Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Once Upon A Time In The West, Westward The Women, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and anything else by John Ford.
Sweet list, John Ford is the man. But where's The Gunfighter, Shane, Gunfight at the OK Coral. To be fair the top five would be filled with John Ford and Sergio Corbucci.
But maybe we should be diverse for an all time top five.
Gen Vardo My list is a little unconventional, and I don't know if 2 would count as "westerns" per se, but mine is Stagecoach, Hud, Giant, The Wild Bunch and Treasure of Sierra Madre. Good lists btw gents.
Gen Vardo Illicit care/empathy from your audience for your protagonist by having them do something nice like "save the cat". In Tombstone, Kurt Russell's character prevents an act of animal cruelty.
The Cowboys - when you watch the retrospective/behind-the-scenes documentaries, it was clear Wayne knew this was a good script and he wanted to stretch himself. My Name is Nobody - kooky and odd, this often overlooked spaghetti western is masterful in the art of misdirection. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - need I say more? It is all about character.
If you can get your hands on an English version. It's comedy, but the main plot also works without the jokes and they overexagerate every well known Western element I can think of. So from an authors point of view it's "in your face."
I like Tombstone. Unforgiven, 3:10 to Yuma, The Wild Bunch. One western that I really like but that never gets mentioned is Nevada Smith. It's from the 1966 starring Steve McQueen and Karl Malden. It was the origin story for a character in a '60's tv show called "The Carpetbaggers". The show wasn't much, but I really liked the movie. If you watch it, pay attention to Brian Keith as the mentor. One of the best, most underrated actors in a western ever.
I have seen many great westerns over the years, but for now one stands out as really genius, "The Hateful Eight" by Quentin Tarintino. The whole film was written to be shoot in just three locations, in and around a stage couch, on a lonesome trail and in and around a Haberdashery in the Colorado mountains. This made his $2 million dollar budget easy to achieve. I have learned in my years of writing and filmmaking to not only write what you know, but as a filmmaker, also write what you can afford.
I am paying attention to Taylor Sheridan. This dude reinvented/created the "modern western" genre, and his imagination/storytelling is valued over $1B; Paramount studios is all-in with TS.
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Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Once Upon A Time In The West, Westward The Women, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and anything else by John Ford.
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Sweet list, John Ford is the man. But where's The Gunfighter, Shane, Gunfight at the OK Coral. To be fair the top five would be filled with John Ford and Sergio Corbucci.
But maybe we should be diverse for an all time top five.
Gen Vardo My list is a little unconventional, and I don't know if 2 would count as "westerns" per se, but mine is Stagecoach, Hud, Giant, The Wild Bunch and Treasure of Sierra Madre. Good lists btw gents.
Yippee ki-yay, pardner! Git along little doggies with this list:
The Man Who Shot Liberty ValanceSilverado
A second vote for Unforgiven, and . . .
The Wild Bunch
The Magnificent Seven
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Hostiles
Yeah now we're getting out there. Just finished Tombstone, just amazing.
Lindbergh is right with Unforgiven, watched it last night. That's two for Unforgiven, and Frank The Wild Bunch could definitely make it.
So far:
Unforgiven.
The Wild Bunch.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The Gunfighter.
The Good the Bad and the Ugly.
??
Tombstone is great, spot the "Save the Cat" moment. In addition to the above, also like "Pale Rider".
Save the cat moment?
Hell Or High Water.
Gen Vardo Illicit care/empathy from your audience for your protagonist by having them do something nice like "save the cat". In Tombstone, Kurt Russell's character prevents an act of animal cruelty.
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The Searchers
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3:10 to Yuma is a good one.
The Cowboys - when you watch the retrospective/behind-the-scenes documentaries, it was clear Wayne knew this was a good script and he wanted to stretch himself. My Name is Nobody - kooky and odd, this often overlooked spaghetti western is masterful in the art of misdirection. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - need I say more? It is all about character.
My kind of western would be McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Assassination of Jesse James...
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The original True Grit [my first on set gig] but more recently, The 3:10 to Yuma although it is a little formulaic.
Sketching out Western scenes, interesting. Will you be sharing on Stage32?
High Noon.
Unforgiven - mocks the machoism of old era westerns and reveals them cowboys were nothing but drunk killers...not far from the truth, through...
Hell or High Water. Modern western
Ernestly: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Schuh_des_Manitu
If you can get your hands on an English version. It's comedy, but the main plot also works without the jokes and they overexagerate every well known Western element I can think of. So from an authors point of view it's "in your face."
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Way too many westerns to get inspired from, great place to be in, can't wait to get started proper on my first.
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I like Tombstone. Unforgiven, 3:10 to Yuma, The Wild Bunch. One western that I really like but that never gets mentioned is Nevada Smith. It's from the 1966 starring Steve McQueen and Karl Malden. It was the origin story for a character in a '60's tv show called "The Carpetbaggers". The show wasn't much, but I really liked the movie. If you watch it, pay attention to Brian Keith as the mentor. One of the best, most underrated actors in a western ever.
I love Nevada Smith. I think we've got our top five for now, in no particular order:
Unforgiven
True Grit (1969)
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
The Wild Bunch
The Good the bad and the Ugly
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I have seen many great westerns over the years, but for now one stands out as really genius, "The Hateful Eight" by Quentin Tarintino. The whole film was written to be shoot in just three locations, in and around a stage couch, on a lonesome trail and in and around a Haberdashery in the Colorado mountains. This made his $2 million dollar budget easy to achieve. I have learned in my years of writing and filmmaking to not only write what you know, but as a filmmaker, also write what you can afford.
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I am paying attention to Taylor Sheridan. This dude reinvented/created the "modern western" genre, and his imagination/storytelling is valued over $1B; Paramount studios is all-in with TS.
Look up films by Sergio Cobbuci and Sergio Leone. Spaghetti westerns are where it’s at!
There is the original Stagecoach. It may have started the "ship of fools" trope. If it didn't it was one of the early movies with the concept.
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Ooooooh, yes.
Love the 2007 3:10 to Yuma
Unforgiven
Tombstone
original True Grit
I'm a sucker for Open Range
Taylor Sheridan (although I think that Wind River & Sicario are actually his masterpieces)
& we had a GREAT time watching The Harder They Fall!