Your Favorite Westerns?

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by mnchiefsguy

It is a good film. Cinematography is fantastic. But it is.............slow, very slow and deliberate. Worth watching once, but it will probably not be in your pantheon of westerns worthy of repeat viewings.

Yup, one viewing is plenty… I found it pretty boring tbh

[mnchiefsguy]

Rio Bravo
Tombstone
Wyatt Earp
Silverado
Pale Rider
Unforgiven
Fistful of Dollars
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Edit to add Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid....it was one of the first VHS tapes my Dad bought in the last 70's (through a video club, intro offer so he got it for 40 bucks at a time when VHS tapes were going for $99.99) Love me some Newmann and Redford!


I am sure there are others that I am forgetting. Watched a lot of Westerns with my Papa when I was a kid and rarely came across one I didn't like.

[Easy 6]

Movies - Unforgiven, Josie Wales, Tombstone, Lonesome Dove, High Plains Drifter, Open Range, Magnificent Seven, Young Guns… yes, Young Guns

TV - not much here these days, used to watch Gunsmoke, Big Valley, and Bonanza pretty religiously as a kid, but not so much anymore. If Little House on the Prairie can be considered a western, I do still watch it regularly

Books - Son of the Morning Star about Custer, Geronimo in his own words, Valdez Is Coming by Elmore Leonard

[srvy]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

Movies - Unforgiven, Josie Wales, Tombstone, Lonesome Dove, High Plains Drifter, Open Range, Magnificent Seven, Young Guns… yes, Young Guns

TV - not much here these days, used to watch Gunsmoke, Big Valley, and Bonanza pretty religiously as a kid, but not so much anymore. If Little House on the Prairie can be considered a western, I do still watch it regularly

Books - Son of the Morning Star about Custer, Geronimo in his own words, Valdez Is Coming by Elmore Leonard

Next to Gunsmoke the Virginian is my favorite. I'd put Rawhide high on my list those cattle drives were always good for unique stories.

I could never get into Big Valley. Even today ill switch to it to see if I was wrong about it. Ill to this day find something else the characters and stories just never hit me.

[Mennonite]

Originally Posted by srvy

Next to Gunsmoke the Virginian is my favorite. I'd put Rawhide high on my list those cattle drives were always good for unique stories.

I could never get into Big Valley. Even today ill switch to it to see if I was wrong about it. Ill to this day find something else the characters and stories just never hit me.

I haven't watched that many episodes of The Virginian. The episodes are really long and it seems padded. I didn't really care for Big Valley or Bonanza. Maybe the problem is that all three shows focus on well-to-do families.



I do like several episodes of Rawhide.


My Top 15:

(In no particular order)

Incident at Deadhorse (Season 6)
The Race (Season 7)
A Time for Waiting (Season 7)
Corporal Dasovik (Season 7)
Incident of the Portrait (Season 5)
Incident of the Challenge (Season 3)
Encounter at Boot Hill (Season 8 )
Incident of the Red Wind (Season 6)
The Calf Women (Season 7)
Incident of the Travellin' Man (Season 6)
Backshooter (Season 7)
Retreat (Season 7)
Incident of the Dogfaces (Season 5)
Incident of El Toro (Season 6)
Incident of the Day of the Dead (Season 2)




Honorable Mention:

Incident of the Blue Fire (Season 2)
Incident at the Buffalo Smokehouse (Season 2)
Incident of the Haunted Hills (Season 2)
Incident of the Valley in Shadow (Season 2)
Incident at Two Graves (Season 6)
Incident of the Swindler (Season 6)
Incident of the Running Man (Season 3)
Vasquez Woman (Season 8 )
Incident of the Wager on Payday (Season 3)
Incident of the Sharpshooter (Season 2)




Ranking the Seasons:

2
3
6
7 (contains some of the best and worst episodes)
1 (Consistently good, but rarely great episodes)
8 (Not as bad as its reputation.)
5 (Mostly bad, but with a few gems)
4 (Only three episodes that I liked)

[srvy]

[QUOTE=Mennonite;15852490]I haven't watched that many episodes of The Virginian. The episodes are really long and it seems padded. I didn't really care for Big Valley or Bonanza. Maybe the problem is that all three shows focus on well-to-do families.


Yes I always hated those rich rancher series myself. Its also probably why I detested Dallas.

I read you didn't like Fleming's portrayal of Trail Boss Favor, most didn't. I read somewhere Fleming recreated the character off of the diary of an 1866 trail boss named George C. Duffield.


PS funny thing now I love John Dutton of Yellowstone (Rich Rancher)probably because his top hand is a veritable badass.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by srvy

I could never get into Big Valley. Even today ill switch to it to see if I was wrong about it. Ill to this day find something else the characters and stories just never hit me.

Heh, only reason I even got started on Big Valley was because of Col Steve Austin being in it… kept waiting for a Bionic Cowboy but never got one

[srvy]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

Heh, only reason I even got started on Big Valley was because of Col Steve Austin being in it… kept waiting for a Bionic Cowboy but never got one

lol

[Raiderhater]

My top favorites in no particular order beyond the first two -

Lonesome Dove
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (I like to think the late appreciation this film has received is due in part to my fandom of it)
The Searchers
The Shootist
Big Jake
Tombstone
Unforgiven
Open Range (FANTASTIC gunfight at the end)
Rio Bravo/El Dorado (basically the same movie - as is Rio Lobo - and I enjoy them equally)
High Noon
Stagecoach

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

My top favorites in no particular order beyond the first two -

Rio Bravo/El Dorado (basically the same movie - as is Rio Lobo - and I enjoy them equally)

I'd say they're spiritual successors, to be sure, but there's definitely grounds to distinguish them.

I think Rio Bravo is easily the best of the 3. El Dorado is decent in its own way, but nowhere near the quality of film as Rio Bravo. It's a little more goofy, IMO. Rio Lobo is pretty much an also ran.

And while I do enjoy me some Josephine MacDonald, the latter two movies do not have Angie Dickinson. Apart from being a genuinely good actress, she's just awfully enjoyable to look at.

Feathers is probably the best female character in a John Wayne western. Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man is the best female character in any John Wayne movie, but she wasn't as good in the westerns (good in Big Jake, but her part was too small).

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I'd say they're spiritual successors, to be sure, but there's definitely grounds to distinguish them.

I think Rio Bravo is easily the best of the 3. El Dorado is decent in its own way, but nowhere near the quality of film as Rio Bravo. It's a little more goofy, IMO. Rio Lobo is pretty much an also ran.

And while I do enjoy me some Josephine MacDonald, the latter two movies do not have Angie Dickinson. Apart from being a genuinely good actress, she's just awfully enjoyable to look at.

Feathers is probably the best female character in a John Wayne western. Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man is the best female character in any John Wayne movie, but she wasn't as good in the westerns (good in Big Jake, but her part was too small).

Oh, sure, there are obviously differences between the three but, the over all plot and structure are the same. And I agree that Rio Lobo is an also ran. Definitely the weakest of the three. One has to wonder how much better it might have been if Duke got his way and played the old drunken coot role.

Hmmm, I can’t really disagree with your take on Feathers as the best female character but, I can think of a couple of competitors that we could certainly have a discussion about: Vera Miles in Liberty Valance, and Lauren Bacall in The Shootist.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

Oh, sure, there are obviously differences between the three but, the over all plot and structure are the same. And I agree that Rio Lobo is an also ran. Definitely the weakest of the three. One has to wonder how much better it might have been if Duke got his way and played the old drunken coot role.

Hmmm, I can’t really disagree with your take on Feathers as the best female character but, I can think of a couple of competitors that we could certainly have a discussion about: Vera Miles in Liberty Valance, and Lauren Bacall in The Shootist.

Vera Miles would get the lifetime achievement award for also being pretty good in The Searchers.

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Vera Miles would get the lifetime achievement award for also being pretty good in The Searchers.

One of my favorite scenes from that movie is -

Martin: Laurie, I been thinkin’ it’s time you and I started going steady.

Laurie: Why Martin Pawley, you and I been going steady since was three years old!

Martin: We have?

Laurie: ‘bout time you found out about it.

Just like a woman.

I also liked her as Duke’s ex-wife in Hellfighters. The scene where he and his new unexpected son in law (Jim Hutton) are sitting in a restaurant waiting on her and the daughter/wife to show up and Dutton is all nervous and tells Duke he has butterflies in his stomach and Duke calmly and plainly says, “Mine are dive bombers.”

[Mennonite]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Vera Miles would get the lifetime achievement award for also being pretty good in The Searchers.

I always remember her from the first episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It's a good episode, but the part that sticks with me is a scene early on where Vera Miles is sunbathing in her front yard and Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffith show comes over to chat and is clearly ogling her. I guess if you're Alfred Hitchcock you can get away with that sort of stuff.

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

Good call on Quigley! Another dvd I like to throw in the player from time to time that I forgot about.

I just watched that one on Youtube the other day. For anyone who hasn't already seen it it's available for free in good quality but has ads. If you have an adblocker installed it solves that problem without any interruptions.

[Frazod]

The Proposition is really cool. It is a touch on the arty side, but in a good way, as opposed to a Christopher Nolan mind**** way.

Another really good Australian western that I love is Quigley Down Under. Tom Selleck as the quintessential American hero and Alan Rickman in another wonderful role as sneering villain.

As previously mentioned, Unforgiven tops my list of favorite westerns. I also really, really, really liked the Cohen Brothers remake of True Grit, which is far superior to the original. Loved High Plains Drifter and The Shootist. Big fan of both (somewhat) recent Wyatt Earp movies, Tombstone and Wyatt Earp. Dennis Quaid was a much Doc Holliday than Val Kilmer.

Another favorite is the mostly forgotten Long Riders, about the James/Younger gang. All the brothers in the movie are played by actual brothers. The Keaches play the Jameses, the Carradines play the Youngers, the Quaids play the Millers, and the Guests play the Fords. Also features my favorite knife fight ever between David Carradine and James Remar.

And while it never made it to DVD or bluray, Son of the Morning Star was excellent - it was a two part miniseries about Custer, starring Gary Cole (Nordberg from Office Space).