The Best End of the West Movies

• Ride the High Country (1962)
• The Shootist (1976)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• Will Penny (1968)
• Monte Walsh (1970)
• Open Range (2003)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
• The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
• Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
• The Last Picture Show (1971)

EMIL’S NOTES:

Three of the ten – 1, 3, and 8 were directed by Sam Peckinpah. Two are with John Wayne – 2 and 7. Two have Lee Marvin – MONTE WALSH and LIBERTY VALANCE. Kirk Douglas considered LONELY ARE THE BRAVE one of his finest roles and Charlton Heston felt the same about WILL PENNY. In the movie, the one showing in LAST PICTURE SHOW is RED RIVER.

Both RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY and THE SHOOTIST were clearly goodbyes to the actors starring in them, the former to Joel McCrae and Randolph Scott, the latter to the Duke. (Note that this sub genre begins in the 1960’s and is still with us. Many feel the west doesn’t ever end. It just goes through a series of transformations and these are stories about how those effected cope, or don’t, with that change.)