What's the greatest Western?

Jodorowsky’s EL TOPO! a surreal masterpiece!

Once Upon A Time in the West
A Bullet For the General
The Wild Bunch
The Great Silence
Keoma
Texas Adios
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

and El Topo

god I can’t believe all the votes for such minor Westerns such as EL TOPO or FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. Of course they’re fun pictures, with many redeeming qualities, but do some of you really believe they rank as the Greatest Western Of All Time? Surely you jest…

Once Upon A Time in the West
The Good,the Bad & the Ugly
The Proposition
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

I heart The Searchers, Mc Cabe and Mrs Miller, The Good the Bad and the Ugly

The best western film…as a kid I enjoyed High Planes Drifter for it’s violence and for Clint. Now I enjoy it for different reasons. It’s really one of the last westerns. Apparently from 1903 to 1973 there was at least one major studio western a year, usually more. Drifter came out in ‘73 and shattered the myth of the western sort of. Everything dark that was always hinted at is brought to the surface. Clint is like the final version of the gunfighter through all it’s evolution. He comes from a mirage and then disappears at the end after destroying the town to save it.

I enjoy Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for a few things…especially when the ‘super posse’ arrives, coming out of the ominous train at full gallop. The film is really a comedy and I like that.

I also really like The Searchers. Sure, the squaw scene isn’t great but Ford is painting a bigger picture here and that’s part of it. The whole movie is racist (except for Martin and Mrs. Jorgensen). Even the stock redeeming woman portrayed by Laurie Jorgensen is racist. Ford is making a statement about many many things and racism is one of the biggest. The Searchers also takes the prize for most ominous scene. The scene at the homestead right before the Commanche attack is super scary. The way Ford plays with our imagination is crazy too. We never do see the dead bodies, but we can imagine them. It’s also interesting that his hero in the picture, Martin, isn’t thought of as the hero by most people (that I’ve talked to anyway).

I have such a soft spot for High Noon It’s really one I could never grow tired of and I don’t really know why other than it feels like an old friend now. I really liked The Shootist but I don’t really care much for The Duke himself. Of course I loved Good, the Bad and the Ugly but really…it’s impossible not to.
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid was really good too. I always kinda liked Giant but I’m not sure if that’s a western or a Hollywood epic…who knows. I’m sure I’m forgetting tons but check my swanky bold action to distract you.

I’m not a big fan of westers but I have seen a few. I’d have to say that Once Upon a Time In The West is my favorite.
I also love Rio Bravo and One Eyed Jacks.

MAN OF THE WEST, DJANGO, THE GREAT SILENCE, BITE THE BULLET, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, THE GOOD , THE BAD AND THE UGLY, DUCK YOU SUCKER,

I just watched THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and was completely unimpressed. Moralizing passages mixed with not very well shot action sequences, and the first half of the movie is really really slow. Sure Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen and Bronson are cool, but Robert Vaughn is a joke (sleeping with his black gloves on?) and James Coburn is completely wasted as a character.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Once Upon A Time in the West
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Yes, westerns with long titles are good.

It’s really impossible to say. My favourite classical Western would be one of Ford’s, probably The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (itself very relexive and knowing about the genre for a film from 62 – the year when the genre starts to reflect on itself). Shane and Man of the West are goodies, too. If you’re talking post – classical, then it’s got to be The Wild Bunch, though I think Unforgiven’s very great indeed for its commentary upon violence in the genre.

The Proposition. A Western set in Australia. It probably isn’t near the greatest, but I consider it in my top 10.

The Great Silence
Blindman
Django
For a Few Dollars More
Hannie Caulder (very underated)
Death Rides A Horse
High Plains Drifter

Favourites, in no particuar order:

The Searchers
Shane
My Darling Clementine
Red River (“take then to Misouri, Matt”, oh my…)
Unforgiven
Once Upon a Time…
Liberty Valance

And I think “The Assassination oj Jesse James…” will take some time to really show it’s value.

Little Joey knows what the greatest western is.

The Searchers and Once Upon A Time in the West—Leone in a 1970’s interview says his film is about the Twilight of the Gods and the World without Balls that ensues—he ends the film with Claudia Cardinale taking over Everything in a rather benevolent way—the Earth Mother returns and the Greek-like heroes are dead with the exception of one hero who leaves for the Wastelands I guess—you cannot beat it because it is The Movie about the End of the West. Guess what very few American real Westerns were made after this film—filmed partly in Monument Valley as Ford’s film was as well.

Picking the best Western is like trying to pick my favorite Motown song – I don’t even see how it’s possible. Depending on my mood I could say:

The Searchers
The Naked Spur
Decision at Sundown
Unforgiven
Rio Bravo
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
My Darling Clementine

I guess The Searchers is still the true king in my heart.

My Darling Clementine,
Wagon Master,
The Big Sky,
The Tall Men,
Once upon a Time in the West.

My Darling Clementine

Michael – It’s not my favorite, but I’m glad someone mentioned “Wagon Master”. I think it’s just as good as any other Ford western, but without a proper DVD release, it’s going unrecognized.

High Noon
The Magnificent Seven
The Wild Bunch
Shane

Also the 5 Mann-Stewart films.

I love Westerns and grew up watching the classics – films like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Magnificent Seven, The Good The Bad And The Ugly and the rest, and these films still have a big place in my heart. However over the past few years I’ve been exploring the wonderful world of spaghetti westerns in more detail and have fallen in love with lesser known (well, to me anyway!) classics such as the Django films, Keoma, The Great Silence, The Four Horsemen, Death Rides A Horse and A Fistful of Dynamite. Anyway, after all that it’s impossible to choose a greatest – all of the above and more!

Honourable mention to a few more favourites because I can’t resist – The Searchers, Shane, Broken Arrow and Soldier Blue.

As long as I live and no matter how many Westerns I’ve seen, I’ll never understand what draws people to Shane.

Can’t talk about the ‘greatest’ because I don’t really understand what the criteria are. That, by the way, applies to all film genres. Can talk about favourites though.
Have always been a Western fan, and each film mentioned previously is a winner…of those I have seen.
One of the great lines to come out of a Western in my estimation is “Who are those guys?” from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. This film has been called a Western, a comedy, a love story, a buddy flick, a heist film, a costume drama and even simply a vehicle to sell a pop song.
To me it is most of those plus a psychological horror film. Considerable film time is given to the ‘chase scene’. Running for my life, and not knowing who I am running from, would be horrific.
Although there is much humourous dialogue and many humourous scenes in this film, I was never able to see it as a comedy.

The searchers
or
McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Unforgiven

Nobody mentioned Hombre. It’s one of the best westerns I’ve ever seen – it has a very mature outlook for its time (1967). Both Paul Newman and Richard Boone are great, but Frederic March and Diane Cilento are superb.

I recently saw Hombre for the first time, NMcCCB. I’ve always wondered why Elmore Leonard’s Western novels and stories having been more thoroughly pillaged for the screen. He wrote, Hombre, of course, but also Valdez Is Coming, “3:10 to Yuma”and “The Captives” (adapted to the screen as Budd Boetticher’s The Tall T).