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Tonight they had Sam Peckinpahs "The Wild Bunch" on TV which got me to contemplating. Which are the 10 best Westerns ever made.

Not in any particular order as the minute differences of greatness would be completely subjective.

1. Stagecoach John Ford's vehicle that made John Wayne a star.

2. The Wild Bunch. Peckinpahs tour de force of a group of desperados last go in Mexico as the frontier was closing in on them. The book end to the Bunch was Peckinpahs The Ballad Of Cable Hogue..Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, Strother Martin, LQ Jones. A tale of a prospector who finds water in the desert and makes a business out of it.

3. Gunfight At The OK Corral. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday in the retelling of the Tombstone tale. Frankie Lanes singing provides a narrative device to move the plot along.

4. Once Upon A Time In.The West. Sergio Leones epic Spagetti western where the iconic American actor Henry Fonda plays the villian. Filling out the cast is Claudia Cardinal, Jason.Robards, Charles Bronson with Woody Strode, Jack Elam and Lionel Sanders having bit parts.

5. The Good Bad And Ugly. Another Sergio Leone spagetti epic quest for treasure during the civil war. Clint Eastwood never looked back after this one. Eli Wallach as Tuco stole the show and veteran western actor Lee Van Cleef was never better as a villian.

6. Hign Noon Gary Cooper as the besieged sheriff who can't get anyone help him face down the bad guys. Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, Harry Morgan support along with Jack Elam as a drunk and Lee Van Cleef as bad guy

7. The Searchers, Red River, Fort Apache, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Rio Bravo and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence..all John Wayne, John Ford and Hawks bigger than life westerns. Pick one? Also as bookend for a career for Wayne is The Shootist.

8. The Gunfighter... Gregory Peck as a tired gunfighter comes to town to see his ex wife and son but does not leave town alive. Or if you like Shane..Alan Ladd as the gunfighter who helps out the frontier family. With van Hefflin and Jack Palance as the killer.

9. Oxbow Incident..a story of an unwarranted lynching. Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews with a young Harry Morgan

10. The Unforgiven. Eastwoods tale of 3 notorious men in ascending order of badness. English Bob, Little Bill and William Mony.


Maybe no. 11 would be Treasure Of The Sierra Madre...a tale of 3 men on a quest for riches and the greed that gets the better of one of them. Bogart at his best with Walter Huston...or The Magnificient Seven...a Sturgis remake of Kurosawa's The 7 Samuari with an all to be stars..McQueen, James Colburn, Robert Vaugn, Yul Brenner, Charles Bronson, Jack.Kelly.and Eli Walach as the Bandito..a.reprised character in the GBU.