Best Western — Open Thread
No, this is not about a hotel chain.
The western as a film genre has all but died out, but the motion picture canon includes a number of westerns. Until I saw The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Shane and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven were my two favorites. Now I have three, but I know those aren’t the only great ones. There are many others, including flicks featuring the great John Wayne and even a few with the Gipper.
So, today’s open thread–what’s your favorite western?
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Back To The Future, Part III. Is there any doubt?
Comment by GayPatriot — March 16, 2006 @ 7:05 pm - March 16, 2006
Magnificent Seven. How could anyone not name that film first?
Comment by Michigan-Matt — March 16, 2006 @ 7:22 pm - March 16, 2006
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, “True Grit” and “Blazing Saddles”.
Comment by Scott — March 16, 2006 @ 7:25 pm - March 16, 2006
“The Quick and the Dead” I love Gene Hackman and Russell Crowe. Sharon Stone is ok, and Leonardo DiCapprio is a no-talent twink hack, but the rest of the movie made up for it.
Comment by SouthernGayRepublican — March 16, 2006 @ 7:41 pm - March 16, 2006
Hatari with John Wayne and Red Buttons
Does it count if it’s set in Africa?
Comment by cbi — March 16, 2006 @ 7:52 pm - March 16, 2006
The Return of the Magnificent Seven –I can’t believe no one mentioned that one either.
Comment by Michigan-Matt — March 16, 2006 @ 8:11 pm - March 16, 2006
Stagecoach and The Searchers, both directed by John Ford. Both films were ahead of their time, both in terms of technique and content. The opening and closing shots in Searchers, for example, still give me chills.
Bruce, you’re a phillistine.
Eric in Hollywood
Comment by HollywoodNeoCon — March 16, 2006 @ 8:24 pm - March 16, 2006
My Name is Nobody. It is the quintessential spaghetti western and I love it more every time I see it.
Comment by Kitty Crouch — March 16, 2006 @ 8:26 pm - March 16, 2006
I can never remember titles.
I liked Quigly Down Under.
I’ve been reading Louis L’Amour novels lately (re-reading… I must have read all but two or three when I was 13-14 years old.) A western is really a morality play… or what I think of when I think of a morality play. The lack of societal control means that every individual has to stand, or not, on the strength of their own character. It’s very powerful.
Comment by Synova — March 16, 2006 @ 8:37 pm - March 16, 2006
“Little Big Man”.
Comment by Scott — March 16, 2006 @ 8:42 pm - March 16, 2006
I’ll second The Quick and the Dead and certainly Stagecoach (as well as several others already mentioned. High Noon is a classic. A Big Hand for the Little Lady is great, but not your typical western I suppose.
One film that I loved as a kid was The Cowboys with John Wayne forced to lead a group of young boys (8-16) on a cattle drive across the southwest because his usual team of cowboys is off fighting the Civil War. I wanted so badly to be part of that group. They accepted each other as compadres, even the nerdy kids. It wasn’t until years later that I realized the film appealed to my nascent homosexuality.
Comment by Andre — March 16, 2006 @ 9:45 pm - March 16, 2006
HIGH NOON, watch it and tell me its not a metaphor for our life and times.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — March 16, 2006 @ 10:00 pm - March 16, 2006
LONESOME DOVE, where I first got attached to Robert Duval. His part seemed written for him.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — March 16, 2006 @ 10:02 pm - March 16, 2006
In additon to some already mentioned… Jeremiah Johnson
Comment by Barry — March 16, 2006 @ 10:56 pm - March 16, 2006
Comanche Station — the last hurrah of Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher. (It’s also sort of a farewell to the old Western “programmer” — those quick, cheap films starring Lash Larue, Ken Maynard, the Three Mesquiteers, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and the like, where the movie Western found its largest popular audience.)
Comment by Tim Hulsey — March 16, 2006 @ 11:20 pm - March 16, 2006
Silverado and Riders of the Purple Sage
Comment by EssEm — March 17, 2006 @ 12:05 am - March 17, 2006
Almost anything starring John Wayne, but especially “True Grit”.
Comment by Jack Allen — March 17, 2006 @ 12:52 am - March 17, 2006
My favorite western has always been The Big Country. Stars Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston. Great story and great music. Would Seven Brides for Seven Brothers count in this category?
Comment by Keith G — March 17, 2006 @ 1:22 am - March 17, 2006
“The Sons of Katie Elder” “True Grit” although probably any of the Rooster Cockburn movies.
Comment by just me — March 17, 2006 @ 6:35 am - March 17, 2006
“Treasure of the Sierra Madre”
Comment by Matty — March 17, 2006 @ 8:33 am - March 17, 2006
What, nobody’s mentioned the Good the Bad and the Ugly?
Sheesh! Young’uns!
Comment by rightwingprof — March 17, 2006 @ 11:00 am - March 17, 2006
Did anyone mention the paraody remake of The Magnificent Seven yet; the Three Amigos?
Oxbow Incident?
The Wild Bunch?
McClintock with John Wayne and Maureen OHara?
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly?
I can’t believe no one mentioned James Dean’s Giant?
Comment by Michigan-Matt — March 17, 2006 @ 11:16 am - March 17, 2006
RWP, we were on the same wavelength for a second. I think you should be very afraid.
Comment by Michigan-Matt — March 17, 2006 @ 11:18 am - March 17, 2006
Big Jake, starring John Wayne.
Comment by Michael K. Bassham — March 17, 2006 @ 11:20 am - March 17, 2006
“For a Few Dollars More” is a great story and “Pale Rider” too
Comment by nuyorker — March 17, 2006 @ 12:03 pm - March 17, 2006
I’m not a big Western fan, but I did like SHANE very much.
Also, SILVERADO.
And, anything with Barbara Stanwyck or Maureen O’Hara. Or Mary Stuart Masterson (no matter how bad the rest of the movie).
*Sigh*
Julie the Jarhead
Comment by Julie the Jarhead — March 17, 2006 @ 12:16 pm - March 17, 2006
True Grit, Silverado and Blazing Saddles.
Comment by Kelly — March 17, 2006 @ 4:28 pm - March 17, 2006
The Rare Breed.
Plus anything withh the “one-eyed fat man.” That was a great role for John Wayne.
Comment by windybon — March 17, 2006 @ 5:02 pm - March 17, 2006
I also have to name Lonesome Dove and Kung Fu as my favorite TV Westerns. My favorite movie western (and there are too many to mention) has to be Tombstone. Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday was awesome. I’m your huckleberry.
Comment by Marian — March 17, 2006 @ 5:06 pm - March 17, 2006
Red River
-
Comment by chandler in hollywood — March 17, 2006 @ 7:25 pm - March 17, 2006
Cat Ballou
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Comment by chandler in hollywood — March 17, 2006 @ 7:31 pm - March 17, 2006
How bout something from the newest Western genre, the “Fettucini Fra Diavolo” Western–”Brokeback Mountain”?
Comment by Scott — March 17, 2006 @ 7:58 pm - March 17, 2006
Pale Rider
Star Wars
Good, Bad, and the Ugly
Any western with Henry Ford or Jimmy Stewart
or any western where the French get run out of town.
U.S.S.R.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — March 17, 2006 @ 9:26 pm - March 17, 2006
Does anyone remember the name of a movie starring Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart, who inherit property in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that turns out to be a whore house. Next to “Cat Ballou,” one of the funniest westerns I ever saw.
Comment by Jack Allen — March 17, 2006 @ 11:53 pm - March 17, 2006
Once Upon a Time in the West
Comment by nymac — March 18, 2006 @ 2:14 am - March 18, 2006
Jack, wasn’t that the “Cheyenne Social Club”?
Comment by Michigan-Matt — March 18, 2006 @ 9:59 am - March 18, 2006
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance!
Comment by Craig T. — March 18, 2006 @ 10:38 am - March 18, 2006
The Searchers
Big Jake
Two Mules fo Sister Sara
My Darling Clementine
City Slickers
Comment by dittybopper — March 18, 2006 @ 12:27 pm - March 18, 2006
Destry Rides Again
Comment by Daniel — March 18, 2006 @ 5:51 pm - March 18, 2006
Hard choice!
Either The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance! or She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, runners up Ford’s another Cavalry Trilogy Fort Apache. Sentimental favorite The Shootist (1976) with John Wayne (his last film) as a dying gunfighter and Jimmy Stuart as the “Doc” that tells him he has cancer.
Wayne died of lung cancer in 1979.
Comment by Dr. Bob — March 18, 2006 @ 6:15 pm - March 18, 2006
32: Scott, I’m curious. How is Brokeback representative of a Western subgenre, and could you name other films of its ilk? Since I don’t see stylistic or thematic affinities between Brokeback and the Italian-Spanish “spaghetti westerns,” I don’t quite understand why you’ve referred to the film as a fettucine Fra Diavolo western (except for the film’s appeal to urban, affluent arthouse crowds — the people who would prefer fettucine to spaghetti). Was this comment meant seriously, or was it a flippant Maureen Dowd-ish dismissal?
Comment by Tim Hulsey — March 18, 2006 @ 6:19 pm - March 18, 2006
Yes to all of the above. Great entertainment.
Of course, there’s also “Paint Your Wagon” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”
After all…
Comment by Gene — March 18, 2006 @ 9:01 pm - March 18, 2006
Is it too late to add Shanghi Noon?
I spelled that wrong didn’t I.
Comment by Synova — March 18, 2006 @ 11:02 pm - March 18, 2006
Thanks, Michigan Matt. It was “The Cheyenne Social Club”. I love to laugh and I certainly did watching that film.
Comment by Jack Allen — March 18, 2006 @ 11:12 pm - March 18, 2006
McClintock
Magnificent Seven
Stagecoach
Blazing Saddles
True Grit
Rooster Cogburn
Quigley Down Under, even though it’s more cowboy than “western”.
The Shootist
Tombstone
The Cowboys
The War Wagon
Fort Apache
Geronimo
The Alamo
Cahill U.S. Marshall
Big Jake
Chisum
Rio Lobo
The Sons of Katie Elder
McLintock
Hondo
Rio Grande
King of Texas
etc.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — March 19, 2006 @ 3:30 am - March 19, 2006
You listed McLintock twice, TGC. Understandable, though — it’s a good movie.
By the way, if you have the chance, be sure to see Tommy Lee Jones’s new Western The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. It’ll be on the classics list someday.
Comment by Tim Hulsey — March 19, 2006 @ 7:53 am - March 19, 2006
True Grit
Comment by 207guy — March 19, 2006 @ 9:42 am - March 19, 2006
Rarely a good western after the 50’s. The best are John Ford & John Wayne- Stagecoach, The Searchers and the calvery trilogy- Ft. Apache, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon & Rio Grande. No comparison with the 60’s and 70’s westerns. Also Red River by Howard Hawks with John Wayne and Walter Brennan and Monty Clift. Bend of the River and The Far Country with Jimmy Stewart. The Big Country, The Gunfighter, and the Bravados with Gregory Peck . Dark Command isn’t bad and They Died with Their Boots on with Errol Flynn as Custer is way over the top but great. Will Penny with Charlton Heston is good and for blood and gore( not Al) try the Wildbunch by Sam Peckinpah
Comment by Path — March 22, 2006 @ 4:36 pm - March 22, 2006
Frankly, the way things are right now, I’m not sure I’d want to play myself in my very own movie of the week.
Comment by Robert Moreno — May 4, 2007 @ 4:14 am - May 4, 2007
“It’s not because of fate, it’s because of Tequila” That may be the best thing I have ever read in my whole life!
Comment by Robert Moreno — May 4, 2007 @ 5:27 am - May 4, 2007
RE: Fonda/Stuart Western film==Name is Cheyenne Social Club in answer to question in #34.
Comment by G Makara — June 1, 2007 @ 7:55 pm - June 1, 2007
Just found some great Xmas present ideas, check here:
Metal Cigarette Cases
Comment by ciarteyuazx — November 9, 2007 @ 6:54 am - November 9, 2007
He had to piss so bad he could almost taste it and so he stepped out behind the bar and noisily relieved himself. Clarence was the local drunk, and had little use for anything but a full bottle of Mad Dog and a quiet place to drink it. When his funds ran low, he would help the local residents with their yard work, and was a darn fine landscaper if he could stay sober long enough to complete the job. But most of the time he would return to his bottle as soon as he got some spare change, and had unfinished projects all over the small community that was supported primarily by the large nuclear plant just up the road. Clarence had spent many cold winter nights sleeping next to the cooling towers that generated more than enough heat to keep him warm. Tonight he would probably head back there, as there was a definite chill in the air, and he could see steam rising from the puddle he had just created. With best intent and a noisy belch, he headed off towards the tall white towers, but became entangled in some wild blackberries and fell face first into a small drainage ditch several hundred yards from his destination. A small trickle of water flowing from the plants’ water system grazed his lips as he slept noisily.
Comment by dennk028 — February 20, 2009 @ 7:05 am - February 20, 2009
The morning dawned clear and crisp on the countryside, and Clarence awoke to the day with blurry vision and a throbbing headache. Checking his cash reserves, he realized he was down to his last few coins, and decided to head over to Ms. Walkers place to finish the garden there. She was a loving spirit and always gave him money when he would ask. As he stood up, he noticed the patch of blackberries behind the bar were almost covering the roof. Funny, he thought, they hadn’t been that way when he leaked there last night, and as he watched, he could see them gradually engulf the entire roof and grow down the opposite side. A hoarse whisper nex to his shoulder instantly broke his concentration. It was Zelda, his counterpart in female form who was always trying to get him to “do the nasty” at her small cardboard dwelling on the other side of town. She too had seen the blackberries growing at an unbelievable rate, while she was on her way to the landfill on her never ending quest for aluminum cans. They both continued to stare for quite some time until she wrapped her arm around his waist, and he made a hasty retreat for Ms. Walkers place.
Comment by dennk028 — February 21, 2009 @ 3:52 am - February 21, 2009