lancaster.

[drdi]

Originally posted by HogNose
Sorry guys, I like Shane. The movie will certainly pass the test of time better than the book.

Also, since most of these lists are heavy with John Ford movies, what do you think of Liberty Valance or The Horse Soldiers?

these two are outstanding movies, also...john ford, howard hawks, nicholas ray- johny guitar-made unforgetable movies. i love to see them all in my home theater projector room, because seeing movies is culture in his highest form.
i do not forget also:
drums along the mohawks
the sun shines bright
RIO BRAVO
high noon
sergio leone`s movies
the magnificent seven
rio grande, fort apache, she whore a yellow ribbon

[minorthreat]

Originally posted by GringoTex
Once again, I run across some second-class network (AMC) airing John Ford's "The Searchers," making me drag out the DVD for proper viewing and compiling yet another "greatest westerns list":

The Searchers
3:10 to Yuma
The Unforgiven (NOT by Eastwood - by Huston)
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Red River
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Naked Spur
Johnny Guitar
Forty Guns
Ride Lonesome No love for Treasure of the Sierra Madre?

[Owen Gohl]

Interesting that people have named Drums Along the Mohawk and Treasure of the Sierra Madre as Westerns. Drums is set in the Mohawk Valley of upstate NY in the 1770s (it was made in Utah). Treasure's setting is Mexico c. 1920-25. That's a spread of about 150 years, extending well beyond the range of the traditional Western (c. 1850-90).

Of course in 1777 the Mohawk Valley was the West and post-revolutionary Mexico wasn't all that far removed from the West of the 19th Century. I suppose it could be argued that Bonnie and Clyde (set in the 1930s) was the last Western.

A few personal favorites:

The Wild Bunch (1914; another one out of period)
Fort Apache
Stagecoach
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Long Riders
The Magnificent Seven

[the cup]

I'm surprised to not see anyone mention Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner. I thought it was one of the best of all time. It took a little shot from at the box office because Tombstone with Kurt Russell came out just before it and Wyatt Earp was an hour longer.

Classic though. Best part was when Wyatt Earp walks into the bar in Dodge City and discharges his double barrel shot gun and says,"I'm Wyatt Earp, it all ends now!"

You need a home theater with surround sound to appreciate the double barrel shotgun.

[Soccer-Six-Shooter]

Anyone see "My Name is Nobody" Cool western movie. The "Good, Bad and the Ugly" definetely gets the best song from a Western. Classic.

[CHICO13]

Originally posted by cj herrera
My favorite western may be The Wild Bunch, from the great titles and ants/scorpion intro to the Gatling gun ending.

This movie kicks ass and takes names.

[bungadiri]

Originally posted by the cup
I'm surprised to not see anyone mention Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner. I thought it was one of the best of all time. It took a little shot from at the box office because Tombstone with Kurt Russell came out just before it and Wyatt Earp was an hour longer.

Classic though. Best part was when Wyatt Earp walks into the bar in Dodge City and discharges his double barrel shot gun and says,"I'm Wyatt Earp, it all ends now!"

You need a home theater with surround sound to appreciate the double barrel shotgun.
Of the two, I preferred Tombstone.

Some of my favorites:

The Searchers
Stagecoach
My Darling Clementine
Eastwood's Unforgiven

Regarding Shane, I like everything about it except for practically the entire cast, starting with De Wilde, with that pipsqueak Alan Ladd following a close second. Or maybe it's the woman, who's name escapes me, that I hate the most...

[Alberto]

Originally posted by C-towner
No love for Treasure of the Sierra Madre? I love the film, but it's not a western it's a adventure/drama.

[Alberto]

Lonely are the brave. Set in modern times, but a great film with a wonderful performance by Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthaw, based on a story by Edward Abbey.