Blazing Saddles: I'm not exactly sure if it can be considered a Western, even though it's in the correct time frame. Regardless, it's one of the best movies ever made... regardless of genre.
Damn how could I forget about Blazing Saddles its one of my all time favorite movies. I would count it I posted both comedy westerns too.
Do anti-westerns count? Almost everything I would have said is been mentioned already, but for a change of pace, Dead Man is a 1995 black and white film starring Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer that Jarmusch calls his "acid-western". Its story revolves around a Cleveland accountant who loses everything and comes to the town of Machine at "the end of the line" on a job offer. When he gets there he discovers his job has been given away. Eventually William Blake (Depp) gets in the middle of a double murder and flees the town gravely wounded, where he meets a peyote chomping indian named Nobody who takes him on a spiritual journey to his death. Nobody the indian mistakes Blake for the famous poet, and his recited poetry is repeated throughout the film. The cameos in this film are awesome. Billy Bob Thorton and Iggy Pop play two fucked up characters. Robert Mitchum plays an shotgun toting factory owner in his last performance. Crispin Glover is his usually freaky self as a coal man on the train that takes Blake to his destiny. Besides all that, the soundtrack is a jarring, otherworldly electric guitar played by none other than Neil Young. It certainly isn't the best Western ever, but it is worth seeing and a much more deep and spiritual film than any other western I've seen. There are gun fights, whores, horses, trains, bounty hunters, and beautiful landscapes...everything a good western needs.
Stagecoach: This is the mother of all westerns. This has been remade a number of times, but I speak of John Ford's excellent version with a young John Wayne. McCabe and Ms. Miller: Robert Altman and Warren Beatty at the top of their games in a deconstruction of the Western genre. One of the greatest films of all-time in any genre.
Did anybody ever get treated to Rustler's Rhapsody? It's a 1985 spoof on the classic Tom Mix-style Westerns of the halcyon days starring Tom Berenger as the squeaky-clean singing gunslinger Rex O'Herlihan wearing wearing the greatest western duds in the history of film, who only ever shoots the pistols out of bad guy's hands. It's loaded with hysterical scenes like this:
The Good the Bad and the Ugly has always been my favourite and happy birthday to Clint Eastwood , he turned 80 a few days ago.
I love westerns. Eastwood is king of the western. I won't bother with a top 10 but my favorites are definitely The Good the Bad and the Ugly and Unforgiven. The Proposition hasn't been mentioned in this thread. It takes place in Australia but is 100% a western. The premise is the local authority captures the two younger brothers of an infamous trio, and makes an offer to the middle brother. He will spare the life of the youngest if the middle brother kills the oldest. Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce, Danny Huston, and John Hurt all put in fantastic performances. A few critics compared the movie to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, and I think the comparison is fair. The main antagonist definitely reminded me of the Judge, and the movie is brutal and morally ambiguous. Anyway, western fans, go watch it because it's great.
Biggest star in that movie was the rifle he used. That Sharps Long Range Model 1874 is amazing, and absolutely capable of doing everything they showed in the movie.
Really? I thought some of that was ridiculous. When he shot the guy riding away on the horse, and the bucket scene both seemed a little hard to swallow. Gotta love Alan Rickman in any role though.
Um, ever hear of a guy by the name of Morrison, better known as "John Wayne"? He only starred in about 1000 westerns during their prime. Personally, I'm not a fan of gratuitous violencem so spaghetti westerns never did it for me. Seriously, 3 pages and only 1 mention of True Grit? You fucking commies should be ashamed of yourselves.
I'll make an exception for True Grit and Rio Bravo, but he's the same wooden retard in just about every movie he's in. Did you see when he was the Roman Centurion that crucified Jesus? ..."Jesus" indeed. And he STILL had the weird southern accent. Very Roman of you, John.
I think someone mentioned it before but The Searchers is a very good western by Wayne. Most of his movies were more like caricitures.
The Western is my favorite genres featuring some of my favorite actors: John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Henry Fonda. My list will reflect that. In no particular order: 1) Fort Apache 2) True Grit 3) The Far Country 4) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 5) Monte Walsh ( excellent book as well, the movie only covers a fraction of it ) 6) Last Stand at Sabre River 7) Crossfire Trail 8) She Wore a Yellow Ribbon 9) Rio Grande 10) The Red Headed Stranger There's a ton more in my collection, but thats the first ten I can think of. Special mention: "Into the West", a TNT mini series, and "Deadwood".
If we're gonna talk about Young Guns, which I fucking love, we have to talk about Shane. Bare bones, it's a very similar story. There's no clear Shane character in Young Guns, but there's a cattleman trying to take things over. He wants someone's land. The cattleman (Jack Palance at his finest) kills the focus of their little society. Then the boys take on him and his whole crew. Palance's character then sends for bounty hunters, and eventually, the Army. Then, some of the heroes die. Fantastic blueprint, both fantastic movies.
Back when it came out in 1953, Shane was hailed as a classic. Nominated for Best Picture, called the greatest Western ever, and everything. Nowadays? When I watched it with friends, we were openly laughing at the serious scenes. It's just too much of a damn cliche, and a banal one at that. The movie also features some of the weirdest characterizations and miscasting I have ever seen. (And everyone hates that fucking little boy) Shane hasn't even managed to maintain its reputation with either critics or film fans, like a Casablanca has; in the year 2010, it's just another mediocre old American Western. It says something that not a single person in this topic had it in their top 10. Young Guns, on the other hand, is a very good, exciting movie.
3:10 to Yuma, The Proposition, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Open Range. The last decade has seen some very high quality westerns.