Author Topic: My top ten Western movies:  (Read 9836 times)

Offline Tuolumne Lawman

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My top ten Western movies:
« on: February 04, 2017, 03:40:47 PM »
Mt 10 favorite westerns...

1)  Lonesome Dove (original)
2)  Open Range
3)  Unforgiven
4)  The Shootist
5)  Tombstone
6)  Broken Trail
7)  Conagher
8)  Cullpepper Cattle Company
9)  The Cowboys
10) Monte walsh
Honorable mentions:

Last Stand at Saber River
Crossfire Trail
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Lonesome Dove part II
Valdez is Coming

Notice I did not list Dances with wolves.  Being a former US History teacher, I just had too many problems with revisionist History in it.  Yes it was entertaining, but it was more like a propaganda movie...

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Offline Will Ketchum

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2017, 09:11:40 PM »
I pretty much agree with your list but must ask which Monte Walsh? I like them both, maybe the Tom Selleck one a bit better than the Lee Marvin but others disagree.
I think the gunfight in Open Range was perhaps the best ever. Not every shot was a hit and although some guns appeared hold more rounds than they were designed for there were some reloads.
I certainly liked Tombstone better than Wyatt Earp. The leather and clothes were much more period.
Conagher is one my favorites, perhaps because of Sam Elliot. I would add The Quick & the Dead (the Sam Elliot one not the Sharon Stone one)
As much as  I like Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot an most anything written by Louis L'Amour I've never liked The Long Riders.
I notice you didn't list and John Wayne Westerns. I'm with you although I liked him not his Westerns so much.
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Offline Tuolumne Lawman

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2017, 09:35:54 PM »
Will,

I did mention "The shootist" and "The Cowboys", the two best of the Duke's westerns.  It was the Tom Selleck Monte Walsh that I liked.  Never saw the other one.  I have to admit, that "open Range was only edged out by Lonesome Dove, because of the scope of Lonesome Dove's story.  Both are AWESOME!!!!  I really do think that they are the two most realistic Westerns (along with Conagher).

The gunfight in Open Range is probably the best, most accurate, one ever filmed, and extreme pains were taken to make it realistic.  They fired actual black powder live rounds in each caliber, and dubbed them over the BP blanks (which really don't boom).  Interesting side note, I heard, is that the old livery man actually died before the movie was released, and his family insisted on it being released anyway.
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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #3 on: Today at 05:28:22 PM »

Offline Coal Creek Griff

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2017, 09:54:49 PM »
As much as  I like Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot an most anything written by Louis L'Amour I've never liked The Long Riders.

Do you perhaps mean "The Shadow Riders"?  If so, I agree--it was a disappointing movie, especially following upon "The Sacketts", which I very much enjoyed.

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Offline Tuolumne Lawman

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2017, 10:03:42 PM »
I concur... Shadow riders was a TERRIBLE movie.  I never made it all the way through it.
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Offline Major 2

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2017, 07:03:43 AM »
No arguement with your first 7 I'd ajust the order a might maybe
TO:

1)  Lonesome Dove (original)
2)  Open Range
3)   Broken Trail
4)  Unforgiven
5)  The Shootist
6)  Conagher
7)  Tombstone

then
8) Monte Walsh  ( both  Tom Selleck's 1st. but then again Marvin's was good   :-\ )
9) The Missing ( Tommy Lee Jones )


10) I'll reserve for Honorable mentions: not in any particular order

Last Stand at Saber River
Crossfire Trail
Quigley Down Under ( Far Eastern ? )
True Grit ( both ! )
The Searchers
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Wild Bill

So  I guess that's:

  4 for -
Tom Selleck , John Wayne , and Robert Duvall

2 for Master's - Tommy Lee Jones , Lee Marvin , Jeff Bridges,  Sam Elliot and Jimmy Stewart


1 each for -   Gene Hackman , Clint Eastwood , Morgan Freeman  , Kevin Cosner , Thomas Haydon Church ....and Ron "Opie"  Howard  ;)

when planets align...do the deal !

Offline Tuolumne Lawman

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2017, 08:42:11 AM »
OMG, I forgot about "the Missing".  EXCELLENT movie.  My wife liked it almost as much as Lonesome Dove.
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Offline Will Ketchum

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2017, 09:08:55 AM »
Do you perhaps mean "The Shadow Riders"?  If so, I agree--it was a disappointing movie, especially following upon "The Sacketts", which I very much enjoyed.

CC Griff

If course I meant the Shadow Riders. Brain fade. I wasn't thinking of the Jesse James movie.
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Offline nagantino

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2017, 12:09:06 PM »
I've seen all the movies listed except Broken Trail I am fairly sure has never been shown this side of the Atlantic. I might be wrong. Open Range, is a good movie but I don't think it will stand the test of time, and no The Wild Bunch. I think it shows that a list of Favourite Westerns will always produce heat. When I first watched Monte Walsh, The Culpepper Cattle Company and Open Range I thought they were great movies but on rewatching they seemed less so. Is that the test maybe?
I've stopped myself watching these few because they are so good

1. The Wild Bunch
2. High Noon
3. The Big Country
4. My Darling Clementine
5. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Well I weaken sometimes

Offline Tuolumne Lawman

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2017, 12:51:41 PM »
Haha!  I forgot to mention the original "High Noon".  Great movie.  The train station scenes were shot in "Warnerville" a now extinct town between Oakdale CA and Jametown CA - close to Knight's Ferry.  My brother-in-law lived across the road from the old station 25 years ago, when it was still there.  It is on the same tracks as the Jamestown RR Museum, and Chinese Camp, CA.  It was used in many movies: Just a few are,Unforgiven, Back to the Future II, Bad Girls (my daughters were both extras in Bad Girls), and even Pettycoat Junction TV series.  

I was a deputy in Sonora at the time.  I knew the people that owned the bunkhouse used in Unforgiven.  It was just outside of Jamestown, CA - just a few miles from the Warnerville station.  The owner was an antique dealer. In about 1995 he actually had the "Lt. Fahenstock 1860 Henry" on consignment briefly, and I got to handle it and see all the provenance.  That is when I fell in love with the Henry rifle.  There is a lot of Western Movie History there....
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Online Abilene

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #10 on: February 05, 2017, 01:15:04 PM »
So far nobody here seems to like the spaghetti westerns much.  :)  My list would start with Lonesome Dove, but then G,B & U would be next.

Offline Major 2

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #11 on: February 05, 2017, 03:50:10 PM »
I've seen all the movies listed except Broken Trail I am fairly sure has never been shown this side of the Atlantic. I might be wrong. Open Range, is a good movie but I don't think it will stand the test of time, and no The Wild Bunch. I think it shows that a list of Favourite Westerns will always produce heat. When I first watched Monte Walsh, The Culpepper Cattle Company and Open Range I thought they were great movies but on rewatching they seemed less so. Is that the test maybe?
I've stopped myself watching these few because they are so good


Well I weaken sometimes

If'n' the test is time....then my list is golden for me....I watch them time and time again  :)
when planets align...do the deal !

Offline Tuolumne Lawman

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #12 on: February 05, 2017, 04:13:33 PM »
I also have to include Shane and Pale Rider.  IMHO, that is second only to Unforgiven as the best Eastwood western.  G,B, & U was OK, but historically flawed, which bugged me.
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Offline nagantino

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #13 on: February 06, 2017, 04:00:35 PM »
I'm glad you mentioned Pale Rider. I watched it again last night and loved it. I've seen it so many times but not for a while. It was excellent but I would never put into a top 10. Why is that. The purity of the story, the villanous villians, the mysterious hero, the landscape, the community praying for a saviour, a ruthless saviour  it's in amongst that. It goes in my top 10 now.

Offline Will Ketchum

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #14 on: February 06, 2017, 06:05:57 PM »
I'm glad you mentioned Pale Rider. I watched it again last night and loved it. I've seen it so many times but not for a while. It was excellent but I would never put into a top 10. Why is that. The purity of the story, the villanous villians, the mysterious hero, the landscape, the community praying for a saviour, a ruthless saviour  it's in amongst that. It goes in my top 10 now.

Pale Rider is basically a remake of Shane.  I didn't realize that until I saw Shane again and shortly after Pale Rider.

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Offline Baltimore Ed

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #15 on: February 06, 2017, 06:45:56 PM »
I would also say The Wild Bunch but would add Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a great western.
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Offline Major 2

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #16 on: February 07, 2017, 05:35:37 AM »
When "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid " came out...I was working as the Projectionist at Loew's 170th Street Theatre on Miami Beach.

9 weeks, 7 days a week , 6 showings a day..... everyday = 378 showings of ..." Rain drops keep fallin on my head "  , "Who are those guys?"

"....Nobody is going to rob us going down the mountain. We have got no money going down the mountain ::) ....."

and  "Oh Oh oh oh shitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt "  

Yeah, safe to say,  

nagantino 's comment "  I thought they were great movies but on rewatching they seemed less so "

Not in my top 10 or even 12.... but yeah it stood the test of time...
when planets align...do the deal !

Offline Major 2

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #17 on: February 07, 2017, 05:54:54 AM »
By the way......

speaking of Sam Elliot ... ( well,  I had above )   :)

You all may know he's married to Katherine Ross .....but did you know he met her on the set "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid "

it was Sam's first movie credit ?
when planets align...do the deal !

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #18 on: February 07, 2017, 11:22:13 AM »
Some movies strike a chord while others don't.

Most westerns from the 50s and 60s gave you an uplifting feeling. A lot of current dusters are pretty black in their subject matter.

I'll take John Wayne and his crew of usual suspects any day of the week, and guys like Alan Ladd, Gary Cooper, et al.
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Offline Grenadier

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Re: My top ten Western movies:
« Reply #19 on: February 07, 2017, 01:27:40 PM »
'73 Winchester
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Red River
The Cowboys
High Noon (original)
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Fistful of Dollars
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Searchers
Tombstone

 

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