TOP 10 FAVOURITE WESTERNS . . .

[hairless wonder]

El Dorado--happens to be my favorite of the John Wayne movies.

El Dorado is a good film, but John Wayne made many better films. His best film (let alone Western) is easily The Searchers, IMHO. It's got John Ford's signature use of the natural environment as more than just a pretty backdrop. But it also has John Wayne's absolute best performance of all time (I have no clue why he wasn't nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.) If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch The Searchers.

Another John Wayne film I highly recommend is The Shootist, his last film. It's another Oscar-worthy performance. He really left everything on the field with that last performance. The film also felt very much like a swan song, not just for John Wayne, but for the Westerns and other action films he helped popularize. That's not to say no one ever made Westerns or action films after John Wayne retired, rather, the Wayne-style of films was no more.

 

[AlBHappy]

1.Blazing Saddles
In no particular order
El Dorado
Outlaw Josey Wales
Hang 'Em High
A Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More (Thought GBU was WAY too long)
Pale Rider
High Plains Drifter
Rio Bravo

 

[Columbo]

El Dorado is a good film, but John Wayne made many better films. His best film (let alone Western) is easily The Searchers, IMHO. It's got John Ford's signature use of the natural environment as more than just a pretty backdrop. But it also has John Wayne's absolute best performance of all time (I have no clue why he wasn't nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.) If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch The Searchers.

Another John Wayne film I highly recommend is The Shootist, his last film. It's another Oscar-worthy performance. He really left everything on the field with that last performance. The film also felt very much like a swan song, not just for John Wayne, but for the Westerns and other action films he helped popularize. That's not to say no one ever made Westerns or action films after John Wayne retired, rather, the Wayne-style of films was no more.

Agreed. The Searchers is excellent, as was his very first with John Ford, Stagecoach. Others with Wayne that are worth a watch are Red River, Hondo, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (with Jimmy Stewart) ... and if you are lucky enough to have it, the complete, unedited, The Alamo.

And outside of the Westerns, They Were Expendable and The Quiet Man are both very good ones. Wayne also did a couple very good ones with Randolph Scott and Marlene Dietrich that had very good chemistry, in particular The Spoilers.

On my list of top westerns I include Shane and High Noon. From Alan Ladd on down, including a very young Jack Palance, Shane is a first-class classic western, with a lot going on. High Noon develops what might be the most terrific anticipatory tension ever seen in the genre.

 

[Toothpick]

There is only 1

Lonesome Dove

 

[Doc4]

On my list of top westerns I include Shane and High Noon. From Alan Ladd on down, including a very young Jack Palance, Shane is a first-class classic western, with a lot going on. High Noon develops what might be the most terrific anticipatory tension ever seen in the genre

I encourage you to watch Hombre with Paul Newman.

 

[Ravenonrock]

Unforgiven
True Grit (recent)
Silverado
High Plains Drifter
Stagecoach
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Blazing Saddles
A Fistful of Dollars
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
McCabe and Mrs. Miller

 

[emwolf]

... the gauntlet laid down ...








... it shouldn't have taken four of you.

It sure took a lot of editing to extract Get Shorty from my post

 

[Saxonbowman]

Let's see...

Rio Bravo -- Great performances from a great cast of characters
Gunfight at the OK Corral -- Pure fiction 'based on a true story' but well played
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- So much fun!
Hateful 8 -- I enjoyed this but not everybody did

I'm sure there are more but these come to mind

 

[Phoenixkh]

I love all the movies already listed but I thought I'd throw a couple in the mix.

When our sons were young... preteens.. we knew a snow storm was blowing in so we all headed off to Blockbuster (that tells you how many years ago this was). We got there ahead of the rush and were able to get several of the "Trinity" movies... they were hilarious for kids their age and truth be told, we enjoyed them too... but mostly listening to our sons enjoying them.

 

[emwolf]

I love all the movies already listed but I thought I'd throw a couple in the mix.

When our sons were young... preteens.. we knew a snow storm was blowing in so we all headed off to Blockbuster (that tells you how many years ago this was). We got there ahead of the rush and were able to get several of the "Trinity" movies... they were hilarious for kids their age and truth be told, we enjoyed them too... but mostly listening to our sons enjoying them.

First movie I ever saw on an airplane was a Trinity movie, can't recall which one, but it involved a mining town named "Molly Be Damned."

 

[njpaddy]

While I grew up with cowboy movies in the 50s, and loved the "man with no name" films when they came out, my favorite is probably "Valdez is Coming".

 

[P-51G t]

The good, the bad and the ugly
Outlaw Josey Wales
For a few dollars more
Tombstone
Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid
The wild bunch
3:10 to Yuma
Dances with wolves
Unforgiven
A fistful of dollars
Once upon a time in the west

 

[kjbarth]

Blazing Saddles
McLintock
Shane
Outlaw Josey Wales
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
Red River
High Plains Drifter
3:10 to Yuma
True Grit (original)
High Noon

 

[MarkM10431]

OK I could not do 10.. so I did 10 non John Wayne and 10 with

I'm sure they are all on someone's list

In no particular order

Silverado
Blazing Saddles
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
My Darling Clementine
Winchester '73
The Magnificent Seven
3:10 to Yuma (1947)
Quigley Down Under


McLintock!..........................Because.. Maureen O'Hara
Stagecoach.......................John Ford
The Horse Soldiers..............John Ford
The Searchers...................John Ford
Hondo...............................Hard to go wrong with a Louis L'amour story
El Dorado / Rio Bravo...........listed together because basically the same movie.

Listing these three last, but if you like John Wayne and John Ford.. the Calvary trilogy is amazing
Fort Apache
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Rio Grande

 

[Swingboy8]

I'm not a specialist of the genre, but here are my favourite ones :

1- For a Few Dollars More (1965) [Italy]

2- The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008) [South Korea] {ah ah, you probably don't know this one gents, do you ? }

3- The Magnificient Seven (1960) [USA]

4- El Dorado (1966) [USA]

5- Winchester '73 (1950) [USA]

6- Pale Rider (1985) [USA]

7- El Chuncho (1966) [Italy]

8- The Salvation (2014) [Danemark]

9- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) [Italy]

10- The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) [USA]

For a Few Dollars More in 1st place, because Lee van Cleef. And also, the final fight scene between the Colonel & el Indio is, to me, one of the most beautiful scenes i've watched in a Western movie.

 

[luvmysuper]

The Shootist
Magnificent Seven (Yul Brynner)
True Grit (John Wayne)
Silverado
Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy
The Man who shot Liberty Valance
Stagecoach
Unforgiven
Shane
Outlaw Josie Wales (even though I dislike Sandra Locke)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Honorable mention, even though it's a comedy not a western:
Blazing Saddles

 

[Fedsbackhand]

Deadwood - can't decide which 10 episodes

Better watch it all over again

 

[Hms123]

The good, the bad and the ugly
Outlaw Josey Wales
For a few dollars more
Tombstone
Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid
The wild bunch
3:10 to Yuma
Dances with wolves
Unforgiven
A fistful of dollars
Once upon a time in the west

This is my top ten list. Great films.

 

[Hms123]

The Shootist
Magnificent Seven (Yul Brynner)
True Grit (John Wayne)
Silverado
Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy
The Man who shot Liberty Valance
Stagecoach
Unforgiven
Shane
Outlaw Josie Wales (even though I dislike Sandra Locke)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Honorable mention, even though it's a comedy not a western:
Blazing Saddles

Another list that should have been mine. I love these movies.

 

[DEgeezer]

High noon
Open range
Big country
The magnificent seven
Lonesome dove
The man who shot Liberty Valence
Once upon a time in the west
The sheepman
Cat Ballou
One Eyed jacks
Little Big Man
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
+Most of the Spaghetti Westerns

Must stop.....must stop! The man only wanted 10!