# I need Western Movie titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738 "2006-03-31T19:00:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/1 "2006-03-31T19:00:19Z")
I have a strange yen to watch a Western or two. But only _good_ ones. Given that the Dopers are a fourtain of wisdom, second only to **Cecil Adams** , could you provide me with some titles? And if the Celestial Master Himself is reading this, what Western Movies does **Cecil** like? ---
**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 31, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/2 "2006-03-31T19:04:29Z")
The Wild Bunch The “Man with No Name” trilogy: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Unforgiven Granted none of these are typical westerns, but they’re some of my favorites. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/3 "2006-03-31T19:09:42Z")
I’m happy to be the first to recommend The Magnificient Seven. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/4 "2006-03-31T19:12:34Z")
_Silverado_ _The Quick and the Dead_ > [@Larry Borgia](#): > > The “Man with No Name” trilogy: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and the Ugly. And their spiritual successor: _Pale Rider_. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/5 "2006-03-31T19:12:38Z")
…but less happy to be the second to make a spelling mistake. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/6 "2006-03-31T19:28:09Z")
I’ll recommend the “Outlaw Josey Wales”, “Hang 'Em High”, and “Paint Your Wagon” for my favorite Eastwood flicks not already mentioned. Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West”. It has my absolute favorite opening sequence. And also “There Was A Crooked Man…” with Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas. One of favorite endings. (They should have made many more movies together.) ---
**Author:** ![Logan\_5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/fbc32d/32.png) [@Logan\_5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Logan_5)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/7 "2006-03-31T19:29:00Z")
Two Mules for Sister Sara, another great Eastwood flick w Shirley Maclaine! I second the Magnificent Seven! ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/8 "2006-03-31T19:35:55Z")
A bit of a novely, in that (real life Keach brothers) played the Frank & Jesse James; the Carradine boys played the Youngers & the Quaid brothers played the Millers, but I really liked “The Long Riders”. I usually don’t like westerns, and this one was unconventional enough to keep me watching. Ry Cooder’s sountrack was a nice touch as well. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/9 "2006-03-31T19:36:57Z")
First choice: any of the already mentioned Eastwood movies. Silverado El Dorado Rio Bravo Tombstone Shane High Noon The Searchers Tom Horn Nevada Smith ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/10 "2006-03-31T19:37:07Z")
I’m not a big John Wayne fan, but one of his movies was called The Cowboys, where he was forced by necessity to hire some boys (ages 9 to 15) for a cattle drive. It was quite good. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/11 "2006-03-31T20:01:41Z")
Although it’s definitely just on the fringe of being in the same genre as the run-of-the-mill Western, if you’re up for some amazing writing, staging, acting and tampering with Western history, you’d profit greatly from renting as many seasons of HBO’s _Deadwood_ as you can. (This assumes you don’t have HBO.) ---
**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 31, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/12 "2006-03-31T20:04:05Z")
Red River The Searchers Stagecoach Wild Bunch Ride the High Country McClintock! Cat Ballou Rustlers’ Rhapsody ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/13 "2006-03-31T20:07:04Z")
My favorite western is **The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance**. Great song, too. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/14 "2006-03-31T20:11:55Z")
I finally saw [Once Upon a Time in the West](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064116/) a few months ago, and can highly recommend it. It’s got an incredible cast under the direction of Sergio Leone. If you’ve not seen it, you’ll likely not view Henry Fonda the same after doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/15 "2006-03-31T20:13:50Z")
> [@Gordon Urquhart](#): > > I finally saw [Once Upon a Time in the West](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064116/) a few months ago, and can highly recommend it. It’s got an incredible cast under the direction of Sergio Leone. If you’ve not seen it, you’ll likely not view Henry Fonda the same after doing so. Shoot – didn’t see **Agnostic Pagan’s** earlier recommendation. Sorry, pardners. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/16 "2006-03-31T20:19:35Z")
Hmm. A lot of the titles above, while great movies, are of the subgenre called the “anti-Western.” That is, they’re kind of postmodern reactions, after the fact, to the long tradition of the Hollywood Western. You’ll get more out of them if you watch some earlier ones first, to familiarize yourself with the themes they’re addressing. You can’t go wrong with John Ford, going chronologically if possible. \*Stagecoach, \*1939, is an absolute essential, and was a big influence on Orson Welles when he made _Citizen Kane._ The next great Western he made was _My Darling Clementine_, 1946, his take on the Wyatt Earp legend starring the great Henry Fonda. One of my favorite straightforward (as opposed to anti-) Westerns. Make sure you watch the Howard Hawks masterpiece, _Red River._ His _Rio Bravo_ is arguably a greater film, but it’s a response to _High Noon_, which Hawks hated, so it’s something of an anti-Western too. Report back. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/17 "2006-03-31T20:22:41Z")
> [@Gordon Urquhart](#): > > I finally saw [Once Upon a Time in the West](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064116/) a few months ago, and can highly recommend it. It’s got an incredible cast under the direction of Sergio Leone. If you’ve not seen it, you’ll likely not view Henry Fonda the same after doing so. I agree wholeheartedly–it’s one of only 3 Westerns in my lifetime top 20 list–but Leone made it as a kind of tribute to John Ford–almost everything about \*OUaTitW \*refers back to one or another aspect of the Ford tradition–so I personally recommend leaving this movie till later in your Western career; you’ll get much more out of it. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/18 "2006-03-31T20:51:02Z")
Although not as good as movies like Unforgiven and Tombstone, I thought Open Range with Costner and Duvall was pretty good for getting a western fix. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/19 "2006-03-31T20:54:26Z")
If you want a Western themed comedy, then I’d suggest: Support Your Local Sheriff Maverick (the Mel Gibson movie, or the older TV show) ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738/20 "2006-03-31T21:04:30Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > If you want a Western themed comedy, then I’d suggest: > Support Your Local Sheriff > Maverick (the Mel Gibson movie, or the older TV show) And Blazing Saddles? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-western-movie-titles/350738.md?page=2)