Who is your favorite movie/TV Cowboy?
Panelist: Floyd
I'm assuming by "cowboy" you mean Western character as opposed to only cow punchers so I'll go with Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. And by "favorite" I mean "most compelling". John Wayne's portrayal is still a revelation. The fact he didn't win an Oscar for this is still a travesty. He's just a force of nature -- that ill wind that blows into town. On a positive note, I'd put John Wayne's John T. Chance -- the sheriff in Rio Bravo as my favorite from a positive viewpoint.
Panelist: BevfromNYC
I was in love with Chuck Connors as The Rifleman when I was a child. And who can forget Sheriff Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke! And as for the movies, it has to be any cowboy that John Wayne ever played. He was the best.
Panelist: AndrewPrice
I’m a big fan of westerns and there are a lot of great western heroes, but there’s nobody who holds a candle to Gene Autry. Not only is Autry the epitome of the American west, but he’s probably the nicest man ever on film. It’s just impossible not to like him and not to cheer for him.
Panelist: T-Rav
Er, Woody from the Toy Story movies? Honestly, he embodies a lot of the cowboy values like friendship and loyalty--and look, I'm a bit young to have grown up with cowboys and stuff, so frankly, it's either this or Chuck Norris.
Panelist: Tennessee Jed
While it is hard to not pick my first hero, Roy Rogers ("King of the Cowboys"), I really have one that stands above all else ….. Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie. He was the proto-type tall, dark, and handsome, strong silent type (to use two fantastic cliches.) Walker mad Gary Cooper seem like a blabbermouth. Once, when a bad guy was trying to bait him ("what are YOU thing, Bodie?") Cheyenne drawled "I think you're trying to talk me to death."
Panelist: ScottDS
I haven't seen enough westerns to give an intelligent answer - it's the one genre where I'm lacking in experience. I did like Kurt Russel in Tombstone, though. His dialogue in this scene hits rather close to home.
Comments? Thoughts?
I'll second Floyd on Ethan Edwards. An amazing performance and such a travesty that Wayne didn't get the Oscar for the role. If someone ever tells me that John Wayne was not a great actor I'll simply say "The Searchers."
ReplyDeleteI would also add Marshall Matt Dillon. Only seen a few of the early episodes but he is good in them.
I'm also going to put forth Nathan Fillion's Malcolm Reynolds.
Yes, he flies a spaceship but, lets be honest, he's every bit the cowboy. In fact, he's the best gorram cowboy in the whole ruttin' verse. And if you disagree, you are a Ching-wah TSAO duh liou mahng. ;)
"You can't take the sky from me..."
Kit, I'm a huge fan of Matt Dillon. He's awesome. I also liked John Russell as "Lawman" Dan Troop.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Miss Kitty was hot.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteMatt Dillon was great in the show. I've come to prefer the early episodes over the later, color ones.
This may be heretical, but I'm not a fan of Kitty. Too much smoking.
ReplyDeleteI like the early 30 minute B&W episodes. The hour long ones got a little dull because they stretched to fit a 30 minute show into 48 minutes.
"This may be heretical, but I'm not a fan of Kitty."
ReplyDeleteDIE HERETIC!!!!!!!!!!
There's not a moments' hesitation for me: Augustus McCrae, Texas Ranger (retired) in "Lonesome Dove". He was everything a cowboy should be:
ReplyDelete-Tough. Well, DUH!!! That's what cowboys are supposed to be. Whether it's pistol-whipping a surly bartender or single-handedly riding in and wiping out Blue Duck's gang, this is not a man to be trifled with.
-Tender. His interaction with Lorena after her abduction was one of the greatest platonic love stories in literary or TV history.
-Noble. It's not an original observation, but the American cowboy had a code of ethics, honor, and justice that was less formalized but every bit as powerful as any Samurai warrior. Gus and Woodrow Call track down the Scruggs gang and hang them for their crimes, along with Jake Spoon, a former friend. "You know how this works, Jake: you ride with an outlaw, you die with an outlaw. Sorry you crossed the line." Later, as Call is in the process of beating the daylights out of a cavalryman for abusing Newt (Call's unacknowledged son), Gus lassos him away before the poor man is killed.
Robert Duvall has said that Gus McCrae was a role of a lifetime, and he's exactly right. "Lonesome Dove" is arguably the greatest Western ever made. At six hours long (minus the commercials and four episodes' worth of credits) it tells a sweeping tale that is almost better than Larry McMurtry's source novel.
Honorable Mention: Sonny Steele in The Electric Horseman. Yeah, I know. Redford is a treehugging twit and the movie is your standard Hollywood anti-corporate propaganda piece, but Sonny is a very likeable person who rediscovers his cowboy code and does the right thing no matter what the personal cost.
Extra Honorable Mention: John McClane. Sure, he was a cop from New York. But Hans was always referring to him as a cowboy, and his signature catchphrase confirms it: "Yippie-ki-Yay, motherf*cker!"
Robert Duvall's character in Open Range is a great performance in a vastly underrated movie. Also in that movie is Kevin Kostner who is also really good in the Western Sliverado.
ReplyDeleteJohn Wayne is in a league of his own.
On TV loved Lonesome Dove and we can't forget Clint Eastwood in Rawhide.
Dave - I would point out (Willis being almost a contemporary of mine who also grew up in the Delaware Valley) that John McClaine was essentially a homage to Roy Freakin' Rogers.
ReplyDeleteSome of you may get a kick out of a guide to top Western television stars which was a post I did. It may have pre-dated the Commentarama Films site, so may nno longer be available. If that is the case, I would mention that the mid 50's to mid 60's kind of represented the golden age of t.v. westerns. Warner Brothers, in particular, was committed to them. In addition to Cheyenne, there was Maverick starring James Garner as Brett, Jack Kelly as brother Bart and a young Roger Moore as cousin Beau from England.
ReplyDeleteRegarding James Garner: I really liked his Jason McCullough character in "Support your local Sheriff."
ReplyDeleteBut, my all-time favorite has to be Alan Ladd's "Shane."
Kenn - I too was a fan of Shane, although Alan Ladd, at 5'6" had to use creative camera angles to avoid showing his relatively small stature to disadvantage. Still, any father-in-law of Cheryl Ladd is o.k. in my book.
ReplyDeleteDave, Lonesome Dove was excellent and so was DuVall. Great choice.
ReplyDeleteOutlaw, I really liked Kevin Kline in Silverado, though I don't see him as a cowboy so much.
ReplyDeleteGreat call on Eastwood -- the man who defined the Spaghetti Western. As for Rawhide, I actually came to like Eric Flemming better.
Jed, Here it is: LINK
ReplyDeleteAnd I recommend everyone read it. It's nicely done and quite informative.
Kenn, I liked Garner too, but too often I found that I don't like his movies. I think he had the misfortune of falling into that period where Hollywood was uneasy with westerns and you ended up with these hopelessly cynical films which tried to make social statements left and right. But I liked him as an actor a lot and I wish he had appeared in more "straight westerns."
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I love Support Your Local Sheriff. That's one of the better comedic westerns.
Jed, Knowing that, it's funny to watch his films and see how they hid that facts. But if you didn't know, you would never know he was short.
ReplyDeleteBev - did you know Chuck Conners played in the Dodgers organization. I think he even got called up to the show for a "cup of coffee!" :) Andrew - "Back in the Saddle Again" The man who wore retro western shirts before they were "retro." I Mostly remember Gene and Roy from their t.v. shows.
ReplyDeleteAndrew - I really feel sorry for Scott Caan (son of James) who is 5'5". He currently plays "Danno" in the re-boot of Hawaii 5-0, but Alex O'Laughlin, the actor who plays Steve McGarrett Jr., is over 6' so it is hard not to have them look like Mutt & Jeff.
ReplyDeleteAlso on TV, Dennis Weaver as McCloud was a favorite back in the day.
ReplyDeleteyeah, Outlaw, that was a nice follow-up to Gunsmoke for Weaver. It was kind of old west meets New Gotham City
ReplyDeleteGeez, I went to the old post, and it made me smile and be sad at the same time reading Hawk's great comments :)
ReplyDeleteJed, I run into that a lot.
ReplyDeleteOutlaw and Jed, I liked Weaver as Chester quite a bit, but I never saw McCloud. I was too young at the time it was on and it never hit syndication.
ReplyDeleteAndrew - McCloud was about a small town sheriff from the southwest who came to New York. The country bumpkin teaches the sophisticated urbanites a thing or two. Typical, good star driven t.v. The character McCloud invented a phrase that kind of became a national buzz phrase (and cliche) The term was "There you go!" It was similar to Brenda Lee Johnson's phrase "thank you so much." Everybody said it until it drove you crazy.
ReplyDeleteAndrew: A negative voice on Autry. My father was born in 1922 so he grew up o movie westerns. According to him, the Singing Cowboy was the end of his world. Instead of shooting he sang, and the cowboy hero now kissed the girl before he kissed his horse. Yuck! :-)
ReplyDeleteCan anyone guess who my (Anti)hero favorite cowboy is? ;-)
ReplyDeletePikeBishop, Autry was hugely popular. And he did a lot of shooting. He just didn't do a lot of killing. And he always got the girl, my friend.
ReplyDeleteAs for your favorite cowboy, I'm guessing it has something to do with Sam Peckinpah. LOL!
Jed, I'm familiar with the story, I just never watched it as a kid. I even remember him riding a horse down a city street -- maybe Houston? But like I said, I was too young to watch at that point.
ReplyDeleteThere you go .... ;) The street was in Manhattan, and probably "the" iconic scene. As i recall, that series was based on one of Clint Eastwood's movies
ReplyDeleteJed: McCloud was based on Coogan's Bluff, with Lee Marvin
ReplyDeleteJed, That is the only scene I really recall. I'm not sure why it never made it into syndication, everything else did. Or maybe I just missed it?
ReplyDeleteCoogan's Bluff was entertaining, but I didn't like it nearly as well as his other movies at the time.
Would have to say Clint Eastwood. Who else could deliver this line: "I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it." Plus he was still making great Westerns when nobody thought westerns were viable.
ReplyDeleteJohn "the Duke" Wayne would be a close second.
Chuck Connors was my first Cowboy hero. The thing that distinguished him from most of the others mentioned above is that he's not a loner: a family man, raising a son alone, with the two of them having a pretty tight relationship. He did too many bad guy roles in other movies that broke my heart as a boy - "The Big Valley" being the worst. But I loved him as Swifty Morgan in "Support Your Local Gunfighter."
ReplyDeleteFor a modern cowboy hero, I'll put up Timothy Oliphant from "Justified." Raylan Givens is sort of the anti-Lucas McCain, coming from a horrible family and having a crappy social life, no friends and more justfied killings than any US Marshal in history, but still lives by the same code as the Rifleman.
*Gasp!* No love for Yosemite Sam? Easily, my favorite cowboy is Yosemite Sam.
ReplyDeleteT - If we're going in that direction, then I nominate Quick Draw McGraw and his alter ego, "El Kabong!"
ReplyDeleteShawn, Eastwood redefined the cowboy, that's for sure with his spaghetti westerns and then again with Unforgiven.
ReplyDeleteI like Connors as well, though I never really watched The Rifleman.
ReplyDeleteYosemite Sam? LOL!
Speaking of Timothy Oliphant, can we all agree that "Deadwood" sucked? It was one of those "Oooh it must be good its on HBO" shows," hiding the fact that the plots were ridiculous and the characters and their motivations made no sense whatsoever. I watched on HBO inertia for about a year and then realized, "This is total bullshit. People do not act or speak like this!"
ReplyDeleteDeadwood sucked? You mean you didn't like the first motherf***ing Goddamn f***ing sh*t suckin western to expose the truth about the &^%##$ old ^%$^ Goddam west and the great mother**&%ing tourettes coverup? Are you kidding?
ReplyDeleteYeah, it sucked.
Andrew: Best response of the year!
ReplyDeletePikeBishop, Thanks. Deadwood annoyed me very quickly. All the swearing was obviously a gimmick and it was one that turned me off quickly.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, not only the vulgarity for vulgarity's sake, but the realization that the plots made zero sense an characters spoke and acted in ways that were just insane.
ReplyDeleteQuigley!
ReplyDeleteKRS - you're absolutely right about Olyphant's character in "Justified!" - definitely a modern-day western. I probably should have thought of that, myself - hope Mr. Searcy doesn't "de-friend" me. :)
ReplyDeletePikeBishop, The whole show was nonsense. It was meant to pull you in with being vulgar pretty much.
ReplyDeleteVoz, Quigley was good.
ReplyDeleteKenn, He is quickly becoming a real favorite of conservatives everywhere.
Yeah, he's a super good-guy - as Outlaw, Eric, Floyd and I can attest, first-hand.
ReplyDeleteKenn, I've heard good things. :)
ReplyDeleteEven though I was commenting late I thought I was going to come out with something different (I should have known better) and picked Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly but got beaten to it by Kit in the very first comment. Great western character in a great show.
ReplyDeleteAs for actor I'd pick Clint Eastwood over John Wayne as I saw a lot more
of his movies growing up and the Outlaw Josie Wales is my favourite
western.
When someone mentioned Timothy Olyphant I thought they meant his character from Deadwood which I didn't like as the character was just as stupid as Ned Stark. I liked the show which quickly went off the rails, but much preferred the Dan Dority and Al Swearengen characters.
Scott.
Scott, I prefer Eastwood to Wayne as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, Firefly was great!
Am I late again? All good mentions above, seconding Wayne, Eastwood, and Duvall. Yul Brenner had that Duvallian cowboy believability as well, Glenn Ford was a likeable dude, himself. But if you want to get to the two best cowboys in the same picture, James Stewart and Henry Fonda in "The Cheyenne Social Club" (1970), It's easy to believe those two had rode together for twenty plus years, they argued like an old married couple. And a fun movie!
ReplyDeleteLG, That's something I've found with great cowboys is that it's super easy to imagine the actor just riding his horse home to his ranch at the end of the day. There's no sense that they live in the modern world once the camera stops. I have a hard time seeing that with a Matt Damon or a Robert Redford, but with the guys listed above, it's very easy.
ReplyDelete