90% of them are crap IMO. Often featuring some 5th rate actor like John Wayne or Richard Widmark, who saves the day by killing the bad guy in a duel. The decent 10% include the ones that showed what the West would have been really like (gruesome and miserable I would imagine):

Good, Bad & Ugly
Jose Wales (my favourite)
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Searchers

I dunno about that 90% figure.

I find most of the ones on TV are fairly enjoyable, even the formulaic ones.

There was a cracker on BBC2 yesterday, "Dodge City" with Errol Flynn, Alan Hale Jnr and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (who is the spittin' image of George W Bush!)

P.S. I think Richard Widmark was a terrific actor (watch "Kiss of Death" if you don't believe me) and John Wayne was decent enough.

'Open Range' was a recent one with Kevin Costner that was OK despite the odds

'Wild Bunch' rocks

Blazing Saddles is my favourite :D

I forgot about Butch Cassidy - loved that film, still enjoy watching it despite having seen it about 500 times.

90% crap? Even so, that leaves a large number of films that redeem the genre. The first western was made in 1903 (The Great Train Robbery) and they were a B movie staple for decades, mainly because they were incredibly cheap to make and audiences liked them. The grander, better-made westerns came slightly later maybe. Anyway, there must've been thousands made along the line.

Faves? Shane, and A Fistful of Dynamite, which only skirts being a western really, but is terrific all the same.

The Outlaw Joes Wales. Classic. Clint Eastwood made some greats. Even shit Westerns are mostly enjoyable tosh. Give me a shit western over the average shit sky movies show anyday.

Recent efforts:

Dances With Wolves: hated it, mainly because I can't stand Costner and his cheesy all American approach to everything

Wyatt Earp: Despite the great title it was an abysmal film

Unforgiven: very very good, not just well filmed and realistic but Eastwood amanged to show some vulnernability for once

The new ones don't work. IMO the best westerns aren't the ones that try to be realistic, but the ones that just entertain you, with plenty of gunfights in which everyone shoots hundreds of bullets, and the bad guys all die the instant they get hit without bleeding everywhere.

the "man with no name" trilogy (the good, the bad & the ugly, fistful of dollars & a few dollars more) are fantastic films, as is the outlaw Josey wales. high plains drifter wasn't bad either. generally anything with clint eastwood or/(prefereably) and lee van cleef is worth watching imo

i found john wayne overly cheesy in any film i've seem him in therefore have long since given up on anything he's in

"Dances With Wolves: hated it, mainly because I can't stand Costner and his cheesy all American approach to everything"

An "All-Swedish" approach would probably not have worked, what with it actually being set in America and all.

Here are my faves (no order):

Shane
Red River
Stagecoach
Gunfight at the OK Corral
My Darling Clementine
The Searchers
Wild Bunch
High Noon
Unforgiven
Once Upon a Time in the West
Destry Rides Again
Winchester '73
The Naked Spur

Has anyone watched the Deadwood series on t'box, featuring Ian "Lovejoy" McShane no less?

I've heard that's pretty smart.

Tombstone, why has no one mentioned Tombstone?

Val Kilmer turned in one of the greatest perfomances of his career in that picture. Good flick, only one dubious scene, of kurt russell standing in the
rain after morgan's been shot. leetle overdone.

The Cowboys is another great one, Bruce Dern is so despicable.

Open Range wasn't bad, just plodding at times.

more to come as i think of them. possibly.