# The LAST Great Western? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2003, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440 "2003-07-10T11:50:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/1 "2003-07-10T11:50:34Z")
The thread on [Tombstone vs. Wyatt Earp](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=196250) got me wondering if maybe one of those (your pref) was the last great western to be made. Then I thought of **Unforgiven**. What was the most recently filmed/released Western (not counting those “modern Westerns” like **Red Rock West** and others from that genre)? Let’s say (for kicks) that the time period of the film is before 1930. While we’re at it, maybe list your Top 5 Westerns of all time. From the hip, my Top 5: Shane Pale Rider (almost a ripoff of Shane) Silverado Unforgiven The Big Country (I’ll regret this off-the-cuff selection as soon as one of you mentions one I should have thought more carefully about, but that’s the breaks in starting something like this.) ---
**Author:** ![Zorro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ad7895/32.png) [@Zorro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zorro)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/2 "2003-07-10T13:16:07Z")
Some people would probably claim that **Dances with wolves** is the most recent great Western, but not me. For a start, the depiction of the Lakota as a tribe of peace-loving new-age dudes was silly. Secondly, it had Kevin Costner in it, and he will accursed for making a generation of kids believe that Robin Hood was a crusader from Yorkshire, that Sherwood Forest has no trees in it and is in Scotland, that Prince John was a Satanist, and this last point is of paramount importance, that Robin Hood looked like Kevin Costner whereas he was in fact the spitting image of Errol Flynn. I’d go with **Unforgiven**. But as for the best westerns, my choice would be: High Noon For a few dollars more Lonely are the brave How the West was won Shane. Don’t you worry, there will be more great Westerns. People are forever claiming that the genre is dead and it keeps on reviving itself. Like tha not-quite-dead yet bad guy who squeezes off a last shot at John Wayne at the end of the film. ---
**Author:** ![skin2skin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@skin2skin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skin2skin)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/3 "2003-07-10T13:24:36Z")
**Outlaw Josey Wales** ---
**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:** [July 10, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/4 "2003-07-10T13:42:03Z")
**Unforgiven** might be the last _great_ Western but **The Quick and the Dead** is good in its own right and three years more recent. My guess as to the most recent Western is [Texas Rangers](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0193560). How about a TV movie? [Peacemakers](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0353867) is due to premiere at the end of this month. We may need to wait until the holiday season to see a [Western](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0338188) in a theater. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/5 "2003-07-10T16:37:28Z")
I would nominate [Ulzana’s Raid](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0069436) (1972), Robert Aldrich’s tough-as-hell tale of savage cavalrymen hunting savage Native Americans. Personally I think Unforgiven is somewhat overrated (sure, it’s well-acted and depressing but its characters are one-dimensional, the ending’s stupid, and it doesn’t really say anything other than “the west was crappy”). Although The Wild Bunch and Once Upon A Time In The West (both 1969) are both clearly better than Ulzana’s Raid. The Shootist (1976) is later, but it’s hardly a Western. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/6 "2003-07-10T16:43:29Z")
The last truly Great Western? Jim Jarmusch’s **Dead Man**. My Top 5? In chronological order: _The Wind The Man from Laramie Rio Bravo The Wild Bunch Dead Man_ ---
**Author:** ![Zorro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ad7895/32.png) [@Zorro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zorro)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/7 "2003-07-10T16:48:37Z")
Good point, I forgot about **Dead Man**. Got any spare tobacco? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/8 "2003-07-10T16:55:30Z")
**Dead Man** was Mitchum’s last role IIRC and he did narration for **Tombstone**. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/9 "2003-07-10T18:04:08Z")
My favorites: The John Ford trilogy (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Fort Apache and Rio Bravo) Unforgiven The Oxbow Incident ---
**Author:** ![moejuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@moejuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejuck)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/10 "2003-07-10T18:13:41Z")
You guys missed all the really good ones, no list would be complete without the following: 1. City Slickers II 2. The Gambler 3. The Cowboy Way 4. Lightning Jack 5. City Slickers ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/11 "2003-07-10T21:02:31Z")
I’ll gladly face down anyone in a high-noon shoot-out if they dare to claim that there has ever been a better Western than [‘The Searchers’](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0049730). This classic John Ford film is the full deal. Rootin-tootin gunslinging, horse-opera comedy, man vs. the west confrontations and strong women in gingham dresses. All at once it shows the real fear that some settlers had of the ‘redman’ and humanizes the Native American people in a very subtle way, decades before such portrayals became common in Hollywood film making. And say what you will about John Wayne as an actor, he’s got a scene in this film that’ll rip your heart out. Eastwood’s ‘Unforgiven’ is the closest that films have come in the last 20 years to matching this kind of compelling story-telling in the western genre. Other great oaters include many of the Leone films (‘The Good The Bad and The Ugly’, ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’), ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance’, and ‘The Magnificent Seven.’ Bill ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/12 "2003-07-10T21:48:54Z")
A big amen for the **Searchers** …_powerful_ film. **Silverado** **Fort Apache** **She wore a Yellow Ribbon** and just because it’s too much fun to ignore… **The War Wagon** …great theme song! speaking of fun… **Cat Ballou** …oscar winning performance for Lee Marvin. O.K., _one more_ fun entry… **Blazing Saddles** thank you and good night. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/13 "2003-07-10T21:56:42Z")
A big amen for the **Searchers** …_powerful_ film. **Silverado** **Fort Apache** **She wore a Yellow Ribbon** and just because it’s too much fun to ignore… **The War Wagon** …great theme song! speaking of fun… **Cat Ballou** …oscar winning performance for Lee Marvin. O.K., _one more_ fun entry… **Blazing Saddles** thank you and good night. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/14 "2003-07-10T22:02:00Z")
Lonesome Dove Little Big Man Dances With Wolves Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid ---
**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:** [July 10, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/15 "2003-07-10T22:07:52Z")
_All the Pretty Horses_ may be set a little later (1940s) but it is pretty much a western. As for my top five: Unforgiven The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly The Searchers Lonesome Dove Silverado ---
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/16 "2003-07-10T22:55:17Z")
Unforgiven Shane The Cowboys Hang em high Outlaw Josie Wales ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-great-western/187440/17 "2003-07-10T23:01:27Z")
Unforgiven was the last great one made so far, and one of the best ever. My top 5: Unforgiven Tombstone The Outlaw Josey Wales The Searchers My Darling Clementine