Rio Bravo
Tombstone
Wyatt Earp
Silverado
Pale Rider
Unforgiven
Fistful of Dollars
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Edit to add Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid....it was one of the first VHS tapes my Dad bought in the last 70's (through a video club, intro offer so he got it for 40 bucks at a time when VHS tapes were going for $99.99) Love me some Newmann and Redford!


I am sure there are others that I am forgetting. Watched a lot of Westerns with my Papa when I was a kid and rarely came across one I didn't like.

Movies - Unforgiven, Josie Wales, Tombstone, Lonesome Dove, High Plains Drifter, Open Range, Magnificent Seven, Young Guns… yes, Young Guns

TV - not much here these days, used to watch Gunsmoke, Big Valley, and Bonanza pretty religiously as a kid, but not so much anymore. If Little House on the Prairie can be considered a western, I do still watch it regularly

Books - Son of the Morning Star about Custer, Geronimo in his own words, Valdez Is Coming by Elmore Leonard

It is a good film. Cinematography is fantastic. But it is.............slow, very slow and deliberate. Worth watching once, but it will probably not be in your pantheon of westerns worthy of repeat viewings.

I had completely forgotten about Bale and Crowe and 3:10 to Yuma.
I am a Guy Pierce fan so I will check out The Proposition--thanks for the recommendation!

Is it 'Heaven's Gate' slow?

Yup, one viewing is plenty… I found it pretty boring tbh

Yes

My top favorites in no particular order beyond the first two -

Lonesome Dove
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (I like to think the late appreciation this film has received is due in part to my fandom of it)
The Searchers
The Shootist
Big Jake
Tombstone
Unforgiven
Open Range (FANTASTIC gunfight at the end)
Rio Bravo/El Dorado (basically the same movie - as is Rio Lobo - and I enjoy them equally)
High Noon
Stagecoach

Been a long, long time since I watched Heaven's Gate...but I would say yeah, it is in that ballpark.

Holy shit - I was joking. I honestly didn't think it was even possible.

That's...disconcerting.

That movie was paaaaainful. I was thinking maybe "first 1/2 of Open Range" slow, but man, Heaven's Gate?

Yikes.

I know we’ve discussed John Wayne movies before but, I don’t recall if it was with you that I discussed Red River with or not. It is ALMOST a perfect film, right up until JoAnne Drue shows up. I don’t know if it was her acting or the script but man, she just ruins it. When we first meet her is when Matt and the others ride to the wagon train’s rescue. He’s in the middle of a gunfight and she’s all up in his business asking him why he’s mad. And then that is immediately followed with the typical rushed romance and more bad, writing? I tend to lean that direction because she was fine a year later in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. I still watch it from time to time but, I just cringe when she makes her appearance and for much of the rest of the film.

Speaking of SWAYR, over the past two nights I watched the “Cavalry Trilogy” in order (plus Stagecoach last night). I don’t was kind of fooling around on line during the watch looking for any thoughts people might have had as to the importance of the three films. I didn’t really find that but, what I did learn is the general consensus is that Rio Grande is the weakest of the three. That shocked me, I have it pegged as number two behind Fort Apache. And I by no means find Yellow Ribbon to be weak, quite the opposite, just a bit weaker than the other two. Of course, I tend to March to the beat of a different drum, so…

Period detail
Cinematography
Missouri boy Brad Pitt playing a Missouri figure

It’s s all there, but it’s just a bore IMVHO… think Costner’s Wyatt Earp, it just moves too slow and it’s too damn talky

I really don’t think it represents the people portrayed very accurately

I'd say they're spiritual successors, to be sure, but there's definitely grounds to distinguish them.

I think Rio Bravo is easily the best of the 3. El Dorado is decent in its own way, but nowhere near the quality of film as Rio Bravo. It's a little more goofy, IMO. Rio Lobo is pretty much an also ran.

And while I do enjoy me some Josephine MacDonald, the latter two movies do not have Angie Dickinson. Apart from being a genuinely good actress, she's just awfully enjoyable to look at.

Feathers is probably the best female character in a John Wayne western. Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man is the best female character in any John Wayne movie, but she wasn't as good in the westerns (good in Big Jake, but her part was too small).

I could see that.

She's a pretty shitty character, for sure. Stupid and inexplicable motivation (not surprising for female characters of the era), grating persona at times and faaaaar too important down the homestretch.

Here's my biggest gripe about Red River -

The Proposition is really cool. It is a touch on the arty side, but in a good way, as opposed to a Christopher Nolan mind**** way.

Another really good Australian western that I love is Quigley Down Under. Tom Selleck as the quintessential American hero and Alan Rickman in another wonderful role as sneering villain.

As previously mentioned, Unforgiven tops my list of favorite westerns. I also really, really, really liked the Cohen Brothers remake of True Grit, which is far superior to the original. Loved High Plains Drifter and The Shootist. Big fan of both (somewhat) recent Wyatt Earp movies, Tombstone and Wyatt Earp. Dennis Quaid was a much Doc Holliday than Val Kilmer.

Another favorite is the mostly forgotten Long Riders, about the James/Younger gang. All the brothers in the movie are played by actual brothers. The Keaches play the Jameses, the Carradines play the Youngers, the Quaids play the Millers, and the Guests play the Fords. Also features my favorite knife fight ever between David Carradine and James Remar.

And while it never made it to DVD or bluray, Son of the Morning Star was excellent - it was a two part miniseries about Custer, starring Gary Cole (Nordberg from Office Space).