The Searchers

Red River

Silverado

Dances with Wolves was pure dreck! Someone as white as Costner should never venture into that territory.

I'll second Stagecoach and Unforgiven.

Unforgiven was the first western I voluntarily went to see in the movie theater - it was well worth it.

I've always had a soft spot for "High Plains Drifter" too.

Lust in the Dust with Divine, Tab Hunter, and Lainie Kazan had its campy moments.

And don't forget My Little Chickadee - how can you tell Mae wrote her own dialogue? At one point in a courtroom, the judge says "Young lady, are you showing contempt for this court?"

Mae replies: "No, I'm trying to hide it." But of course Mae put in the "young lady" part, even though she was around 47 at the time.

'One-Eyed Jacks'

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

... almost forgot my #1.
A Man Called Horse

Hombre

Unforgiven

High Noon

Little Big Man

How The West Was Won

West Side Story

Outlaw Jossey Wells
Once upon a Time in the West

West Side Story?

Were you checking to see if we were paying attention?

Thanks to TCM I have seen so many western films I would normally have not. Some are quite good. One just has to get over the idea in general . I used to hate John Wayne films but
have grown to really appreciate them and his work.

Great suggestions to all! How about:

Shane

The Westerner (Gary Cooper)

Drums Along the Mohawk (Claudette Colbert)

The Paleface (Bob Hope, Jane Russell)

Annie Oakley (Barbara Stanwyck) Would this be considered a western?

The Oxbow Incident (Henry Fonda)

The Return of Frank James (Henry Fonda)

Warlock: Anthony Quinn and Henry Fonda

Giant: Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean,

It's not exactly a western, but it has the feel and is very quirky/odd...
Six String Samurai, 1998.

But the best western I've ever seen was

Dead Man, 1995, directed by Jim Jarmusch. Starring Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop, Gabriel Byrne, John hurt and Robert Mitchum.

E nailed it - good, bad, ugly.

"blondieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...."

Love "Shane" if just for the line "Come back, Shane!!!!!!:

Stagecoach
The Wild Bunch
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
For a Few Dollars More
A Fistful of Dollars
Once Upon A Time In The West
Tombstone
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Giant
One-Eyed Jacks- Incredibly flawed but still awesome.
Johnny Guitar- Awesome camp

Forgot to mention Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid. Without that film there would be no "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Dylan who was also in the movie as Alias Smith.

I love "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"

tcm programs endless westerns because that is what ted turner liked to watch when he was cornholing jane fonda on the kitchen table during their ten times daily fuckfest of a marriage -- in fact that feeb ted turner, so stupid and gross, is obsessed with lousy westerns and hideous eliva movies -- which is what makes tcm so unwatchable as a station, apart from that grotesquely ugly hyena and reject from the TMZ show Ben Mankiewicz, the least talented without doubt of that whole Hollywood family.

Calamity Jane (Doris Day)

"My Darling Clementine," if only for Linda Darnell's severely 1940s hair-do at the O.K. Corral.

Actually, it's pretty good, one of John Ford's best.

Southern Dave's post reminds me also of "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Fort Apache (both with John Wayne) which are also great.

gabby shmayes sure do know a thing or two about the Turner/Fonda weddin'. Guess he don't cotton to them oater pictures....Reckon he should just answer cowpoke Mike's question or park his boots somewhere else. Git along, little doggie.

Shenandoah (1965) - an all-star cast and a real tear-jerker ending.

Most of these are average to fair potboilers. I have to feel that no one, even Ford, has put the real authentic west on screen. One came close -- The Big Trail, John Wayne's first starring role -- he's gangly and amateurish in it, but for much of the film I thought I was watching a documentary it looked so real. The Big Trail was maybe the first film ever shot in widescreen, and Fox has put out a first rate widescreen version on dvd. Check it out.

Peckinpah favorites:
Ride The High Country
- with Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott
The Wild Bunch
- worth skipping school for in '67
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid
- Kris Kristofferson was sooo hot.

John Ford favorites:
Stagecoach
My Darling Clementine
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Rio Grande

Sergio Leone favorites:
A Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
Once Upon a Time in the West
-
and the very best:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach
the most awesome trio ever.

Most of these are pretty good, but my three faves have yet to be mentioned:
The Big Country
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
and my all-time fave:
The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean

The Iron Horse
Bad Company

don't say no one ever told you...

People, I hate making all-time, ultimate statements (which is why I keep doing it, duh). But "Best Western Ever" is the thread's title, so it's gotta be just Johnny Guitar and nothing else. I mean the Duke, the Clint, the Jimmy - all might be better actors but no one comes close to Joan Crawford in terms of ball-busting star power.

A friend tipped me that I could order a cheap DVD from Korea, except that I'd have to go through Korean-language websites. I did (with a native speaker's help) and was pleasantly surprised - transfer's clean and English captioning was unindicated but available. Criterion editions are also supposedly released bare-bones there (meaning no booklets and extra discs) for a fraction of the price in the US.

The Wild Bunch

Cat Ballou!!!

Big Jake - John Wayne and Richard Boone (who in his later movies was one of the best grizzled heavies in cinema history).

'Red River' by Howard Hawks is the best western ever made but my absolute favorite is 'River of No Return',
watch that film in widescreen. it's stunningly shot, Bob and Marilyn are easy on the eye and you can sing along to the musical numbers. Well I do anyway.
'Little Big Man' stands out for me too, love that film, it has a gay injun.
Oh and there's that one where Brigitte Bardot is made to eat the diamonds she's been concealing from the First Nations warriors who've captured her;
her vanity literally kills her!
Crap film though.

I heard John Wayne played Attila the Hun once.

Yes for "One Eyed Jacks" the only film ever directed by Marlon Brando. With the greatest performance of his career by Slim Pickens. Delightfuly slimy.

Once Upon a Time in the West

I think it was Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore) who choked on the diamonds in whatever movie it was. You'd think she would have had a better gag reflex.

Mr. Musto's movie mavens, please tell us what the film was and who learned that diamonds are not always a girl's best friend. We may both be wrong!

To me "Shane" is the ultimate Western. But I'd give honorable mention to "How the West Was Won", because of Cinerama and because of that cast.

Stagecoach

The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Searchers

One Eyed Jacks

Johnny Guitar

Red River

I don't know the name of this movie It was a bizarre B-Western from probably the 1940s. The villan was an evil old evil, clearly lesbian, judge (I think) who raised killer wolves to do her dirty work. Not great, but certainly unique.

ONE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

THE COWBOYS (at age 13 this movie was so hot)

I'm a bit late for this party but I'd like to give a shout out for pre-pot bust Robert Mitchum in 'Pursued'(1947). He never looked better, and it's a freudian-noir-western (like they made a lot of those)!

Been a westen fan all my life and i don't think that there is many I haven't seen, so for what its worth...my top five.

1. Lonesome Dove
2. Tombstone
3. The Gunfighter
4. High Noon
5. Unforgiven

Lonesome dove has to take the the crown for the most authentic western I have ever seen.

1. Dances With Wolves. Music Score-Scenery-Story- A masterpiece. and it must be considered to be the biggest in your face all you who thought it would be a flop movie of all time.

2. My name is nobody. Speghetti western very funny yet feels serious at the same time.

3. Nevada Smith

4. High Noon

5. Pale Rider