Best Modern Western Movies

[been]

Tombstone is on AMC channel 48 on cable.

[cinco]

The Sacketts 1979 - Love me some Louis L'Amour and Magnum PI whooping ass!

The Hi-Lo Country 1998 - A great, great movie! A "sleeper" if there ever was one!

Just after World War II best friends Big Boy Matson (Woody Harrelson) and Pete Calder (Billy Crudup) return home to find half of their town employed by cattle baron Jim Ed Love (Sam Elliott). Hanging on to the mythic ideals of the American West Big Boy and Pete team up with an old time rancher Hoover Young (James Gammon) to raise cattle the cowboy way and life in Hi-Lo, New Mexico becomes a volatile powder keg.

[Vamoose]

Flame suit on, facemask secure, goin' down into the bunker now . . .

A buddy of mine keeps "Heaven's Gate" as a pet on his DVR, and eventually caught me in a weak enough moment to watch it with him. It was that or his Africa videos, and those fill me with greenest envy . . .

I had skipped it for years because of all the bad press, but it's not all that bad. It has the feel of reality and is based on the Johnson County War. If you are unfamiliar with that, you ought to check it out. The movie is long, but worth a watch, especially if you were ever into roller skating.

It's definitely well above average and some of it is fantastical. A little weak at the end but who cares. The ending looks like Cimino had about another hour worth of movie he wanted to make and had to crunch it all into 20 minutes. Best I remember, what sunk Heaven's Gate and Michael Cimino along with it and was responsible for the bad press was the outrageous expense of the movie, the fact that Comino was given free reign based on his success with The Deer Hunter and the fact it didn't make its cost back at the box office. But heck, I watch it every few years because I like the good way more than the little bit of bad. I think it's the best overall character Kris Kristofferson has done, definitely the best western character Christopher Walken has done as well as the best western character John Hurt had played up until The Proposition. In the top 25% of westerns ever made.

[Old Fart]

I have a favorite, but I think the best shoot out might the one at the end of Open Range when Costner puts one right in between fancy's eyes.

[Arin Morris]

If you want an odd but good Japanese take on a spaghetti western look up
Sukiyaki Western Django. I know it's sounds dumb but all I have to say it's good
for a chuckle and has some really great firearm props.

The Good, The Bad and The Weird is a good Japanese western also.

Tombstone and Last Man Standing(more gangster than western, but it fits the profile)

Last Man Standing is a gangster remake of A Fistful of Dollars which is a remake of Yojimbo. It's surprising how many westerns are based off old Japanese samurai movies.

[Uncle Meat]

Deadman (with Johnny Depp - pretty weird!)
Comanche Moon
Streets Of Laredo

[870WingBlaster]

I just bought the following blue rays from my local pawn:

True Grit
3:10 to Yuma
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Red(not a Western but action packed)

[farmerbyron]

Yep, pretty damn good.

[Okie4570]

Big Jake on AMC at 10:30am, in my top 5 of the Wayne movies.

[rawhide]

In addition to the many great westerns already listed, Monte Walsh is a good one.