Classic home grown westerns or spaghetti westerns?

[Mike Daniels]

Which do you prefer and which western is your favorite.

Just picked up the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood trilogy and a DVD box of other Italian Westerns and I think I can honestly say that at least for that time period the Spaghetti's blow away any American made westerns made up to that point.

Who cares about cowboys and Indians when you have scruffy amoral gunslingers fighting it out with villians and desperados that make the black hat wearing bad guys of Hollywood westerns seem like total wimps with a slight attitude problem.

Admittedly, there were some great "American" westerns such as Stagecoach, The Oxbow Incident, and some of the darker John Wayne's like the Searchers and of course the classic "High Noon" but they don't hold a candle to the brutality of the times as portrayed by Leone and his comtemporaries. Hell, every western since those days including "Unforgiven" pretty much follows that spaghetti template.

Anyway, my vote goes to "For a Few Dollars More". A great story line and the opening segment with Lee Van Cleef just epitomizes "cool" in every sense of the word.

Other thoughts?

[terrya]

1. Not a big fan of westerns, but I liked "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance"

Terrific John Ford western. Terrific cast...John Wayne, James Stewart, Lee Marvin.

Terry

[ewagner]

2. Try the ultimate

Once Upon a Time in the West

My all time favorite and I'm still madly in love with Claudia Cardinale.......

[Mike Daniels]

3. I bought that just this past weekend

Haven't gotten around to it yet but I am intersted in seeing Henry Fonda as an evil sum' bitch.

[ewagner]

4. That was one of the

real "kickers" in that movie. Never before was there such an evil villian and it turned out to be one of the movies all-time good guys. It's quite striking.

[VOX]

5. Good mix: Italian production, with exteriors filmed in the U.S. --

Best of both Western worlds.

:toast:

[VOX]

6. The home-grown Western will always be tops!

And no, I don't mean those cheap serials that have every pack of riders galloping past the same rock outcropping in Chatsworth, CA.

Admittedly, American-made Westerns in the 1960s were by and large pretty dismal. Among the best of this period were the revisionist "anti-Westerns," where the conventions were turned on their ear -- think "The Wild Bunch" and "Ride the High Country."

For sheer menace, grit and spare dialog, I agree that the spaghetti Western has carved out a place for itself.

But for poetry, and sweep, and rock-solid, memorable characters, the American Western has no equal.

Some American favorites from various decades, as they come to mind:
My Darling Clementine
The Hired Hand
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Red River
High Noon
Stagecoach
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Magnificent Seven
Unforgiven
The Westerner
Fort Apache
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Gunfighter
The Shootist
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Little Big Man
Hombre
Wagonmaster
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid
Lonesome Dove (made for TV, but still great)

The list is virtually endless. Damn, I'm ready to see any one of these!

[BigMcLargehuge]

7. I'll take Spaghetti Westerns every time