# What's your favorite Western Film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680 "2016-04-09T19:00:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/61 "2016-04-10T20:19:19Z")
I’d like to chime in for “Support Your Local Sherriff” a smart and good-natured parody of the Western heroic myth with James Garner as a guy who gets waylaid into helping bring the law to a Western goldrush town, who’s actually “on my way to the REAL West … Australia!” It’s freaking hilarious with a great supporting cast. Harry Morgan of his daughter: “Pooberty hit her hard. Pooberty will do that, y’know!” Also features Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, Bruce Dern and Joan Hackett as she who was hit hard by pooberty. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/62 "2016-04-10T20:53:08Z")
Shane ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/63 "2016-04-10T21:11:52Z")
Count me in for _The Wild Bunch_ with _Once Upon a Time in the West_ as a close second, followed by _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_, _Unforgiven_, and the underappreciated _Yellow Sky_. _Pale Rider_ also stands up even if some of the acting is pretty shaky at times I don’t really consider _The Outlaw Josey Wales_ or _High Plains Drifter_ to be Westerns per se (more revenge thrillers, and in the case of the latter, a kind of ghost story) but both are a great use of the “Man With No Name” architype, and I think the Coen’s take on _True Grit_ and _The Hateful Eight_ are great films that are on the edge of being a Western without really carrying the themes that define Western films. For comedic/absurdist takes on the Western, _Blazing Saddles_ is always a classic, and _Paint Your Wagon_ is bizarrely absurdist, a film no one should try to remake because it probably shouldn’t have been made in the first place. _The Ballad of Cable Hogue_ is almost unheard of but deserves a look even if it was made at a point in Peckinpah’s career where drugs and booze were starting to get the best of him, and _Duck, You Sucker_ rides the line between satire and serious with a phenomenal as always James Colburn in the lead. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/64 "2016-04-10T23:01:11Z")
Another vote for _Serenity_, which is basically a post-Civil War heroic outlaw story IN SPACE. It is of course the follow-up to _Firefly_, which was Joss Whedon’s space western TV series. And just to continue on that theme, my favorite cross-genre Westerns: _El Mariachi_, the first part of Robert Rodriguez’s Burrito Western trilogy, takes place in some dusty northern town in Mexico, and involves the dealings of a drug lord, a hitman, a mariachi, a beautiful woman, and a guitar case full of guns. _Desperado_, starring Antonio Banderas, was its far more well-known sequel. _Kill Bill_ warrants a mention as well, being a well-blended mix of Western and Ronin films (the two genres have a long-lasting relationship) taking place in the modern era. I’m also tempted to throw in some anime, like _Cowboy Bebop_ or _Trigun_, but the former’s theatrical release, _Knocking On Heaven’s Door_, is rather light on the western stylings as far as I could tell, and \*Trigun \*never got a movie that I’m aware of (besides, I can’t stand _Trigun_) As far as traditional westerns go, my favorites are the aforementioned Dollars Trilogy (_Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More_, and _The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly_), which I feel are best enjoyed all together, _El Dorado_, with John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan, and _McLintock!_ with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. I couldn’t tell you why the latter two are important at all, I just have many fond memories watching them on TV with my dad. EDIT: And yes, _Blazing Saddles_ and _Support Your Local Gunfighter/Sheriff_ are also mandatory viewing once you’ve gotten someone well-versed in the tropes of the genre. For a Few Edits More: This reminds me, I should really watch all those Red Westerns and Borscht Westerns I bought a few years back. Imagine the Western genre, but made in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/65 "2016-04-10T23:58:02Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > You have excellent taste. The music when Tuco enters the cemetery is _The Ecstasy of Gold_. There’s a great [live performance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-rHdSWZLpQ) of it on youtube. Haven’t even listened to half of it yet,and I just want to say,Thank you for sharing that! ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/66 "2016-04-11T13:07:52Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Another vote for _Serenity_, which is basically a post-Civil War heroic outlaw story IN SPACE. Well, if you’re going to go that route, you could include _Outland_, which is _High Noon_ IN SPACE. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/67 "2016-04-11T13:47:15Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I’d like to chime in for “Support Your Local Sherriff” a smart and good-natured parody of the Western heroic myth with James Garner as a guy who gets waylaid into helping bring the law to a Western goldrush town, who’s actually “on my way to the REAL West … Australia!” It’s freaking hilarious with a great supporting cast. Harry Morgan of his daughter: “Pooberty hit her hard. Pooberty will do that, y’know!” Also features Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, Bruce Dern and Joan Hackett as she who was hit hard by pooberty. “What do you mean by that?!” “Nuthin, Pa, I didn’t mean nuthin.” “You ain’t got brains enough to mean nuthin!” That movie is good fun. As cool as Jim Rockford is, even he’s not as cool as Jason McCullough. “And me? I go on to become one of the most beloved characters in Western folklore.” ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/68 "2016-04-11T14:07:22Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > Well, if you’re going to go that route, you could include _Outland_, which is _High Noon_ IN SPACE. Was that with Sean Connery? I was kind of half-remembering it from when I saw it as a kid, but couldn’t remember if it was Western. I think mostly I remember people exploding in airlocks. ---
**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:** [April 11, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/69 "2016-04-11T15:17:56Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > Well, if you’re going to go that route, you could include _Outland_, which is _High Noon_ IN SPACE. That’s not that big a stretch, at all–This could be apocryphal, but supposedly Peter Hyams went into a producer’s office and (this is so 1940’s melodrama) bellowed: Boffo! “High Noon” in Space!! Huge box-office potential!!! (Insert your fave phrase here)!!! And got the backing on just his “name” alone. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/70 "2016-04-11T15:25:47Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Was that with Sean Connery? I was kind of half-remembering it from when I saw it as a kid, but couldn’t remember if it was Western. I think mostly I remember people exploding in airlocks. Yeah, from 1981 with Connery and Peter Boyle. An underrated film, IMO. and if you’re a comic book fan and never saw Steranko’s version of the film, check it out: [http://bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/2015/03/sterankos-outland.html](http://bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/2015/03/sterankos-outland.html) ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/71 "2016-04-11T15:41:44Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Thank you, I was shocked that nobody had mentioned **High Noon**. But I hated **Unforgiven**. > > I mentioned in another thread that I hated John Wayne movies because of his politics, but I think that \*\*McClintock \*\*is my favorite of his movies. Wow I think Unforgiven is a fantastic movie. What did you hate about it? > [@silenus](#): > > Note that these are my _favorites_. A list of what I consider the\* best\* Westerns would be different. I’m glad I read through this thread before posting, because I have to agree with you about differentiating between ‘best’ and ‘favoite’ I love McLintock! My brother and I will frequently shoot lines back and forth from the movie; but for my tastes, I think the best movie would have to be Unforgiven. What a great character study. Also on my list of favorites would be: Pale Rider Cat Ballou Tombstone The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Rio Bravo / El Dorado (interchangeable) Support Your Local Sheriff / Gunfighter. Cheyenne Social Club Open Range True Grit Honorable mention goes to: Death Rides a Horse with Lee Van Cleef. It was one of the first movies I remember seeing. It had to be second run because I was born in 62 and IMDB says the movie came out in 66. There’s no way I was 4 years old. I had to have been 12 or 13 at the earliest. However I’m probably remembering it through rose colored glasses. Much like when I tried to rewatch the Butch & Sundance movie with Redford & Newman. Ugh. It was so boring to me I couldn’t finish it. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/72 "2016-04-11T18:40:17Z")
I gotta ask, were Support Your Local Sheriff/Gunfighter made back-to-back in one go? Because they really feel like they just got everything together to shoot both movies at once so they wouldn’t have to pay everyone twice or recast anything. ---
**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:** [April 11, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/73 "2016-04-11T18:41:57Z")
Nope. They were made 2 years apart with different casts. A lot of the core players carried over though. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/74 "2016-04-11T18:49:38Z")
My Top 10 (in chronological order; limit one per director) **The Wind My Darling Clementine Johnny Guitar The Man from Laramie Decision at Sundown Rio Bravo The Good, the Bad and the Ugly The Wild Bunch McCabe & Mrs. Miller Dead Man** ---
**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:** [April 11, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/75 "2016-04-11T20:05:29Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I’d like to chime in for “Support Your Local Sherriff” a smart and good-natured parody of the Western heroic myth with James Garner as a guy who gets waylaid into helping bring the law to a Western goldrush town, who’s actually “on my way to the REAL West … Australia!” It’s freaking hilarious with a great supporting cast. Harry Morgan of his daughter: “Pooberty hit her hard. Pooberty will do that, y’know!” Also features Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, Bruce Dern and Joan Hackett as she who was hit hard by pooberty. Morgan: “You hit him while his back was turned!” Sheriff: “Just as hard as I could.” ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/76 "2016-04-12T10:35:20Z")
Another one for the Outlaw Josey Wales ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/77 "2016-04-12T11:39:09Z")
My personal favourite is ‘The Magnificent Seven’. I like the storyline (reminiscent of roleplaying), the testosterone-filled acting, the music and the quest purpose (defending the innocent for no reward.) Many previous suggestions have been excellent. I remember: - the music in ‘The Big Country’ and ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ - the tension building in ‘High Noon’ and ‘Outland’ - the humour of ‘Blazing Saddles’ and (to a lesser extent!) ‘Silverado’ - the well-crafted characters in ‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’ - the viciousness of ‘Unforgiven’ and ‘High Plains Drifter’ ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/78 "2016-04-12T11:56:49Z")
You guys keep reminding me of movies I loved. Now I want to see _Johnny Guitar_ again, and _McCabe and Mrs. Miller_. I wish I could come to this festival! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/79 "2016-04-12T11:57:55Z")
_The Big Country_. That scene where he’s been out for a while, comes back to find people at the ranch freaking out “he will have got lost!” and he points out that he’s used to navigating the sea kills me. For Dad, _Stagecoach_. I knew he loved it, but I realized how much the day my then-future-SiL said it was “boring” because “it’s all been done in other movies”. He could point out a ton of little and not so little things which had been copied by other movies. > [@Raguleader](#): > > _El Mariachi_, the first part of Robert Rodriguez’s Burrito Western trilogy, takes place in some dusty northern town in Mexico, and involves the dealings of a drug lord, a hitman, a mariachi, a beautiful woman, and a guitar case full of guns. _Desperado_, starring Antonio Banderas, was its far more well-known sequel. Part three is _Once Upon a Time in Mexico_. Definitely not a fairy tale. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680/80 "2016-04-12T12:02:20Z")
No love for [Joe Kidd?](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068768/) It wasn’t a great movie by any stretch of imagination, but it did have a heck of a cast and used a much more interesting [selection of guns](http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Joe_Kidd) than is typical in the genre. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-western-film/751680.md?page=5)