Kevin Costner,,,a thought

[Delmonico]

What a great movie would that be, with Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot, Robert Duval, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Wes Studi.

 

I think you need to add Bruce Dern to that list.  The best bad guy ever in western movies.  Folks still hate him for shooting The Duke in the back.   An honestly is there anyone else who really could have done it so good?

[Early Graves]

Judge Roy Bean is right. I'm a huge fan of Duvall's work, but he is pretty limited to his acting range.
I have no clue why the "Bash Costner bandwagon" has so many people on it. Heck, he made some real clunkers, but show me a highly-regarded actor who hasn't? I can point out some truly awful movies John Wayne was in! 
And as for his involvement in anti-gun movements, well, it's a free country. I like most of his work I've seen and I just don't get wrapped up in an actor's politics when it comes to watching their movies. Otherwise, I'd find a reason to not watch anything...

Over the years,Duvall has played Dwight Eisenhower,Joe Stalin,Dr.Watson(as in Sherlock Holmes),and Maj.Burns,in the movie,M*A*S*H.Add"The Godfather","True Grit",and "Apocalypse Now"to the list,and you've got a good deal of range.That's my view.

[Cyrille]

What a great movie would that be, with Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot, Robert Duval, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Wes Studi.

 

I would watch such a movie, but it would most probably be much better with Harrison Ford or Russel Crowe in place of Costner!
To me Costner comes across as a phony But that's only my opinion!

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[piebiter]

I'm not a big fan of Costner, but somehow he seems to end up in some really good movies.  As for me, I think his best effort has been "Open Range". As to Sam Elliot, Robert Duvall, Tom Selleck etc., another couple of names that I'd like to throw out there are Sam Shepard and Bruce Boxleitner. They've both done creditable work in westerns over the years as well. One of my favorites however is James Gammon. It would take a long list to credit all the western that man has played in. Yeah, I know he's not a leading actor, but talk about a great character actor...put his name on the list and near the top.

[Top Kick Ken]

Politics aside...I liked Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves, Open Range, and I even liked him in Silverado.  He adequately pulled off the over-the-top humor required for his character.

I think he outright stunk it up in Waterworld and The Postman. 

Sam Elliot is one of my all time favorites. 

Buck taylor is one of the niceest men I have ever met.  His paintings are fabulous, and his acting is pretty durn good too.  I just watched The Sacketts yesterday and it was interesting to see him cast as a heavy. 

I really liked Ben Johnson alot too;  you could always tell he was a real cowboy and didn't just play one on TV and the movies. 

I have yet to see a western with Tom Selleck in it that I don't like.  I kinda like his political views on gun ownership too.   

[Chase]

Delmonico,

Amen to the Bruce Dern vote.  He played his role maybe too well in the Cowboys, but I think that he redeemed himself in his cameo appearance in  All The Pretty Horses.  While not a true Western (pre-1900), the role allowed me to forgive him for shooting the Duke.    Another actor you don't find in westerns who did his job well was John Goodman in the Jack Bull.  Good thing for the horses he was a townie and didn't torture any of our equestrian friends!   

[Texas Lawdog]

I don't think Ol' Bruce will efer live down his role in the Cowboys. You just can't shoot an American Icon and get away with it. Nobody likes it when the Hero gets killed by the Bad Guy.

[Willie Dixon]

I like Kevin, both as a person and as an actor/director/producer.  He makes movies he wants to make, not what people make him do.  It seems that there is a blockbuster, followed by a personal movie, like maybe that is his compromise with the agents and the studios.  I dunno though.

He did make The Guardian, when no one else would... and he nailed it.  I met him at Cal State Fullerton, and tearfully was able to thank him for that movie.  Now people understand what Coasties do, in a way, the law enforcement, well that's hopeless... no one cares.

I like Kevin in the romantic comedies, Bull Duram and the Tin Cup.  But I actually thoroughly enjoy the movies with heart, For the Love of the Game, and I hate baseball, Dances with Wolves, Guardian, Swing Vote, those are my favorites.  I honestly think when an actor becomes so "A" list like he did or Tom Cruise or any other, then you always get the lovers and the haters, it can't be helped.

Me, I'm a Kevin fan, flat out, even if I could do without Waterworld.

[Leo Tanner]

A Perfect World was good, but a lot of that had to do with Eastwoods direction.


Leo

[Texas Lawdog]

That movie was loosely based on a true story, happened in Texas.

[HorsePen Henry]

Ma wifes 44 an still has a crush on Sam Elliot.
     Never seen her go ga-ga over any other hollywood person.  He's got the Mojo.

     Sa far as Costner goes, I think he reached his apex in "A Perfect World".  Not a western, but it was directed by Clint Eastwood.


Leo

Heck, I'm only 57 and I still have a crush on Katherine Ross. I sure fell in like with her real bad in Conagher and still ain't quite over it.   
Open Range was a real good 'un. The chemistry was right with Duvall and Costner. I like westerns and if Costner is in it that's alright with me. He can just get over the anti-gun thing.
Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot are all time favorites but reaching way back...I doubt anybody ever set a saddle better than Jimmy Stewart. Now there's a cowboy. Remember the Cheyenne Social Club? Now that was a all time great movie.

Horse Pen

[Texas Lawdog]

It's a shame that most of today's movie actors choose not to do Westerns.  Money is the bottom line, the studios figger they can't recoupe their costs on a Western at the box office.

[Stillwater]

Buck taylor is one of the nicest men I have ever met.  His paintings are fabulous, and his acting is pretty durn good too.  I just watched The Sacketts yesterday and it was interesting to see him cast as a heavy. 

Dub Taylor, Buck Taylors father, was a friend and a customer of mine, when I worked in a Los Angeles area gun shop.

I really liked Ben Johnson alot too;  you could always tell he was a real cowboy and didn't just play one on TV and the movies.

Ben Johnson was the best horse rider in the movies... EVER...! 
 

I have yet to see a western with Tom Selleck in it that I don't like.  I kinda like his political views on gun ownership too.   

If Selleck was in a few more Westerns (Horse flatulence and gun smoke), He could probably become a bigger draw, than John Wayne was.

However, there is a crying need for a director that is as good as John Ford. And, a group of actors that were in the "John Ford Stock Company."

Bill

[Stillwater]

Costners name is on the 'Hollywood Watch-list' of anti-gun folks.

Marshal Deadwood

Costner should be on a watch list for his terrible voice... When Costner speaks, he sounds worse than Kristopherson singing... And thats bad...!

[Old Doc]

Did I miss it or has no one yet mentioned Harry Carey, Jr. who has probably been in more westerns than any living actor. A great actor and a nice man.

Loved Costner in Open Range. His worst movie to me was JFK, where he spends three hours going in and out of what he thinks is a southern accent.

Was so impressed with Duvall in Open Range, that I rented Assassination Tango. Big Mistake! Shows what can happen when you become so influential in Hollywood that they let you cast your girlfriend to be your co-star.

Best Bruce Dern western is Support Your Local Sheriff. I still crack up everytime Dern, as the hapless Joe Danby, figures out that Jim Garner has lied to him about his gun being unloaded.

I try to watch every Sam Elliot movie just to see if his voice has gotten any lower. A few more movies and a little more sun and he'll be able to star in The Life of Barry White.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

My vote is for Ben Johnson. I have litterally seen him grow from a young cowpoke to the kind of seasoned actor of today.
I find i t interesting and believable that he is the only person in several John Wayne movies that Wayne will take advise from.
I listened to an interview he did about growing up as an indian on an indian reservation. I would think that he would have to do everything twice as good just to get roles where he didn't have to wear warpaint and learn how to die on screen.

Another honorable mention would be all the actors that played as cowhands in many of the westerns. If you watch the westerns, pretty soon you start seeing alot of familiar faces in the back ground of all the group shots.

Glenn Ford did a lot of westerns, and did a creditable job on them. And I believe at one time, he was considered the fastest gun in Hollywood.

And then there is the Icon Randolph Scott....

[Texas Lawdog]

Ben was a Cowboy that just happened to be an actor. He was 1953 World Champion Steer Roper in what is now the PRCA.  I had the pleasure to met and know Ben several years ago at a celebrity team roping.  A true American Cowboy. Another purty fair Cowboy that happens to be a cowboy and a great artist is Buck Taylor.  I met Buck several years ago and see him several times a year. He always speaks to me whenever or whereever that might be. Another true American Cowboy.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

I had to Google Buck Taylor to see who he was ... turns out I think I saw him in two different movies in the last two days ... as a stagecoach driver in Miracle at Sage Creek , and as a trailboss in Jericho ...

I remember thinking while I watched it that you can tell the people who are actors first much of the time because you start recognizing clothing and leather goods from Texas Jacks and Wild West Mercantile ... and I remember in both parts that here was a person whose clothing looked like it had been out on a trail ride or had ridden a stagecoach driver's box.

And he does seem to be a man that I would be proud to know ....

[Delmonico]

Any of them are better than Costner, guy who don't like us gun totin' folks, made that yuppie feel good western that won them awards.

Lets see, Ft Sedgewick was manned by Newbrassky Milita at that time, they did not desert the fort, should have made up a fort so as not to offend folks who know history.  That's it's first stike.

Second, got a couple Lakota friends who hate it, said they're people should and would have scalped him, Lakota's were the hostiles, the Pawnee were the friendlies, don't know any pawnee to get their opinion.  Second strike.

Third, well you'd think someone as grand and wonderful as Costner would have have stopped at a hardware store and got a hunk of 7?16 dowel stock and cut it off and put it in the magazine of his Henry so folks who understand guns didn't laugh at him forever.  Strike three, yer out.

[Texas Lawdog]

Mr. Ellis, Apparently you never watched TV westerns! Buck was on Gunsmoke for about 6 years and besides that he's from California and his father was Dub Taylor. You should know him unless you haven't seen too many western movies from the 40s, 50s, 60s, or 70s.