My personal favorite Western is Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch", but in actual fact, and by the smartest film critics, like Roger Ebert, or Leonard Maltin, and filmmakers, like, say, Scorsese, is "The Searchers" or "High Noon" the best Western ever made? Or is it something else? I know for absolute certainty "Citizen Kane" is the all-time greatest film ever made, but what is the all-time greatest Western? Care to shed some light?
If They Move, Kill 'Em!
Greatest Western ever made? As you suggest, it's primarily a subjective decision. Some would say Shane is the one. An interesting parallel with Citizen Kane: While Orson Welles would agree that CK is the best film (not surprising), he also said he "hated" The Searchers in a conversation with Henry Jaglom some years ago. He thought Ford (whom he greatly admired) had become "senile" by the time he made The Searchers. Personally, I agree with Welles, and you, about CK, but disagree with Welles about TS -- and Ford's later pictures. . . Fascinating how the mind of an egotist and genius works when discussing another egotist and genius.
Now I like Orson Welles less.
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Didn't know that about Welles. If I'm not mistaken he screened Stagecoach dozens of times when he was making Kane. Maybe he liked the ensemble pictures better?
share"The Wild Bunch" is definitely up there. Great film. It's also one of my favorite films, too. Of course, Peckinpah's other Westerns are also really good. However, to say that "High Noon," or even "Shane," are better than "The Searchers" will take an awful lot of convincing me.
The real time nature of "High Noon" is terrific. "Shane" and it's iconic story is, again, right up there with the best Westerns. "The Searchers" though, has a great passage of time with Martin's letter. I think it's a neat, economical way of telling necessary portions of the story that would have otherwise made the film a Lean-esque slog with it's blatant overuse of exposition. And the story is decidedly more complex, which is what some viewers seem to be having a problem with today.
Above all, I find "The Searchers" rewarding with its deeply complex and ambiguous screenplay, otherworldly sand-chocked vistas, the towering performance by Wayne, and, finally, the visual poetry of the opening and closing shots. Maybe it's true that "The Searchers" is the thinking man's Western. I guess there could also be something Shakespearean, or Homeric about the nature of the film. Personally, it's one of the best films I have ever seen. Having seen a few Westerns (even though I'm young and am mostly familiar with the classical one's), I will throw the gauntlet down by saying "The Searchers" is the best Western.
My personal favourite is once upon a time in the west.
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No, the best is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (according to myself and imdb).
shareIn my opinion, and in no particular order:
Rio Bravo
Outlaw Josey Wales
High Noon
The Searchers
Red River
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Unforgiven
The Wild Bunch
Shane
These are the greatest Weaterns of all time. I'm not really into assigning rank. But, those are some essential watching. I'm sure to have missed some. But, I think that list covers the different types of Westerns best.
It's
My favorite western is actually She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (another Ford-Wayne teaming) but The Searchers is definitely my second favorite and probably the better "overall" film in the "critical" sense. I thoroughly dislike most of the Spaghetti Westerns and think they are highly overrated. But, then again, me and the critics don't see eye to eye most of the time 😉.
Courage is being scared to death- and saddling up anyway
Without ranking them, I would agree that every film mentioned above would be on my short list for best Western of all time, except Shane and The Outlaw Josey Wales. While I certainly like and respect Shane, I just don't connect with it for some reason (similarly, though I love film noir, I just don't particularly care for The Postman Always Ring Twice). I saw Josey Wales once, years ago, and really have little memory of it. I'd add a couple more Ford/Wayne films that were unmentioned above: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and Fort Apache. I go back and forth between Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon as the best of the cavalry trilogy (both are far better than the "merely" good Rio Grande). As a kid I preferred Fort Apache. As a (much) older man, I tend to go with the elegiac Yellow Ribbon (with one of Wayne's very best performances).
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Stagecoach would be on a short list of most influential westerns.
Personally, I think a couple of the Stewart-Mann collaborations are among the best (Winchester and Man from Laramie).
The Gunfighter from 1950 is often cited as one of the first "adult" westerns -- it deserves mention.
Nice. I really like Fort Apache and the cavalry trilogy. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is great too. I always think that Jimmy Stewart is a bit old for the role. it is still full of great performances though.
shareThe Best? Hell No! The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the best Western Ever Made.
Top 250 Foreign Movies
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls076565151/
Once Upon a Time in the West.
Forget it Jake. It's Chinatown.
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I have to put westerns in different categories. This is a very good film no doubt and I love so much about it but my favorite western is (although a miniseries) Lonesome Dove. It's just the best thing ever filmed in my opinion. If you haven't seen it on Blu-ray I highly recommend because my god it's beautiful. My favorite cowboy type western film is probably Red River, it just feels so real start to finish, fantastic. Then in other categories some of my favorites are Hang 'em High, Will Penny, High Noon, Shane, Josey Wales, the Good the Bad the Ugly, Jeremiah Johnson, Tombstone, Unforgiven, Liberty Valance, Once Upon a time in the West....even The Misfits and Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada which I think can be considered westerns.
"how's a fella go about gettin' a holt of the police?" -Karl