Official HTF Western Appreciation Thread (4 Viewers)

[Winston T. Boogie]

I would also love to read everyone's lists of the top 10 or 20 westerns. I'd offer my own, but I am afraid it would seem like amateur hour.

Not at all, Sam, please participate. The thing about lists is they are just jumping off points for discussions and having different lists with different perspectives is what it all about. Plus when someone lists a film as one of their favorites it often leads me to reevaluate it and take another look with the idea in mind that this picture really had an impact on someone. So, there are no amateurs just people who might stay silent.

 

[Tino]

Yes. I encourage everyone to post their lists without fear of embarrassment or ridicule.

 

[Tino]

Here’s my current top 20 ( In no particular order)

The Searchers
Dances With Wolves
Destry Rides Again
Rio Bravo
Red River
The Ox Bow Incident
High Noon
Unforgiven
Hostiles
Dodge City
Tall In The Saddle
How The West Was Won
Johnny Guitar
The Good The Bad And The Ugly
Stagecoach
The Gunfighter
True Grit (2010)
Winchester ‘73
The Magnificent Seven
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre ( I always considered this. Western)

 

[Robert Crawford]

Is this listing the best or favorite westerns? There is a major difference because in my opinion, being among the best westerns doesn't necessarily mean it's on my favorite westerns list.

 

[Tino]

Is this listing the best or favorite westerns? There is a major difference because in my opinion, being among the best westerns doesn't necessarily mean it's on my favorite westerns list.

My list is of personal favorites that I’ve seen.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I suspect that my favorites thus far occasionally line up with what I think was actually the best but not always. Like, I can’t claim that “The Rounders” with Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford is one of the all time great films. And yet, I can think of few westerns I’ve had more fun watching. There are a lot of the ones that are generally considered the all time greats that I admired and enjoyed watching but wouldn’t call favorites.

 

[Robert Crawford]

My list is of personal favorites that I’ve seen.

In no particular order, my top '50' personal favorite westerns:

1. The Gunfighter
2. High Noon
3. The Searchers
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. Warlock
6. 3:10 to Yuma
7. The Wild Bunch
8. The Ox-Bow Incident
9. The Last Wagon
10. Shane
11. Hombre
12. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
13. Jeremiah Johnson
14. Fort Apache
15. The Big Sky
16. Ambush
17. Open Range
18. The Professionals
19. Winchester '73
20. The Tin Star
21. The Magnificent Seven
22. Rocky Mountain
23. Dodge City
24. They Died with their Boots On
25. Nevada Smith
26. Cowboy
27. Tall in the Saddle
28. Apache
29. Night Passage
30. Man Without a Star
31. Red River
32. Rio Grande
33. The Unforgiven (1960)
34. Union Pacific
35. Canyon Passage
36. The King and Four Queens
37. Rio Bravo
38. My Darling Clementine
39. South of St. Louis
40. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
41. Angel and the Badman
42. Westward the Women
43. The Outlaw Josey Wales
44. Vera Cruz
45. The Horse Soldiers
46. Geronimo (1939)
47. The Plainsman (1936)
48. 3 Godfathers (1949)
49. Blood on the Moon
50. Stagecoach (1939)

 

[Robert Crawford]

By the way, I usually don't do lists, but I couldn't resist naming my favorite westerns and it was easier naming 50 than say 20-30 of them. Even then, I still left off about another 10 westerns I could name in my top 60. Edited: After sleeping on my list I kept thinking of other westerns that I really liked and some I actually love that I omitted from my favorite '50' westerns. I didn't get a sound sleep as names of other westerns kept popping up in my pea brain. Therefore, the following are my next '50' favorite westerns in no particular order nor some titles are what you call traditional westerns. Actually, some of them could have been included in my first favorite '50' westerns list, if I kept thinking about it. Furthermore, I omitted some other favorite westerns, but I have to stop somewhere.

1. Unforgiven
2. Escape from Fort Bravo
3. Last Train from Gun Hill
4. The Fastest Gun Alive
5. Virginia City
6. Hondo
7. The Bravados
8. The Big Country
9. Devil's Doorway
10. Jubal
11. Hud
12. Monte Walsh
13. Will Penny
14. Pillars in the Sky
15. McLintock!
16. The Westerner
17. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
18. Lonely are the Brave
19. Arizona
20. The Alamo
21. The Proud Ones
22. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
23. Last of the Dogmen
24. Western Union
25. Yellow Sky
26. Kit Carson
27. The Shootist
28. The Sons of Katie Elder
29. Buffalo Soldiers (1997)
30. Five Card Stud
31. Destry Rides Again
32. The Tall Men
33. Backlash
34. The Last Hunt
35. Four Faces West
36. Ride the High Country
37. California
38. Comanche Station
39. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
40. Broken Lance
41. Joe Kidd
42. El Dorado
43. Only the Valiant
44. Death Hunt
45. The War Wagon
46. Pursued
47. Santa Fe Trail
48. Cheyenne Autumn
49. The Furies
50. Walk the Proud Land

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Anyone seen The Lonely Trail with John Wayne from 1936? It’s one of those hour long b-westerns he did early on and iTunes had it for $5. I’m hoping to have time to see it tonight or within the next few days (have a review disc that takes first priority), but I’ve generally enjoyed all of those early Wayne films that I’ve seen.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Reviewing this thread and some of the titles mentioned, it is very clear to me that I have not viewed as many of the classics as some of the participants. I wasn't sure if I should include Blazing Saddles or not, but it is my list, so why not? With those disclaimers aside, here is a list of my top 25 favorite Westerns (roughly in order)...

Once Upon a Time in the West
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Open Range
Unforgiven
The Big Country

The Wild Bunch
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Proposition
Red River
The Revenant

The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Searchers
Blazing Saddles
The Hateful Eight
Jeremiah Johnson

The Magnificent Seven
Nevada Smith
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Hombre
Dances with Wolves

The Cowboys
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Professionals
Winchester ’73
Little Big Man

- Walter.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s funny you mention Blazing Saddles, I was thinking about that movie recently. It was the first Mel Brooks movie I ever saw, and the R-rated videotape that my dad ever bought for me. I remember laughing my ass off the first time I saw it at age 9 or 10, only I had no idea about any of the references. I just took it at face value as a really funny comedy set in the old west.

Now flash forward to 2015 or 2016 when I actually started going back and doing my western homework. After seeing a bunch of the classics, I saw Blazing Saddles again (I mean, not for the first time since I was a kid, I’ve seen it a ton), with Mel Brooks in person no less, and somehow it got even funnier now that I could catch a ton of the references.

I say it definitely counts as a western because it actually works as a film even if you’ve never seen anything it references. If it only worked as a spoof then I think it could be argued that it was just a comedy and not also a western.

 

[OliverK]

Looks like it is available digitally in HD so I will add that to the list!

Be prepared to see what essentially looks like an SD master- that's the "HD" version that has been around for many years.
And if it looks very good, please let us know as that would mean they have prepared a new master.

 

[OliverK]

I've skimmed through the thread to get an idea what you have seen and what has or has not been mentioned. Here are three, all with available blus, that I think are great films.

Day of the Outlaw - Directed by the great Andre De Toth with a great group of actors that give outstanding performances. Beautiful black and white photography shows off the snow bound landscapes with wonderful shots of the men and their horses plowing through real deep snow. The cast complained so much about the cold and snowy conditions that De Toth got so pissed off he showed up to work naked one day to show that he was willing to work in the great outdoors. Russell Harlan did an amazing job photographing this film and loved working on it...he was one of the people that was not complaining as he was very into shooting outdoors and loved old west work. It is a very grim and bleak story that crosses the western with film noir. It was a passion project for De Toth. It is available on a Kino blu-ray and I think is a must own western. Essentially the story is a group of very bad men led by Burl Ives descend on a remote mountain town as they are fleeing a posse that wants to bring them to justice. Robert Ryan is one of the men that live in the town and before they even arrive he has it in his head to do some killing of his own. Great story that could be seen as a huge influence on Tarantino's Hateful Eight. Scorsese is a huge fan of this one too. GET IT! There is another thread around here just about this picture where a bunch of us discussed it. Probably wait to look at that until you have seen it.

The Last Hunt - A few years before Russell Harlan shot Day of the Outlaw he photographed this incredibly grim western for Richard Brooks. Again we have an excellent cast with Robert Taylor playing a psychopath and Stewart Granger as a decent man trying to make his way through a blood soaked west. This is one seriously nasty bit of business that is about men driven mad by just how much killing...of pretty much everything...they have to do. An overlooked picture I think probably because the subject matter is so dark. I mean I don't think they make a lot of films about bloodlust...at least not ones that don't fall into the horror genre, ha! Excellent turns from the supporting cast including a truly awesome Lloyd Nolan. Gruesome stuff but really an excellent western. Available on a gorgeous Warner Archive Blu-ray.

The Last Frontier - At this point you already know Anthony Mann made excellent westerns. Here's probably his least well known or seen. While Mann was not crazy about this film, I think it is excellent and a helluva lot of fun. It stars Victor Mature (or as Robert Mitchum referred to him "Smelly old Victor Mature" which I always think is funny) as this nutty man-child mountain man that signs up to be an army scout at a remote Oregon fort where a probably a bit unhinged and certainly reckless colonel played by Robert Preston wants to go head to head with a much larger and superior Sioux force. Mature dangerously also has a crush on another man's wife. Beautiful locations photographed as wonderfully as you would expect in an Anthony Mann picture. I love this film and I think Mr. Mature is very good in it playing what is certainly an oddball character. This one is available on Blu-ray in a German disc and also one from France. I'll need to pull it out to figure out which I have and the region situation.

Very good choices and I#d like to add that Day of the Outlaw and The Last Hunt are available as great Blu-rays while The Last Frontier (like many great looking movies from Tony Mann) looks very very bad.

So I would start with the first two and hope that in the meantime Sony does something nice for The Last Frontier.

 

[avroman]

Nobody has mentioned James Stewart's "Broken Arrow".

 

[Walter Kittel]

Thinking about my list, I realized that one of the biggest omissions from it, is 1967's Will Penny. This is one of my favorite Westerns because it contains what I consider to be the finest performance of Charlton Heston's illustrious career. This film is certainly in my top 15 because of Mr. Heston's contributions. (I really need to revisit this film.)

- Walter.

 

[AshJW]

How about a Top 20?

Ive got to give this some serious thought. I’ll include all the westerns I’ve seen so far to draw from.

Yeah, top 20 maybe is sufficient, that wouldn’t exclude the ones who can’t provide 50 movies

It would probably best if we open a new thread for that.
Because I brought up the idea I guess I do it.

As soon as I opened up this poll Robert might move the already posted lists over there.

 

[Robert Crawford]

By the way, I usually don't do lists, but I couldn't resist naming my favorite westerns and it was easier naming 50 than say 20-30 of them. Even then, I still left off about another 10 westerns I could name in my top 60. Edited: After sleeping on my list I kept thinking of other westerns that I really liked and some I actually love that omitted from my favorite 50 westerns. I didn't get a sound sleep as names of other westerns kept popping up in my pea brain. Therefore, the following are my next 50 favorite westerns in no particular order nor some are what you call traditional westerns. Actually, some could have been included in my first favorite 50 westerns list, if I kept thinking about it. Furthermore, I omitted some other favorite westerns, but I have to stop somewhere.

1. Unforgiven
2. Escape from Fort Bravo
3. Last Train from Gun Hill
4. The Fastest Gun Alive
5. Virginia City
6. Hondo
7. The Bravados
8. The Big Country
9. Devil's Doorway
10. Jubal
11. Hud
12. Monte Walsh
13. Will Penny
14. Pillars in the Sky
15. McLintock!
16. The Westerner
17. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
18. Lonely are the Brave
19. Arizona
20. The Alamo
21. The Proud Ones
22. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
23. The Last of the Dogmen
24. Western Union
25. Yellow Sky
26. Kit Carson
27. The Shootist
28. The Sons of Katie Elder
29. Buffalo Soldiers (1997)
30. Five Card Stud
31. Destry Rides Again
32. The Tall Men
33. Backlash
34. The Last Hunt
35. Four Faces West
36. Ride the High Country
37. California
38. Comanche Station
39. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
40. Broken Lance
41. Joe Kidd
42. El Dorado
43. Only the Valiant
44. Death Hunt
45. The War Wagon
46. Pursued
47. Santa Fe Trail
48. Cheyenne Autumn
49. The Furies
50. Walk the Proud Land

I quoted one of my posts so people realized I revised a previous post and came up with a second '50' favorite westerns listing. The movies are in no particular order so together with my first '50' westerns listing, I now have my '100' favorite westerns that still omitted some other fine westerns.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Looking over Robert's second list, I see some stuff I really like (in addition to his first list as well ) Just a few comments...

Death Hunt is one of those films that feels like it could have been directed by Robert Sturges. Sort of a B film; the pairing of Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson makes this an effective Western/Action tale. Always liked this film since seeing it theatrically. The always reliable Ed Lauter is a good antagonist in this film as well.

I absolutely love Hud and The Last of the Mohicans but (for me) I had a difficult time classifying them as Westerns. (One too modern and the other just a little too early. From my list, The Revenant is in the 1820s so it feels a little bit more of that period compared to Last of the Mohicans which takes place 60 years earlier. Another film I excluded as too early is 1991's Black Robe which I think is terrific.) But hey, it is your list.

- Walter.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Looking over Robert's second list, I see some stuff I really like (in addition to his first list as well ) Just a few comments...

Death Hunt is one of those films that feels like it could have been directed by Robert Sturges. Sort of a B film; the pairing of Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson makes this an effective Western/Action tale. Always liked this film since seeing it theatrically. The always reliable Ed Lauter is a good antagonist in this film as well.

I absolutely love Hud and The Last of the Mohicans but (for me) I had a difficult time classifying them as Westerns. (One too modern and the other just a little too early. From my list, The Revenant is in the 1820s so it feels a little bit more of that period compared to Last of the Mohicans which takes place 60 years earlier. Another film I excluded as too early is 1991's Black Robe which I think is terrific.) But hey, it is your list.

- Walter.

To each his own as to their definition of a western which is similar to our individual definition of a 'classic' film. Another movie, most don't consider a 'western' that could easily have made my list is 'Lone Star' (1996).

 

[Sam Favate]

When you guys mention Last of the Mohicans, are you talking about the 1992 version by Michael Mann or the 1936 version starring Randolph Scott? Or another version (there are many)?

I guess it fits the time period, but since it takes place in New York State, I never thought of it as a western. I guess it does fit the "taming the frontier" criteria.