A Favorite Western.

Vanity | Jan 17th, 2006 | Laney

[laney]

With all the Hollywood Hoopla glorifying a Western Movie about *Gay Cowboys* I thought a thread identifying a True American Western Movie is in order, so freepers what is you're all time Favorite Western Movie?

[Penn_Cajun]

I have several favorites, including "Unforgiven" and "Open Range."

[azemt]

I'd vote for Rio Bravo

[hattend]

Quigley Down Under

close second : Unforgiven

[Karliner]

For hilarity : Blazing Saddles
For Cowboy stories: Miss all the old Clint Eastwood Westerns

[bcsco]

1. The Searchers

2. Shane

3. Fort Apache

4. Red River

5. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

6. Rio Grande

7. Winchester 73

8. The Bend Of The River

9. Who Shot Liberty Valance

10. Seven Men From Now

What would I do without the Westerns Channel?

[hattend]

Gotta love the Westerns Channel. WooHoo!

[R. Scott]

The Outlaw Josey Wales.

[bcsco]

I've been taping onto VHS for the past 4 years. Last year I bought a DVD recorder and now have most of the stuff converted to DVD. There's at least 100 Westerns I now have.

I grew up in Chicago when TV was first out. I recall weekends where all the B Westerns & serials were run on TV. I've always wanted to revisit those old movies and now, with the Westerns Channel, I can.

What got my goat, however, was when they had to cancel Gunsmoke. When they had that 48 hour marathon in September I was able to tape 16 episodes. I know it's on TVLand, but those are the later years and I like the old B&W episodes; especially those with Festus. They'll never be another TV show as good as Gunsmoke!

[YankeeinOkieville]

But let's get one thing clear; Brokebutt Mountain ain't about cowboys. They was sheep herders. And everybody knows that cowboys despise range maggots.

Thank you for that.

I really do get a burr under my saddle when I REPEATEDLY see people referring to this piece of hog's wallow as a "cowboy" movie. I'm sure the sheep are feelin' a bit better though now that the fellas have found other methods of keeping warm ....

I'm lovin' all these movies on this thread. Y'all are makin' me nostalgic and I have just about decided to stay home this weekend camped out in front of the idiot box.

[bcsco]

I have it on DVD. It was on the Westerns Channel a year or two ago and I taped it. It's only about 13 minutes long but is fun to watch.

[FOG724]

That's a good one but I prefer The Unforgiven.

[Freebird Forever]

Outlaw Josey Wales

I fully concur.

[mrs. a]

Please don't laugh, but when I was a kid I liked "The Shakiest Gun in the West" with Don Knotts.

Now I'm down with the crowd-pleasers - Lonesome Dove, Stagecoach, True Grit...

[Phsstpok]

The order is real tough, particularly defining which is number one and number two, but, here's my take at the top 10...

(note - I've limited this to movies, though TV movies are OK, and left out mini-series)

1. High Noon (Will Kane: "I've got to, that's the whole thing")
2. Shane (The archetype of self sacrifice for what is right)
3. The Shootist (How we all wish we had the courage to go out)
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Wayne's version of self sacrifice for what is right)
5. The Searchers (the definition of what it means to be a man)
6. Silverado (just fun - a celebration of what the western should be)
7. True Grit (John Wayne was basically playing my Grandfather (not literally, but the type))
8. Jeremiah Johnson (reminding us how it started)
9. The Magnificent Seven (illustrating the universal nature of great myths)
10. El Diablo (Van Leek: "Damn, boy! You shot him in the back" - Billy Ray Smith: "Well, his back was to me!")

The most persistent theme, and to me what is most essential about westerns, is the need to do what is right, even at great cost to oneself.  That's why it was so hard to decide between Shane and High Noon.  Shane actually is a better illustration of the theme (Kane does end up riding away with the girl, after all, Shane just rides away, quite possibly to die) but the desperate everyman of Will Kane is more easily accessible than Shane's mysterious hired gun.

The four John Wayne films might not be the best of his, but they are the ones I love the most and the ones I think carry the most in terms of archetypal western content.  Silverado and El Diablo are included just for the pure joy that can be found in them.  Jeremiah Johnson provides a great introduction to TheWest as a character itself, giving a realistic grounding to the stage for all of the other stories.

A couple of classic westerns not on my list, primarily because they have very little to do with the true stories they try to portray, are Gunfight At The OK Corral and How The West Was Won. Great movies, so long as you don't take them as literal representations of what they claim to represent. Magnificent 7, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite, representing truths without trying to claim to be a true event.

A TV movie not on the list, largely because it has more of the supernatural than the western to its central plot, is Purgatory.  It's almost more a ghost story, but the central characters are each well realized versions of great western icons, and the shoot out at the end has all of the "YEAH -  GO GIT EM!" emotion of any great western.

And were I to include mini-series Lonesome Dove would surely be there.

[Phsstpok]

I can't believe it took till the 52nd post for Shane to be mentioned!

Great film.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Shane.

Hands down.

[Dawgreg]

Yep, they are my favorite real westerns and nobody does a take off like Mel Brooks. He cracks me up. *~*

[outofhere2]

The Unforgiven (with Burt Lancaster), The 3 Godfathers, The Searchers, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, Stagecoach, The Ox-bow Incident, Tombstone

[Mr. Blonde]

I agree. Although Sergio Leone has several good ones as well, you can't go wrong with Tombstone. Too bad it didn't set off a wave of good Westerns.

[outofhere2]

Red River, Blazing Saddles, Dances with Wolves. Aint no sweeties in these films.