My Top 30 Favorite Westerns, Pard'ner

  There's a heavily scar-faced aboriginal who's escaped from prison and has a gunful of revenge for the local police and men-folk of the small town of Red Hill. And caught in the middle is a young new police officer who's just transferred from the big city. Only problem is, as the shooting ensues, Cooper starts to realize that trying to figure out who wears the white hats and who wears the black ones, isn't as obvious as it would seem.
An excellently shot modern day Western stand-off set against the highlands of the Australian Outback.



  And yeah, I know that I'm probably cheating by putting this movie here since it doesn't actually occur during the time of the Ol' West. But, I read several reviews that described this story as the "modern style Western" that I described it as earlier, and I couldn't resist using Red Hill as a way of rounding out this list to 25.
But if causes any die-hard shoot-'em-up fans out there to get their chaps in a bundle, then just consider its entry here more as an honorable mention.

 For Clint Eastwood, Pale Rider will be just one of many other entries that will on this list with his name on it. And just like several of those other entries, it is one in which he portrays a mysterious man who rides into town to save the day from rough-riding thugs who have a penchant for terrorizing the locals. For his westerns, this is such a common theme that if it weren't for the lengthy time span between this motion picture and one like Clint's 1973 cowboy outing as the High Plains Drifter, it'd be really easy to get the two movies mixed up. Many of the basic elements of both movie premises are almost identical, with the major difference being that in Drifter he plays a Man-With-No-Name from "Hell", whereas in Rider he plays a heaven-sent "Preacher-With-No-Name from hell. Never mind the fact that we've seen a similar element all chapters of the Dollars trilogy. Although now that I think about it, PR's story also seems to have the distinction of edging towards some kind of grittier update one of the most classics of westerns, Shane.



  At the end of the day though, it's still a solid Eastern shoot-em-up despite the reoccurring of certain formulas. Because, while not all of Clint's cowboy movies can be considered great, IMO, none of 'em were bad either, including this one. For the 1980's, Pale Rider helps to fill in a quota of cinema iconography that we've gotten used to seeing in the 60's and in the 70's; the shadowy, roughly cut visage of Eastwood's face under a dusty cowboy hat with silently gritted teeth, ready to dish out some six-shooting justice to any "black-hatted" hombre lookin' to stir up some trouble.

  After the primary law enforcer of a small frontiers' town is killed, the locals must come to grips with the fact that's there's a new sheriff in town. His name is Black Bart, and the black part of his name is not because of his rep. It's up to him to win over the confidence of the frighten citizens of Rock Ridge and stop the new railroad from putting the town full of Johnsons off of the map.



  This is one of those movies that I have fond memories of watching and immensely enjoying when I was a little kid. Mel Brooks' penchant for getting a laugh from his audiences by throwing everything but the kitchen sink was exactly the type of humor that appealed to the sensibilities of my age back then. These days, while the laughs aren't as hardy whenever I watch a Brook farce, there's still enough in the satirical content and racial undertones of Blazing Saddles to make my now grown-up ass crack a chuckle or two.

  Robert Redford takes his perfect good looks and tries to convince us that he is a mountain man who tries to live the solitude life of a hunter hermit.
If it wasn't for those pesky Indians getting in the way of his solitude.
Maybe if they would've had the internet back then, he coulda spent his lonely existence coming up with inane lists and putting 'em up here on this site rather than getting into tiffs with the local natives.

 Christian Bale and Russell Crowe in a remake of a quality classic cowboy flick, directed by James Mangold (y'know.... the guy who did Girl, Interrupted).

 A sly, high falootin' outlaw is captured and must be escorted to a train ride that will take him to face trial. In order put food on the table to feed his family, a struggling rancher accepts the dangerous job. And thus begins a winding journey that will test each man's principles against each other.



  TBH, while I liked 3:10 enough to put it on this list, I don't think that I loved it as much as all those positive reviews that it got. It's good solid filmmaking from all involved, but it just didn't pack that extra down 'n' dirty dynamic that I like in my dusty ditties from the Ol' West.
  Still, it does try to improve on the original in an honest way, and it does try to bring back to fashion a genre that, at the time, was struggling to climb out of the pit of passe. And for me, it earns extra kudos just for that.

.... around the old oak tree.



 If you'll notice, there's a lack of old skool westerns on this list.
It's not because I have anything against any of the early B&W's or any the John Wayne classics. It's just that it's been such a long time since I watched any of them, that I can barely remember which ones, let alone how any of 'em would rank on my list.
  One of the few that I have watched recently is Yellow Ribbon, and that's why it's one of the oldies that managed to make a rare mark as one of my faves.
As time goes on, and I familiarize myself with those shoot-em-up oldies, hopefully, I'll be able to update this list by including more of the classics.

  In the days of the Wild, Wild East, the chase is on for a map that could lead to more than just possible riches.
 As a remake of the Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, I read one review online that described The Good, The Bad, The Weird as an "East meets the West meets the East again" type of western. Which I think is a perfect description for this film.
Following all of the basic elements and tropes of the classic cowboy flicks from the other side of the Pacific, TGTBTW, injects new energy into them and then sprinkles on a layer of the zany, almost abstract asian flair that we usually see from the regions of southern Korea. A combo that works so well, that the expanse of the frontier of the spaghetti western now appears to stretch beyond the horizon, into what could quite possibly be called as the "noodle eastern" film genre.

  In the small mining town of Lago, a pale rider has come drifting in from the high plains, sporting enough gun gusto to make all the townsfolk take notice. With a couple of outlaws eying their sleepy crooked hamlet as the target for their private vendettas, the Lagoians decide to hire this man with no name as their protector. But soon find themselves not just at his mercy, but also as prisoners within his own personal version of Hell.



  For me, the 70's wouldn't be the 70's without a good ol' cowboy Clint shoot 'em up or a Harry Callahan shoot 'em down.
Whether it be on the tough streets of San Francisco or the high plains of the Wild West, while most guns spelled trouble, only CE's were big enough to spell "vengeance".

 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is an early 70's western noted more for it behind the scenes conflict between director Sam Peckinpah and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the company responsible for producing the film.
 MGM thought it had the last laugh by taking the project away from Peckinpah after it was finished and re-editing it substantially.
The end result was a film that was largely unsuccessful and criticized by the actors involved.
  However, time has avenged the director's vision by the release of Peckinpah's original version, thus creating a re-evaluated critique of the film in which it is now generally regarded as one the director's last great films.

Inarguably, the two most iconic figures in Western films are John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. And both of these actors, despite being able to stretch themselves in other kinds of roles, both starred in excellent cowboy films during their golden years (obviously, when I say golden, I mean when they were at a later age, not in reference to their careers, since golden means something different in that perspective) as aging gunfighters with dark pasts. 1992's Unforgiven was Eastwood's foray as an ex-gunslinging geezer, while for the Duke it was The Shootist, released in 1976.
It was Wayne's last film, and in it he portrays a ruff 'n' gruff cowpoke who is dying of cancer. He decides that, rather than withering away like the dusty decline that is transpiring in the former Wild West that he knew, he wishes to go out in a blaze of glory. Initiating steps that will lead to settling a few lingering scores, he prepares for what he hopes will be one last gun-blazing shoot-out.

After spending 33 in prison for robbing stagecoaches, Bill Miner enters the 20th century with the old habit of stealing for a living dying harder, despite being an outdated means of income.
With The Grey Fox, the western film genre enters into the modern age of film, as the straightforward white hats vs black hats storylines are completely out of the picture and are replaced by more layered characters who disspell the traditional boundaries of what makes a cowboy a good guy or a bad guy.
Fronted with an enthusiastic portrayal by Richard Farnsworth as a dusty "gentleman thief", this is a movie that finally edges the genre of the Ol' West shoot 'em ups over the line to the modern mode of bronco busting banditry.

An excellent update that effectively captures the style that gave the original series of Maverick it's distinctive feel that separated it from other western series at the time.
Mel Gibson does a capable job of modernizing the lead character,
while Jodie Foster shows that for someone who has developed a reputation as a serious award winning actress, she can also fit comfortably into a light comedy roll as a sultry Southern Belle whose ability to nick is equals in her power to allure.

Warren Beatty and Julie Christie team-up in their first of three movies in which they will co-star with each other. In this one, they play John McCabe and Constance Miller respectively, a high-stakes hustler and a high class hooker who decide to double up their talents and go into business together.
Excellently directed by the always reliable Robert Altman, McC & Mrs. M is an Old West ditty that follows the trend of the anti-Western film that had begun the year earlier with works like Little Big Man and Monte Walsh. Following the formula of this then-burgeoning sub-genre, it a perfect example of how when it comes to the liberal attitude toward the typical big screen shoot-em ups, the times they were a'changing.

Back during the post civil War days, Minnie's Haberdashery was a stagecoach loft that acted as a "rest stop" for long distance travelers and as somewhat of a shelter during inclement weather.
One day, during a snowstorm, a group of eight bounty hunters find themselves seeking the haberdashering safety found within the lodge's walls. A space that quickly proves itself to be a bit too constraining for folks filled with the kind of hate that usually comes from that particular occupation's brand of hazardry.



After a string of hit movies, Quentin Tarantino finally hits a snag with The Hateful Eight. However, while not exactly the box office smash that his other recent works were, 8 still had enough Tarantinoisms crammed into it's lofty shelter to satisfy his hardcore fans (of which I am one).

It's funny because I always that the vast majority of "cowboy movies" that were made during the golden age of westerns really weren't all that good (particularly those that misrepresented many of Native American tribes as villainous). For my cinematic tastes, the best flicks about the Ol' West are the ones that are being today, particularly during the New Millenium. For several reasons, but one of the major ones is the much more realisric tones that these stories are being told, no matter how fictional their basis are.
Never Grow Old is a good example. The shoot 'em ups aren't that many, but when they do show up, they're set up very effectively, with tense prologues that keep the viewer at the edge at their seat much more than the actual "bangs".
The premise is aged, but it's delivery is very "new", gritty and shows that when it comes to movies about the wild, wild west, the premise never grows old.

Typical Clint Eastwood western fare, but now with an American Native sage-like partner.
However, despite being forced to side up with a "Social-Conscious National Regret" themed quota filler that had seemed to become a fixture of the modern cowboy flick at this time,
Eastwood still manages to carry an 1870's machismo chip on his shoulder, talk thru incessantly gritted teeth, and wield a couple of long-ass six-shooters like they were just a natural extension of what makes Josey Wales such an outlaw to begin with.

  Following in the blazed trail of the Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch is another western film influenced by the eastern theme of the Seven Samurai. In this one, we have a group of past their prime cowboy warriors who live in a world that has left them behind. Out to make one last score, they blaze their way down to a Mexican stand-off where it's the old take on the new, six-shooters against the machine gun.
  And while it may seem that this Mexican stand-off has it's "heroes", Pike & Co., that are severely outnumbered and over-powered. However, since this wild bunch of cowpokes were never ones to wear white hats, they decide that if they're gonna go down, then they're gonna make sure that they take as down as many of the other guys with 'em as they can. In other words, with guns a'blazin'.
  A really cool, not to mention, a pretty violent-for-it's-time western/action flick.

  A sort of western film that tells a folkish tale of epic proportions as we follow the life and times of a man from the time when he was little up until he was big.
Dustin Hoffman, at his "biggest" plays the little man known as Jack Crabb.
As an adopted Cheyenne son, doggy medicine salesman, lucky-ass husband, Custer Cavalry muleskinner, trapper, hermit and fastest gunslinger in the west, Crabb leads a life that shows that the history of the old Frontier wears many hats. And not all of 'em were white.

   The Man with No Name is back! But now, he comes with a name, ("Manco"...?), teams up with a partner (Col. Mortimer), and this time around, is out for more than just a fistful of dollars.



  Eastwood's second outing into the whole spaghetti Western genre is one of the few that helped to solidify the sub-genre into the main genre, and makes it difficult to not mention any of the installments in Sergio Leone's Dollar trilogy when discussing the Italian foray into the dusty wilds of the Ol' West. 

  Western horrors are hard to come by in the film world, and good ones are even harder. The few that I've seen are either not very good or tend to lean towards the more abstract, atmospheric type of horror (The Wind from 2019 is an example of this).
 For my money, Bone Tomahawk is maybe the best one that I've seen so far. Not only does it stay within the linear storytelling technique that makes it easier for mainstream eyes to absorb, but also, it's a well-directed and well-acted venture into the dark side of the Ol' West. Kurt Russell, who in his later age, looks like he was made for the western genre, leads a solid cast that is directed by S. Craig Zahler, a modern day Rennaissance man of Hollywood that has a signature trope in his movies that is basically a scene of such visceral brutality and sudden realism that it's usually enough for that one scene to carry the terror for the rest of the film. Which is exactly what happens here in Tomahawk.



  The sheriff of a small, isolated town gathers up a small posse to aid him in a rescue effort for a couple of local residents who have been abducted in the night. Upon discovery of the whereabouts of the kidnapped townsfolk, he and his crew are engaged in a conflict for their lives against a clan of primitives so native, the surrounding tribes have no name for them. However, the local "expert" refers to them as "troglodytes", for their habit of savagery, prehistoric demeanor and ferocious appetites.

Tombstone may not exactly be the purist western of modern times, but for my money, it's one of the coolest lookin' ones.
 Mostly because of Val Kilmer's performance than anything else. As Doc Holliday, he steals every scene that he occupies in this movie account of Wyatt Earp & Co.'s shootout at the O.K. Coral (a depiction, from what I understand, that allows itself plenty of liberties). Kilmer's portrayal as a sureshot who alcoholism doesn't seem to affect his aim too much, remains memorable in this film as one of the coolest cowboys in recent film history. Sure, he might not be the kind of doctor you'd expect to make house calls,
but when it comes to watching your back during a gunfight,
he'll be your huckleberry.

 There's no doubt about it, I am a HUGE fan of Quentin Tarantino. I have watched almost all of movies multiple times.
 So I probably had unfair expectations for this film, which is QT's first full face dive into Western (altho, more specifically, Django Unchained is a probably better described as a quality mix of the Western and revenge genres with just a touch of blaxpoitation).



  Yet, despite my unfair expectations for Django Unchained, Quentin still manages to deliver. 
  Now don't get me wrong, this isn't his best movie, which I had my fingers crossed it would be since I knew about his love for spaghetti westerns and therefore, I was hoping that he'd be able to invigorate the genre with Django. However, the truth is, while I still love this tale of a cowboy duo of a dentist and former slave, now turned bounty hunters, I also found it to be a little too long in the end (which may be in large part to the absence of Tarantino's long time film editor Sally Menke, who passed away in 2010).
  But with the same zeal that he was able to pull from his actors in his previous works, QT pulls it off again here, with Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Dicaprio and yet another award winning effort from Christopher Waltz. Combined with those performances are QT's readily dense plotting, wry and wicked script, and the dusty in your face violence that the director seems to turn up even higher than before, Unchained is yet another installment into a career already filled with his own brand of self-named style of cinema. 

  Although his gun will have traveled to the Ol' West many times before, this is the first time when Clint rides his horse into it via a more Italian route.
 As I already mentioned in some of the other entries on this list, the advent of the spaghetti westerns acted a s a fuel in the evolution of the icon of the cowboy figure. These new adventures of the American frontier that were coming from across the Atlantic were beginning to transition these archetypes into a more complex stature, of the quiet lone wolf who's only personal traits were marked by the mystery of his identity and by the grit of his character. The two-dimensional form of the classic gunslinger was now progressing into a more three-dimensional protagonist whose goals went beyond the straight-forward do-gooding crusader who rides into town with his heart on his shoulder. Sure, more often than not, justice was still served in these new twists of the gunfighting confrontations at corrals that were okay, but now, the intentions were not simply for the taming of the Ol' West, but also involved a fistful of dollars.
  Thus began this particular sub-genre within a genre, which eventually would lead to a new movement in shoot 'em up cinema, including a memorable Dollars trilogy that would become a staple in a series of cowboy flicks, all of which would take on a non-American take on a classic American icon.

  As I mentioned before, this is a list that with the exception of she wore a Yellow Ribbon, has no entries from the sol-called golden era of cowboy flicks. The ones that I have here are those films that was either trying to break away from the old dusty shoot-em-ups, or they were trying to redefine the formula into something that wasn't so stiff, ignorant and let's admit it, classically cornball.
  But if there was one movie that I think truly was making the effort to try an update the genre that was more fitting to modern mindset when it comes to cinema, I would say that it would have to be this one.
  Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall make a partnership that is the center of Open Range, which is in actuality, just a good solid cowboy flick but with the kind of contemporary touch that is required to make the formula of the Old West feel brand new.
I remember that when I went to go see Open Range, after watching so many films at the time, which while on average were pretty good, were still of the standard genres that seem to occupy the majority of screens in theatres these days,
So when a "period piece" like a good solid western comes into my life, it tends to feel like a good shot into my movie-viewing system,
pard'ner.

Real time in the Old West.
A simple tale of suspense building tension, as a newly wed marshall must make a decision between a new life by flying the Coop, or staying and standing as a "lone star" until the strike of twelve, in a town that has turned its back against him.



Personally, for me, High Noon is one of those films that falls under the category of being based more on sentimental value than anything else. The way the story in this one kept me glued to the screen, to see how it would all pan out, made Noon one the first black and white cowboy flicks I saw and enjoyed as a kid.

  At the outset of the first western movies, the cowboy characters had been categorized between two basic types: Those who wore the white hats, and those who wore the black ones.
  As time passed though, the hat colors began to blur between who was good, who was bad, and then to eventually who was just plain ugly.
This is the final film in the "Man with No Name" trilogy, and IMO, it's the best and most definitive one of the three.
  Although several iconic figures have emerged from the dust and grit of the spaghetti westerns that emerged in the 60's, the truth is, it's almost impossible to envision the entire genre, let alone this particular series and not see an image of the iconic trio of Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach.

  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is the first example of the lightning captured in a bottle that is the Newman/Redford combo. The funny thing is, after the long-term success of the pairing in this move, and the even greater long-term success in 1973's The Sting, you would think that Hollywood would have concocted even more "vehicles" for these two guys to star in together. Especially since both films are firmly entrenched as classics in their respective genres. And yet, Butch/Sundance and The Sting were the only two, despite that Newman had said in his later years that he would've loved if the prime movers and shakers of the motion picture industry had been able to come up with some kind of project that would've allowed them to costar in at least one more film project before it was "too late". Which is really too bad that it never happened because Butch and the Kid was truly quite a unique piece of cinema. 
The direction, screenplay, music and just over-all tone was really different for the period that this movie initially came out in, and for me, makes it a really distinctive western that is both lotsa of hip-shootin' fun and fatefully tragic at the same time.

 This entry of a tale of the Ol' West is one that was inspired by a tale of the ancient East and it reveals that there is one trait that feudal samurais shared with their gunfighters' counterparts....  when it comes to getting seven or more of 'em to band together, all it takes is a village. And when they do, the adventure that ensues can be pretty damn magnificent.

  As I mentioned already in other entries on this list, I wasn't a fan of Westerns when I was growing up. And I also stated elsewhere on this page of the various reasons of what finally made me start gravitating towards this genre as a source of entertainment. Some films it was because of the evolution of the cowboy figure, others it was because of the grittier nature of the narratives, and other, it was because the Italian slant of the spaghetti westerns.
  But for this one, the reason was clear and simple...  it was plain cool.
Led by two of the coolest actors of the era, Yul Brunner and Steve McQueen, the rest of the seven were a group of the male testosterone action figures who could've led their own vindictive driven posse's if given the opportunity (or their own separate movie deal).
 The fact that I made this list makes it obvious that I believe of all of the films included here are classics in the field of cowboy flicks to varying degrees. But when it comes to those that are helped to actually move the genre forward, for me, it's starts with this movie. Along with the other entries listed here, it's one of those that excited me enough to make me switch over from the childhood mentality that I had that most works centered around the Ol' West were usually just the same ol' boring standard shoot 'em ups.
  So, for me, it's not surprising that this movie had that particular effect on me. There's a reason why this story has grown to a legendary status that almost rivals that of its inspiration, Seven Samurai. It's the same reason that, according to one article I read, The Magnificent Seven is the second most shown film in U.S. television history (The Wizard of Oz comes in first).
  And that's because, in the end, it's just pretty darn tootin'.

 Kevin Costner reaches his career zenith in this non-stereotypical tale of how the West was truly won. A really great movie that really was one of KC's last great movies.

No, seriously....
If you were to take all the things that were wrong with Coster's follow-up flicks, like Waterworld and the Postman,
irradiate them with the energies that bind, compose and allow the Bizarro world to exist (i.e. "the opposite"), then what you would get would be this movie.
No, seriously....
you would.
I tried it once.

"That's right. I'm Will Munny and I've killed women and children. I've killed everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill......"




  He was once a real tough hombre who was good with a gun and wasn't afraid to use it.
 But now, after so many years of trying to build a "normal life" away from that of the wild, wild west, Will Munny comes to realize that when times get hard, old habits, even in old cowboys, die hard.
Push all the right buttons, and the habits of a killer are just like riding a bike (or in this case, riding a horse) ...... he never forgets.

The manner in which Clint Eastwood portrays the icon of the ol' western gunslinger here, as a man with a mysterious past which he would've preferred to be completely forgotten, yet ultimately, as always, it's a past that comes to haunt him. A tortured soul who has become "broken" by domesticity, his demons are bought back to life one more time when he comes to rely on them for the survival of the redemptive life he has built.
Is it any wonder how this film could've easily been been titled "The Final Chapter of The Man with No Name.... But Now He Given Him A Name."