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Media Center>Your Favorite Westerns?
Mennonite 11:34 AM 09-24-2021
It seems like there are a lot of western fans around here. What are some of your favorite western movies? TV shows? Books? Songs? Radio programs? Video games?



Movies:

While I actually prefer what was known as the "psychological" westerns of the 1950s my top two favorite western movies are Lonesome Dove (1989) and Unforgiven (1992). Warlock (1959) is probably my favorite 50s western.


TV Shows:

Gunsmoke (fav. episode "Thirty a Month and Found" - Season 20)
The Wild, Wild West
Maverick
The Rebel (fav. episode "The Waiting" from season 2)
The Westerner (fav. episode 'Hand on the Gun")



Favorite western books:

The Searchers by Alan Le May
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Ramrod by Luke Short
The Unforgiven by Alan Le May (not related to the 1992 movie)
Death Ground by Ed Gorman


Songs:

El Paso by Marty Robbins
Big Iron by Marty Robbins or Johnny Cash
Cool Water by Hank Williams
Ghost Riders in the Sky by Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash
Cowboy's Lament by Burl Ives


Radio programs:

Gunsmoke

You may or may not know that the Gunsmoke tv series started out as a radio show. It starred William Conrad and ran for several years. It was excellent.


My Top 25:

02/14/1953 THE ROUNDUP
04/02/1955 BLOODY HANDS
04/30/1955 REWARD FOR MATT
10/02/1954 MATT GETS IT
09/27/1952 THE RAILROAD
07/19/1959 SECOND ARREST
09/19/1953 THERE WAS NEVER A HORSE
10/21/1956 TILL DEATH DO US PART
12/27/1952 THE CABIN
06/06/1953 SUNDOWN
11/10/1956 CROWBAIT BOB
03/20/1954 OLD FRIEND
08/08/1953 SKY
09/23/1956 BOX O' ROCKS
07/22/1956 LYNCHING MAN
02/21/1953 MESHOUGAH
02/26/1955 CRACKUP
03/06/1960 BLOOD MONEY
09/20/1954 THE F.U.
12/06/1959 BIG CHUGG WILSON
01/01/1955 THE BOTTLE MAN
07/02/1955 GENERAL PARSLEY SMITH
11/03/1957 BULL
05/06/1956 THE PHOTOGRAPHER

All those can be listened to for free at the Internet archive.


Video Games:

I'm old so I've never actually played any western games. I've heard good things about the Red Dead games though.
[Reply]
displacedinMN 07:33 PM 09-25-2021
Maverick

Dr. Quinn-Medicine Woman

Frontier Gynecologist (look it up)

Dad loved cowboy shows and movies. It was a good day for him if it was too cold outside and he could watch the Western Channel.
[Reply]
Raiderhater 08:02 PM 09-25-2021
Originally Posted by displacedinMN:
Maverick

Dr. Quinn-Medicine Woman

Frontier Gynecologist (look it up)

Dad loved cowboy shows and movies. It was a good day for him if it was too cold outside and he could watch the Western Channel.
I’ve seen Maverick mentioned a couple of times in regards to the tv series but, not the movie. Maybe that is what you mean here? Regardless, the movie is just good old Hollywood entertainment.
[Reply]
stumppy 09:23 PM 09-25-2021
Pretty much most of them.
[Reply]
DJ's left nut 01:15 PM 09-27-2021
Originally Posted by siberian khatru:
There’s a good one on TCM tonight: Major Dundee.

Sam Peckinpah, Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, etc.
I'll have to try to find that.

Richard Harris was a phenomenal actor. He face is just remarkably expressive and he could do so much with simply changing his tenor. Give him two identical lines and he could make them say whatever he wanted.

I only recently learned that Jared Harris was his son - apple didn't fall far from the tree.
[Reply]
siberian khatru 02:16 PM 09-27-2021
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
I'll have to try to find that.

Richard Harris was a phenomenal actor. He face is just remarkably expressive and he could do so much with simply changing his tenor. Give him two identical lines and he could make them say whatever he wanted.

I only recently learned that Jared Harris was his son - apple didn't fall far from the tree.
You'll enjoy his Derek Carr-esque eyeliner in Major Dundee. :-)
[Reply]
siberian khatru 02:19 PM 09-27-2021
Also:


[Reply]
srvy 03:44 PM 09-27-2021
If you like Richard Harris then check out A Man Called Horse. Its dated now but was popular in the 70's Harris sounds like a knight or the round table in the old west.




[Reply]
Mennonite 03:54 PM 09-27-2021
He was also in a movie inspired by the story of Hugh Glass called Man in the Wilderness. It's an ord one, but if you are a fan of Harris it might be worth a watch.


I'm just not a fan of "revisionist" westerns.
[Reply]
Megatron96 04:22 PM 09-27-2021
In no particular order:

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Tombstone
True Grit
TGBU
OUTITW
TOJW
The Magificient 7

I couldn't really pick a favorite among those.

Just fun Westerns:

Quigley Down Under
Rio Bravo
Blazing Saddles
City Slickers
WestWorld (orig. movie)
Three Amigos!
Long Riders

Here's a few less well-known cowboy flicks I like:

The Wild Bunch
Will Penny
Monte Walsh
Hondo
Fort Apache
Hombre
How the West was Won
[Reply]
srvy 05:24 PM 09-27-2021
Is News of the World worth a watch? I am pretty tired of everything Tom Hanks. But I can waste a few hours tonight. The Chiefs game left a bad taste in my mouth for MNF.
[Reply]
srvy 05:47 PM 09-27-2021
The Man from Snowy River was pretty good for an Australian type western.

Blazing Saddles for me by far the best comedy western.

City Slickers honorable mention winner funniest western comedy Jack Palance just killed that part.
[Reply]
Mennonite 05:57 PM 09-27-2021
I read News of the World years ago. I don't know if I finished it or I just can't remember much about it. I think my general impression was that it was the type of book that would probably be popular in a women's book club. Not that it was a romance or was poorly written exactly but it felt like something Opera would recommend. No clue about the movie but I'd guess it would be exactly what you would expect from a western starring Tom Hanks.


On a completely different note - I found this to be pretty funny:





WARNING: RATED R for language.
[Reply]
displacedinMN 06:03 PM 09-27-2021
Originally Posted by Raiderhader:
I’ve seen Maverick mentioned a couple of times in regards to the tv series but, not the movie. Maybe that is what you mean here? Regardless, the movie is just good old Hollywood entertainment.
I thought they did a- great job with Maverick-the movie. Stayed true to the series. Great script. Did not try to change anything. I would guess that would have been the only way they got James Garner to be in it.
[Reply]
Mennonite 06:18 PM 09-27-2021
Maverick was a great show. At least the first two seasons. The writing took a major step back, imo, when the show's creator Roy Huggins left. He had been repeatedly screwed over by Warner Brothers.

The writing in those first two seasons was superb. Not only that but the casting was also top notch. When the creators figured out that one man couldn't carry a one hour show alone due to time constraints, they brought in Jack Kelly as a second Maverick. But they didn't stop there - they also created duplicates for two major recurring characters. And, somehow, it worked.




About Jack Kelly: I had originally decided to check the series out because I had just finished The Rockford Files and was wanting more James Garner. At first I was disappointed when I tuned in and would see that it was going to be a Kelly episode instead of a Garner one. But by the second season, I liked them both equally. And, strangely enough, by the third season I actually preferred Kelly to Garner. Slightly. Garner was better at comedy. Kelly was better at drama and romance. Some of the best episodes feature both Maverick brothers; they had very good chemistry.


After Huggins left after season 2, the comedy became broader and more farcical in season 3. This hurt Garner's character, imo. The current group of writers were better at drama than comedy which played to Kelly's strengths. Garner left the show after the third season after feuding bitterly with Warner Brothers.


Kelly stuck around, and Roger Moore joined the cast for season 4. The writing continued to degenerate. The casting wasn't as sharp for the secondary characters. The show limped along for a while longer and was cancelled half way through season 5.


My top 15:

01) The Devil's Necklace
02) Two Beggars on Horseback
03) Gun-Shy
04) Shady Deal at Sunny Acres
05) The Savage Hills
06) Prey of the Cat

The first 6 picks were easy. The last 9 were a lot tougher because there were so many high quality episodes in the first two seasons. It was really hard to put the last few in order.


07) Rage For Vengeance
08) The Day They Hanged Bret Maverick
09) Escape to Tampico
10) Ghost Rider
11) The White Widow
12) The Belcastle Brand
13) Seed of Deception
14) Passage to Fort Doom
15) Alias Bart Maverick

A few that I could have very easily put into the last spot:

The Long Hunt
Day of Reckoning
The Jail at Junction Flats
Game of Chance
The Goose-Drownder
[Reply]
Bowser 07:14 PM 09-27-2021
Man, I was going to come in here with my Tombstone "Skin that smokewagon...." weak sauce, but I think I'll refrain because y'all are some western savants, lol.

Here's one I don't think I saw anyone mention - The Quick and the Dead. Campy as hell but a killer ensemble cast. I didn't like it the first time I saw it, but it grew on me over time. And Sharon Stone is just sexy AF to me in it, which helps.
[Reply]
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