# Best Western (movie) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237 "2010-03-21T15:46:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/1 "2010-03-21T15:46:20Z")
What’s your vote for the All-Time best Western movie? Any era as long as the setting is pre-1930 and somewhere in either the Western USA or counterparts in Australia. If you just can’t quite pull it down to one, try for a top 5. 1. The Outlaw Josey Wales 2. Shane 3. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 4. The Wild Bunch 5. Quigley Down Under ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/2 "2010-03-21T15:53:15Z")
1. Red River 2. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence 4. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid 5. The Outlaw Josey Wales I could flip the top 2 and still be happy. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/3 "2010-03-21T15:54:51Z")
Call me a sheep if you must, but _[Unforgiven](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/)_ is my tops. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/4 "2010-03-21T15:58:20Z")
_Little Big Man_ _Lonesome Dove_ _The Outlaw Josey Wales_ In no particular order. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/5 "2010-03-21T15:59:17Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Call me a sheep if you must, but _[Unforgiven](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/)_ is my tops. By no means are you a sheep as I see it. Eastwood’s work ranks very high for me, too. _Unforgiven_ deserves all its acclaim, and I love the movie, too. For my tastes, though, as a Western I prefer Josey Wales. Unforgiven almost stands above the genre. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/6 "2010-03-21T16:01:17Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > _Lonesome Dove_ Dammit! This ought to push Quigley out of my top 5. I just plain forgot it. TV I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/7 "2010-03-21T16:09:26Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Dammit! This ought to push Quigley out of my top 5. I just plain forgot it. TV I suppose. I hesitated before posting it, as it was a TV mini-series and not a ‘movie’. But there are ‘made-for-TV movies’, so just being made for TV doesn’t disqualify it. And a mini-series is just a very long movie (as opposed to an actual series, which isn’t), and when I watch _Lonesome Dove_ I watch it as a ‘movie’. So I posted it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/8 "2010-03-21T16:11:19Z")
Incidentally, _Quigley Down Under_ (Damn, that sounds like a porn title!) is being shown on Encore on the 29th at 20:10 PDT. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/9 "2010-03-21T16:15:48Z")
I don’t watch a lot of westerns, but _The Wild Bunch_ is one of my favorite movies ever. It was the inspiration for John Woo, who in turn inspired every shoot-em-up for the last 15 years. The final gunfight has to be seen to be believed. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/10 "2010-03-21T16:16:39Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I hesitated before posting it, as it was a TV mini-series and not a ‘movie’. But there are ‘made-for-TV movies’, so just being made for TV doesn’t disqualify it. And a mini-series is just a very long movie (as opposed to an actual series, which isn’t), and when I watch _Lonesome Dove_ I watch it as a ‘movie’. So I posted it. You done good. For that matter, the other Duvall mini-series have been special as well. Just to provide some also-rans in this discussion, here are some I considered but rejected from the Top 5: Silverado High Noon Big Country True Grit The Shootist Broken Arrow (the one with Ansara as Cochise) The Magnificent Seven Once Upon A Time In The West Jeremiah Johnson Feel free to add others you had to leave behind. (In preview I see about Quigley on Encore. Cool. I’ll DVR it for sure.) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/11 "2010-03-21T16:19:16Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I don’t watch a lot of westerns, but _The Wild Bunch_ is one of my favorite movies ever. It was the inspiration for John Woo, who in turn inspired every shoot-em-up for the last 15 years. The final gunfight has to be seen to be believed. Have you seen Nolte and Boothe in _Extreme Prejudice_? Time period rules it out, but it’s in the Wild Bunch mold. And there’s a more recent one where more ammo than Vietnam was expended! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/12 "2010-03-21T16:21:45Z")
I love _Silverado_. You may know from previous posts that I like firearms, and that I have several cap-and-ball Colts, and a Winchester model 1892 that was made in 1897. _Silverado_ made me want a Henry rifle. Some day I’ll get one. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/13 "2010-03-21T16:22:29Z")
The Searchers The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly The Outlaw Josey Wales Lonesome Dove Silverado ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/14 "2010-03-21T16:23:08Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I love _Silverado_. You may know from previous posts that I like firearms, and that I have several cap-and-ball Colts, and a Winchester model 1892 that was made in 1897. _Silverado_ made me want a Henry rifle. Some day I’ll get one. Speaking of, have you seen _Rancho Deluxe_? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/15 "2010-03-21T16:26:12Z")
If I had to pick one: **The Wild Bunch** Rounding out a top 5: _The Wind The Man from Laramie Rio Bravo Dead Man_ ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/16 "2010-03-21T16:29:39Z")
_Unforgiven High Noon Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly True Grit_ I know, pretty conventional choices. Oh, well. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/17 "2010-03-21T16:29:55Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > _The Wind_ New one on me. Got a link? There seem to be several by that title and I haven’t see any of them. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/18 "2010-03-21T16:30:10Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Have you seen Nolte and Boothe in _Extreme Prejudice_? Time period rules it out, but it’s in the Wild Bunch mold. And there’s a more recent one where more ammo than Vietnam was expended! I have seen it and really liked it, though I prefer The Wild Bunch. ---
**Author:** ![halfliquid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@halfliquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/halfliquid)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/19 "2010-03-21T16:32:16Z")
Blazing Saddles. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237/20 "2010-03-21T16:32:59Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I have seen it and really liked it, though I prefer The Wild Bunch. Me, too. But the parallels are fun. _Last Man Standing_ (Willis, Walken) seems kin to it, too. Another _Yojimbo_ ripoff. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-western-movie/533237.md?page=2)