The Best Westerns (You Haven't Watched): Elliott, Arness and Selleck
This list covers a variety of 'must watched' Westerns - many of them small screen, TV movies - which are often (wrongfully) over shadowed by their big screen, bigger budget counterparts. You'll find no John Wayne or Clint Eastwood movies here; instead the focus is on three other underrated Western actors - Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott and James Arness.
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- DirectorSimon WincerStarsTom SelleckIsabella RosselliniKeith CarradineWyoming, 1892: Monte's been cowboy for ranchers all his life but he's no longer young and big business is taking over the ranches.Hugely overshadowed by the version starring Lee Marvin and Jack Palance, the 2003 made-for-TV take on 'Monte Walsh' is as deserving (if not more so) than its predecessor. What the original lacks in historical accuracy, subtlety and fine tuned nuanced performances this film makes up for in spades.
Further it's arguably Tom Selleck's best Western, which will scandalise many fans of Matthew Quigley to no end. Both films share the same director (Simon Wincer) but whereas 'Quigley' is a big, bold adventure 'Monte' is a study in masculinity and the main character's loss of footing in a world that's leaving him behind. Both films are epic, but 'Monte' delivers a breath of emotion that its more famous Wincer-directed sibling doesn't quite match.
Also - the on-screen bromance chemistry between Selleck and Carradine should be the stuff of legend. It won't be their only collaboration on the list. - CreatorTaylor SheridanStarsTim McGrawSam ElliottFaith HillThe post-Civil war generation of the Dutton family travels to Texas, and joins a wagon train undertaking the arduous journey west to Oregon, before settling in Montana to establish what would eventually become the Yellowstone Ranch.Part of the 'Yellowstone' saga by Taylor Sheridan, this anthology series is both the prequel and complete opposite to it's modern day 'sequel.' '1883' loses the soghrum, 'Dallas'-esque drama of 'Yellowstone' and replaces it with a grit, realism and rawboned honesty that both mixes Revisionist and Traditional Western tropes while also being wholly original. Without giving away spoilers, Shea Brennan is - easily - Sam Elliott's best performance to date. He carries forward the hard-bitten and capable cowboy he created in 'Conagher' (the outfit is even similar), but imbues him with enough emotional turmoil to crush a normal man. Incredible viewing.
- DirectorDick LowryStarsTom SelleckSuzy AmisRachel DuncanAfter the Civil War, a returning Confederate veteran must reclaim his Arizona land and homestead from the Yankee carpetbaggers who illegally occupy it.This Dick Lowry directed oater is my favourite Tom Selleck cowboy movie. Its largely a traditional, action driven Western with the added edge of being based on a novel written by the master Elmore Leonard (who you may know as the creator of Raylan Givens, the main character on Justified and Justified: City Primeval). It may not have the scope of Wincer's Monte Walsh, but it makes up for it in the way that it focuses on the interplay between characters and the questions it asks about loyalty and whether being loyal to a cause is more imporant than one's own family.
- DirectorJerry JamesonStarsJames ArnessPat HingleAmy StochRetired Marshal Matt Dillon tracks Arizona rustlers and lands in the middle of the 1880s Pleasant Valley War.
- DirectorJohn Kent HarrisonStarsSam ElliottArliss HowardCarolyn McCormickFact-based biography of lawman, gunslinger, producer and director Bill Tilghman.Outside of his award winning performance in Taylor Sheridan's epic '1883' TV series, 'You Know My Name' is Sam Elliott's finest performance in a Western.
A biographical film (based on the later life ex-lawman Bill Tilghman) with subdued echoes of Sam Peckinpah's 'The Wild Bunch', the story finds the aging horse-riding, tin star wearing hero seeking to make a lasting legacy for himself in a new age of motor cars, machine guns and Prohibition.
Like its predecessors on the list, 'You Know My Name' asks questions about masculinity and morality. Tighlman is presented as a pure Western lawman trying to tame a would-be 20th century town using Old West sensibilities, facing off against enemies who are far more cunning and ruthless than his morality can grasp. A must watch. - DirectorSimon WincerStarsTom SelleckVirginia MadsenWilford BrimleyRafe promises a dying friend to look after his wife and 40,000 acre ranch in Wyoming. A powerful businessman wants the ranch and widow by whatever means necessary.
- DirectorCharles CorrellStarsJames ArnessRichard KileyAmy StochJames Arness rides again as Matt Dillon, the U.S. Marshal he made popular in the 1955-75 television series. In this movie he goes after a renegade Apache named Wolf (Joe Lara) who has taken his daughter captive. As a bargaining chip, Dillon helps two sons of Apache chief Geronimo out of the fort stockade and offers them in trade. Dillon is aided by an Army scout, Chalk Brighton (Richard Kiley).
- DirectorReynaldo VillalobosStarsSam ElliottKatharine RossBarry CorbinA tough cowboy facing some trouble crosses paths with a lonely woman living in the middle of nowhere.