Let's Talk About Awesome Western Movies!

firewaterword

Hi D&D! I'm fairly sick, and at home with my TV to keep me entertained. Ergo, I've been watching movies. Last night, I watched a 1960s western called The Wild Bunch. It was wonderfully entertaining.

Watching such an awesome movie led me to reflect on how great western movies are. I've got The Magnificent Seven, which I love. I enjoy watching Tombstone every once in awhile as well. The Ox-Bow Incident is also pretty good. I think I like the older westerns more than the more recently made ones, though The Proposition was absolutely badass. And, while not technically a western, I think Blazing Saddles is one of the most hysterical movies ever made.

Anyway, what do you folks like in a western?

Adrenaline

Of course. Also, I've heard El Topo is very good and I've always wanted to see it.

FuzeBox

Seraphim Falls was okay. It's a newer one.

The Searchers and Winchester '73 are probably two of the best westerns ever made, by two of the biggest stars (John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart).

TehSpectre

Seraphim Falls was just okay.

It was a pretty weak western.

FuzeBox

I can't argue. It got weird at the end too. Open Range was kinda slow at parts, but wasn't too bad. Unforgiven is still the best of what I would consider 'newer' westerns.

Adrenaline

I agree about Seraphim Falls. Was entertaining enough, though.

Hearthjaw

Both The Proposition and The Good The Bad The Ugly are fantastic.

Thomamelas

Adrenaline wrote: »

Of course. Also, I've heard El Topo is very good and I've always wanted to see it.

Don't forget the other two movies that form a loose trilogy with it:

A Fist Full of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More.

tofu

Thomamelas wrote: »

Adrenaline wrote: »

Of course. Also, I've heard El Topo is very good and I've always wanted to see it.

Don't forget the other two movies that form a loose trilogy with it:

A Fist Full of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More.

Duck, You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite) and Once Upon a Time in The West should not be forgotten as far as Leone goes.

The new 3:10 to Yuma was pretty awful, do yourself a favor and watch the original.

The Wild Bunch is also a classic, although a lot of people don't like Peckinpah.

pinenut_canary

Tombstone. Watching Val Kilmer makes me want to drink, smoke, and play cards.

Arthil

Tombstone has a third vote here. My father owned a VHS of that and it was one of the few movies we both enjoyed as I grew up. It took me a while to appreciate a lot of westerns, but Tombstone helped I think. Him owning damn near every John Wayne and Clint Eastwood western made it easy to get into them, too.

tofu

Tombstone is good but it's pretty much all fluff and no substance. I'm not a big John Wayne fan but The man who shot Liberty Valance is a great movie, probably my favorite John Ford movie. I don't really care for The Searchers, most of Ford's stuff is too heavy-handed for my liking (although it is pretty amazing when you put his messages into the context of when they were originally released).

Olivaw

Tombstone is amazing and I will shoot anyone who disagrees

Midshipman

Some more Eastwood westerns that are definitely worth seeing:

The Outlaw Josey Wales
High Planes Drifter
Pale Rider (which is basically a remake of Shane, which is also worth seeing).

Other Westerns that I liked:

Silverado
The Man Who shot liberty Valance (already mentioned)
Unforgiven (already mentioned)
Magnificent Seven (already mentioned, and it's a remake of Seven Samurai, which while obviously not a Western is absolutely worth seeing).
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Also, the Wild Bunch is probably my favorite Western of all time

Grislo

You might like something like the tv series 'Lonesome Dove' once you run out of good westerns (I hope you don't, that would make you rather seriously ill).

KevinNash

I liked Open Range.

Woodroez

Open Range is worth seeing for the final showdown alone. Kevin Costner tends to make his period films fairly accurate and consistent with history, but there's a part where his character very obviously fires off more than six rounds from this pistol, just railing on this one poor guy. I decided to listen to the commentary there to see if he said why he did that.

He said (paraphrased, obviously): "because it's awesome."

As someone said above, the pacing's not very tight, but I really, really like the movie.

I could watch John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in El Dorado at any given time. Very entertaining.

Grislo

There's some fairly inaccurate impacts from bullets too, people are flying around a bit at times. But again, it looks awesome. The sound of the guns firing is excellent too.

Woodroez

Grislo wrote: »

There's some fairly inaccurate impacts from bullets too, people are flying around a bit at times. But again, it looks awesome. The sound of the guns firing is excellent too.

Yeah, the shotgun scene was the worst offender in the first regard. Damned if I didn't replay it though.

TheSuperWoot

tofu wrote: »

Thomamelas wrote: »

Adrenaline wrote: »

Of course. Also, I've heard El Topo is very good and I've always wanted to see it.

Don't forget the other two movies that form a loose trilogy with it:

A Fist Full of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More.

Duck, You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite) and Once Upon a Time in The West should not be forgotten as far as Leone goes.

The new 3:10 to Yuma was pretty awful, do yourself a favor and watch the original.

The Wild Bunch is also a classic, although a lot of people don't like Peckinpah.

I like Once Upon a Time in the West out of all Leone's movies go, however no one I know seems to agree with me.

Anyone else here agree with me?

Arthil

Speaking of similar names, would the Mariachi trilogy count as westerns? If not I still love them to death.

Bogart

Some westerns not yet mentioned: Rio Bravo (the film of which El Dorado was a remake, with Dean Martin in the Bob Mitchum role), My Name is Nobody (Terence Hill and Henry Fonda in a film partially directed by Leone), Two Mules for Sister Sara (Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine!).

Once Upon A Time In The West is the greatest western ever made, so you should watch that until your eyes bleed.

TehSpectre

Oh, if people are bringing up TV series as well...

Bogart

Which reminds me that The Quick and the Dead is also worth seeing. It's not great, but it is lots of fun.

TehSpectre

Yeah, Quick and the Dead is very much a fluffy popcorn flick, but it is enjoyable.

Goatmon

The Last Samurai was a pretty awesome flick, so long as you can ignore that the only samurai to survive the slaughter at the end is the white protagonist.

Realism aside, I really enjoyed the style and the scenery and presentation of it all. Also I really enjoy intense first-person narration, as it gives it more of a Film Noir feel which I love.

imspectre

Broken Trail is well worth a viewing in my opinion, it didn't feel as long as it really was while I was watching it. Open Range was also good, even with the "Hollywooding" of some of the gunplay.
I think Duvall and Costner should just keep wearing cowboy hats.

Silverado gets almost cartoony at times, but it is also good.
I liked The Magnificent Seven but the sequels seemed a little thin, same goes for the Sabata movies. Lee Van Cleef and Yul Brynner both kick ass when they have a chance to throw out a good hard stare at someone.

Once Upon a Time in the West is really goddamn solid, watch it sometime if you haven't.
Quigley Down Under is entertaining, if insanely optimistic about the capabilities of a Sharps rifle. 8-)
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and to a lesser extent, Firefly are westerns with a somewhat thin veneer of scifi. Both a lot of fun to watch.

I guess there really isn't any shortage of old westerns to watch and appreciate.

CheerfulBear

The Quick and the Dead may be one of the worst movies ever and should be stricken from any list!

Spoiler:

Face zoom, gun zoom, face zoom, clock zoom, dog zoom, face zoom, clock zoom, face zoom, rock zoom, house zoom, face zoom, gun zoom, tree zoom, bug zoom, leaf zoom, face zoom

Casually Hardcore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK_QFGykPPI

noir_blood

Someone mentioned El Mariachi trilogy, and I too love those.

The assasination of Jesse James by the Coward... could also be considered a western. Has some beautiful shots in that movie, although many found the whole thing slow moving.

Lawndart

Fans of Italian "Spaghetti Westerns" should check out one of the non-Eastwood classics of the sub-genre, Django:

A whole lot of people get shot! Coming shortly on this screen!

Phonehand

tofu wrote: »

Thomamelas wrote: »

Adrenaline wrote: »

Of course. Also, I've heard El Topo is very good and I've always wanted to see it.

Don't forget the other two movies that form a loose trilogy with it:

A Fist Full of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More.

Duck, You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite) and Once Upon a Time in The West should not be forgotten as far as Leone goes.

The new 3:10 to Yuma was pretty awful, do yourself a favor and watch the original.

The Wild Bunch is also a classic, although a lot of people don't like Peckinpah.

You are absolutely wrong about the original 3:10 to Yuma. It is just so average. The remake was wonderful.

tofu

Except the original has great performances by Glenn Ford and Van Heflin and a plot that doesn't meander. The stuff they added into the new one pretty much ruined the pacing and ended up being entirely irrelevant to the actual story.

Plus the stand-off at the end of the original actually makes sense.

Phonehand

They fleshed out the story and some of the side characters. There was a lot more depth and complexity to it. I would hardly say it meanders at all.

tofu

This review pretty much sums up my feelings about the movie.

Also, I forgot to mention High Noon. Fantastic movie and its latest DVD release is awesome.

Werdna

FuzeBox wrote: »

I can't argue. It got weird at the end too. Open Range was kinda slow at parts, but wasn't too bad. Unforgiven is still the best of what I would consider 'newer' westerns.

Open Range was one of the most worthless movies I've ever seen. Funny that someone brought it up. I won't even dissect it for fear of giving it any credit for any analysis.


I saw it at a friends house over dinner and often laughed whenever Annette Bening was on screen.

But hey, I agree on Unforgiven. I really loved the story's christ/anti-christ parallel.

KG3000

A couple I would add to the list are Support Your Local Sheriff, True Grit, Shane, and Maverick.

A Dabble Of Thelonius

I enjoyed Open Range. Particularly the last twenty minutes. Anything Eastwood is gold for me. Love Unforgiven to death. Didn't particularly like The Proposition at all.

Werdna

Whatever here's something for you Costner fans, then. I mean there is a lot of story to what he does.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=p05ytPVgeE8

A Dabble Of Thelonius

Thanks buddy. That was an appropriate response based on me enjoying something that you don't. The personal attack on your tastes via me enjoying Open Range must have been devastating.

Werdna

A Dabble Of Thelonius wrote: »

Thanks buddy. That was an appropriate response based on me enjoying something that you don't. The personal attack on your tastes via me enjoying Open Range must have been devastating.

I was desperate to ruin it for you surely. Sorry.