25) The Searchers (1956)
probably the most highly overrated western ever made.


24) The Hired Hand (1971)
Understated, aimless, occasionally boring and definitely anticlimactic. In other words, a genius portrayal of life in the real Old West.

23) The Outlaw (1943)
An otherwise forgettable matinee Billy the Kid vehicle, this Howard Hughes production looms.… Hollywood Babylon contends Hughes invented the under-wire bra for his female lead. If you can think of a more important reason this film should be on the list, we would like to hear it.


22) The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (1970)
Sergio Leone’s West was wildly inaccurate, yet the grit, the style and the sweep overcome its shortcomings (Ugly is actually the third of Leone’s so-called "Dollars" trilogy the other two being A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More). Unlike most Hollywood slop being served up at the time, the Eastwood character (The Man With No Name) is completely detached and uninterested. He is only out for personal gain and nothing else. If that doesn’t match John Wesley Hardin and a myriad of other Bad Men, we don’t know what does.

21) The Quick & The Dead (1995)
Gunslingers converge on hellish town, facing off every hour, on the hour, for the title of Best Gunfighter. Combining some of the most unique scenes, camera tricks.

20) The Bank Robbery (1908)
A terrible movie, with no closeups, medium shots or any compelling sense of narrative. The end result is a film that is totally bone-headed and a complete waste of time. Except for the fact that many of the actual "actors" are some of the biggest names in Old West history. Lawman Bill Tilghman, Heck Thomas, Frank Canton and outlaws Al Jennings and Quanah Parker are clearly seen, riding straight at the camera.

19) Missouri Breaks(1976)
On the surface, another range war epic. Importance? Find us another film that combines Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando, and forces the Godfather to don a dress for a key scene. Classic, and first real portrayal of the assassin as western nobility.


18) Stagecoach (1939)
John Ford’s dark, gritty, and extremely cold story of a seemingly doomed group of travelers. Most importantly, John Carradine inadvertently debuts the greatest Doc Holliday to ever appear on film.


17) Star Wars (1974)
Take something old, make it new again. At a time when the movie industry was in the middle of a western drought, matinee western fan George Lucas gave us a new, albeit quite different, gunfighter named Han Solo (complete with tie-down blaster rig) and one of the greatest cantina scenes ever filmed.


16) One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Terribly flawed (Stanley Kubrick quit as director and Brando took over), Jacks still has its moment in the sun. Based on the Billy the Kid-Pat Garrett story, Marlon Brando stars as an outlaw who returns from the past to settle a score with "Dad." Not counting Zorro, it’s one of the few Westerns that uses the coast of California, mainly Monterey, as a location, and unlike so many Westerns that use N.D. horses (nondescript), this production is full of beautiful horseflesh used to magnificent results. The opening sequence of Brando about to seduce a señorita is worth the trip.


15) The Long Riders (1980)
Director Walter Hill’s casting of actual brothers to play the James-Younger gang was his first stroke of genius; his second was dragging the viewer through the bloody mud of Northfield, Minnesota, and the James downfall.


14) Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1974)
still have our doubts about Kris Kristofferson as Billy, but all is forgiven when Peckinpah has the sand to show the Kid being bucked off his horse, while trying to escape from the Lincoln County jail. Witnesses testified this actually happened on April 28, 1881 when the horse Billy was trying to mount was spooked by the dangling shackle and chain still attached to Billy’s ankle. That Hollywood would even portray such a scene when virtually every range rider from Mix to Clint were shown riding horizon to horizon glued to the saddle is, well, a miracle (the only other realistic buck-off portrayal that comes to mind is Robert Duvall’s Gus in Lonesome Dove).


13) Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
As far as mountain men films go this one has it all greenhorns hungry for a new Hawken rifle, grizzled old fart trappers, skeptical Indians, shell-shocked victims of Indians, an uncaring U.S. Army, and snow. Lots of snow. Based on the life of the real Liver-Eating Johnson, Redford and Pollack do what Eastwood has been trying to do, and failing, for years make a thinking man’s western.

12) Viva Zapata (1952)
The Mexican revolution and Emiliano Zapata (Marlon Brando) turn on a series of symbolic ropes and then the whole shebang ends up like Jesse James (betrayed by a friend).


10) Heaven’s Gate (1974)
The very definition of the West too large to tame, dirty, expensive, brief moments of inspiring beauty and extended moments of breathtaking brutality.

9) Bad Company (1972)
The set-up is anti-Vietnam, but the depiction is pure, unadulterated Real West. Nothing quite shocks the viewer like the stark scenery, haphazard violence, and rambling efforts of the title group of chicken thieves, who haven’t got but one gun and a few mules between them. When they come upon an east-bound emigrant and inquire about the West, he warns them to stay away. Advice ignored, the end result is sobering.


8) Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)
Literally catapulted Butch and Sundance out of obscurity and into the pantheon of Western outlaws. Take out that damn song ("Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head") and the movie still stands tall three decades later.


7) Ride With the Devil (1999)
Bushwacker curls, sheephair tunics, and a lyrical script that will have you reaching for your Ozark dictionary. This Civil War border tale concerning bloody Missouri farm boys was sacrificed at the box office for a Hollywood sin100% historical accuracy. Apparently audiences weren’t ready for dead-on costuming, dialogue, and a realistic representation of the sins of our forebears.

6) McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Loaded with pathos and drenched in black humor, Robert Altman nailed the underbelly of the Westering experience. In an ugly, half-built town, Warren Beatty becomes a big fish in a small pond, knowing all the while his days are numbered and yet, he’s not sure exactly what to do about it   dark and beautiful, the ending is possibly the most accurate, dead-on portrayal of the outcome of a "gunfight" on celluloid. No winners, only frozen corpses. And all over a misunderstanding. Very cool.

5)The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Long lauded as the first Western (it wasn’t), The Great Train Robbery is important for two reasons the crude film  contains virtually all the devices of the yet to be evolved "Western," including a saloon scene where the "tenderfoot" is made to dance; ruthless villains who stop the train and shoot down the guard; a dramatic chase with six-guns blazing; and guys tumbling from their saddles until all the badmen are dead. Allegedly based on an actual Wild Bunch robbery, it is believed Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid watched it while in New York on their way to South America. Killer!


4) Lonesome Dove (1989)
OK, so it was on television, but its still one of the best westerns put to celluloid. Based on the adventures of Charlie Goodnight and Oliver Loving, Dove turns the dusty streets of San Antonio, the green hills of Montana, and a dutch oven full of biscuits into something worth long, slow inspection. Hell, hang it in the Louvre, this is fine art.


3) Wild Bunch (1969)
Slo-mo masterpiece of Western death that cemented the doomed walk-down sequence, and the code of sticking together, no matter what. When all the smoke blown by cinema snots clears, it’s still there. It not only changed westerns, it changed the national mindset. Pretty heavy stuff.


2) Tombstone (1993)
In the first five minutes, this film totally redeemed the motion picture industry for over fifty years of costuming, historical and dialogue sins. The Remingtonesque clothing scored the picture a homerun before the first line was ever spoken. A first in many ways, Tombstone stands out among Wyatt Earp fans for solid, as-accurate-as-allowed portrayals of the Earp brothers and their wives, the Cow-boy gang, the very town of Tombstone, and Doc Holliday and Curly Bill Brocius, played with haunting effect by Val Kilmer and Powers Boothe. Their portrayals sparked a long-since extinguished desire to dress up and play cowboy in the hearts of many men. Almost overnight, the reenactor and make-believe gunfighter population inflated to epic proportions, with armies of "Docs" and "Curly Bills."


1) Little Big Man (1970)
It only took some seventy-odd years, but Little Big Man marks the first time a major film starred an actual Native American. Chief Dan George (who won a supporting actor Oscar for the role) nonchalantly plays Old Lodge Skins which, in turn, totally complements Dustin Hoffman’s edgy interpretation of the 121-year-old Jack Crabb. Besides being hilarious and politically incorrect (it’s hard to imagine this film being green-lighted today). Little Big Man serves as a concise history of the American West, representing each phase of development the pioneers are here, fat horny sisters are here, the clergy, the prostitutes (mixed up with the clergy), straight Indians, queer Indians, bureaucrats, soldiers, drummers, journalists, carpetbaggers, vigilantes, scouts, muleskinners, gamblers, gunfighters (including Wild Bill Hickok), the windy old-timer, historians (sometimes confused with windy old-timers) and last but not least—George Armstrong Custer himself. No other Western, not even the bloated How The West Was Won, had the scope, the sand, or the vision of this masterpiece. Funny, ironic and a certified kick in the pants just like the real Wild West. As Phil Hardy so aptly put it, Little Big Man is "the story of a perpetual adolescent fathered by the heroes and villains of the West."

1]LoneSome Dove
2]The Big Country
3]The Searchers
4]Jeremiah Johnson
5]Big Jake
6]She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
7]The Horse Soldiers
8]Outlaw Josey Wales
9]The Sacketts
10]Tombstone

What the hell am I thinking.. Also add these

Shenandoah
Gettysburg
Winchester 73

Hell I forgot Jimmy Stewart and he is really almost better then John Wayne. God they don't make movies like that anymore.

But Lonesome Dove was probably the Greatest Western Epic evermade.

1) Red River

"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" has to be on any seruous list.

Also, "The Big Country" with Gregory Peck and Charleton Heston.

Shane.

Shane
Pale Rider
The Wild Bunch
Fort Apache
High Noon


Were the people who came up with that list on crack, or what? [:\]

Little Big Man is my favorite. Fell in love with it at the theater when I was 10. This one and Hondo (another fav., gotta' love those Sat. matinees) helped form my ideas of what an Indian was and how much of a dickhead Custer really was.

John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande and Fort Apache. Also really like Angel and the Badman. Shoot, any John Ford movie, he knew how to make a western.

Searchers is real good. Daughter likes it and she doesn't care for westerns or John Wayne. I don't know who's kid she is.[>:/] [;D]

Conagher. Hell, Sam Elliot could be the next John Wayne if he wanted.

Silverado was pretty good.

The Undefeated. John Wayne and Rock Hudson.

Hey..what about the following:
The Magnificent Seven
Silverado
Pale Rider
High Plains Drifter
Young Guns II
High Noon
A Man Called Trinity
The Grey Fox
Geronimo
Quigley Down Under
Runs with the Wolves
Shane
The Three Godfathers (John Wayne in one of his finest films).
The Shootist (Wayne and real life friend Jimmy Stewart in Waynes last film)
True Grit
Hondo
The Professionals
The Man who shot Liberty Valence (Lee Marvin sporting Peacemaker in a Reverse Draw Holster!)
A Man called Horse
The Outlaw Josey Wales

Once upon a time in the West (1969)


There were three men in her life. One to take her... one to love her... and one to kill her.

Makenna's Gold

Those are great.

How about Unforgiven? Also how many of them up there where John Wayne in on that top 25? Also The Searchers rocked, Angle and the bad man was another good one, Shane the Shooters, The Cowboys. Rio Bravo, El Dorado, Big Jake, Sons of Kate Elder .Ok how can I for get McLintock? There are a lot more

But Tombstone as number 2? This guy needs to lay off the crack pipe and placing the Good, bad and ugly as number 22 what is up with that?

Also if Star wars is a "Western" how about T2?

The guy how made this up most be on Crack. Sorry I'm only 22 years old and know that there are a hell of a lot better western out there this these.  

Yes by the time I was 1 years old I loved watching westerns with my father. I have passed this down to my son also. I also have about 50 of John Wayne's movies and about 25 of Clint Eastwood's. I know I need to get more.

1. Unforgiven
2. The Outlaw Josey Wales
3. The Searchers
4. Tombstone
5. My Darling Clementine
6. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
7. True Grit
8. Shane
9. Rio Bravo
10.Silverado
11.Pale Rider
12.Stagecoach
13.The Long Riders
14.Big Jake
15.Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
16.Young Guns
17.High Noon
18.The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
19.The Wild Bunch
20.The Magnificent Seven
21.Support Your Local Sheriff
22.The Cowboys
23.The Shootist
24.Frisco Kid
25.Joe Kidd

Satcong, I so seldom disagree with you, that I have to ask you: are you the real satcong, or are you FlagWaver? I couldn't figure it out after your last post on that subject!

But the all time greatest western:

[size=4]The Searchers[/size=4]

followed closely by:

[size=4]Stagecoach[/size=4]

If John Wayne ain't in it, how can it be called a 'great Western'?[:D]

Eric The(Western)Hun[>]:)]

A true epic:


     Blazing Saddles


Well it was funny !!!!!!

I have been known to go undercover as flagwaver on occasion.

Any list that doesn't include Rio Bravo is suspect from the beginning, it is the quintessential western. I just wish Angie Dickinson had learned to act by then.

I'd include the John Ford/John Wayne cavalry trio as well, throw in Stagecoach and Angel and The Badman. I liked Hondo, too.  So sue me.  I could fill 20 out of 25 with John Wayne films.

As for The Searchers being most overrated, the honor belongs to High Noon.

As long as we're counting TV movies lets add The Sacketts. For my money Sam Elliot IS Tell Sackett.

I was thinking about the Sacketts also.

I will rent any western without hesitation if it has Sam Elliot or Tom Sellek in it. May not be a "Top 25" but it will be a quality western. And there are too few of them.

[img]http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/Boomholzer/goodbad4.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/Boomholzer/fewmore2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/Boomholzer/fistful2.jpg[/img]

"Lonesome Dove"?

DaMan

[i]Stagecoach[/i] almost deserves it’s own category (the term “seminal” comes to mind).

Can anybody explain the reference to John Carradine?  I haven’t a clue what the writer is talking about.

Maybe not the greatest western ever made, but what about [i]Johnny Guitar[/i]?  Talk about a strange movie, especially for 1954.

Wow, that list sucks!

In no particular order:

Unforgiven
Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Magnificent Seven
Once Upon a Time in the West

There are numerous other great, but those are my top 5 at this moment...

Please, guys... Rio Bravo sucked.  

Ricky Nelson as a gun slinger?  Imagine a tough gun slinger that still speaks in a falsetto and seemingly has just sprouted his first pubic hair.

Nelson and Martin singing that stupid duet? All that was missing was Lawrence Welk saying "Tank you, tank you, tank you" when it was over.

Angie Dickinson?  Nothing I can say, cause there's nothing TO say.  How about "nice legs"? I'll give her that.

The high point of the movie was Walter Brennan. [;)]

How about Rio Lobo?

A cheesy remake of Bio Bravo.

Neither of these movies are "great" westerns, but I like them both anyway. [whacko] [:D]

In on particular order

The Cowboys - I am the first one to list this?
True Grit
The Shootist
Unforgiven
Silverado
The Sons of Katie Elder - Another first?
The Shootist
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Pale Rider
Big Jake
Tombstone



Note: The Quick and the Dead sucked

"Bend of the river"  Jimmy Stewart,  check it out!

Gotta say I like your list better than the one satcong imported. (nothing against you, satcong.[:)])

How could anyone put "The Quick and the Dead" on a list and manage to leave off "Unforgiven"?

How could anyone put "The Quick and the Dead" ANYWHERE on a list of good westerns?

My top 10

#1 Shane
#2 Unforgiven
#3 The Searchers
#4 Outlaw Josey Wales
#5 The Cowboys
#6 The Magnificent Seven
#7 Pale Rider
#8 She Wore a yellow ribbon
#9 High Noon
#10 Red River

Dude,

Blazing Saddles...

on a seroius note:

The Magnificent Seven

#1 in my book=High Plains Drifter

Chisum
Cahill U.S Marshal
True Grit

1) The Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone Trilogy
A classic series, and I disagree with most, Clint has it all over John Wayne

2) Peckinpah's Wild Bunch & Billy The Kid
One of the best western directors ever, very innovative

3) Jeremiah Johnson, one of the best movies at showing the pre-west

4) Unforgiven, the sequel to Josey Wales?

5)  Outlaw Josey Wales,

6) Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

7) Little Big Man

8) The Long Riders

9) Tombstone

10) Rio Bravo

But there are tons of other great westerns and I prefer them to almost every other genre movie.