My Favorite Westerns – Books, Movies, Television

Wendy the Super Librarian and Kristie of Ramblings on Romance are posting about Westerns this week, so I thought I’d list a few of my favorites.

Song:

Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other, covered here by Willie Nelson. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Novel:

The Jump-Off Creek, Molly Gloss. Unrelentingly realistic and beautifully written, to boot.

Honorable Mention to Ledoyt by Carol Emshwiller.

Television:

Deadwood, no contest.

Al Swearengen: Sometimes I wish we could just hit ’em over the head, rob ’em, and throw their bodies in the creek.
Cy Tolliver: But that would be wrong.

Romance:

Fall from Grace by Megan Chance.

Erotic Romance:

Roping the Wind by Kate Pearce is notable because it’s about a modern cowboy, a rodeo star whose career has been ended by injury.

Caine’s Reckoning by Sarah McCarty is more traditional. (It’s from the line that publishes my books, Harlequin Spice.)

Movie:

The Magnificent Seven (yes, I know it’s really The Seven Samurai).

Chris: There’s a job for six men, watching over a village, south of the border.
O’Reilly: How big’s the opposition?
Chris: Thirty guns.
O’Reilly: I admire your notion of fair odds, mister.

It’s tied with High Noon.

Helen: What kind of woman are you? How can you leave him like this? Does the sound of guns frighten you that much?
Amy: I’ve heard guns. My father and my brother were killed by guns. They were on the right side but that didn’t help them any when the shooting started. My brother was nineteen. I watched him die. That’s when I became a Quaker. I don’t care who’s right or who’s wrong. There’s got to be some better way for people to live.

Dead Man gets a mention for being a very weird Johnny Depp movie.

TV Cowboy and Horse:

Roy Rogers and Trigger.

Related Posts:
Reading for the Writer.

About Victoria Janssen

Victoria Janssen [she, her] currently writes cozy space opera for Kalikoi. The novella series A Place of Refuge begins with Finding Refuge: Telepathic warrior Talia Avi, genius engineer Miki Boudreaux, and augmented soldier Faigin Balfour fought the fascist Federated Colonies for ten years, following the charismatic dissenter Jon Churchill. Then Jon disappeared, Talia was thought dead, and Miki and Faigin struggled to take Jon’s place and stay alive. When the FC is unexpectedly upended, Talia is reunited with her friends and they are given sanctuary on the enigmatic planet Refuge. The trio of former guerillas strive to recover from lifetimes of trauma, build new lives on a planet with endless horizons, and forge tender new connections with each other.
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15 Responses to My Favorite Westerns – Books, Movies, Television

  1. Jenna Reynolds says:

    The Magnificent Seven is a fantastic movie and I love the theme. I also enjoyed the television version of it, although it had only a short run. I also like Tombstone, Red River, Unforgiven, Silverado, and Lonesome Dove. For a cowboy song, I laugh every time I hear "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy". For a western novel I love "Heart of the West" by Penelope Williamson and my friend Kathryn Albright writes great westerns for Harlequin.

  2. Victoria Janssen says:

    Ooh, I haven't tried Kathryn Albright. Thanks for the rec!

  3. Kristie (J) says:

    Thanks for the shout out!!
    I haven't seen the movie The Magnificent Seven although I do have the complete DVD set of the television show from the late 90's. Although I haven't seen all of them yet, I've quite enjoyed the ones I have seen so far.
    And I'd never heard of Dead Man. It does sound like a strange kind of movie.
    And I really MUST hunt down my copy of Fall From Grace. I wonder what happened to her. I couldn't see where she's had any releases lately.

  4. Sela Carsen says:

    Movie: "El Dorado," even though it's a remake of "Rio Bravo" and a complete rip-off of "To Have and Have Not." Gotta love those Howard Hughes movies!

    Book: "Hondo" by Louis L'Amour. I loved Louis L'Amour for a long time, so I'd list most of his books if I could, but that one stands out.

    Romance: "The Texan's Wager" by Jodi Thomas. I'm not a huge reader of Western Romance, but I enjoyed this one.

  5. Victoria Janssen says:

    Kristie, I liked the recent M7 tv show, too–though I haven't seen it since it aired, and I'm pretty sure I missed some eps. Another for the wishlist! (Mmm, Michael Biehn.)

    Sela, I have a Louis L'Amour in my TBR…maybe I'll add HONDO as well. Haven't tried Jodi Thomas yet, either.

  6. Kate Pearce says:

    I am a huge Western fan-I grew up during the era of American TV imports to the UK so I lived on "The Virginian' The High Chapparal, 'Alias Smith and Jones' and all the Cowboy movies too. I was secretly thrilled to learn how to ride Western style when I moved here and to get the chance to go to rodeos and bull riding contests. And I even got to write 3 books for ;'Cheek', including 'Roping/' all about modern cowboys-I am one lucky son of a gun

  7. Victoria Janssen says:

    ZOMG I loved "Alias Smith and Jones" when I was a kid. Also forgot to mention "Wild Wild West."

  8. Sybil says:

    OMG I have mad love for Deadwood. Loved Al!

  9. Victoria Janssen says:

    Deadwood always makes me want to add more cursing to my speech.

  10. Wendy says:

    Dead Man WAS a weird movie. I think it might require being under the influence of some sort of chemical substance before viewing.

  11. Victoria Janssen says:

    Lots and lots of ice cream?

  12. Kristie (J) says:

    This may be giving my age away – but how about Hear Come the Brides away starring teen heart throb (for those older then the Jonas Brothers era) Bobby Sherman.

  13. Kristie (J) says:

    And yes!! Wild, Wild West. While I thought James was sex on a stick, I had a soft spot for Aretemus Gordon. The Alpah and the Beta of Western type spies *g*

  14. Kristie (J) says:

    And – my mind is on a time delay compared to my fingers – I sent Cheryl some great eye candy pics of Eric Close in TM7 and they are posted at Petticoats and Pistols.

  15. Victoria Janssen says:

    Artemus was my favorite on WWW, hands-down.

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