>Anyway, does anyone want to discuss westerns? Any
>recommendations?

i feel like it was inevitable i would get into westerns. aside from blazing saddles and tombstone, i think it really started in college, when i borrowed movies from the library instead of studying or partying. i know he's persona non grata around here post "chair" betrayal, but for me it was the movies of clint eastwood, specifically unforgiven and the man with no name or dollar trilogy. i watched the searchers but maybe wasn't mature enough to appreciate it at the time. i enjoyed the treasure of the sierra madre more. at the same time, i was also watching jim jarmusch movies, and i liked his film dead man. into my 20s, i would watch more of clint's westerns (actor or director) but also more spaghetti westerns. i loved ennio morricone's music in the latter; rest in peace. eventually i ventured out of italy (and spanish coproductions) and back to the origin.

i'd rent or stream the occasional western just as part of my regular diet of all sorts of movies, not as a focus. i generally went for well regarded films with big name actors or directors from the golden age but also the odd italian or some other cool and quirky euro film from the '60s or '70s.

i resubscribed to cable in 2014 mostly to watch on demand. even though i didn't have the channels in my lineup, i could watch sony movie channel and mgm hd on demand, which basically were allotments of their catalogs, usually of little general interest and not well remembered even by people alive at the time. i always knew there were a lot of westerns, but i quickly realized just how many of those and military movies were made back in the day (i think there are astonishing statistics out there about the height of westerns specifically). every month i would make time to sort through the new selections, half of which were westerns and war movies. since they didn't cost me anything to watch, i'd make time for the ones with actors i like, notable directors, and high ratings/good reviews. charles bronson made a lot of these, and it's hard for me to say no to him because he kicked ass. anyway, circumstances had me reading a lot of (viewer) reviews of fairly obscure westerns to find the diamonds in the rough, and i considered it time well spent.

there is a wide variety of westerns, not even counting other films influenced by westerns (which can also set me off on a quest) and parallel genres like samurai films. i still really enjoy spaghetti or italian westerns, and i found i naturally gravitated toward hollywood's own post-golden age revisionist westerns, and there was a give and take there with europe. i watched sam peckinpah's major works. i think this era of westerns still stands up and has something to say. i also like psychological westerns, notably from anthony mann. the film logan got me watching twilight westerns. i really enjoyed john wayne in the cowboys and especially the shootist, which i'd already wanted to see for years. generally i'd rather watch something with henry fonda, jimmy stewart, maybe with warren oates or bruce dern in a supporting role, but there are a lot of actors and directors whose names are sufficient to pique my interest.