GMG Classical Music Forum

what are your top western films .. please note that the list above isn't comprehensive by any means; it is just a little something to get the ball rolling .. if your fave isn't listed, just check 'other' and list them in your reply.

Tombstone, The Quick and the Dead, and Wyatt Earp are my favorites. Special kudos to The Magnificent Seven and all of Eastwood's spaghetti westerns.

Once Upon a Time in the West
A Bullet for the General
Duck, You Sucker!

He conquered fear and he conquered hate
He turned our night into daaaaaaaaay
He made his blazing saddle
A light to guide the waaaaaaay

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is one of my fave films in any genre.  How Eli Wallach never won Best Supporting for this is amazing, he was outstanding serious/funny.

My other choices are For a Few Dollars More, Eastwood and Van Cleefe again (Bounty Hunters).  Nice to see Van Cleefe playing the avenging good guy.  Gian Maria Volonte as Indio stole the show as the drug crazed bandito.

Once upon a time in the West....one of the greatest movies ever (I'm biased)..what a cast.  Bronson, Robards Jnr, Cardinale & a s*** hot evil villain (one of the best in any movie) Henry Fonda (who'd of thunk it).  I recall the casting crew saying 'you can't use Fonda he's in his late sixties'.  He came out of make up and wow, how cool and evil did he look, they were eating their words  >:D ....marvellous.

Saddle the Wind directed by Parrish

Listen up, Pilgrim!  Ya ain't got enough choices, see?   ;)

Lonesome Dove, Comanche Moon, The Big Country, 3:10 To Yuma (both versions), High Noon, Three Godfathers(both versions, although the one with Chester Morris is much more brutally realistic than the later one with John Wayne, How the West Was Won (incredible train wreck sequence at the end: you need the Blu-Ray though, as the DVD is distorted), Major Dundee, Open Range, Broken Trail.

Who can pick just three?   $:)   0:)

This may be helpful:

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Essential_Top_20_Films

Westworld
Outlaw Josey Wales
Lonesome Dove

probably

Quote from: James on October 11, 2013, 06:52:21 AM
That's the challenge pilgrim .. looks like your not man enough to rise up to the occassion. Any twit can sit here and list'em all day long pilgrim .. break it down pilgrim, use your brain pilgrim!  ;)

Dude, those are indispensable!   ;)  They are my Top Three!   ???

But, okay!  If it must be 3 from your list...

I voted for The Searchers, Red River, and Shane.

My Darling Clementine, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Shane, The Searchers, and High Noon.

Along with Good bad and Ugly and Sierra Madre, I enjoyed most Mackenna's gold. Yes, it's a bit racist (ok, maybe more than a bit) against Indians, but I still enjoyed it. The main character's love-hate friendship with Colorado (God, I love that guy!) was very enjoyable.

Now about Leone westerns... he was easily the best western director to me. The Good, bad and ugly is a tiny bit better than Once upon a time in the west but only tiny bit. Too bad they cut the scene in GBU where Angel Eyes/Sentenza shows pity towards wounded soldiers, it makes him look a bit more human.

But Once upon a time in the West has a scene which makes me cry like a baby: Morton's death. The guy is slowly dying and his wish is to see a Pacific Ocean before he dies... he ends up dying crawling towards small puddle of water.

Unforgiven
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
My Darling Clementine

John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy (Fort Apache; She Wore a Yellow Ribbon; Rio Grande)

Once Upon A Time in the West

Blazing Saddles

I'm not too much of a classic film watcher, so there's lots of famous Westerns I've never seen.  But two I have seen, but don't seem to have been mentioned yet on this thread, and which I think are excellent: 

Silverado 
The Shootist


*Query: would a DVD of Placido Domingo in a production of La Fanciulla del West count?

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on October 11, 2013, 01:37:47 PM
I'm not too much of a classic film watcher, so there's lots of famous Westerns I've never seen.  But two I have seen, but don't seem to have been mentioned yet on this thread, and which I think are excellent: 

Silverado 
The Shootist

True!  Not to be forgotten, one John Wayne's last movies and one of his best: The Cowboys with Bruce Dern at his best worst!   ;)

Not a movie but since we are talking about Westerns,,,

I just caught by chance a 1959 episode of The Rifleman ("Tension") with the incredible Harry Dean Stanton and the even more incredible Jack Elam as - what else? - bad guys!

(http://poppundit.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/harry-dean-stanton-gunsmoke.jpg?w=595)

(http://www.riflemanconnors.com/character_actors/jack_elam-tension.jpg)

Once Upon A Time In The West

Little Big Man

For A Few Dollars More

This thread also needs the epic film The Terror of Tiny Town:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030845/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pehsws6QYEo

     Ride the High Country and 2 others.

     
     http://www.youtube.com/v/ui1Mnvdj24I

     

Treasury of the Sierra Madre, which I only discovered recently - wonderful film.

My Darling Clementine, especially for Victor Mature's performance as 'Doc Holliday'

The Wild Bunch - 'They came too late and stayed too long' .

+ The Man who Shot Liberty Valance + Westworld + Blazing Saddles + Carry on Cowboy  :)

Dances With Wolves

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Wyatt Earp

1. Rio Bravo
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3. High Plains Drifter

You don't have my all time favourite listed and it has also been mentioned by other posters.

'Once Upon a Time in the West' is the greatest western ever made IMO.

     

Quote2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

     The assassination scene with Pitt, Rockwell and Affleck is something special. In deference to Western lovers who wish to see the film I will not present it here.

     I won't what? The hell I won't, just don't watch it. _{(http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/evil.gif)}

     http://www.youtube.com/v/vfv_7mO0M1M

     It's a measure of how good Pitt and Affleck are that Rockwell couldn't steal the film from them until near the end.

Quote from: drogulus on October 14, 2013, 07:03:37 PM
     The assassination [of Jesse James].

Well, it occurred west of the Appalachians at least.

Dave