# What Was the Best Western Movie Ever Made? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2001, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317 "2001-02-13T16:41:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![High\_Plains\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@High\_Plains\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/High_Plains_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2001, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/61 "2001-02-18T03:47:04Z")
You can’t go wrong with The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, or The Judge Roy Bean. Young Guns and Unforgiven are my favorites from the more recent westerns produced. And of course, I can’t forget High Plains Drifter. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2001, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/62 "2001-02-18T06:38:06Z")
“the” Best Western? My vote is for The Searchers, but not because it’s a Western, but because it showcases our three main characteristics - “mean, stupid and crazy.” I think the American West is too big a theme for any one movie to do it justice (my proof: any votes yet for “How the West was Won?”) So I give credit to John Ford for making one film per aspect: blind hatred addressed in “The Searchers,” the taming of the West, in part in the above-cited church-building sequence of “My Darling Cementine,” and more fully in “…Liberty Valance.” A germ of the injustice to the Indians was in “Searchers,” and given full voice in “Cheyenne Autumn.” He devoted “Sergeant Rutlege” to the Black experience (schmaltzy - yes, but that experience has yet to be given due credit on film, “Buck and the Preacher” included.) Even the Mexicans, heros in no Western of the era, were given recogition in “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” in the scene where the American column encounters a three-man Mexican patrol, and afterwards the Americans remark upon the Mexicans’ bravery for doing with three men what the Ammericans require of two hundred. (BTW - one reason Ford was able to put in such scenes was because he wasn’t locked into the current Ridley-Scottish dogma that everything on the screen must contribute to the immediate narative. The scene in “Celmentine” where Victor Mature is reciting Shakespeare along with the actor adds nothing to the plot but everything to character expositon. Dopers, all drama is either character expositon, or it is Rildey-Scottish special effects.) ---
**Author:** ![iamutt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9e8a1a/32.png) [@iamutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamutt)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2001, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/63 "2001-02-18T08:13:42Z")
Some of my favs, in no particular order… Dances With Wolves Unforgiven Wyatt Earp Outlaw Josey Wales Maverick The Shootist Silverado BC and SD Kid (Newman & Redford) Two Mules For Sister Sara Could go on and on… ---
**Author:** ![tbea925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@tbea925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbea925)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/64 "2001-02-19T04:24:16Z")
Wow…so many great westerns here… Big Jake The Searchers The War Wagon The Shootist The Cowboys - _incredible_ score by John Williams The Cheyenne Social Club How The West Was Won Cheyenne Autumn Support Your Local Sheriff Support Your Local Gunfighter Maverick High Noon Bad Day at Black Rock The Ox-bow Incident ---
**Author:** ![tbea925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@tbea925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbea925)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/65 "2001-02-19T04:29:34Z")
Some more favorites: [http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms.htm](http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms.htm) [http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms2.htm](http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms2.htm) [http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms3.htm](http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms3.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Randy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Randy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/66 "2001-02-19T06:27:23Z")
Most of the good one have been named, so I’ll add my vote to: **The Magnificent Seven The Long Riders High Noon** I have to add **Jeremiah Johnson** and **The Three Amigos**'cause it cracks me up everytime I see it. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/67 "2001-02-19T14:25:59Z")
\*\* Eagle’s Wing \*\* 1979, Martin Sheen, Sam Waterson, Harvey Keitel, Caroline Langrishe. Story of obsessive struggle between white man and indian to possess a magnificent stallion. Slow and beautiful. And how come no-one has nominated **Lust in the Dust** yet?? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/68 "2001-03-12T17:23:04Z")
Watched **Silverado** over the weekend. Verrrry disappointed. The acting was wretched and the direction second rate. And there was a _ton_ of gratuitous shooting. Lastly, Kevin Costner was in it. Arrrrrggggggg!! Please, no more Kevin Costner!!! ---
**Author:** ![Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/69 "2001-03-13T04:21:52Z")
Rustler’s Rhapsody If you haven’t seen it… go get it, especially if you enjoyed the Trinity movies. Tom Berenger…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317/70 "2001-03-13T04:48:42Z")
One–ONE???–mention of _The Wild Bunch?_ Possibly the GREATEST American movie OF ALL TIME?!?!? Sheesh! _The Outlaw Josey Wales_ was Eastwood’s best. _The Oxbow Incident_ was brilliant, easily Harry Morgan’s best movie, and I’m including the _Support Your Local…_ movies. And _The Treasure of the Sierra Madre_ with a brilliant performance by everybody except, not unexpectedly, although it was his best work, Robert Blake. (How would you like to have peaked before you were ten?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-best-western-movie-ever-made/54317.md?page=3)