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[diggmcbadass]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is always up there for me. People always focus on Clint Eastwood and the "Man with no name"-trilogy, but in that movie he is such a secondary character to the fantastic Eli Wallach. I even think the often overlooked Duck You Sucker would have been a lot better if Wallach had played the lead instead of Rod Steiger.

 

[bionic77]

No one has mentioned Tombstone?

I love Tombstone but it isn't the best Western ever made. The love stories were really weak. Hated his wife and the 2nd chick. Take those out and it is a perfect movie.

 

[ggnoobIGN]

Fistful of Dollars

 

[niunhuiio]

Rango

Ooh, so close for being the first post. This.

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

this

 

[Chumpion]

Fistful of Dynamite

This one is my favorite. It draws its story on such a wide canvas.

 

[Grady Durden]

I love Tombstone but it isn't the best Western ever made. The love stories were really weak. Hated his wife and the 2nd chick. Take those out and it is a perfect movie.

Agreed. Val Kilmer is awesome in this.

What did you think of Open Range?

 

[Blader]

Unforgiven
Once Upon a Time in the West
Dollars trilogy
The Wild Bunch
The Assassination of Jesse James
The Big Gundown
The Great Silence
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid


I don't really like John Wayne or classic westerns.

 

[Kreunt]

Once Upon a Time in the West
even if just because of this scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWg8qqA8q-Q

 

[Saya Brea]

Wild Wild West

 

[Wiktor]

Jeremiah Johnson. Also the manliest movie ever made.

 

[| Praxis |]

Unforgiven
The Proposition
Dollars trilogy
The Assassination of Jesse James
Once Upon a Time in the West
Django

 

[Zia]

The Searchers is one of the greatest films period. Totally in a different league than any other Western, barring maybe Rio Bravo and a couple interchangeable Leones. Still, The Searchers is a singular work.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Am I the only one that thinks A Few Dollars more is better than the other two movies in the trilogy?

I wouldn't say that, but it is really good.

 

[MechDX]

Would never fly in todays PC world

 

[inm8num2]

The Dollars Trilogy
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Great Silence
High Noon
Unforgiven

That's probably my top five.

 

[vagabondarts]

My favorites are tied:

Once Upon a Time in the West
Unforgiven

But I love most westerns. I love Outlaw Josey Wales but I wouldn't call it a western (maybe a southern? Lol).

My guilty pleasure pick is The Quick and the Dead but there's a lot about it that is so strange. I love all the gunfighters and Hackman.

A LOT of older movies would never make it in todays world. They would be protested into the ground for countless reasons. Thankfully, they were all made before shit like that started, so we actually get to see the awesomeness of Blazing Saddles.

Blazing Saddles is amazing.

 

[Vyroxis]

Would never fly in todays PC world

A LOT of older movies would never make it in todays world. They would be protested into the ground for countless reasons. Thankfully, they were all made before shit like that started, so we actually get to see the awesomeness of Blazing Saddles.

 

[Oveja Negra]

I entered the thread to post this.

Don't get me wrong, I love The Good, The Bad and The Ugly because it's cool, funny and keeps you interested in the story the whole time. Overall, it's a very uplifting story. Also, I love how it presents each character in a sequential way.

Having said that, Eastwood's Unforgiven is an absolute masterpiece. I think it's much much more realistic, dark, depressing and rough. In a single word: badass.

From the beginning, when you see Clint's character as a farmer, in the middle of nowhere, miserable as a rat, you know he has no choice but to accept and embrace the quest, and he -and you- knows that it's going to become a tragedy.

 

[Dopus]

 

[MechDX]

A LOT of older movies would never make it in todays world. They would be protested into the ground for countless reasons. Thankfully, they were all made before shit like that started, so we actually get to see the awesomeness of Blazing Saddles.

If you have never seen it I also highly recommend Cat Ballou. Another comedic western that would be un-PC today but not as over the top as Blazing Saddles.

 

[Buntabox]

This is pretty much a remake of Rio Bravo. It might not be as good, but hot damn Robert Mitchum and James Caan.

When I was really young I wore out a VHS of this. Still have it's damaged corpse.

 

[Danne-Danger]

Not my favorite, but how come The Treasure of the Sierra Madre doesn't come up more often when talking about westerns? Surely it's good enough to pop up on more than a few people's lists!

 

[cj_iwakura]

My guilty pleasure pick is The Quick and the Dead but there's a lot about it that is so strange. I love all the gunfighters and Hackman.

I think it's legit great. Sam Raimi: The Western should be on the cover.

 

[TEJ]

Would never fly in todays PC world

i love you

 

[Daniel Jackson]

 

[GungHo]

We've more than covered best. My vote for worst:

Originally considered the Costner Wyatt Earp, but this edges out for the stunt casting of Usher Raymond.

 

[| Praxis |]

How could I forget Blazing Saddles?!

Edit: Well, that's the end of this suit!

 

[MechDX]

How could I forget Blazing Saddles?!

 

[Wiktor]

I've already posted my pick, but I thought it would be interesting to ask for my father's opinion on this topic and his choice was Big Country.

 

[KidA Seven]

Must be a newcastle fan.

 

[Strife In a Teacup]

My personal favorite is The Outlaw Josey Wales. It's also my favorite Clint Eastwood movie.

 

[Jest Chillin]

We've more than covered best. My vote for worst:

Originally considered the Costner Wyatt Earp, but this edges out for the stunt casting of Usher Raymond.

I need to watch this asap just for the inevitable laughs.

 

[pants]

The Good, the Bad and the Weird is my favorite.

 

[CarbonRevenge]

 

[helloresolven]

Probably the not best, but in the conversation for me:

 

[cj_iwakura]

We've more than covered best. My vote for worst:

Originally considered the Costner Wyatt Earp, but this edges out for the stunt casting of Usher Raymond.

Wow, that's like... a dream b-movie cast.

 

[Mollymauk]

Ride the High Country
The Great Silence

 

[RustyNails]

From the beginning, when you see Clint's character as a farmer, in the middle of nowhere, miserable as a rat, you know he has no choice but to accept and embrace the quest, and he -and you- knows that it's going to become a tragedy.

It's MUCH more deeper than a tragedy. The story is about change. Allow me to elaborate. The Unforgiven shows that it is impossible to escape what you are and even the title implies as such. You can try to "build" a new beginning but you cannot escape the past. William Munny tries to be a farmer, but gets sucked back into his old ways in a spectacularly violent and terrible manner. On the other hand, The Kid tries to "build" a persona of an outlaw gunslinger (which ironically is the personification of William Munny at his most terrible), but he is anything but. He cannot escape the fact that he is a good person at heart with morals, and no manner of bullshittery can turn him into a wild west gunslinger. He chickens out. Another example is Little Bill Dagget. Little Bill is a tyrant who thinks he is just and fair, and believes that his town is picture perfect. The metaphor you can immediately connect to is him trying to build that house of his, but you find out that the house is built all sorts of wrong. Little Bill sucks at building houses. It's leaky, it's foundations are wrong, and wind gusts pass through it. It implies that Little Bill is a sadistic maniac, and no amount of happy town building can veil the fact that he cannot create something "good" by being inherently "evil". Guy whips Ned to death. Ned is interesting, in the sense that he is the only one who does not try to escape his past.

Other interesting theme is of classic westerns; honor, justice, dignity and vengeance. But, it shows how warped these ideals can truly be in a morally ambiguous territory. English Bob thinks he holds all idealistic traits, but he does not. Little Bill claims these traits for him from English Bob, saying English Bob was just a braggart and a drunk. Munny turns this conversation upside it's head by saying these ideals do not exist in old ways (English Bob) or new ways (Little Bill). People simply get lucky. This is a deeper topic.

 

[casmith07]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

.

 

[terrible]

We have a winner. That opening scene is just so, SO good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_tt83itYA8

Cinematic perfection.

The final duel is about the only thing that rivals that.

Tons of fantastic westerns have been mentioned in here but Once Upon a Time in the West wins the #1 spot for me.

 

[NandyRewman]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly without a doubt. The final scene in the cemetery is perfect.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly is my favorite movie of all time so it wins by default.

Some others:

Once Upon A Time In The West
Unforgiven
The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
For A Few Dollars More
Il Mercenario (aka The Mercenary aka A Professional Gun)
The Searchers
The Good The Bad The Weird

So many more Rio Bravo, The Great Silence, Open Range, The Outlaw Josey Wales, High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, The Wild Bunch, The Proposition, etcccccccccc

 

[TheKaeptain]

I watched the trilogy for the first time in the last few weeks, and preferred For a Few Dollars More. I don't know what that says about me.

Lee Van Cleef is that dude.

He is. Only dude that rivals the Franco Nero.

 

[Blader]

For A Few Dollars More used to be my favorite of that trilogy too. I don't really think that anymore, but it's still pretty damn great, and one hell of a sort-of debut by Van Cleef.

 

[snesfanboy]

i can agree with many choices here, i'll mention the ones that i'm really fond of

* Unforgiven (amazing movie, more of a character study than a traditional western but with some amazing scenes, the final confrontation, the atmosphere, Clint's speech about what he is, magic)
* The Good The Bad & The Ugly (in a lot of movies, the scene were Tuco gets to the cemetary and finally finds the grave would just have been a piece of exposition, probably him riding on a horse, seeing the graveyard from afar, then a dissolve to him walking up the grave and that would be it => here Leone transforms it into art, a perfect fusion of image and music that has a lot of deeper meaning, it helps that EVERYTIME i see this scene, or even only hear the music, i get goosebumps)(while Once Upon A Time In The West is amazing as well, for me it falls just under TGTBTU, which is Leone's masterpiece)
* Django (1st time i saw this, i didn't really like it and found that the chaingun scene after 30 minutes in was the high point, but seeing it again on Bluray a couple of months ago, this is a movie where everything just fell into place, amazing music, acting, look and violence)

 

[tokyostomp]

Six String Samurai

 

[Fritz]

I am no enthusiast but my favorites are 3:10 to Yuma (Remake) and The Proposition.

 

[JetSetRadio]

Davy Crockett!

 

[Daniel B·]

I'll say Once Upon a Time in the West (166 min (long) version, as on Blu-ray; love that extra scene in the way station etc).

I've been resisting buying The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly etc on Blu-ray because, unlike Once Upon a Time in the West, people are saying on Amazon the video quality isn't great. Is this sadly a fair assessment?