I won’t lie, I love a good Western. Classic, modern, all of them.
I’m currently starting Friday evening (Sharon’s away!) with a nice Negroni and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West.
Tell me what else I should watch?
I love the John Ford cavalry pics; John Wayne in just about everything (but GOD The Shootist is amazing); Eastwood; Cooper. Peckinpah.
What am I missing?
Gary Cooper in High Noon. Unlike most Westerns it’s an exercise in style and technique as well as action and character. Just astonishing.
Shane. Brilliant and rather written out of the classic Western canon nowadays.
The Magnificent Seven. Unlike High Noon it is mainly aaction and character. Like many Westerns its takes in lots of stuff from elsewhere and replays it as horses and pistols.
Shane is the definitive Western, against which I would judge the others.
The Searchers
Cowboy (obscure Jack Lemmon flick)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Man From Laramie
Destry Rides Again
I love a good Western too. I think I’ve watched all those worth watching that come on Film Four and the other free film channels in the mornings. It’s worth camping out on there if you haven’t already, as some great films pop up on there.
Ones I’d recommend from my collection (cos I can see them from where I am sat!)…
Rio Bravo – my absolute favourite. John Wayne with two of my heroes, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson. There are dozens of great John Wayne films – The Searchers, Red River, the Cavalry Trilogy, El Dorado, The Sons of Katie Elder to name a few.
The Man From Laramie – again, there are loads of James Stewart ones I could choose (Destry Rides Again, The Naked Spur, Winchester ’73, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Two Rode Together, the list goes on!), but The Man From Laramie is my favourite of his.
The Ox-Bow Incident – short, at 75 minutes, but a great thriller.
Clint Eastwood, crikey, where to start! Of his classic Leone trilogy my favourite is For a Few Dollars More, then there’s Unforgiven, which is terrific, Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter, but my favourite is The Outlaw Josey Wales.
A few more from the 60s/70s – Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, The Wild Bunch, One Eyed Jacks, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Blazing Saddles, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, How the West Was Won and don’t forget one of Elvis’s best, Flaming Star. Or Carry On Cowboy…well I like it anyway!
And more modern films (albeit some are 30+ years old!) worth watching are Tombstone, plus a few I don’t have – Silverado (with John Cleese!!), Lone Star and Bone Tomahawk, although that one is quite violent, in a squeamish sort of way.
I immersed myself in books on Western films a few years ago and one that’s still under the coffee table and which I recommend is the Rough Guide To Westerns. It’s not an in depth study of the genre, but you’ll get loads of great recommendations from it (I’ve still got a list I’m trying to tick off, as films turn up on TV or streaming sites) and you can pick it up for pennies.
šµ Iāve been waiting all week for Friday to come ācos thatās the day I like best,
Got myself a nice Negroni and Sergio Leoneās Once Upon A Time In The West. šµ
^ Up
Ride The High Country
and, not a western, but really it is –
Bad Day At Black Rock.
The Big Country – Gregory Peck, Jan Simmons and an Oscar-winning turn from Burl Ives. Charlton Heston plays a complete weasel.
If you want a break from features and can find ’em on Youtube, I’d also recommend Have Gun Will Travel and F Troop.
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford is one of the best films of this century so far.
Too many to mention, but I’m fond of One-Eyed Jacks, a bit of an oddity…it was the only film that Brando directed, and a lot of it is set on the California coast around Monterey rather than in Monument Valley. Brando broods as Rio, out for revenge on weaselly putty-nosed Karl Malden who ditches him to be captured and tossed into a Mexican jail.
Interesting use of stills in the trailer too.
A modern western that surprised me with its quality is Open Range, despite the presence of Kevin Costner.
I recently rewatched “The good, the bad and the ugly” which is a masterpiece and as brilliant as ever. I agree with Paul Was, “Silverado” is s fine more recent Western.
Did you spot the van driving past in the distance? The editor clearly didnāt!
Lonely are the Brave is an interesting western as set in 50s or 60s with Kirk Douglas and Walter Mathau. Really good story and quite poignant.
A lesser known Gary Cooper film, Man Of The West is worth looking out for.
There are a few cracking Burt Lancaster films that have disappeared from view:
The Scalphunters
Valdez Is Coming
Ulzana’s Raid
Jimmy Stewart made many. They include:
Shenandoah
Winchester ’73
The Far Country
The Man From Laramie
Broken Arrow
They are other Stewart films, like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, that come under other headings like John Wayne so I haven’t included them.
A forgotten Steve McQueen film, well worth checking out: Nevada Smith
High Noon is brilliant. The way the town people slowly desert him and leave him to his fate. Superb.
High noon is my favourite western.
Magnificent film (the theme song is not bad either).
Apparently that is the reason that John Wayne turned down the lead role in High Noon. He thought it was āUnamericanā that townsfolk would desert the Sheriff in his hour of need.
Obvious as always but I’m with @Paulwad “Outlaw Josey Wales” for me every time. ..
Yes another classic. Clint never better. Well, “Pale Rider” was bloody good too.
Another vote for Josey Wales from me.
Tombstone. Val Kilmer is absolutely mesmerizing as Doc Holliday.
What Iād never realised is when Wyatt Earp was alive. Some have him surviving beyond WWI. He wasnāt a lawman in the sense that the films portray him. In those days owners of things like a mine or a railroad would hire security, for want of a better term, and thatās where he fits in. In his earlier years he was often on the other side of the ālawā.
Why heās seen as the figure we know him is that he basically wrote his own history. He gave the story to a film company. I canāt remember the film (Iām on the bus, so donāt have my books at hand!), but it was before the talkies. Later films then use this story as the basis for their film. I understand the gunfight at the OK Coral was over in a matter of seconds. Iām not sure that anyone actually died. It was certainly not like any of the films anyway.
But… there are some great films based on this legend. I think Tombstone just shades My Darling Clementine for me, with Kilmerās performance a big part of that.
Incidentally, Earp went on to referee a heavyweight world title fight, whilst wearing his belt and gun!
Top post! If only youād thought to bring all your books on the bus youād be the winner of this weekās Ā£20 postal order..
You might enjoy this: Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend by Casey Tefertiller
Also this: The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral–And How It Changed The American West by Jeff Guinn.
Both are excellent.
There was a good docudrama about Earp and especially the Gunfight at the OK Corral on one of the Freeview channels. I had a bit of an obsession about it a year or so ago and watched a few of the films and the doc. He certainly was no white hat angel, more a player in tough times which you probably had to be back then.
He also didnāt do his gunfighting underwater, like I seem to suggest, by missing an R out of Corral. I didnāt have my glasses with me on the bus!
I find the Wild West fascinating. Obviously there are loads of great films, as weāve listed above, but the real story of a lot of the infamous outlaws and lawmen is often miles away from their onscreen portrayals (as Clint Eastwood brilliantly exposes in Unforgiven) and just as interesting. And then, of course, thereās the truth behind cowboys and Indians, which is nothing like we grew up believing from the films or the re-enactments we did with our toy forts and figures. What with the way the frontiersmen dealt with the natives and then the subsequent slave trade thereās a lot of distasteful history in the land of the free (and I know that us Brits have some need to talk in that respect!).
There are some outstanding books out there about the development of the West.
In a desperate “link it to the Westerns theme” move, there’s a great book about Quanah Parker, whose mother served as a kind of inspiration for The Searchers theme where a white woman is taken by the Native Americans.
Lots of black ex-slaves, Native Americans, Mexicans and Chinese on the big cattle drives that feature so prominently in Wild West lore. I suspect white men might have been in a minority, as it was poorly-paid, dangerous, very hard work.
(Ballad of Bill Pickett)
(Some footage of Bill Pickett)
Another good Earp one as far as I can remember was “Hour of the gun” with James Garner playing Earp and Jason Robards – always superb – playing Holiday with Robert Ryan as Clanton. Haven’t seen it for years but I fancy trying to find it.
Anyone seen “Doc” with Stacy Keach and Faye Dunaway from 1971 which has all the ingredients for a good version.
Not sure Iāve seen either of those.
Funnily enough, I saw HOTG a couple of months ago. Garner much underappreciated I think.
Outside of the ones above I’d mention The Big Silence, a tremendously bleak snowbound western starring Klaus Kinski. Eastwood ripped it off for Joe Kidd, but The Big Silence is way, way better.
Special mention also for The Quick and the Dead and, recently, The Homesman.
Thanks very much.
I’m adding the ones I haven’t seen yet to the list(s)
Me too. Iāll be trawling through the western channels on that Roku stick I bought ages ago, but barely use.
FIRECREEK..starring James Stewart and a superbly jaded Henry Fonda.
Made in 1968 and probably one of the last classic westerns…good peace loving James forced to fight badguy gang fronted by Henry.
Although not a true western….no Cowboys or Injuns..i have a deep love for The Red Badge Of Courage.
A civil war story starring real life badass/Congressional Medal of Honour winner Audey Murphy.
His journey from coward to flagwaving hero is quite uplifting.
And a fascinating subtext to the Stewart/Fonda roles you mention above is that, whilst best of friends for 50 years, Stewart and Fonda were at the opposite ends of the political spectrum (like me and my ruddy dad!), with Stewart a staunch Republican and Fonda a very liberal Democrat. Apparently, they came to blows during a political argument early in their friendship, vowed never to discuss politics again and remained best friends until Fondaās death in 1982, without having any more arguments.
Jimmy Stewart – genuine war hero. Flew 20 missions over Germany when the attrition rate was kinda high.
I love both those actors.
Yes, heās one of my favourites too, so I was a little disappointed when I read he was a Republican, although he seems to be a different kind of Republican that John Wayne was. Iāve got an excellent biography of Stewart by Donald Dewey thatās worth seeking out if you havenāt read it.
The old Southern Democrats were very far indeed from liberal. The Republicans there were often more liberal in their views, though possibly not a lot. The famously segregationist Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was a Democrat.
As the Democrat party’s stance became generally more liberal and the Republicans more conservative, most of the old-school white Democrats in the South switched allegiance to the Republicans.
Doesn’t Democrat come from the civil war where it essentially referred to the democratic right to self determination eg to have slaves etc. Nice.
So come election time they basically had to choose between two people they didn’t really want doing the job. Wonder what that’s like?
The Ken Burns series on the Civil War on Netflix is fantastic.
Fab, I’ll add that to my watch list.
The Ken Burns series on anything is worth watching.
Just stuck The Civil War, The West, Prohibition and The Vietnam War in my watch list. I drew a line at 14 hours on the Roosevelts and I still havenāt got round to watching The Great War and The World At War boxed sets, so I donāt want to watch Burnsā series on the war until after that, as Iām presuming it will be pretty much all from an American angle. Gonna take me a while to get through that lot though!
Let’s not forget”The WIld Bunch”, and a lost cult classic “The Five Man Army” which I remember with great fondness as I went for my birthday party as a nipper, high on ice cream soda, cake and lots of sweets.
Some great westerns already mentioned, I enjoyed a double bill of Monte Hellmanās The Shooting and Ride The Whirlwind earlier this week
Can I recommend a recent Horror Western? Bone Tomahawk was nicely bloody and horrible, with great turns from a brilliantly gruff Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and the always fantastic Richard Jenkins. But if you don’t like gore DON’T watch!
I’m a big fan of horror movies and the gore splattered Italian films of the 70s and 80s are a particular fave, but I have to admit I was taken aback a bit as Bone Tomahawk went on. I wasn’t expecting it to be that gory, so yes, if you are squeamish, avoid this one, if not, it’s a great film starring the much underrated Kurt Russell.
I’d like to add Bad Company to the list. Set during the civil war it centres on a young man who is escaping the draft and falls in with a gang of youthful criminals. The gang start out excited by the adventure ahead in the American West, but reality soon bites…It’s quirky and funny but ultimately very melancholic. Great turns from Jeff Bridges and a young chap called Barry Brown (whose own story seems very tragic).
I could talk about Westerns all day – but would echo those who have recommended the Outlaw Josey Wales, the Eastwood / Leone trilogy, Unforgiven, The Cowboys, Rio Bravo & El Dorado.
Of the newer additions to the genre, Tombstone’s great and I enjoyed the new version of True Grit.
Am I right in saying that every single Western mentioned on this thread was directed by a man? I can’t be bothered to check them all, but I think that might be the case.
So, to try to redress the balance a little, I’ll recommend a decent Western directed by a woman: “Meek’s Cutoff” (2010) directed by Kelly Reichardt.
Not a female director but at least a female lead, “The quick and the dead” was pretty good.
Just felt obligated to buy the Clint “Pale Rider/Josie Wales/Unforgiven” DVD for 6 quid on Dodgers.
Watch that lot and you’ll subconsciously take on the walk, talk and stare of one bad hombre. … Enjoy
I saw Soldier Blue for the first time the other night. Just brilliant, but also BLOODY HELL. Anybody seen?
Yes. It’s one of those early seventies film where they’ve gone “OK, film censorship seems to have relaxed a helluva lot, let’s go totally Freudian”. See also The Devils, The Exorcist… films that would have been unimaginable as mainstream cinema only a few short year before.
More often than not starring Peter Fonda.
What’s most puzzling is that apart from ‘those bits’, it plays out like a madcap road trip movie. I’m listening to a podcast now where they describe it as being like a Sandra Bullock rom-com that ends in 9/11. (I loved that about it.)
A bit like Tarantino. Dusk Till Dawn, specifically.