Best Western Ever

cmort666

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Tombstone's on on the History Channel right now. It's the best western ever made. Best story, best writing, best acting, best [realistic] gunfights.
 
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I have to vote with Waldo. I watch that movie at least twice a year. "They, they,, who the **** is they? Railroad men, bounty hunters, Deke Thornton".
 
Tombstone is good even great however how can you beat The Wild Bunch? Peckinpah changed westerns forever with that classic. His self destructive genius cane to true form in that movie.
 
Tombstone.
Back a few years ago, I was an installer, working with SpectraVision, the hotel PPV tv channel, when that movie started it's run on the channel. Watched it about 300 times as we were installing, at least once a night in our rooms, I had it on video tape, have it now on DVD. I <STRIKE>might</STRIKE> probably watch it again tonight.
 
Originally posted by S. Hammer:
I agree Tombstone is great, but I think the best gunfight was in Open Range.

+1

I loved The Unforgiven too. Clint Eastwood. "He should have armed himself".

3:10 to Yuma had a great running gun fight scene to the train at the end.
 
Unforgiven is on now. It's better than Tombstone, IMO, but not the best ever. It would be hard to say which is the best. I like most all of 'em.
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I enjoy all those mentioned and have most of them on DVD but I'm a big fan of the Jimmy Stewart westerns that he made with director Anthony Mann. Winchester '73, Bend in the River, Man From Laramie, The Far Country, a few others.

They were pretty dark; Jimmy's character was usually not a straight arrow sort of guy but he ends up doing the right thing.

They call it "Cowboy Noir" because those movies took the grit and reality of detective stories and applied it in the western movie format. Good stuff.

Bend in the River is probably my favorite. Jimmy was a Missouri guerilla during the Civil
War and did a lot of rotten things but now he is trying to leave that behind and be a decent guy. Some of us can associate with that......
 
I have to say that The Wild Bunch is my favorite. However, there are 3 or 4 John Wayne movies that are perhaps the best "group of movies". I'd say Hondo, The Searchers, True Grit, Rooster Cogburn, The Cowboys and The Shootist would be in a class by themselves, when taken together as a body of work.
 
Tombstone is a good movie, well worth watching, but if I were to compile a list of my all-time favorite Westerns, it wouldn't make the top ten, maybe not the top twenty.

One that doesn't get mentioned here much but is one of my favorites is McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
 
Tombstone ain't bad, I agree about the gunfight in Open Range, the Wild Bunch never did much for me, but High Noon did, Unforgiven and the newer 3:10 to Yuma are good, Silverado has about every western cliche' ever done, and how could anyone not like John Wayne westerns.

However, I would have to say what may be one of my favorite westerns is not really even a movie at all but the mini-series Lonesome Dove. Got the DVD and would watch again anytime it airs.
 
All the movies mentioned are outstanding. I also like Ride the High Country. Outstanding movie and I believe the last for Joel McCrea and Randolf Scott.
Butch
 
However, I would have to say what may be one of my favorite westerns is not really even a movie at all but the mini-series Lonesome Dove. Got the DVD and would watch again anytime it airs.

Lonesome Dove is the best for me too. That being said, most of the Duke's work are all great, my favs being Rio Grande and Big Jake.
 
"The Searchers" Best western and best John Wayne movie

Close second: "The Outlaw Josie Whales"

But now that I'm thinking about it, there's a lot of good ones. How can we forget about "Lonesome Dove" or any of Robert Duvall's latest ones, "Open Range" or "Broken Trail".

Picking a favorite is harder than it seems!
 
Well if we get second and third choices, and speaking of Jimmy Stewart, I always liked the Cheyenne Social Club.
 
Originally posted by cmj8591:
"The Searchers" Best western and best John Wayne movie

Close second: "The Outlaw Josie Whales"
"The Outlaw Josey Wales" is my second favorite, followed by "Big Jake".

I like "Tombstone" best because it's a "modern" western without the encumbrances of Production Code BS, or contemporary PC. It's a western boiled down to nothing but its essential elements. It reminds me of the best Japanese yakuza gangster movies, especially the best yakuza movie ever made, "The Yakuza", which was made by an American. It's a very straightforward morality tale about mortals who rise to a challenge, and do so with honor. I suspect a lot of people are horrified by the movie. After all, somebody stands up to a bunch of bullies and does so with violence.
 
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