The Top 10 Westerns Ever Made, Plus 10 More Deep Cuts

The Federalist ^ | 03/25/2018 | By Inez Feltscher Stepman

[YogicCowboy]

Yes!

[gogeo]

I had not heard of Open Range.

You'll enjoy it.

[gundog]

My Name is Nobody

[Rummyfan]

McMurtry originally developed Lonesome Dove as a screenplay, with John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda in the Woodrow, Gus, and Jake Spoon roles.

[nickedknack]

>>Not a bad list, but Shane doesn't belong in it.<<

Don't know how you can say that. The Western Writers of America consider Shane the best Western movie ever made. I do, too.

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls006229256/

[gundog]

My Name is Nobody

[Vaquero]

John Wayne told an interviewer that he considered High Noon “the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life”,[33] and later teamed with director Howard Hawks to make Rio Bravo in response. “I made Rio Bravo because I didn't like High Noon,” Hawks explained. “Neither did Duke [Wayne]. I didn't think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn't my idea of a good Western.”

The screenplay writer was blacklisted shortly after the movie came out.

[YogicCowboy]

Wayne and others did not like the nihilist undertone, or that no one would support the lawman. That mindset is insidiously leftist, which is why (as I recall) John Wayne turned down the role.

He lived in the belly of the Commiewood beast, and was alert to subversive ideas.

[Georgia Girl 2]

3:10 To Yuma
The Professionals
The Appaloosa
Break heart Pass
The Hired Hand
The Unforgiven

[Kickaha]

Hear, hear! Tombstone over at least five on that list. Kilmer as Holliday was a tour de force performance. He was in his prime. Also notable was the cameo by an early Billy Bob Thornton. And what would Freerepublic be without Powers Boothe’s “Well, bye”?

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I haven’t seen “The Missouri Breaks” mentioned. It was a good one too.

[Alberta's Child]

No male actors or potential male theater goers with a 30;s-to-60's level of masculinity/testosterone left.

I'm not so sure about this as far as male actors go. I think Russell Crowe ("Gladiator"), Christian Bale ("3:10 to Yuma"), or even a 1990s-vintage Daniel Day Lewis ("Last of the Mohicans") could step into many of those leading male roles from that era.

[YogicCowboy]

Honorable Mention:

The Ox-Bow Incident.

Broken Arrow.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Chief Dan George’s “It’s a good day to die” scene at the end of Little Big Man has to be one of the greatest ever. Especially his comments about the Snake Woman, “Doesn’t like Horses”. I love it! As far as I’m concerned, he “stole” that movie with his performance.

[YogicCowboy]

Agree on all four, including TG, even though John Wayne is my favorite western actor.

[Leaning Right]

> Notably missing is “Tombstone.” <

I looked over the list, and there was one movie missing. A western I really enjoyed. It had an unforgettable portrayal of Doc Holliday. I just couldn’t remember the name of the movie. Yep, it was Tombstone!

[gogeo]

I own and shoot black powder cartridge revolvers, rifles, and shotguns just like those in Open Range and I will say that that film has the most realistic gunshots I've ever heard in a Western.

Yes, the bullets whistle when they go through the air.

[Alberta's Child]

One of my complaints about many Clint Eastwood movies is that they are nihilist at their core and don't incorporate many of the classic Western themes.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is a great movie in some ways, but it's got the wrong name. There Ain't No Good Guys Among These Three might have been more appropriate.

[EdnaMode]

High Noon was my favorite.

[YogicCowboy]

In parallel, the TV westerns, e.g., The Rifleman and Wagon Train, offered excellent, sometimes profound, messages with a high caliber (pun) of scripting, directing, acting.

There is nothing like the westerns now - and never will be: too politically unperverse.