List your favorite Westerns of all time (and why they are)

It is not a bad movie, at all. But given the level of talent in front of and behind the camera an inevitable disappointment. Jeffrey Wright is the stand-out and his performance alone makes it worth a watch. But honestly the first twenty minutes of The Outlaw Josey Wales make a more compelling if less historically accurate distillation of the conflict in Missouri.

Yes, many experts and average viewers alike consider both There Will Be Blood and Treasure of the Sierra Madre to be Westerns. Whether they fit your personal definition is of course up to you.

Both placed very highly and back-to-back on the MoFo Top 100 Westerns, at #15 and #14, wedged between A Fistful of Dollars and The Outlaw Josey Wales on the countdown.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

This was a TV film I saw a couple of years ago that I really dug...



A Man for Hanging, starring Peter Breck.

__________________

Off the top of my head:

The Outlaw Josey Wales - I guess this was my first deconstructionist Western, I was young, and it played on HBO a lot so I saw it a million times. Love the interesting cast of characters and how a man goes from being a plain man to ruthless to heroic. And lots of great scenes like the "Mr. Chain Blue Lightin' hisself" scene, the "You gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?" scene, the Commancheros scene, and, of course, the meeting with Ten Bears (my favorite scene of the film).

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - My first exposure to both Newman and Redford (and Katharine Ross, for that matter), it's exciting, it's witty, it's fun, and yet it's also serious. One of the movies that made me love movies.

Big Jake - This is the one I grew up on, the one that introduced me to John Wayne, and one that felt very heroic and kinda teaching me how to be honorable and heroic (in the sense of standing up to bullies and protecting those I can) when I would become a man someday. Another favorite Western scene is here in the two scenes between Boone and Wayne with the "No matter what happens, no matter who else gets killed..." line getting switched between the two of them. Just good stuff.

High Noon - Just a brilliant film that I loved from stem to stern but especially in the way the town abandons him and he follows through anyway.

Shane - Watched this a million times when I was young too this was always a really powerful film to me about what it REALLY means to be a man (if that's your thing) in the character of the father and then ultimately of Shane riding away because he knows he's a bad influence. Wish they'd kept the ending.

Silverado - Just love this film. This, to me, is how you make a film iconic on purpose without overdoing it. The dialogue is great and it really is the less hammy version of Tombstone. A bit of a mess because of all the Rosanna Arquette stuff that got cut because it slowed the movie down that makes some stuff not really make sense but I can overlook that for the showdown between Kline and Dennehy alone.

Blazing Saddles - Do I really need to say anything about this?


Edit - Three others I thought of that would be pretty high up as well:
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Once Upon A Time In The West
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

My top-25 Western ballot from the countdown a couple of years ago was:

__________________

(sadwalk)

I actually compiled a quick list before winnowing them down to the previous 10. I'm sure there are others I overlooked.

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
For a Few Dollars More
The Searchers
Yellow Sky
Red Sun
Stagecoach
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Tombstone
True Grit (2010)
The Magnificent Seven
Ride the High Country
Shane
My Darling Clementine
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Wild Bunch
Red River
High Plains Drifter
Open Range
The Homesman
The Revenant
Day of the Outlaw
Firecreek
The Sisters Brothers
Jeremiah Johnson
Destry Rides Again
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Hombre
Bend of the River
The Naked Spur
The Far Country
The Man from Laramie
The Man From Snowy River
Quigley Down Under
High Noon
White Buffalo
Breakheart Pass
Chato's Land
Valdez is Coming
High Plains Drifter
Pale Rider
Hang 'Em High
The Professionals
Duel at Diablo
The Bravados
Fort Apache
Two Rode Together
Night Passage

I just took inventory of my top 20 westerns. It sucks. I'm currently focusing on a top and bottom 50 of 1972 just to get 100 films for a single year down, but t's obvious that I need to make room for westerns more often.

Shane
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Professionals

__________________
https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

Wow, you've got quite a few of my personal favorites in that list! I'm glad to see that there's somebody else out there who's into The Hunting Party, The Four of the Apocalypse and Cemetary Without Crosses as much as I am! Plus, while I haven't seen The Proposition, Ulzana's Raid, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Hannie Caulder and Bone Tomahawk yet, I'm definitely going to check those out at some future date.

On the other hand, for some reason I'm not as much into They Call Me Trinity as other people seem to be, although I do love My Name Is Nobody.

One of the reasons I'm curious about The Proposition is that it's directed by John Hillcoat, and I'm particularly interested in seeing what he does with Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. However... I sincerely hope I find both films to be more watchable than The Road, which I found to be a dank, dark and depressing viewing experience, however well-made and well-acted.

Besides Blood Meridian, the future Western film(s) I'm most interested in seeing are Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga. When I was watching the featurettes on the Blu-ray of Wyatt Earp, I heard Kevin Costner talking about how one of his most formative experiences as a movie lover was seeing How the West Was Won in its original Cinerama presentation as a little kid. Judging from the trailer, the new Horizon films kind of look like Costner was trying to make his own version of that film.

__________________
"It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid." - Clint Eastwood as The Stranger, High Plains Drifter (1973)

Absolutely nothing available today beats Cinerama - not even IMAX, not by a long shot.

(I wasn't around for the original release of HTWWW, but I have attended some of the Cinerama revivals at the Cinerama Dome in the last decade or so....)

Have you seen Cut-throats Nine? Considering how much you like The Four of the Apocalypse, it should be right up your alley. Also, check out Brimstone, but be warned that I seem to be the only person on these forums who loves it wholeheartedly.

High Plains Drifter- I like the revenge aspect of this. Everyone involved had to pay...

Outlaw Josey Wales- Sometimes circumstances will change a man...

Shane- Sometimes a man must be who he is, and sacrifice himself to save others...

Django Unchained- Former slave turned bounty hunter, this was a nice surprise. Would like to have known more about his past...