Favorite Westerns?
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Burt Macklin — 6 years ago(November 15, 2019 08:17 PM)
little big man
tombstone
dances with wolves
blazing saddles
Pale rider
Bone Tomahawk
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Support your local sherrif!
There will be blood
deadwood
I'm with the fucking FBI! -
Bo — 6 years ago(November 15, 2019 08:38 PM)
Tombstone, American Tail, Once upon a Time in the West, Quiet Man, High Plains Drifter, Unforgiven, From Dusk Til Dawn: The Hangmans Daughter, Raw Hide, Lone Ranger, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, Lassie, Wizard of Oz, Back to the Future 3, Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, Ned Kelly, Mad Max, A handfull of Dollars, Dances With Wolves, Bad Girls, 3 Musketeers(1993), the traitor and Billy the Kid, Young Guns(both), Bone Tomahawk, Apocalypto, Far and away are a few that come to mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bIt2eblH88 -
MortSahlFan — 6 years ago(November 16, 2019 01:28 PM)
I love "There Will Be Blood", but it wasn't considered a Western by IMDB standards, so I didn't include it.
https://www.patreon.com/LoyalOpposition -
phantomparticle — 5 years ago(May 29, 2020 09:54 PM)
I was never a big western fan, even as a kid, although I must have seen a zillion of them in the theatre between 1953 and 1965.
Lately, I've been watching a lot on YouTube. Must be something in my aging DNA
So, favorites:- Lonesome Dove
Yes, it was a tv movie, but I consider it the greatest western epic ever made; no offense to John Ford. - Little Big Man
Dustin Hoffman's tour de force performance, the excellent supporting cast, a brilliant script and the remarkable Chief Dan George (Man! How I miss him) should put this somewhere on everyone's favorite list. - The Westerner
It's Walter Brennan's movie all the way. He and Gary Cooper are the Abbott Costello of The Old West in this enjoyable romp. Still, there is enough drama to keep it from crumbling into farce. Brennan has a memorable exit. - Man of the West
Cooper again, nine years later, as a world weary ex-gunfighter who crosses the path of his old outlaw gang. One of the most brutal westerns ever committed to film. If anyone thinks Cooper was a wooden actor, look up The Westerner and then watch Man of the West, both played in his natural style and as different as our blue Earth and the gray dust of the moon. - Open Range
The great Robert Duval and the not so great Kevin Costner working perfectly well together. The final gun battle is one of the most realistic I have ever seen in a movie where everyone blasting away at each other look like they really are professionals with guns.
I wish I had more time to elaborate on my choices but, as Groucho once sang, "Hello, I must be going". Maybe a post sometime down the line.
And This, Too, Shall Pass Away
- Lonesome Dove
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MortSahlFan — 5 years ago(May 29, 2020 10:39 PM)
Well, here's a reminder, because I'd like to read more.
I like Gary Cooper, so I'll add those two movies to my watch-list. Thanks!
https://www.patreon.com/LoyalOpposition -
phantomparticle — 5 years ago(May 29, 2020 11:08 PM)
I could have put The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in second or third place, but I wanted to cite a couple of westerns that don't get much print on these boards.
Eli Wallach steals the movie from under Eastwood's serape. Wallach had some great stories about how he was cast and how he could have been killed during the sequence in which the train cuts his handcuffs.
My suspicion is that Leone saw what Wallach was doing and deftly skewered the movie in his direction.
Wallach also has the best line in the movie:
If you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk.
Thank you, Mr. Wallach, wherever you are.
And This, Too, Shall Pass Away -
joekiddlouischama — 2 years ago(July 01, 2023 05:18 AM)
Eli Wallach steals the movie from under Eastwood's serape. Wallach had some great stories about how he was cast and how he could have been killed during the sequence in which the train cuts his handcuffs.
My suspicion is that Leone saw what Wallach was doing and deftly skewered the movie in his direction.
Your suspicion is partly correct. As written by the late film critic, historian, and biographer Richard Schickel in his 1996 work
Clint Eastwood: A Biography
(page 174):
On location, Leone was attentive and encouraging to Wallach—"He allowed me to have my romp with this little guy"—and Clint was protective.
That said, Eastwood could see from the beginning (meaning from the script stage) that as Leone's visions (and budgets) were expanding, the role of his own character was comparatively diminishing from one film to the next. Regardless, Eastwood still provides that balance to Wallach—his "cool" here is immaculate, perhaps unmatched—and offers a performance of subtle skill and strength. Take, for example, the scene late in
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
where Eastwood's Blondie wordlessly, yet movingly, tends to the dying Confederate soldier, or how, even later in the film, he subtly raises and sharpens his voice for the first time, asking Wallach's Tuco, "You thought I'd trust you? $200,000 is a lot of money. We're going to have to earn it." It is not some emotional appeal pitched to a critical awards voting body, but in that rhetorical question, Eastwood's suddenly sharpened intensity of pitch is unforgettable.
In other words, the film still needs Eastwood's acting, even as Wallach ostensibly 'steals the show.'
️ Christina 1986-05-20 
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