Maybe it is because of the times I grew up in but I love a good cowboy movie. There is just something about that time that grabs me.

In particular as a kid I loved Indians. Always wanted them to win. Bows were way cooler than guns.

So I will list some of my favorites:

No particular order just favorites.

1. High Noon with Gary Cooper. One of the first to step away from cliche and try to tell a real story. Great acting, great song. Won academy award for best actor.

2. Unforgiven. Clint Eastwood not only a great western star but a terrific director. Great story. Terrific acting.

3. Tombstone. The story has been told many times in film. The battle of OK Coral. But this movie is just great as western. Some of scenes are so cool. Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday was outstanding.

4. Lonesome Dove really a mini series. This movie got to me. A story of true friendship. Great characters who are developed through the story. A classic. I don't watch movies multiple times but this one I do. Augustus McCray one of all time favorite characters.

5. The Man with No Name. Clint Eastwood character in the spaghetti westerns. Fistful of Dollars, For an Few Dollars
More, and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

6. Open Range. Robert Duvall is just a great actor. Good ending gun fight.

7. Dances with Wolves. Entertaining movie. Beautifully filmed.

8. Revenant. Not a western in the classic sense. But a terrific movie. First movie I have seen where the natural sounds are part of the movie. Very little dialogue. Just a intense film of revenge.

9. The Searchers. Had to put a John Wayne movie in there. I probably saw every one. But this was a little different he was not just the good guy.

10. Wild Bill. Not a big commercial success but I liked it. Jeff Bridges was really good as Wild Bill Hickok.

There are others but these ten came first to mind.

Hostiles, starring Christian Bale.

Really a great western, IMO

I agree. Christian Bale was outstanding. And Wes Studi is one of the true great American Indian actors.

I have to add.

The Wild Bunch and The Magnificent Seven.

Unforgiven. Man..........it started out so slow, and kept that pace for quite a while.

Until it changed. Holy Cow!!!! Good movie. Very visceral, if that is a word to describe a movie.

You forgot Blazing Saddles.

Tombstone is up there for me as well

excuse me while I whip this out ...

Silverado
Cheyenne Social Club
She wore a Yellow Ribbon
How the west was won
Cat Balu
man who shoot liberty Valence

I thought Lonesome Dove was a great miniseries, and I also liked The Sacketts with Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott. Among others already mentioned, some of my favorite westerns were Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Shootist, The Quick and the Dead, and Young Guns.

Honorable mention.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

Vera Cruz with Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper.

The Professionals with Lee Marvin

310 to Yuma - the remake with Russell Crow and Christain Bale

Agree with "Unforgiven" and someone else who mentioned "The Outlaw Josey Wales".

- "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"
- "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"
- "Ravenous" (different than "Revenant")
- "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"
- "Rio Bravo"

This a a newer one and a bit out there but I liked it.

"Bone Tomahawk"

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid I forgot about that one. Fun movie.

I will have to check that one out.

The Revenant was really a unique movie. Major props to the director. The way it was filmed like with "go pros".

The way natural sounds were incorporated into the sound track.

What the lead character went through was real. Amazing.

I found myself cringing a lot in that movie. I have seen Grizzly bears in the wild. It would be anyone's worst nightmare to be attacked. The way they filmed it was very real looking.

I'm also a big fan of Westerns not just movies but the old T.V. shows. Some of my favorites are Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Bonanza, The Rifleman and Wanted Dead or Alive to name a few. Big fan of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Chuck Connors James Arness, Clint Walker and others to many to name. Great old shows!!

I remember Mad magazine doing their bit on the Rifleman that was hilarious.

Looking back on some of those shows they seem pretty hokey now. At the time I was into them.

"Have Gun Will Travel" with Richard Boone was pretty cool.

TV movie crossover: Deadwood.

Homewood, I watched all of those as a kid and would even add a few Big Valley, Lone Ranger, Daniel Boone, and Wagon Train. My dad loved westerns so we watched a lot of them back when there were only 4 channels in central Ohio.

Some of my Favs;

Red River - (John Wayne/Montgomery Clift)
The Searchers - (Wayne/Jeffrey Hunter)
The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly - (Eastwood/Lee Van Cleef/Eli Wallach)
The Outlaw Josey Wales - (Eastwood)
The Man who shot Liberty Valance - (Wayne/James Stewart)
The Magnificent Seven - (Yul Brynner/Steve McQueen/Eli Wallach)
My Darling Clementine - (Henry Fonda/Victor Mature/Walter Brennen)
Winchester '73 - (Stewart/Dan Duryea)
McLintock - (Wayne/Maureen O'Hara)
High Plains Drifter - (Eastwood)
Stage Coach - (Wayne)

Deadwood was pretty good. They did a thing with the language of the time.

The deal when Swearinger was trying to pass a kidney stone. Ouch.

Have to add True Grit. I liked the remake with Jeff Bridges better than the original with John Wayne.

Yep, it's out there! Still pretty good.

Man you guys are clueless...The obvious and greatest Western Movie of all time is...

Good one.

Best Western actor:

Yosemite Sam.

FANTASTIC movie! One of my faves. I once told CHSDawg about this one. Speaking of...I wonder where he is (CHSDawg)?

Least we forget, Rustlers Rhapsody!

My all time fav is probably a tie between The Outlaw Josey Wales and Jeremiah Johnson. Dances with Wolves is a close third.

BTW- Have you all watched this one that came out late last year? Woman Walks Ahead:

I used to have Dances With Wolves on vhs. I watched it so many times the tape broke.

I typically watch or read for intellectual purposes. However, there are times when I watch or read just to be entertained. The Western Movie genre probably fits more into the latter rather than the former. Thus, some movies I liked:

--The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. "A buzzard has to eat as same as a worm." LOL

--Unforgiven: I liked this because it made you think rather than react.

--Dances with Wolves: I always supported Native Americans and their way of life.

--The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: A classic tale of good vs evil.

Btw---------as others have mentioned, I thought Lonesome Dove was awesome, but I considered it a TV series. Robert Duvall is one of the greatest actors ever, in my opinion.

My wife was like that with the last of the Mohicans starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

I am with you there. Duvall is an amazing actor. Never seen him not being great in any part.

Augustus was one of his best parts. Another was in Tender Mercies.

Lonesome Dove was a great book. Could only be told as a mini series. A deep story.

Ill add T

Ill add Two Mules for sister Sara !

I thought Wes Studi should have gotten an Oscar for his role as Magwa.

He was so convincing.

One of the first Westerns to receive critical acclaim was "Shane" staring Alan Ladd.

A little corny for today but for the time in was good.
Gunfighter helps a family of farmers against the bad guys.

Lee Marvin was one of my favorite actors.

"Monte Walsh" with Lee Marvin and Jack Palance was good story of the dying west and a new age. Two older cowboys with little work to be had trying to get by.

Some great scenes in this movie. The best bronco busting scene of all times for one.

Marvin and Palance were great together.

Have you seen Jeremiah Johnson with Redford?

Yes.

I kind of draw a distinction between "Western" and "Mountain Man" movies. Even though they are close.

Revenant is also a mountain man movie.

Jeremiah was a good movie.

I live in the Reno/Carson City area.

An amazing book "Blood and Thunder" by Hampton Sides is a biography of Kit Carson.

Talk about a life. Kit Carson was some kind of human being. He covered more ground on foot and horse than most do in cars today.

What he did in his life is mind numbing. They should no doubt do a movie based from the book.

That's from the outlaw Josie Wales, another fine example.

You are right. I had The Outlaw Josey Wales listed and I actually like it quite a bit more than The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but somehow.......I deleted part of my OP when editing. Thanks for catching that.

Watched a ton of westerns back in the 50's; one of my favorite actors was Bob Steele, particularly when dressed in black...

https://youtu.be/E-0qvAB2xGE

Damn that was Saturday mornings.

Looking back at that now it was not too good.

They could not pump out enough of those type westerns.

Lash Lerue. Pancho and Cisco. Gene Autry. Roy Rodgers. The Lone Ranger.

There were so many cool lines in Tombstone.

"I'm your huckleberry, say when".

At the end when Doc was dying he said to Wyatt.
" Wyatt want do you want from life?" Wyatt responds "I don't know I just want a normal life."
Doc responds "Wyatt there is no such thing as a normal life; there is just life."

“Poor soul, just couldn’t take the stress.”

The movie was filmed using only natural light. So if a scene was at night around a fire, the fire was the only sources of light for the shot.

O
That’s my favorite line too. The wide eyed soon to be dead sideman asks, “shouldn’t we bury them.” Josey replies and spits on the ground; his only purpose is vengeance.

What was the move e where Eastwood gets killed and comes back to take vengeance on those who stood idly by forcing them to paint the town red? High Plains Drifter?

What John Wayne movie was it where he just called his dog, dog? I cant remember the name to save my life.

Love the 3:10 to Yuma reboot. Love the s end when everyone has forsaken him but he refuses to back down. He explains how he walked away when he lost his leg and tells his son, “I’ll be right behind you, but if I’m not you tell everybody your daddy got Ben Wade on that train.”

What aboot Star Wars?

Nah, space cowboys.

Yeah, that's High Plains Drifter where he paints the town red. Did he come back from being dead in that one? I remember he came back from the "dead" in Hang 'Em High.

One more thing about The Outlaw Josey Wales. I think he actually spit on the forehead of the dead bushwhacker when he uttered that line.

That would be " Big Jake " ..

Understated movie but really good. The original with Glenn Ford was also good.

j/c

I don't really have anything to add that hasn't been mentioned.

Tombstone ranks very high with me. Open Range as well. A lot of the older movies were great in their time, but I just feel they don't quite measure up in terms of "feeling real" when it comes to the technical side or in terms of native Americans.

While it wasn't a movie, Deadwood on HBO has to rank #1 in how I believe the west really was in that time period and was a great series. Second to none in the western genre' IMO.

The first western I can remember where the native American population seemed to have a voice was The Outlaw Josey Wales.



Lone Watie : [realizes Josey has snuck up behind and pulled a gun on him] They said a man could get rich on reward money if he could kill you.

Josey Wales : Seems like you was looking to gain some money here.

Lone Watie : Actually, I was looking to gain an edge. I thought you might be someone who would sneak up behind me with a gun.

Josey Wales : Where'd you ever get an idea like that? Besides it ain't supposed to be easy to sneak up behind an Indian

Lone Watie : I'm an Indian, all right; but here in the nation they call us the "civilized tribe." They call us "civilized" because we're easy to sneak up on. White men have been sneaking up on us for years.

It was far past time they were given at least somewhat of a voice in westerns.

Dances with Wolves went out the way to bring a native American point of view.

"A Man Called Horse" with Richard Harris was a pretty accurate portrayal of Native Americans.

There is room for Hollywood to do a lot more especially with some historical figures like Tecumseh, Captain Jack, and Quanah Parker. Their lives would make for great movies.

I would add Cochise, the great Apache chief who was intelligent, loyal, and reasonable.

Another would be Chief Joseph [obviously not his real name, but no one could pronounce or spell it] from the Nez Perce. It disgusts me what the United States government did to him and his people.

As I kid, I read every "Indian" book that I could get my hands on. I am not exaggerating that I read every single book about them in the local library and the school library.

I agree w/you, bonefish. There could be some great movies made of these people. I think we all could learn a lot from their history.

Yep...every Saturday morning. I was not a Roy Rogers fan tho...

Anyone else like Little Big Man, w/Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, and Martin Balsam? I loved that movie. Great combination of historical fiction, drama, and humor.

My college degree was with a major in Anthropology.

I have lived in New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and now Nevada. Now retired I still travel to many Native American "sites." Native American culture and art work has always fascinated me.

If you have not read this book. I think you would enjoy it.
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne.

Amazing book.

That was an interesting story. Hoffman relaying the story as old man was great. His narration was entertaining.

The Young Guns movies were pretty good too.