Westerns

[BenjaminW]

How many of you out there are into Western films? I found myself getting interested in them mainly through The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The soundtrack for that movie is just amazing. What are your thoughts on Westerns?

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I really enjoy a lot of westerns. Tombstone, Unforgiven, Dances with Wolves, 3:10 to Yuma, Django are all great movies. The reboot of True Grit was good as well (i'd say better than the original). I absolutely love the spaghetti westerns like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Fistful of Dollars (based off Yojimbo), For a Few Dollars More, High Plains Drifter, etc. I dig some stuff like Rooster Cogburn or Magnificent Seven (the original version, which was a western version of seven samurai) too. Red Sun and the Wild Bunch are pretty underrated imo.
Ennio Morricone has written a metric ton of great music. Definitely one of my favorite composers.

 

[BenjaminW]

I absolutely love the spaghetti westerns like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Fistful of Dollars (based off Yojimbo), For a Few Dollars More, High Plains Drifter, etc. Ennio Morricone has written a metric ton of great music. Definitely one of my favorite composers.

I think the soundtrack to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is Morricone's finest work.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I think the soundtrack to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is Morricone's finest work.

It's definitely one of my favorites along with Fistful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More. Once Upon A Time in the West also has a great soundtrack.

 

[wankerness]

I think the soundtrack to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is Morricone's finest work.

How much have you actually heard of him? I'd put Lizard in a Woman's Skin over it, as well as The Great Silence. He really did a gigantic number of movies, so I've only heard ~30 of his scores, and I've gone through periods of watching a ton of Italian genre flicks. His single best theme is Once Upon a Time in the West imo (his many, many works with Edda Dell'Orso, that singer, are my favorite), but I do think the score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly overall has more variety and more experimentation. I also REALLY like Cinema Paradiso's themes, but obviously that score completely lacks all the nutty sounds that I think are what make him special.

 

[wankerness]

I have liked many of the Westerns that I've seen, but I never think of the genre as one I particularly like, and I never watch them unless they're thoroughly vetted by critics. I think my favorites are Unforgiven, The Great Silence, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and obviously Leone's previously mentioned OUATITW, FAFDM and TGTBATU. I'll take Yojimbo over Fistful of Dollars any day of the week - that one is a lot rougher than the follow-ups. I watched Fistful of Dynamite/Duck You Sucker once, but have basically no memory of it.

I think my absolute favorite so far, apart from Blazing Saddles, might be the rather sappy (pretty strange, considering it's from Sam Peckinpah) Ride the High Country. I watched Ballad of Cable Hogue, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kidd, and The Wild Bunch from him too, but none of those really did it for me.

As far as "old" (as in, before Peckinpah/Leone and The Searchers started deconstructing the genre) Westerns go, I think Shane and Stagecoach are the only ones I've seen. I can take them or leave them. I have one on my watchlist, though - My Darling Clementine.

I also really like Dances with Wolves (THEATRICAL VERSION ONLY), even though it's become hip to dismiss it. El Topo is...interesting, can't say I liked it that much. The other bunch I've seen are just pretty good.

Here's a really good list if you like intelligent, informed stuff instead of simply most-heard-of. I haven't heard of probably a third of these.

https://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-50-greatest-westerns

I have had the blu-ray of Mccabe and Mrs Miller (#1 on this list) for a while, but haven't watched it yet. I need to do that.

 

[Seabeast2000]

Outlaw Josey Wales and for a twist, Bone Tomahawk. Mckennas Gold too. Some of the ones I have watched more than once and stick out in memory aside from the classics mentioned already.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Bone Tomahawk is pretty slow going but I enjoyed the cannibal bits.
Josey Wales is great.
Open Range is another solid western.
I'm also pretty partial to Dead Man with Johnny Depp. It's a weird quirky/artsy take on the western but I really like it.
Hell on Wheels is an excellent western show, same with The Son. Both of them offer looks at less explored subject matter.
I might be in the minority here but the reboot of the Lone Ranger was actually really well done and pretty enjoyable.
Young Guns is another that I enjoy if only for the ridiculous contrast/anachronism of having Bon Jovi playing while Billy the Kid blasts people.
Hostiles is a pretty recent film but I think it holds up to other modern westerns. Highly recommend it. It's quite brutal in spots, but also offers a meditation on violence/forgiveness.
Hell and High Water is more a neo-western like Old Country for No Men, but both are really well done films that nail the feel of the west.

If we're talking about western influenced films as well, Black Robe and Ravenous are both worth checking out.

 

[wankerness]

Ravenous is amusing, though I didn't like that it basically had a

Spoiler

typical superheroes punching each other

climax!!

Bone Tomahawk is pretty good. It has some extreme gore, though, so make sure you can deal with that kind of thing.

I haven't watched The Lone Ranger and probably never will, but it's got a considerable growing cult around it saying it's actually good. Kind of like John Carter and Speed Racer. I believe that it's definitely better than garbage-fests like the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

I just saw Paint Your Wagon the other day. That's an odd one. Good though.

Outlaw Josie Wales is fantastic.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Ravenous is amusing, though I didn't like that it basically had a

Spoiler

typical superheroes punching each other

climax!!

Bone Tomahawk is pretty good. It has some extreme gore, though, so make sure you can deal with that kind of thing.

I haven't watched The Lone Ranger and probably never will, but it's got a considerable growing cult around it saying it's actually good. Kind of like John Carter and Speed Racer. I believe that it's definitely better than garbage-fests like the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.

I went into seeing the Lone Ranger blind (randomly downloaded it one day) and really enjoyed it. Same with John Carter. My dad (who's pretty crotchety about most movie genres) enjoyed both of them as well. They're just good fun movies that don't try to do more than entertain you.

Another that gets talked about all the time is the Searchers. I really like that one.

 

[BenjaminW]

How much have you actually heard of him? I'd put Lizard in a Woman's Skin over it, as well as The Great Silence. He really did a gigantic number of movies, so I've only heard ~30 of his scores, and I've gone through periods of watching a ton of Italian genre flicks. His single best theme is Once Upon a Time in the West imo (his many, many works with Edda Dell'Orso, that singer, are my favorite), but I do think the score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly overall has more variety and more experimentation. I also REALLY like Cinema Paradiso's themes, but obviously that score completely lacks all the nutty sounds that I think are what make him special.

I'm relatively new to his work but I'll definitely listen to more of what's out there by him.