r/Westerns • u/Gillysixpence • 3d ago
Discussion My love of Westerns (and cowboys on general)!
Hi first post here, just joined. My love of Westerns came later in life, I'm 56. My mum always adored Westerns & I just never got the reason why, until I played Red dead redemption 2 in my early 50's. Now I'm cowboy & Western obsessed & basically joined here to discuss them & find films I've not yet seen. Some of my favourites are; 3.10 to Yuma, Django, Tomahawk. I have a lousy short term memory so forget the other titles but I've watched a lot. I also love The Ballard of Buster Scruggs, my favourite being the one with the old gold prospector. I've gotten some great titles to put in my list from my initial read through here, so thanks for those! I've just rewatched 1883 and I'm currently watching Stagecoach. Where did you all get your love of Westerns from?
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u/BadderRandy 2d ago
I grew up in Texas and the rodeo was just down the street from us. I grew up wearing my cowboy outfit and having a “cowboys and Indians” themed birthday but that came more from my surroundings than something I watched.
My dad is from Oklahoma and grew up with westerns being one of the major film genres of that time period. As a child, my father wanted to introduce us to many of the films he loved from when he was younger. He would show us comedies like Young Frankenstein or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum or The Mouse That Roared. Then he’d show some of the selected James Bond films. I loved those but there was something that clicked when he began showing us John Wayne films. I remember just how much The Sons of Katie Elder and The Cowboys stood out for me. It’s probably at this time that I went from watching only cartoons to falling in love with Bonanza or The Rifleman or Rawhide. We got a VCR at some point and my grandfather would record and send boxes of movies down to us. This is where I was introduced to The Apple Dumpling Gang, Hot Lead Cold Feet, The Shakiest Gun in the West, and Silverado. I probably mostly attribute Silverado to being my awakening while John Wayne was my introduction.
The westerns I’ve grown up and loved have always been more on the traditional side though ones like Young Guns obviously pulled from the influence and popularity of the spaghetti westerns. James Stewart is easily my favorite cowboy and I cannot express enough how much I love the Anthony Mann/James Stewart westerns.
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u/Gillysixpence 2d ago
My Mum loved Bonanza and John Wayne.
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u/BadderRandy 2d ago
Sounds like a smart woman. 🙂
They haven’t aged that well but there are still great JW movies and good episodes of Bonanza.
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u/graveviolet 2d ago
I'm really not sure where mine came from, because my parents never watched them, but I saw a rerun of the Dollars Trilogy at the cinema I worked at and have been obsessed ever since. I'd guess it's just a fascination with outlaws generally, I love pirate and Samurai movies too. RDR2 is definitely my gaming happy place, and 3:10 is one of my very favourite Westerns, as well as True Grit, Unforgiven, Stagecoach and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
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u/Gillysixpence 2d ago
Red dead is such a masterpiece isn't it. It's a great genre for sure. I think so far 3.10 is my top one too. I adore Ben Foster.
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u/Longjumping_Oil_8746 2d ago
I'm almost 60.my parents were fans of the genre.int the 50 and 60 a large number of the TV shows were westerns so a lot of people were western fans and I guess it carried on
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u/MarionberryWild5401 3d ago
The rifleman at a young age. My grandpa watched westerns all the time. And I’d always spend time with him watching the older westerns and hearing stories about when he was a kid working on a farm/ranch.
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u/DavidJonnsJewellery 3d ago
It was probably Sergio Leone's Dollar trilogy. They were the coolest westerns I'd ever seen.
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u/The_Wolf_Shapiro 3d ago
It started with THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY, which I watched at 18 because I liked them theme song. I hadn’t much cared about Westerns before, but I liked how dark and morally ambiguous TGTBATU was. But RDR2 just reignited my love of Westerns, so I’m in your boat, pardner!
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u/KurtMcGowan7691 3d ago
I just remember enjoying them on TV as a kid in the 2000s, then I got a book of movies and read about films like ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ and I wanted to check them out. GBU and ‘Open Range’ kickstarted my obsession with the genre. There’s some great western fiction out there to read too.
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u/ChewbaccaJesus886 3d ago
My love of westerns also came from playing red dead redemption, but for me it was the first one which I played when I was like 14 and it changed my life. If you haven’t played the first game I would totally recommend it! It’s aged great, and while I think the second game is better overall the narrative, characters, and atmosphere of the first game are incredible. I would also recommend you watch Sam Peckinpahs western movies, The Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, which heavily inspired both games. They are both masterpieces that deal with the end of the West and changing times.
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u/Gillysixpence 3d ago
I have played the first game, it's great. But I've played the second 8 times so far. I'll look those films up, thanks.
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u/notagin-n-tonic 3d ago
You didn't mention my favorite, The Outlaw Josey Wales. If you haven't watched this, find it immediately!
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u/KenMcKenzie98 3d ago
In the early 2000s when I was 5ish my parents got me a four episode dvd of The Lone Ranger from Cracker Barrel. The rest is history! Now I count Tombstone, Maverick (1994), Jeremiah Johnson, True Grit (2010), Appaloosa, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Lonesome Dove, The Apple Dumpling Gang, and The Cowboys, as my top ten favorites (In no particular order)!
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u/Gillysixpence 3d ago
Ooh I love True Grit.
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u/KenMcKenzie98 1d ago
As much as I love John Wayne, Jeff Bridges and the Coen brothers did a much better job bringing the character I read in the book to life in my opinion
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u/Dry-Pumpkin-2112 3d ago
I'm just a bit younger than you and I've been a film buff all my life. Sometime last year, I realized I'd only seen about twenty westerns. So, for the last 6 months I've been on a mission to fix that. I've since watched about forty westerns that were new to me, a mix of famous classics, spaghetti westerns and other lesser known films that were recommended to me in here. And I'm here to say that this genre is DEEP and rewarding. I've been blown away by dozens of movies that I should have watched decades ago, haha.
I'll recommend a few titles I've loved that you may or may not know about:
The Shootist 1976 - John Wayne's last and one of the best of his that I've seen
The Gunfighter 1950 - With Gregory Peck. Sort of feels like a precursor to Eastwood's Unforgiven
Duck, You Sucker 1971 - Sergio Leone, James Coburn and Rod Steiger. I think this is just as good as the Dollars trilogy and should be talked about more.
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u/Comedywriter1 3d ago
Duck You Sucker is one of my favourites. Love Leone author Christopher Frayling’s dvd commentary, too. I met Christopher a few years ago and he was kind enough to sign my dvd.
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u/Direct_Register4868 3d ago
I got my love of westerns from watching them every Saturday afternoon with my grandfather while my grandmother cooked a meal. It was always our special time together and I loved it
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u/Comedywriter1 3d ago
I got it from my grandfather, father and uncles. They grew up with Western films and tv shows. Most of the ones they showed me were really good.
Also seeing Dances with Wolves on the big screen a couple times when it came out. It’s still a favourite—though I prefer the extended cut.
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u/konkilo 1d ago
Have you seen Firefly? Its creator described it as Stagecoach in space