My Top Five Westerns of All Time

It is no secret that I enjoy a good old western. As John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are two of my favorite actors of all time. And both of them will pop up in this list towards the top as this list is a blend of the classic westerns and modern westerns. But first, let us get some honorable mentions out of the way.

The Magnificent 7 Remake. I can’t quite tell you why I prefer it to the original nor why I like it so much. Probably because Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington in a western is something I didn’t know I needed in my life and they excelled. The action sequences are top-notch and are well done.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. A great collection of short stories all set in the old west with many recognizable faces of Hollywood. Do you want Mister Krabs to get in an old west shootout? You got it. Liam Neeson, to kill a man over a chicken? Check. James Franco as a singing shootist? Yup for some reason. Plus an interpretation of what death and the afterlife is. Fun for the whole family.

Hell or High Water. A movie that while I have been sick with covid that I’ve just seen is what happens if you take one of the great westerns of old and place it in the modern day. As Ben Foster and Chris Pine play our main characters as they rob banks across Texas with the old Texas Ranger played by Jeff Bridges on their tail. It is a cat and mouse game as the brothers seem to be one step ahead of Bridges. But will one final score be the undoing of the brothers?

Silverado. Just missing out on my top five is this classic from 1985. In the strange time when Westerns hadn’t made the comeback, they would with Unforgiven and one of our movies on the list. Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and two young studs in Kevin Costner and Jeff Goldblum along with John Cleese yes the one from Monty Python star in this action-packed western as Kline, Glenn, Glover, and Costner keep crossing each other paths and helping each other out. In the end, they team up to try and take the corrupt town and evil pimp Jeff Goldblum (no he’s not an evil pimp but look at him from this movie and try to tell me that’s not what he was) And now onto the top 5

5. Once Upon A Time in the West. The great Sergio Leone gives us this one as after the success of the Fistful of Dollars trilogy and the exit of Clint Eastwood from the spaghetti westerns it was Charles Bronson’s turn as the man with the harmonica. In a whopping 2 and half hour movie, we are never led onto what the motivations are of our hero until the showdown with Henry Fonda’s Frank. Where we learn how he got the harmonica and why he knows Frank. A classic in every sense of the word.

4. Tombstone. A star-studded cast that all got the memo as to how this movie is gonna goes down as one of the best in the genre. Kurt Russell stars as the most famous lawman in the old west Wyatt Earp. With Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton as Virgil and Morgan Earp. And of course, Val Kilmer played the best version of Doc Holliday that anyone could ever play or have dreamed of. The story is that of Wyatt Earp’s time in Tombstone Arizona and the famous shootout at the OK Corral. There are so many quotable lines from this movie that I use in my daily life. Mainly with my job my favorite is “You’re a daisy if you do” but a well-timed “Say when” is also good.

3. The Outlaw Josey Wales. In my opinion a better movie than any of Clint Eastwood's Fistful of Dollars trilogy, or Unforgiven. An ex Missouri Bushwacker in the border war between Missouri and that evil state of Kansas. Wales’ group gets betrayed by Kansas “Red Legs” (go figure) and he goes on the run from them. Wales somehow is joined by a random collection of people as they travel to Texas. Where they fight bounty hunters, Comanche, and those damn Redlegs.

2 Django Unchained. Is it a surprise this movie is here? Quinton Tarantino, a Western in the Civil War South, and Christoph Waltz all combined with a great soundtrack and incredible performances by Waltz, Washington, DeCaprio, and Jackson. Also having some very quotable memes helps a lot. It is quite hard to describe why I love this movie so much other than the over-the-top violence and great acting.

1 McClintock. A John Wanye classic that does not get the same love as the Searchers, or True Grit. But in my opinion is his best film. This two-hour movie flies by every time I watch it as the mixture of comedy and action blends perfectly. While there aren’t over-the-top shootouts there are in the others movie on my list. It does have a massive brawl by an oil derrick and another brawl at a party. As well as a 4th of July celebration where the Comanche break out of the US prison thanks to McClintock. Yes, that’s right the Comanche are not the bad guys in this film. All of this puts it over the top for me as my favorite western of all time. I will never know how McClintock always perfectly throws his hat on the weather vane every time, or how he gets his hat back down. So there they are my top 5 favorite westerns. I’m sure I missed some from your list so let me know on Twitter @BrockGorton99.