Favorite Westerns?

Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer

My favorite western is LONESOME DOVE. Second?: THIRTY THOUSAND ON THE HOOF, by Zane Grey. I find it strange that you classified COLD MOUNTAIN as a western and wonder why. It's set in the south during the Civil War. Do they classify Civil War era stories as western?

Ancient Child - N. Scott Momaday

SouthernWriter1978 said:

Well they rode horses, had shoot outs, I call it a western even if no one else does...lol.

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well, gee. i thought you had to be west of the Miss -iss- ipp- i for it to be a western. maybe not, eh?

Bendigo Shafter - L. L.

Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy. Disillusionment+ re-illusionment x Judge Holden = best American novel of the 20th century.

El Topo (it's a film, OK?)

Cold Mountain is just a beautiful story, Western or not. But I think the almost Romanticized individualism of the characters mixed with the wide-open landscapes and Native American system of images/symbols/mythology hits enough of the conventions to consider it a Western.

AMC

The original Stagecoach.
High Noon
The Gunfighter
The Eastwood-Sergio Leone films
Cheyenne Autumn
The John Ford Fort Apache, She wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande Trilogy
And despite its historical flaws, They Died With Their Boots On

Since donroc has opened the door, the next question is what's your favorite western TV show and movie?

Mine would be:

For half-hour western: The Rifleman or The Lawman (I have tapes or DVD's of both)

For hour or longer: The Virginian (it was alway funny that Trampus was a good guy on the TV show, but a bad guy in the book).

Movie: I'll have to think about this. Some possibilities would be High Noon, The Shootist, Red River, Pale Rider (don't yell at me), My Darling Clementine, and more.

TV Shows:
The Magnificent Seven
Maverick
The Wild, Wild West

Movies:
Rio Bravo
Winchester '73 (at least, the latter 2/3rds...don't start me on the MASSIVE historical inaccuracies of the first 1/3)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (and most of the other Clint Eastwood Westerns)
Tombstone

Books:
Robber's Roost, by Zane Grey (and the first Western I ever read...and read, over and over again )

I've never been much for reading them thar westerns, but movies, pretty much anything with John Waye, Glen Ford, or Jimmy Stewart in it and I'm happy as a clam.

Once Upon a Time in the West.

Gave me a whole new appreciation for Henry Fonda's acting range.

Deadwood, all three seasons, is a real treat. Bummer they cancelled it.
Tombstone
I also enjoyed the remake of 3:10 to Yuma

My dh loves any Clint Eastwood film, esp The Outlaw Josey Wales. I swear he can recite that movie line by line.

heresy

I am about to commit heresy (and make JeanneTGC very happy). After reading this thread, and facing a week at my Dad's house with one TV, I dug out my copy of Lonesome Dove. I still like the story, but the writing is no longer as good as I once thought. I think if the book were released today, it wouldn't have even been considered for the Pulitzer, much less won. After reading the first 250 pages, I think I could have edited out about 50 pages of bloat and still been left with a good story.

MM

MaryMumsy said:

I am about to commit heresy (and make JeanneTGC very happy). After reading this thread, and facing a week at my Dad's house with one TV, I dug out my copy of Lonesome Dove. I still like the story, but the writing is no longer as good as I once thought. I think if the book were released today, it wouldn't have even been considered for the Pulitzer, much less won. After reading the first 250 pages, I think I could have edited out about 50 pages of bloat and still been left with a good story.

MM

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Wow. Years of whining pays off! Don't tell the kids...

I remember reading an Oregon Trail series when I was 13 or so. They started out at Independence, and every book had the name of the state as the title. I don't think it is in print anymore.

I also enjoyed Carry the Wind and Borderlords by Terry C. Johnston about a fur trapper named Scratch who travels to the Rockies. Very interesting account of a fur trapper's life and the lives of the American Indians he encounters.

Shane - Jack Schaefer
Hombre - Elmore Leonard
Warlock - Oakley Hall

I recently read Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker and really enjoyed it, although it doesn't have the literary qualities found in the books listed above.

san_remo_ave said:

Deadwood, all three seasons, is a real treat. Bummer they cancelled it.
Tombstone
I also enjoyed the remake of 3:10 to Yuma

My dh loves any Clint Eastwood film, esp The Outlaw Josey Wales. I swear he can recite that movie line by line.

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We'll go head to head on Josey Wales

FLETCHER
I don't believe that story about Josey Wales. I don't think no five pistolleros could whip Josey Wales. I think he's still alive. I think I'll go down to Mexico and try to find him.

WALES
And then?

FLETCHER
He's got the first move. I owe him that. I think I'll try to tell him the war's over. What do you say, Mr. Wilson?

WALES
I reckon so. I guess we all died a little in that damned war.

I've written a Western screenplay, for no other reason (initially) that I wanted to be an itty bitty part of this legendary genre. New story, never before seen nor told. Not surprising I'm having a helluva time pitching it.

Red River was a terrific Western. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. High Noon. Cahill, U.S. Marshall. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The Big Country. The Gunfight At The OK Corral.

And all of Eastwood's Westerns, with Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales and High Plains Drifter being top drawer amongst them.

MaryMumsy said:

I am about to commit heresy (and make JeanneTGC very happy). After reading this thread, and facing a week at my Dad's house with one TV, I dug out my copy of Lonesome Dove. I still like the story, but the writing is no longer as good as I once thought. I think if the book were released today, it wouldn't have even been considered for the Pulitzer, much less won. After reading the first 250 pages, I think I could have edited out about 50 pages of bloat and still been left with a good story.

MM

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::Jo digs out her rope:: Anybody know where there's a big tall tree?

Seriously, I give/recommend Lonesome Dove to everyone I meet. I've never met anyone who didn't fall in love with that book, western fan or not.

Other westerns... I like Riders of the Purple Sage (primarily for this single line: "Habit of years is strong as life itself.") and I do recall really liking Shane when I read it in Jr. Hi! Honestly though, I shouldn't have read Lonesome Dove first. Everything afterward was just disappointing.

Movies - I love John Wayne, particularly his very early films. He's so sweet and pure. A particular favorite is Angel and the Badman. I also love Clint Eastwood, albeit for very different reasons.

Shows - RAWHIDE!!! Oh man, I can't even begin to say how much I love Rawhide. Yes, young Clint Eastwood - hawt - but most of all for Eric Fleming as Gil Favor, trailboss. Sigh. He drowned making his first big-time flick... so sad. I have two of his cheesy B-movies on VHS though...

ETA: And let me not forget TOMBSTONE. Best part Val Kilmer has ever played, hands down.

Books:

Some of Terry Johnson's historicals (the Plainsman series...but only about half of them).
Old L'Amour short stories
Charlie Russell's short stories

Not a big fan of Lonesome Dove, actually.

Movies:

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Tombstone
Clint Eastwood's Westerns

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Great Scout and Cat House Thursday
Paint Your Wagon

JoNightshade said:

Seriously, I give/recommend Lonesome Dove to everyone I meet. I've never met anyone who didn't fall in love with that book, western fan or not.

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Have we been properly introduced? Cannot read Lonesome Dove. At all. Doesn't mean it's a bad book. Means I can't stand it. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

JoNightshade said:

ETA: And let me not forget TOMBSTONE. Best part Val Kilmer has ever played, hands down.

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I'm your huckleberry.

Movies: Anyone else want to smack Sharon Stone every time she puts on purple sunglasses in The Quick and the Dead? It was the only major flaw, but it kept tearing me out of my immersion.

I liked American Outlaw, most of Clint Eastwood's flicks--the remake of 3:10 to Yuma was far too implausable to be belivable, I wish I'd read Harlan Ellison's original--Rooster Cogburn and the Rio Grande trilogy are some of my favorite of John Wayne's (though there is well over a hundred more), The Jack Bull (starring john Cusack and written by his father), The Alamo (2004), Wyatt Earp (Though I like Kurt Russel better as Wyatt, I loved Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday), Tombstone, The Left Handed Gun with Paul Newman, The Magnificent Seven, How the West was Won, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Professionals, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Mackenna's Gold, The Wild Bunch, A Man Called Horse, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Chino, Blazing Saddles (I know, silly, but I like it), Breakheart Pass, The Missouri Breaks, Pale Rider, The Milagro Beanfield War, Young Guns, Dances with Wolves, Thunderheart, Unforgiven, Last of the Dogmen, The Missing, Ned Kelly, Hidalgo, Serenity (Although I feel it's really sci-fi), and Deperado (The Antonio Banderas version).

New age Western movies have come both good and bad, but as for favorites I enjoyed the remake of 3:10 to Yuma.

My favorite Western of all time though is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid... Great duo

Clint Eastwood's The Unforgiven.
AND
High Plains Drifter

Outlaw Josey Wales, Tombstone, High Noon, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Alamo (the original I haven't seen the remake yet), True Grit (and most John Wayne movies.
Books I love pretty much everything I've read from Louis L'Amour and a lot of the William Johnstone books especially the ones featuring Matt Bodine and Sam Two Wolves.
Also just finished a good one; Nightfall at Little Aces. That was a good western with some great characters.
Btw I bought the remake of 3 10 to Yuma on Friday. Not sure when I'll get to see it but from all the comments I've read on here I'm looking forward to watching that!