The best minute and a half of Western movie magic?

[nagantino]

I've just watched the opening of The Searchers............. again. I have lost count of the number of times I've watched it. I bet your the same. That silhouette of Ethan's lost love as she opens the door of the cabin, the brilliant sharp desert and blue sky and that arrangement of The Bonny Blue Flag playing in the background, as Uncle Ethan ambles toward the doomed family.  I timed it just for fun. It's almost exactly 1minute, 30 seconds. It got me thinking also. Which other 1 minute and 30 seconds would you nominate as your favourite segment of a western?

[Major 2]

Classic and prolly #1 agreed

now for another 1.5 minutes ....The scene in Open Range , when Charlie shoots the gun hand in the forehead , not so much for the shot (a 44 or 45 Colt would take the back of his head off )
But rather the fact,  he shot the guy no if and or butts no fair fight just boom .. the whole shoot out was so different .

And I gotta say  the dialog with Lucky Ned Pepper..... Pure Wayne " as I like to remember him

" Well fill your hand you son of bitch "

he made that picture.... Campbell & Darby not to much....    I liked the Cohen Brothers version , for Maddie & Lafife

[Coal Creek Griff]

Having just watched "Ride Lonesome" last night, I'll have to put the opening scene into the mix.   Randolph Scott rides up on James Best's camp and they have a classic exchange.  It probably runs a bit long, but just the part where Scott approaches, before the dialog, is classic by itself.

Maybe that's not the best, but it's very good.

CC Griff

[Advertising]

[Jake C]

Major, funnily enough I was going to talk about that same scene but in the 2010 film. Love Rooster's Charge, it's such a well-done scene. But heck, I'm biased. That movie was part of the 1-2 punch that really got me into Westerns, as a young man going into College.

I can think of a lot of other fantastic scenes in Westerns, but they may not qualify for that minute and a half limit.

[Mogorilla]

I would put in the scene in Silverado where they go to get the money back from Baxter and Holly.   The look on Scott Glenn's face as Danny Glover is shooting "at" him makes me laugh out loud, even after watching it a 100 times.   I remember seeing it in the movies with my roommates while in college, that scene stood out in what was the best western in a number of years.   Prompted me and a friend to get Henry rifles.  Oh, and who can forget the "I think there is only 3 or 4 of them up there and this a$$hole is one of them"

Ha, I know what I am watching this weekend, probably toss True Grit and the Searchers in there.  Whahooo!

[nagantino]

Thought of another one. At the end of The Wild Bunch, when General Mapache cuts Angel's throat..........there's a second or two of silence, then the lads let rip. A wonderful ballet of slow motion gunplay. Bliss.