Western movies are my favorite Hollywood films. I love action and adventure movies and westerns have action and adventure. This list of the best western movies is loaded with the action movie stars - Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Charles Bronson, and, yes, even Randolph Scott.
If you are expecting to see Shane in this list, forget it. It was a classic western in its day but its day has long past.
Unfortunately, the list of best westerns includes nothing about a number of western pioneer stars such a Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, etc. These guy were great in their time but their time is long past and they left no movie classics for us to review. Other western stars omitted include Elvis Presley & Audy Murphy. The two made some fair western movies but no classics.
The first five of the ten best western movies are reviewed below:
Once Upon a Time in the West is also on my list of the ten best movies (all type movies) of all time.
Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, and Jason Robards Jr. are superb in this classic spaghetti western movie directed by Sergio Leone. I still would like to know how they got Fonda to play the bad guy but he was good in the role.
As good as Fonda was, Bronson is even better and seemed made for the role.
Leone started the action right with the spaghetti western-type gunfight scene at the beginning of the movie. The gunfight is so drawn-out that Leone was able to develop the character of each of the three bad boy gunfighters waiting for Bronson to show up at the train station. This is particularly true of the sadistic gunfighter who captures an annoying fly in the barrel of his pistol and plays with it. This is one of the classic scenes and a scene that will be remembered as long as western movies are shown.
The plot is fairly simple although not all the pieces of the puzzle are shown until near the end of the movie. The railroad is coming to a small western settlement and Fonda and associates want to own the land and the train station which will service the train. A former New Orleans lady, Claudia Cardinale, has inherited the property from her late husband (killed by Fonda) and much of the movie revolves around her. A strong sub-plot is Bronson's desire for revenge against Fonda for killing Bronson's brother years earlier in a scene so cruel and shocking, I am surprised that the liberal Fonda would participate and be the villain in such a cruel scene. Leone is sometimes brutal!
Bronson and Fonda finally have their duel but the gunfight scene is almost anti-climatic to the other action in the film.
One of the ten best western movies of all time! (Also, one of the ten best movies - any category1
I have seen this movie many times on TV and I never get tired of watching it. It is Clint Eastwood at his best. It is also one of the most underrated westerns.
The plot has an underlying psychological theme with reincarnation hinted at. A lawman who was terribly abused by the town's citizens may be the Clint Eastwood character. This theme is never really spelled out in the movie, and each time I watch it, I try to figure out the puzzle.
But, if you are a western fan that likes action, don't let the psychological angle bother you. There is action galore in this movie including a classic barbershop gunfight at the beginning (shades of Sergio Leone as discussed above). One of the best gunfights of all time.
The town of hypocrites turns to Eastwood for "hired gun" assistance after he wipes out their hired hoodlums in the barbershop fight. Eastwood takes the job and then toys with the towns people. Meanwhilc, three really bad guys in state prison are released and head for the town to exact revenge for the town's framing them. These are the same characters that had done in the lawman as discussed earlier. Eastwood jokingly prepares the incompetent towns people to face the returning bad guys. The hoodlums make mincemeat out of the town and, of course, Eastwood has to step in and save what is left of the town.
It gets complicated and the question of reincarnation is never answered in the movie. But, once you start watching this movie, you can't walk away.
Three characters, Clint Eastwood (the Good), Lee Van Cleef, (the Bad), and Eli Wallach (the Ugly) go for some Confederate gold in this Civil War-era western movie. Although considered by some as the best western ever, I give the edge to the above-reviewed Once Upon the Time in the West. But still, this is one great western.
Both Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef give good performances and Wallach's performance is equal to any performance ever seen in any movie - western or otherwise. Obviously, he was my favorite of the three characters. The music background is highly rated and I plan to add the music DVD to my collection.
The three characters clash time and time again as they move in parallel odysseys to the graveyard where the gold is buried. Then comes the big shootout between the three, again rated by some as the best western gunfight ever (I give the edge to the opening gunplays in both Once Upon a Time in the West and High Plains Drifter).
I've used a lot of superlatives describing this western movie, but it is deserving of every word.
I have never been a great John Wayne fan, but The Searchers is a great western and Wayne did a fine job in it. I have long thought this was his best movie.
The story is heart-rendering. Wayne's young niece is kidnapped by Indians and Wayne sets out on a lonely, years-long quest to recover her although he thinks she would be better off dead than to bring her home again. "She's one of them, now!" Wayne and other of the movie characters' prejudice against the Indians serves as an underlying theme in this western.
There is action galore and dark humor as Wayne and his nephew and prot�g�, Jeffrey Hunter, proceed on their odyssey in the wild west. The film literally keeps you on the edge of your seat and you never know what will happen next.
John Wayne plays the ultimate western loner in this film.
Early in my life, I saw so many grade B western movies with Randolph Scott in them, that I wrote him off as a serious actor. But late in his career, Scott made a number of fine movies and The Tall T is one of them. It was one of Scott's finest movie roles.
This ranking of the ten best westerns is largely based on watchability and The Tall T is very entertaining to watch.
The Tall T is the tale of how a rancher, Randolph Scott, and a newly married couple, John Hubbard and Maureen O' Sullivan, are kidnapped by an outlaw gang led by Richard Boone. O' Sullivan's father is rich and Hubbard soon starts bargaining for his own safety by letting Boone know that his wife is worth a nice ransom. Intrigue follows intrigue. Boone sort of befriends the captive Scott and tells him his dreams for a better life. Scott also is attracted to O'Sullivan who confides to him that Hubbard does not really love her and she knew it all the time. Hubbard married her for her father's money.
The many-faceted drama (almost a soap opera) proceeds throughout the movie. It makes for great entertainment watching the captors squirm and play their best chips in a quest for freedom. Scott, as usual, is the honest, upright person of the group and he plays that role to perfection. Boone, on the other hand, makes a good outlaw.
This film, like most great westerns, can be watched over and over.
And I didn't even know Randolph Scott could act!
1. Ten Best Movies: The ten best movies of movie history. And yes, there is a western movie included. These movies are strictly for watching. Critical acclaim does not count.
Reviews of the five of the ten best western movies are reviewed.
updated: 03/09/10
e-mail me @ vanc13@cox.net