After recent trip to Montana to visit the inlaws, I’ve been in the mood for some good Westerns. We watched the Taylor Sheridan Yellowstone prequel series “1883” while out there as well as the Neo-Western “Hell or Highwater” also written by Taylor Sheridan.
Here are some more classic and modern Western Movie Recommendations.
The Classics
- The Searchers – A favorite film of some of the world’s greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford’s The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it’s the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western–the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West.
- The Magnificent Seven – Tired of being ravaged by an army of marauding bandits, the residents of a small Mexican village seek help from seven American gunfighters. The only problem? It’s seven against 50! Remake of the original samurai film – Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai
- The Man with No Name Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) – Sergio Leone’s trilogy of operatic spaghetti Westerns with Clint Eastwood made the former TV star into an international sensation as the scraggly, silent Man with No Name, a wandering rogue with a scheming mind and a sense of humor drier than the dusty, wind-scoured desert. Add “Duck You Sucker” with this collection.
Modern Westerns
- 3:10 To Yuma (remake) – Outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) terrorizes 1800s Arizona, especially the Southern Railroad, until he is finally captured. Wade must be brought to trial, so Dan Evans (Christian Bale), the owner of a drought-stricken ranch, volunteers to escort him to the train.
- Unforgiven – Retired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner and a young man.
- Open Range – A group of free grazers, four men trying to escape their past, are driving cattle and living off the land on the open range — a place where nature makes the only laws.
- Hostiles – New Mexico, 1892: Army officer Capt. Joseph Blocker’s (Christian Bale) last assignment before retirement is to see that dying Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family are delivered safely to their tribe’s land in Montana.
- Old Henry– Old Henry tells the story about a widowed farmer and his son who warily take in a mysterious, injured man with a satchel full of cash. When a posse of men claiming to be the law come for the money, the farmer must decide whom to trust. Defending a siege of his homestead, the farmer reveals a surprising talent for gunslinging that brings his true identity into question.
