Thursday 13 - Favorite Westerns
Posted: Thursday, March 13, 2008 by Travis Cody inI had a bunch of errands to run this evening after work, and then a bunch of chores to do at home. So I got a late start with rounds and didn't get to everybody. I'll catch up in the next couple of days.
In no particular order, these are my favorite westerns.
1. The Alamo (1960) stars John Wayne, Richard Widmark, and Laurence Harvy as the leaders of the small band of fighters who make their stand at the small Texas mission against Santa Anna's 7000.
2. High Plains Drifter (1973) stars Clint Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who imposes his will on a small town in order to defend it against three vengeful outlaws, and to take his own measure of revenge.
3. The Long Riders (1980) stars four sets of brothers - the Carradines, the Keaches, the Quaids, and the Guests - in a violently sympathetic protrayal of the infamous James-Younger gang.
4. The Magnificent Seven (1960) starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn, Horst Bucholz, and Eli Wallach. Seven gunfighters with no other prospects help Mexican peasants defend their village against a roving band of bandits. 
5. True Grit (1969) stars John Wayne, Kim Darby, and Glen Campbell. A young woman needs a marshall with true grit to bring to justice the man who killed her father, so she hires U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn.
6. Red River (1948) stars John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, and Walter Brennan and tells the adventures of Tom Dunson and his adopted son Matthew during a great cattle drive from Texas to the Missouri railhead.
7. The Wild Bunch (1969) stars William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmund O'Brien, Warren Oates, and Ben Johnson as aging outlaws facing the end of their way of life, looking for one more score and finding only violence.
8. Rio Bravo (1959) stars John Wayne and Dean Martin as a town sheriff and his deputy, who arrest a man for murder and then deal with the efforts of the man's brother to free him.
9. Tombstone (1993) stars Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday in a highly stylized re-telling of the legendary events that occurred in and around Tombstone, Arizona in 1881.
10. Unforgiven (1992) stars Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, and Morgan Freeman. Reformed and retired outlaws take one last contract from a group of town prostitutes terrorized by a heavy-handed sheriff and his deputies. 
11. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the title roles. What are two outlaws to do as the west becomes civilized and a special posse can track through towns, across rivers, across plains, and over rock, and won't stop until they run you down?
12. The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) stars John Wayne and Dean Martin as brothers who return to the town of their birth upon the death of their mother, only to discover that their father may have been murdered for the family ranch.
13. The Gunfighter (1950) stars Gregory Peck as gunfighter Johnny Ringo, who only wants to talk to his estranged wife and see his young son, but can't avoid the trouble that follows his name every where he goes.
If memory serves me correctly (it does fail from time to time to do that ya know) I think I have seen almost all those pics -maybe even all of 'em. My favorite of those you mentioned is "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" but another one I loved -not mentioned here -was "Cat Ballou" - loved Lee Marvin in it!