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

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

[Publius]

The original with Glenn Ford as the psychopath, or the remake with Russell Crowe as the psychopath?

[Duchess47]

I think you two have a sense of humor like mine.

[dfwgator]

An old Randolph Scott in Seven Men From Now is top level.

♬Randolph Scott!♬

[MarvinStinson]

Yep.

I would put Lonsome Dove in there.

[Williams]

Pretty good list, I find the Searchers to be a bit dated. I’d move Red River up higher. Unforgiven for sure, either or both True Grits. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Liberty Valance and Red River are masterpieces. The Far Country, The Westerner, anything with Walter Brennan.

[Vaquero]

Read th books. It’s part of a series.

[RooRoobird20]

Overall, I think both versions of True Grit were very good.

But if I had to pick one over the other, I would pick the Coen Brothers’ version. I absolutely loved Jeff Bridges’ version of Rooster Cogburn. His performance was so hilarious and good, I could practically smell his BO and his whiskey breath.

Still, it’s hard not to LOVE the gunfight scene in which John Wayne had the reins in his mouth and was spinning and shooting a couple of BIG guns as he charged Robert Duvall on horseback. Awesome scene!!!!

[Alberta's Child]

Shane belongs higher on the list.

Open Range should at least be on the "Honorable Mention" list.

How do they leave out any of the various Lonesome Dove movies?

Conagher might be the most underrated Western movie of all. It has all the classic themes of a Western, and perhaps the one actor in a protagonist role (Sam Elliott) who can almost make John Wayne look like Richard Simmons.

[Williams]

Agree, Lonesome Dove.

[Publius]

Of the Westerns directed by Bud Boetticher for Randolph Scott at Columbia, "Buchanan Rides Alone" is a classic. The script reads like an episode of "Maverick."

I should note that the first 3 episodes of "Maverick" were directed by Boetticher at the request of Roy Huggins, the creator and producer of the series.

[Vaquero]

I’m your huckleberry

[SES1066]

Like “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “The Searchers” recognizes that violent men may have secured the frontier, but there can never be a place for them in civilization.

Really? What about the aphorism "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." and the like?

[Inyo-Mono]

Little Big Man (despite it’s leftist bent). The book was great, too.

Read the book before the movie came out and was a little disappointed in the film version, but it grew on me. Thomas Bergers book still ranks as one of the best novels I have ever read, 50 years later (and I read a lot of books).

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The Run of the Arrow.

It made a lasting impact on me when I saw it as a child.

[dfwgator]

[Vaquero]

Open Range was a very good western. I often rewatch it.

Too bad Kevin Costner never met an editor he like. It went around 20 minutes past the climax.

[Duchess47]

Any movie based on a book by Louis L’Amour was great.

[MarvinStinson]

High Noon was anything but leftist.

It was the leftists up North who changed the killer’s sentence of death by hanging and let him go

so he could come back and try to kill Cooper.

There would have been no story if that hadn’t happened.

[sparklite2]

I read the book plus some of his other writing.
May I recommend another author's Blood Meridian?

[wally_bert]

Loved the Trinities.

Bud Spencer was the best playing off Terrance Hill.