# What's the BEST Western Movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 27, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395 "2016-01-27T18:55:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/61 "2016-01-28T17:02:19Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > “You idiot, he’s hit everything he’s aimed at.” > > **Silverado** is what I call an “almost epic” movie; it had a good director, some very good actors, and a decent script, but…when it comes to modern ‘epic’ Westerns, **Unforgiven** will probably beat it out. > > Still a good watch for a lazy Saturday… “Today, my jurisdiction ends here. Pick up my hat.” ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/62 "2016-01-28T23:24:42Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > _The Searchers_ and _Once Upon a Time in the West_ have already been mentioned. I’ll add _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_ and _The Shootist_. This pretty much sums up my list though there are a few I have missed listed in other posts. John Wayne as a flawed character is so much better. Once Upon a Time is the pinnacle of Leone’s work with some top notch talent. One of the few movies I actually own. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/63 "2016-01-28T23:34:57Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > OMG! What an oversight! > > I know there is a lot of controversy about this movie. But it is a western and I loved it. > > The Hateful Eight Agreed. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/64 "2016-01-28T23:40:35Z")
My wife mentioned **The Shootist**. I have to agree: Duke, Bacall, and Opie. “Are the mattresses ‘ticky’?” ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/65 "2016-01-28T23:47:09Z")
The original True Grit. Honorable mentions: The Cowboys & Dances With Wolves ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/66 "2016-01-29T00:35:11Z")
I’d have to give it up for _Unforgiven_. Until that came along, I was fairly indifferent to the entire genre, (oddly, at the time I didn’t consider the Clint Eastwood “Spaghetti Westerns” as westerns; they were…satire? Caricatures?) but started getting more interested in the “gritty” westerns like _The Wild Bunch_. Growing up, the “culture” of our household had “singing cowboys,” with even white teeth, sequinned shirts, and horses smarter than your average politician. Either that, or John Wayne was the standard, and his style rubbed me wrong from get go; it was years later that I came to believe that Robert Mitchum was what John Wayne was trying to be. But in any case, even at my tender young age, some part of me rebelled almost instinctively against this sanitized saccharine, and I turned my back on the genre for years. Until I was dragged, somewhat reluctantly, to a dollar theater to see _Unforgiven_. My eyes were opened, and I began looking around a bit for other movies like it; The aforementioned _Wild Bunch, Butch and Sundance, The Outlaw Josey Wales, etc._, and a renewed interest in seeing the Spaghetti Westerns with a different eye: they became less caricature to me than “stylized,” and actually sparked a mild interest on my part for foreign films (not that I’m any kind of aficionado on foreign films, but I don’t automatically reject a film just because it’s foreign). So for me, _Unforgiven_ was an eye-opening benchmark moment, of definition of what a “western” should be to grab my interest. Even _Silverado_, which was little more than a loving homage that took every “western” trope and banged it together in a pastiche of scenes to make a whole movie, has a place on my movie shelf. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/67 "2016-01-29T01:44:33Z")
Silverado For a Few Dollars More Support Your Local Sheriff The Magnificent Seven I don’t know - one of those… ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/68 "2016-01-31T06:30:13Z")
High Noon or The Searchers I might give an edge to The Searchers for the incredible location shooting. Monument Valley – accept no substitutes. Magnificent Seven is a close third. The Unforgiven is also the best. Not tied with the other two but in a class of “western” by itself. ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/69 "2016-01-31T07:27:19Z")
This thread made me realize three of my favorite westerns feature Kevin Costner. Open Range, Dances With Wolves, and Silverado. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/70 "2016-01-31T09:36:18Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > I knew there was a Holiday Inn movie, but I’ve never seen the Best Western one. I was thinking _No Country For Old Men_ maybe? But that was an independent motel chain. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/71 "2016-01-31T10:47:24Z")
All those which featured Clint Eastwood alternately chewing a cigar and chewing the scenery. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/72 "2016-01-31T11:18:01Z")
I love love LOVE Westerns. I’ve started threads about them. I watch Encore Westerns ten times more than primetime network shows. So it’s hard to say which one’s the best. I really like _Once Upon A Time In The West_, but I only watch it once every three or four years. Same with most of the Eastwood-Leone films (although I’d rank _High Plains Drifter_ with them). Same with other epics like _The Big Country_, _Silverado_, and _Red River_. But there’s one movie that I watch several times a year. Not on purpose, but they play it a lot on TV, and once I start watching it, I can’t stop. And nobody’s mentioned it. It’s _The Bravados_, with Gregory Peck as a rancher who relentlessly and ruthlessly hunts down the men that he thinks killed his wife. It’s kind of cheesy, it’s not very well cast (Joan Collins as a lonely spinster and Andrew Duggan as a priest), but it’s great entertainment. I would be embarrassed to call it the best ever made, but it’s the one I watch most often. And god help me, _Quigley Down Under_ is in second place. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/73 "2016-01-31T12:03:44Z")
Another vote for _Hombre_, the only western I have ever actually owned. One of the great adaptations of Elmore Leonard’s work for the screen. For some reason it doesn’t get the kudos it deserves. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/74 "2016-01-31T12:12:41Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Difficult to name one. And there are some great ones listed above. But, the choice is obvious. > > It has to be _Blazing Saddles_. _SO_ close. _Rustler’s Rhapsody._ ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/75 "2016-02-01T21:57:03Z")
As I have mentioned before, I was in a few of these oaters and a couple others that no one in their right mind would consider “the BEST”. Still I love the Western. My favorites include, “My Darlin’ Clementine” (everything worked). Who could forget the Marshall and “his Lady” dancing on what would be the church and the Arizona desert in the background or Doc Holiday stepping on the pool table to complete the solique from Hamlet. Or the final gun fight in the dust. The other I would put on the top shelf was “Red River.” It turned the whole whole quest idea on its head. Think about it - a bad quest…so strange. I would also put The Magnificent Seven into the great file. Four heroic good guys die. That just wasn’t done, but it was. ---
**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:** [February 2, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/76 "2016-02-02T15:31:38Z")
I guess _Jeremiah Johnson_ would fall into the ‘western’ genre. It’s aged pretty well, other than the cheesy singing going on throughout. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395/77 "2016-02-06T18:10:18Z")
I was poking around on YouTube and saw Top 10 Western Movies Published on Apr 7, 2014 1,480,616 Views The breakdown of its contents goes: ======================================= Mentioned with clips: Red River (1948) Hang 'em High High Noon True Grit (Ford) **#10 True Grit (Coen) (2010) #9 The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) #8 High Noon (1952) #7 The Magnificent Seven (1960) #6 The Wild Bunch (1969) #5 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) #4 Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) #3 Unforgiven (1992) #2 The Searchers (1956)** * * * Honorable Mentions McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) Red River (1948) Shane (1953) Stagecoach (1939) 3:10 to Yuma (1957) * * * **#1 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)** ======================================= If you look back to one of my earliest threads you may be able to detect the shifting sands of SDMB’s tastes in Westerns over the years: ============================================ > **[The LAST Great Western?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=196566)** > > The thread on Tombstone vs. Wyatt Earp 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”... The LAST Great Western? 07-10-2003, 06:50 AM Zeldar #17 07-10-2003, 06:01 PM RikWriter ============================================ Do we need still another poll on this topic? Would somebody else like to manage that if we do? If not, why not voice your disagreement with anything in that YouTube coverage or with the SDMB judgment(s)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-western-movie/744395.md?page=3)