Best Westerns you can recommend

This might be a tough ask for this Xmas. But if you try it out and get into it, it may make your year.

For me, the number 1 western of all time is Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove with Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall, Danny Glover, Robert Ulrich, Anjelica Houston etc etc.

The book is amazing and is part of a series including Dead Man's Walk, Comanche Moon, Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo.

I was introduced to this series when the TV version of Lonesome Dove was shown on the BBC back in the mid 1990's.

It came out on video and unfortunately, I doubt that you can find it on DVD. The book is over 800 pages long and the Video set that I aquired was a 6 part set on 3 tapes.

It inspired me to go and visit many of the locations in the books including Laredo, San Antonio and the Palo Duro Canyon in Texas.

McMurtry based the characters on old Texas Rangers and the theme of Lonesome Dove specifically, taking cattle north to Montana was based on Goodnight and Loving, the real life characters who pioneered what became known as the Chisholm Trail up through Texas, Oaklahoma, Kansas (Dodge City etc), Nebraska and Montana.

They made other films/TV versions of the other books and they are good but not a patch on the Lee Jone/Duvall Lonesome Dove.

Check out McMurtry and Lonesome Dove on Wikipedia, go buy the books, find a copy of the original tape, go to the US and check it all out.

Get Lonesome Dove in your life in 2010:)

PS I'm not on commission. But maybe I should be!
 
A nice little "odd couple" Western is Two Mules for Sister Sara. With Clint and Shirley Maclaine.

A Bridge Too Far is another excellent war film with a truly international cast directed by Richard Attenborough.
 
Fistfull of Dollars
Few Dollars More
Good the Bad and the Ugly
Once Upon a Time in the West
High Noon
Fistfull of Dynamite
Bad Day at Black Rock
Blazing Saddles


If you like cheesy films then there's also Django:p
 
Agree with a lot of the movies posted,

I would Add the western The Shootist, John Waynes last film.
Blazing Saddles is always fun to watch

War films, Bridge over the river Kwai, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Bridge too far, the longest day.
 
I have not read all of the thread but i totally recommend

Unforgiven
Silverado
High plains drifter
The outlaw josey wales
Appaloosa
Tombstone

and for a bit of cheesy fun

Young guns and young guns 2 blaze of glory
 
Some good suggestions so far so I won't repeat what was already said.

On the otherhand, if you don't mind owning a little western-oddity, then I would suggest "The Valley of Gwangi". In a nutshell, it's about cowboys fighting dinosaurs. Sure it sounRAB ridiculous to an adult mind. But many kiRAB (and adults who are still young-at-heart) have fantasized about cowboys & dinosaurs duking it in the old west. :D

Granted, it's far from being the "best" of anything. And it certainly can't compete against the likes of Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, etc. But it was never meant to. It was just a simple movie that was meant to entertain kiRAB & adults alike. :)

Trailer LINK
 
A lot of great movies suggested here. Some I would add are:

Gunfight at the OK Corral and Hour of the Gun - two movies by John Sturges, the first one is self explanatory, the second is about the aftermath of the gunfight.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Kris Kristofferson is miscast as the kid but still a good movie

Ride the High Country - Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea as two ageing gunfighters in an early Sam Peckinpah western.

I've never thought of Shane being a weepie before, I trend to remember it for Jack Palance's performance as one of the most evil villains to appear in a western

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
 
Another western I liked a lot was The Long Riders which is about Jesse James and his gang and stars James and Stacey Keatch as the James boys, David, Keith and Robert Carradine as the Younger brothers and Randy and Dennis Quade as the Miller brothers.

As for war movies you could try:
Paths of Glory, Kirk Douglas in a powerful Stanley Kubrick film about WW1
The Dirty Dozen, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and a bunch of hard cases take on the Nazis
Hell is for Heroes, gritty Steve McQueen film set in WW2
The Guns of Navarone, the classic "men on a mission" movie
 
Two more classics! :D Wish I could go back & edit my list.


Re. the war films already mentioned...

My faves are "The Great Escape" & "Where Eagles Dare". Awesome. I actually have the theme for "Where Eagles Dare" as my ringtone lol.

Also love "Kelly's Heroes" & "The Dirty Dozen".

"The Bridge on the River Kwai" is a classic.

I think "The Guns of Navarone" is excellent, but "Where Eagles Dare" will always be my favourite MacLean-based war movie.
 
Unforgiven
(Open Range is sort of Unforgiven Lite)

Once Upon a Time in The West
(the special edition has a fascinating commentary highlighting Leone's references/homages to many older westerns - highly recommended)

[these two MUST be the two finest westerns ever]

Older Ones

Shane
Warlock
Fastest Gun on Earth


Blazing Saddles is THE cowboy comedy
Calamity Jane is also superb
 
There 2 are funny in places - a lot of my favs have been posted - just got to know my username too realise I am a massive Sergio Leone - Ennio Morricone - fan.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.
 
Where Eagles Dare and The Wild Bunch must be my two most watched DVRAB.

If only Burton and Eastwood had gotten together for a follow up to Eagles....
 
Thank you everyone who gave me some ideas. All ordered now but I'll keep the ones that I couldn't get this time for birthdays through the year.

Thanks again!
 
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