Who likes Westerns?

[CCamfield]

I'm a big fan of Eastwood's (Leone's) spaghetti western trilogy, along with Once Upon A Time In The West, as well as a lot of John Wayne films. High Noon is great too.

Unforgiven is also great even as it destroys the romantic picture of the earlier westerns...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

How about "Star Trek" as a Western? Sure it's apparently SciFi, but there are a lot of Western concepts in there, such as the posse (being a gang of folks who ride around together) and the cavalry (Who gets sent in to any trouble spot? That's right).

Star Trek was originally pitched by Roddenberry as "Wagon Train in space."

 

[Ghostwind]

I grew up on the Saturday morning western serials like Hopalong Cassidy, Cisco Kid, Roy Roger, Gene Autry, and Sky King. Television series such as 'Have Gun, Will Travel', Gunsmoke, Lone Ranger, Big Valley, Bonanza, and Cimmarron, set the stage for future attempts at Western movies. Unfortunately, Hollywood has been unable to come up with a really good Western in recent years (the last being 'Unforgiven').

The John Wayne Westerns remain the standard that everyone holds all other western movies too. Few actors have been able to pull off successfully making westerns. Clint Eastwood's films (esp. Pale Rider), Lee Marvin had a couple of really good ones, Henry Fonda, Kirk Douglas, and James Stewart's roles were probably some of the best non-John Wayne westerns that came out of Hollywood in the 50's, 60's and 70's.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

I love Westerns. Clint Eastwood can do no wrong, esp. as the Man With No Name. Unforgiven was excellent.

Tombstone, Wyatt Earp, Silverado, The Long Riders (great casting trick to get the Carradines, the Keachs, and the Quaids all in the same movie), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, etc. etc.

Heck, even that western with Sharon Stone and Leo DeCaprio was okay. Oh, and Disney's Hot Lead and Cold Feet--Don Knotts and Jack Elam going at it.

"They said you insulted my sister!"

"Insulted her? I asked her to marry me!"

"So they was right!"

We need a d20 Boot Hill, darn it.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

As for another postmodern Western, I think Costner's "Postman" movie is very much one, in that you have a hero who runs around being a hero and rescuing people, however reluctant he is to do it.

Good god, don't even mention that movie in the same context or you'll have people swearing off westerns left and right!

 

[Mr Fidgit]

even that western with Sharon Stone and Leo DeCaprio was okay.

The Quick and the Dead, IIRC

 

[Scribe Ineti]

That's the one, thanks.

I also liked "Maverick."

 

[emergent]

I get on a western kick every so often. I am a big fan of the Man With No Name.

I showed High Noon to the ethics class I taught and used it to talk about utilitarianism (greatest good for the greatest number) versus deontology (an ethic of duty).

I also really like retelling of the genre with different settings, like Outland (High Noon in space with Sean Connery) or Last Man Standing (Fistful of Dollars/Yojimbo in 1940's? with Bruce Willis).

Tombstone was good, but mainly because of Val Kilmer's great Doc Holiday.

I have never played in a Western game, but the GURPS Wild West book is really good, I think.

 

[Corinth]

I'm very picky about my westerns. Aside from Sergio Leone's "Man With No Name" trilogy of films, there aren't many westerns that I like. (Most of them also star Clint Eastwood.) Of the recent ones, The Quick & The Dead is one I like (despite Sharon Stone; it was Hackman & Crowe all the way for me) but most of the rest do nothing for me. Ditto with the earlier ones. There are some aberrations, but I do not like most of them.

Hell, the last "western" I liked was Outlaw Star.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Big fan of westerns:

Favorites include:

The Holy Trinity (i.e. the Clint Eastwood "Man With No Name" series)
The Wild Bunch
Silverado (great, great fun)
The Cowboys ("You sonofab****!" "Well, that's a start")
Sons of Katie Elder (Great cowboy grammar discussion: "You done what to Pike's Peak?" "I clumb it!" "You climbed it!")
Unforgiven
The Outlaw Josey Wales (some of the all-time greatest lines in a western, most of which are spoken by the supporting cast, particularly Chief Dan George as Lone Waddi)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (even more great, fun lines, and what an ending)
The Magnificent Seven
High Noon
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Gunfighter

and many more. I would also like to offer a special recommendation for Dead Man, starring (among others) Johnny Depp. It is one of the all-time greatest westerns I have ever seen, and it's also unlike any other western I have ever seen. Filmed entirely in black and white, with an incredible cast and helmed by the great Jim Jarmusch, with a score by Neil Young (and one lone guitar), it is an awesome, strange, eerie, mystical journey into the western and the confrontation with death. Simply outstanding.

Thanks.

Warrior Poet