top 5 western

"McCabe and Mrs. Miller"- none of you got this one, it's a classic, Altman at his best

"High Noon"- Gary Cooper at his best

"Unforgiven"- Clint Eastwood at his best

"Wyatt Earp"- great character study by Costner

"Open Range"- realistically shot, and purposely underplayed to perfection

"Tombstone"- "I'm your huckleberry"- Kilmer at his best


Hard to limit it to 5, and I'm sure there are more if I think about it

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

THE SEARCHERS

HIGH NOON

WARLOCK (1959)

SHANE


RUNNERS UP:

ONE EYED JACKS

THE TALL T

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

OPEN RANGE

THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES

HONDO

DANCES WITH WOLVES

LITTLE BIG MAN

GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL

ULZANA'S RAID

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE

I can´t separate The Dollar Trilogy, because of its importance for history of western and films, and because of how good they are!! So...
1.- Fistfull of dollars, For a few dollars more and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
2.- High Plains Drifter
3.- Unforgiven
4.- Pale rider
5.- Outlaw Josey Wales

There are many wester films as good as this ones, but I really love the way Clint Eastwood make his films and how he acts in his harsh characters. Could you imagine another actor playing his rol on this films?

The difficulty for me is trying to identify a top Western based soley on it's own merit. Unforgiven was a great movie.. but was much of it's appeal that it was a swan song for Clint in the Western genre? Would this have been the same movie had he not made all of his previous oaters? Similarly with The Shootist. Very entertaining movie.. but in reality it was an entire career worth of fine character acting brought to a close, and became a great send of for John Wayne. I found Open Range a wildly entertaining movie and Costner truly shines in roles like these. But it could be argued that we are also watching a character we have seen faces of in Wyatt Earp, Dances with Wolves and even Silverado.
Now forget all the trick shooting, horse acrobatics and glamorized Outlaws... you can't beat HBO's Deadwood for gritty, raw realism that for my money best gives us a glimpse into the era.

1. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

2. Dances With Wolves

3. Unforgiven

4. The Magnificent Seven

5. For a Few Dollars More

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1) Magnificent Seven (1960)- Yul Brenner is the epitomy of cool. Defined hero for me as a kid. Eli Wallach was brillantly as Calvera, 6 years before he topped this performance with Tuco in The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

2) High Noon (1952)- Okay Gary Cooper was cool before Yul Brenner. No Western has topped High Noon for tension building.

3) The Wild Bunch (1969)- Sam Peckinpah deserves recognition for developing the anti-hero protagonist in American cinema. His over-the-top gun battle finale did for explosive climaxes what Bullitt and French Connection did for car chases. Had the censors twitching spasmodically by the end.

4) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). An obvious choice for cult classic western, the best of the Man With No Name Clint Eastwood series. And, who didn't love every minute Eli Wallach was on screen? Tuco is one of the best movie villans of all time.

Best Quote from a Western: "You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig...You dig."

5) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)- What are you kidding me? How can you list the top 5 westerns of all time without having a John Ford film? This one had John Wayne AND Jimmy Stewart to boot.

Honorable mention goes to Silverado (1985) for reintroducing the Western to modern Superplex Summer Blockbuster cinema by showing Hollywood you can make money with Westerns again. Okay, kind of a not-so-subtle drama where you're emotions are obviously manipulated, but the acting was tight, Lawerence Kasdan's direction was solid, and the script was filled with great gag lines. Who didn't love John Cleese as the English Sheriff walking in the door saying "What's all this then?" Kline, Costner, and Dennehy were brillant. Rosanne Arquette and Scott Glenn were stiff, but they aren't exactly talking about Streep and Brando are we.

Once again, in no particular order...

the TOP 10 WESTERNS :

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
Once Upon a Time in the West
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
the Ballad of Cable Hogue
Bite the Bullet
Red River
the Magnificent Seven
Unforgiven
the Searchers
the Hi-Lo Country


the TOP 3 "End of An Era" COWBOY FLICKS:

Hud
Junior Bonner
the Last Picture Show