Recommend some old westerns for me...

...or new, but I have Bone Tomahawk and Sisters Brothers on my shelf already.

Anything John Wayne.

Yessir, I have The Searchers Blu Ray in the mail.
And my($30!!!!) favorite...

Silverado is a great one

Pale Rider and Open Range and newer, but very well done.

https://youtu.be/HvhMLHBtUQ8


https://youtu.be/4werfN6fQ44

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, Edmund O'Brien.

Any Tom Selleck western.
They have been showing them on INSP on my cable channel

X2! Wife and I enjoy them on Saturday night!

Dances with wolves, Outlaw Josey Wales,Jeremiah Johnson.

Not movies but I just started watching the old black and white Gunsmoke show and dang they are good. I especially like because of James Arness. What a cool story. 6'7", worked loading and unloading freight cars and as a logger early in life. Wanted to be a fighter pilot but was too tall for cockpit. He did join Navy and earned three bronze battle stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and a Purple Heart. Had severe wound to right leg during a battle and several surgeries to follow , but stayed in the Navy, until he had to be honorably discharged. They say he suffered much pain at times mounting horse on Gunsmoke. Talk about "a man's man".

THIS. Also Jimmy Stewart,Clint Eastwood.

Lawman with Burt Lancaster and Lee J. Cobb.

Once Upon a Time in the West with Henry Fonda in a rare villain role, along with Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson and Jason Robards. The plot doesn't really matter, it's the imagery, scenery, and music that makes it a joy to watch. Being a Sergio film, there's not a lot of idle chit-chat.

The Lonesome Dove mini-series was very good, too.

A question for you Western connoisseurs: in The Sons of Katie Elder, is there ever any mention that confirms Katie is the same Kate Elder, aka Big-Nose Kate, that was Doc Holliday's girlfriend? If not, why did they choose her name for the movie?

We recently bought the complete box set of DVDs of ALL episodes of Gunsmoke. We are watching them is order, so far almost through season three. Agree, Matt made the show but Doc, Kitty, Chester and later Festus all played great roles in the show.

If you like to read, Louis L'Amour.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.

the obvious classics
magnificent seven, the opening scene is enough to hook anyone.
outlaw josey wales
3:10 to yuma
support your local Sherriff
if you like musicals, paint your wagon.

more modern
open range

while not strictly a western,
Hidalgo

Yeah, Paint Your Wagon. "Whatever the bid is, I double it!" Jean Seberg up for auction.

Lee Marvin was born for that role.

The Wild Bunch

The Long Riders with the Keach brothers, the Carradine brothers, and the Quaid brothers.

Doc, also with Stacey Keach. Faye Dunaway as Kate Elder.

The Quick and the Dead. Stupid plot, but the cast makes it a fun watch.

And, of course, there's Blazing Saddles.

Going South.
Crossfire Trail

Not trying to bust on you, I know he was a Vet, I don't know his exact history, If he was in the Navy he could not have earned a Combat Infantry Badge.
That award is exclusively for an Army Infantryman who was in Ground Combat.

I've never seen anything that confirms it but have wondered too.

Cat Belew is a good one.

Yes, I agree. I'm really liking Doc a lot. He's very funny with the tugging on his ear, and the rubbing the scruff on his face and his comments to Festus, who is great too. And yeah, Kitty is good too.

I apologize. I re-read it and as I wrote before, he wanted to be a Navy Pilot, but was too tall, and eventually joined the the Army, not the Navy, and was Rifleman, 2nd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division. So you're right. Army, not Navy.

I haven't watched too many older or B&W westerns. I'm sure there are some good ones but I don't browse them much. Many I find are a bit, well, cheesy, IMO. I've caught a few John Wayne ones and as a kid watched the occasional tv series like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Big Valley. Sons of Katie Elder I've seen many times. Wouldn't say its great, but its pallatable

For me, good classics are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Jeremiah Johnson. Shootist is interesting, but a bit too classic Hollywood. OF course The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is an interesting twist that is classic but not necessarily awesome. Same with High Plains Drifter, but these both seem to get a lot of airplay. I know there are some other campy flicks from this era such as Dutchess and The Dirt Water Fox , Cheyenne Social Club, or Support Your Local Gunfighter. There actually were a lot of westerns in this era that I haven't seen. Many aren't that good.

For newer stuff, certainly enjoyed Dances With Wolves and Unforgiven. I liked Pale Rider for its scenery and prospector view of life in the high country but the dialog is a bit cheesy and a boomtown that's pretty built out but mostly empty, ain't buying it.

Open Range is another modern favorite. Suspicion of outsiders, town under construction, political weight being thrown around to benefit a few, sounds pretty accurate.

Also have watched Forsaken a couple of times lately. Donald and Keifer Sutherland, depicted ranching town seems accurate, more political influence being thrown around, nothing to fancy in the town, people pretty plain and only a few nasty guys influencing things. Again, seems pretty accurate although they do put more conversation behind "the war" which seems unreasonable given this is supposed to be 1878 Wyoming.

Really enjoyed the Deadwood series on HBO. While language and situations may be a bit modern, this probably is good capture of boom town life, decor and perceived growth.

The competing stories of Wyatt Earp and Tombstone...meh. There are aspects I like and loath about both. I don't think either one really nailed it for authenticity.

Pure modern, campy indulgence that young kids can watch, The Lone Ranger. Twisted modern revisionism, The Hateful Eight.

No one has mentioned Shane. It has iconic Western status, but I never thought it was all that good. Like all movies, I guess it has to be judged within the context of when it was made.

True Grit, both the original and remake, are very good.

I liked Shane and its remake Pale Rider.

The original True Grit was pretty good for an oldie. I felt like I needed a translator for the remake. Jeff Bridges was not easy to understand.

I agree, Broken Trail pretty good. I'm a big Robert Duvall fan.

3:10 to Yuma. I prefer the original with Glenn Ford. Any film based on an Elmore Leonard ( the Dickens of Detroit) story is good. Best one is Hombre in my opinion. If you want something to read check out The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard. 3:10 is on TCM tonight.

glenn ford played the better bad guy.
nothing against crowe as a baddy but something about that version wasn't as good.
I think the ending changed too, but don't remember for sure.

After Rock Hudson, I hesitant today to declare any old movie stars "a man's man".

A old TV western, that is still on TV, and watching in today's times, I'm impressed with the Rifleman series, every episode has a different profound lesson about life/morality/ethics, and everything works out in the end, and that rifle is still cool.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
For a Few Dollars More
Once Upon A Time In The West
Man Called Horse
Evil Roy Slade (Comedy)
Magnificent Seven (the original)

Blazing Saddles !
Silverado (basically an homage to the genre) - one of the greatest opening sequences ever.
Yup, the old Gunsmoke episodes are classic, and look up the actor that played Festus: it'll make him twice as funny.
Agreed, Elmore Leonard stories are great, adaptations like Justified tend to be brilliant.

If you don't mind subtitles, try the samurai versions from Kurosawa.
Yojimbo (Fistful of Dollars)
Sanjuro (For a few dollars more)
Seven Samurai (Magnificent Seven)

Another version of Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars is Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis during prohibition.

There's always my wife's favorite western... The Three Amigos

My favorite old time western - Winchester '73. Not your typical Jimmy Stewart after watching him go psycho on Dan Duryea in the saloon!

it is really interesting watching the seven samurai and the magnificent 7 back to back.
you can see how the characters were changed between each version.
But beat for beat or major scenes were taken whole cloth out of the seven samurai.

My Darling Clementine...still one of all time favorites...

...but if you get the Grit TV channel on your television, they run good ole westerns constantly.

Open Range is great. I love how it starts slow and builds up the tension before turning it loose. At the time it came out, I thought it had some of the best gun sound effects I'd heard in a movie, when played through a decent sound system.

Unforgiven is another one I enjoy for similar reasons regarding the tension. Of course, The Outlaw Josey Wales is a good one. I liked both iterations of True Grit.

While not as historically accurate as other Wyatt Earp movies, I really like Tombstone. It's just an entertaining film. Val Kilmer was great fun to watch as Doc Holliday.



One of the best western plots to me in a long time is on a different medium, but the story in Red Dead Redemption 2 was great to play through.

Hollywood was a much different place back then.

I haven't read much lately, I need glasses.

Yep, I've watched every single one of those episodes, at least twice.

There's one episode of Gunsmoke prior to the Festus character in which Ken Curtis plays a completely different character. He plays a charismatic lady's man, and with a deep smooth voice. So funny to see and hear him like this. I think the episode is titled "Lover Boy".