Westerns

[Jacob M.]

I'm a huge fan of Westerns. There just seems to be something in a western that you can't find in any other genre of film. I grew up watching westerns, but for some reason I've kind of gotten away from them over the last few years. Watching Pale Rider last night helped me to remember why I loved the genre so much. Guys like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood were bad ass. They didn't take crap from no one. If you did something bad to them you knew you were going to get filled full of lead. The old western guys were real men. There were no wusses like in todays movies.

 

My favorite western of all time is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The whole man with no name trilogy is excellent. Clint Eastwood has been in some excellent westerns. I'm also a huge fan of John Wayne. I think my favorite movie of his as a kid was Big Jake. That movie is awesome. The Duke kicks the bad guys ass for taking his grandson. You gotta love it when the bad guys face such a brutal end.

 

Newer westerns are a mixed bag. There's not a big market for westerns so most of the newer movies go straight to video. The movies that do make it to the theater aren't necessarily any better. The remake of 3:10 to Yuma was complete and utter garbage. I can't believe I wasted 2 hours of my life watching it. The 2003 Kevin Costner movie Open Range kicked ass. That does give me some hope. The movie Appaloosa just came out and it seems to have received some positive reviews. I can't wait to watch it.

 

Anyway, I'll leave it at that. I'm missing For A Few Dollars More right now on AMC.

[Faron]

The old westerns are great, John Wayne, Randolph Scott etc.

 

Always enjoyed the scenery as much as anything else

[Fat Freddy]

I'm not especially well versed in Western films but "Tombstone" with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer was a kick-ass flick...

 

When I was a comic book collector I had a lot of Western books though. Though the genre was all but dead by the time I started collecting (the '80s) old Western comics were usually pretty cheap pickups at conventions and so forth. I had a ton of Marvel's old "Rawhide Kid" series and DC's "Jonah Hex" was a long time favorite. I hear that "Jonah Hex" is about to be made into a movie, which should be interesting.

[Geoff]

Yeah, I like some of the more modern ones... like 'Bad Girls'. And what was that one with Sharon Stone? HAHA!

 

But yeah, 'Tombstone' is cool and I love the 'Young Guns' movies. Like music, I don't generally watch older films, but the few westerns I've seen are always pretty decent.

[Metal T]

Hang 'Em High...

[SamboraRocks86]

what do you think got me into rock music?

 

yup, there was a time when i was 12 that my fave films were modern westerns, Tombstone, Wyatt Earp and both Young Guns films....it was the soundtrack to Young Guns II that got me hooked on Jon Bon Jovi/Bon Jovi

 

Open Range was pretty good, Ride With The Devil not so much...

 

anyone watch Deadwood when it was on? it ran for 3 seasons with Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane, very gritty, realistic series...i loved it

 

i also liked Cold Mountain quite abit, and The Alamo remake with Jason Patric and Billy Bob Thornton...

 

oh, and the North and South miniseries!!! does anyone remember that from 1985 with Patrick Swayze and James Read? it also had a young Jonathon Frakes (Riker from Star Trek: Next Generation) in it aswell as David Ogden Stiers, Lesley Anne Down and Kirstie Alley...there were three series based on teh three books, North and South, Love and War and Heaven and Hell..

 

i read the books cause im a big fan of John Jakes novels, and while the first two miniseries are really good, the last one (Heaven and Hell, whch was made 6 years after Love and War) sucked big time! it was a much lower budget than the last two and they changed the actor for one of the main characters (literally a main character as he was part of the Maine family ) but it was so obvious that it was shot on a lower budget, the buildings looked more like sets on a soundstage whereas the first two series looked more like hollywood films....although the third series did have Robert Wagner in it

 

thats all i can think of atm, but i was a real Wild West buff when i was like 11/12 so ive seen quite a few of the modern westerns, mainly the true story ones...

[Geoff]

Yeah, I like some of the more modern ones... like 'Bad Girls'. And what was that one with Sharon Stone? HAHA!

'The Quick and the dead'... that was it. I honestly don't think I even disliked these two films. I had another western movie I bought (still have it on video) with Kelly Le Brock in it.

[Jez]

The Unforgiven - One of the best films ever made.

[SamboraRocks86]

Yeah, I like some of the more modern ones... like 'Bad Girls'. And what was that one with Sharon Stone? HAHA!

'The Quick and the dead'... that was it. I honestly don't think I even disliked these two films. I had another western movie I bought (still have it on video) with Kelly Le Brock in it.

 

always wanted to see The Quick and The Dead, didnt that have Gene Hackman and a young Leonardo DiCaprio in it? as Father and Son?

 

unfortunately i know how it ends thanks to my dad spoiling it for me

[aMetalhead1966]

I like Westerns...if they are good..some of my faves..

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales ( My Fave and the best Western ever IMO)

Big Jake

Rooster Cogburn

Pale Rider

The Good ,Bad and the Ugly

2 Mules for Sister Sara

The Unforgiven...

[Jacob M.]

After I watched For A Few Dollars More I watched Joe Kidd. That's another good movie, but not in the same league as the first movie. The Outlaw Josey Wales and the rest of the ones listed by aMetalhead1966 are all good. I must admit I've seen 2 Mules For Sister Sara way too many times. Another movie I've seen way too many times, but not recently, would be The Train Robbers. I need to see it again.

 

For the most part westerns made after the 70's aren't that great. The 2 Young Guns movies are mediocre at best. Those are the only titles to come to mind at the moment. I think there were quite a few others that failed to captivate me. You gotta stay away from those movies. Go watch movies like Alvarez Kelly, The Cowboys, and MacKenna's Gold.

 

TV miniseries like Lonesome Dove kind of bucked the bad western trend. The whole series is epic in scope and they deliver an experience you won't forget. It's prequel Comanche Moon was quite excellent too. Another good movie Robert Duvall starred in, other than Lonesome Dove, was the made for TV movie Broken Trail. He was also the bad guy in Joe Kidd.

 

I've heard great things about The Wild Bunch. Anybody seen it before? It's up next for me to see.

 

When I get a chance I'm going to buy all of those old movies. One of the many things I've been missing in my life.

[Faron]

I like Westerns...if they are good..some of my faves..

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales ( My Fave and the best Western ever IMO)

Big Jake

Rooster Cogburn

Pale Rider

The Good ,Bad and the Ugly

2 Mules for Sister Sara

The Unforgiven...

 

Some classic Clint there Eric, great selections mate

[SamboraRocks86]

For the most part westerns made after the 70's aren't that great. The 2 Young Guns movies are mediocre at best.

 

sure theyre mediocre if you want a hardcore, hollywood western....but the Young Guns films are for the most part historically accurate, which makes the story even more interesting to me because it all happened (give or take a few changes here and there such as certain people dying at the wrong time or whatnot)

 

same reason i like Tombstone and Wyatt Earp...

[Dead Planet]

I've heard great things about The Wild Bunch. Anybody seen it before? It's up next for me to see.

 

The Wild Bunch is one of my all time favorite westerns and you will love it.....

[cdjunky41]

Westerns?

I spend my saturday mornings watching westerns.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY

OPEN RANGE

HANG 'EM HIGH

PALE RIDER

TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA

THE COWBOYS

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL

EL DORADO

To many to mention.

[Jacob M.]

For the most part westerns made after the 70's aren't that great. The 2 Young Guns movies are mediocre at best.

 

sure theyre mediocre if you want a hardcore, hollywood western....but the Young Guns films are for the most part historically accurate, which makes the story even more interesting to me because it all happened (give or take a few changes here and there such as certain people dying at the wrong time or whatnot)

 

same reason i like Tombstone and Wyatt Earp...

 

I'm not sure how Young Guns could have been historically accurate. Did Billy The Kid go off all the time and randomly kill people for no reason? It just doesn't seem right. Who knows, maybe it was. Not sure about the accuracy of Wyatt Earp, but Tombstone wasn't very accurate. Everything that I've read about what happened doesn't seem to have made it into the movie. A highly entertaining movie, but accurate, not so much.

 

Another couple westerns I forgot about were Little Big Man and Dances With Wolves. The movies are on the opposite ends of the Western spectrum, but both kick major ass. As great as Dances With Wolves is it's hard to believe it came out in 1990.

[SamboraRocks86]

For the most part westerns made after the 70's aren't that great. The 2 Young Guns movies are mediocre at best.

 

sure theyre mediocre if you want a hardcore, hollywood western....but the Young Guns films are for the most part historically accurate, which makes the story even more interesting to me because it all happened (give or take a few changes here and there such as certain people dying at the wrong time or whatnot)

 

same reason i like Tombstone and Wyatt Earp...

 

I'm not sure how Young Guns could have been historically accurate. Did Billy The Kid go off all the time and randomly kill people for no reason? It just doesn't seem right. Who knows, maybe it was. Not sure about the accuracy of Wyatt Earp, but Tombstone wasn't very accurate. Everything that I've read about what happened doesn't seem to have made it into the movie. A highly entertaining movie, but accurate, not so much.

 

back when Tombstone and Young Guns were my favourite movies i did alot of research, and most of the scenes in the films were based on fact....there were a few inconsistencies with Tombstone, but the OK Corral and the hunt for the cowboys was pretty much the same....Young Guns on the other hand, was pretty much spot on, some exceptions are things like: Scurlock lived to be an old man, O'Folliard wasnt 14 but 22, older than The Kid, Bowdre didnt die at the Lincoln shootout depicted in the first film but died at Stinkin' Springs where Doc died in the 2nd film, there were more regulators than depicted in the film etc..

 

all pretty minor though when you consider that the main character of the story is Billy The Kid, and that part of the story was pretty close to historical accounts, some of it word for word. same goes for Pat Garrett

 

also, most of the people that The Kid killed in the film were actually killed by him in real life, they say he killed 21 men for his 21 years of living (in truth he was 22 when he died), however, we can only confirm 3 of those kills, the others (such as Deputy Carlyle in the second film and Murphy in the first film) werent killed by him directly...any one of the gang could have killed Murphy as it was a shootout and Carlyle was technically killed by the lynch mob.

 

the actual events that are depicted in the film are the same chronologically as in real life, the things that we're said by The Kid ("Best $1.80 i ever spent") are mostly based on fact....there is only one major plot change, and thats the theory that Billy The Kid didnt die at Fort Sumner, however, this was based on the story of "Brushy" Bill Roberts who claimed that he was Henry McCarty AKA Billy The Kid, but despite the testimony of surviving gang members, he never got pardoned.....personally, after seeing photos of a young Bill Roberts, i dont believe he was Billy The Kid

 

sorry ive gone off on abit of a tangent, i used to be a real US 19th Century history buff

 

ill put it this way, while Young Guns may not be a carbon copy of Billy The Kids life, its the closest to it made yet...much closer than "Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid" for instance..

[Clutch]

My favorite western of all time is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

 

 

Good man. Classic in my book.

[aMetalhead1966]

I like Westerns...if they are good..some of my faves..

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales ( My Fave and the best Western ever IMO)

Big Jake

Rooster Cogburn

Pale Rider

The Good ,Bad and the Ugly

2 Mules for Sister Sara

The Unforgiven...

 

Some classic Clint there Eric, great selections mate

Thanks Faron...Clint Id awesome IMO!!

[metalmaniac777]

The remake of 3:10 to Yuma was complete and utter garbage. I can't believe I wasted 2 hours of my life watching it. The 2003 Kevin Costner movie Open Range kicked ass. The movie Appaloosa just came out......can't wait to watch it.

Damn, dude, I can't believe you didn't like 3:10 to Yuma (2008). I thought it was great, with superb performances from Bale & Crowe. Don't get your hopes too high for Appaloosa; underwhelming, to say the least. Here are my favorite westerns, in no particular order:

 

Tombstone

Pale Rider

Unforgiven

Open Range

Young Guns

High Plains Drifter

The Outlaw Josey Wales

3:10 to Yuma (2008)

[RichieZ]

3:10 To Yuma, last years remake was great. The Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josey Wales are my favorites.

[cdjunky41]

The remake of 3:10 to Yuma was complete and utter garbage. I can't believe I wasted 2 hours of my life watching it. The 2003 Kevin Costner movie Open Range kicked ass. The movie Appaloosa just came out......can't wait to watch it.

Damn, dude, I can't believe you didn't like 3:10 to Yuma (2008). I thought it was great, with superb performances from Bale & Crowe. Don't get your hopes too high for Appaloosa; underwhelming, to say the least. Here are my favorite westerns, in no particular order:

 

Tombstone

Pale Rider

Unforgiven

Open Range

Young Guns

High Plains Drifter

The Outlaw Josey Wales

3:10 to Yuma (2008)

 

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER!!

I've been trying to remember that name for over two weeks now.

Great, Great movie!!!

[cdjunky41]

It's saturday morning, It's raining and this is what's on today:

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and followed by THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

Ohh!

Almost forgot, Mrs Junky is working a double

[Jeff]

I thought 3:10 To Yuma and an....."unacceptable" ending (for lack of a better word). He's supposed to be a bad ass....where does the sudden heart come from? Up until the ending it was pretty decent though.

[Jacob M.]

That kind of annoyed me to see that The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly was on and I couldn't watch it. If I would have stayed up to watch it there's no way I could have been ready for work that night.