The Western is a genre that his given us some of the best ‘tough guy’ movie quotes of all time.
The era of the Western will never be what it was 50 years ago. It’s a hard genre to crack in this day and age. A lot of the newer generation of filmmakers don’t turn to films like that, either for personal reasons or just because their ideals don’t align with the genre. However, some of the best characters in the history of cinema came from Westerns.
It’s a genre of films that gave us some of the best ‘tough guys’ to ever grace the big screen. And with that came great one-liners and monologues that have still stood the test of time. Here are the 10 best movie quotes in Westerns.
10, High Plains Drifter (1973) – “Well, right now I don’t feel too agreeable”
High Plains Drifter is Clint Eastwood’s second film that he directed. The film is loaded with exciting moments and great tough-guy talk that only Clint can deliver. The line, “Well, right now I don’t feel too agreeable,” isn’t necessarily the most standout line of the whole film. But it encapsulates Clint’s no-name character really well as a drifter who is quick with the pistol and also has his own secret agenda.
9, The Wild Bunch (1969) – “We’re gonna give em war”
“We’re Gonna Give em War” is one of the best delivered lines in The Wild Bunch. When uttered by Pike Bishop (William Holden), you sense the bunch getting into rally mode as they take on the opposition led by Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan). The film is a classic, directed by Sam Peckinpah.
A great team-up movie about a bunch of outlaws who plan to do one more robbery before the gang’s leader, Bishop, retires. When the heist is a setup, the gang goes on the run in Mexico. The Wild Bunch is loaded with gunfights, male comradery, and one of the best opening credit sequences of all time.
8, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966) – When you’re gonna shoot, shoot, don’t talk”.
A line that was apparently improvised by actor Eli Wallach, who plays Tuco (the Ugly) in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. It was so funny on the shoot that the whole crew apparently began laughing. In the scene, Tuco is taking a bath when a man busts in, holding him at gunpoint. Apparently the man had been in pursuit of him for months, giving him a long speech about his hunt to capture him. Tuco lifts his gun up from underwater and shoots him dead, then follows it up the apparently improvised line.
7, Big Jake (1971) – “You’re short on ears and long on mouth.”
John Wayne would be known for many tough guy quotes similar to this one. It’s great to see him in the twilight of his career, still deliver like he does in Big Jake. In the film, The Duke plays Jacob McCandles, the head of the McCandle clan, who returns to his estranged family to lead the search for his kidnapped grandson. Jake brings his two sons along with him to deliver the ransom to the kidnappers. The line is delivered to one of his sons in a very witty and grouchy manner.
6, Lonesome Dove (1989) – “It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living.”
A line that encapsulates the series in a nutshell and is delivered by Academy Award Winner Robert Duvall. Lonesome Dove ran for four episodes in February 1989 as a TV miniseries.
In it, Duvall stars alongside Tommy Lee Jones as former Texas Rangers who renew their worn-down spirits on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. Based on the Larry McMurtry novel, Duvall delivers the line, “It Ain’t Dying I’m Talking About, It’s Living”, which perfectly describes the ideology of getting older in the wild west.
5, The Hateful Eight (2015) – “We’re in the West, the West is where you make your luck.”
Samuel L. Jackson’s performance as Major Marquis Warren in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight embodies the wild west and the survivalist mode one must have during this period. It’s a bit of wisdom that Marquis shares with the others he is stranded with in a cabin during a snowstorm. There are so many loner characters in westerns due to the fact that, in order to last long in a world with minimal rules, you must go at it alone.
4, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) – “You gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?”
Clint Eastwood appears multiple times on this list, as he is the definitive Western hero we all still admire to this day. In The Outlaw Josey Wales, Eastwood plays a confederate soldier whose wife and kid were murdered by Union men led by Capt. Terrill (Bill McKinney). Wales eventually flees to Texas after gunning down McKinney’s men, and becomes close with a family down there. But the past catches up to him. The line of dialogue mentioned above is given during a standoff in the older western town. It’s one of the best put-up or shut-up lines in a Western.
3, Unforgiven (1992) – “….and I’m here to kill you.”
Unforgiven is not only a masterpiece of a Western film; it’s an overall classic film. The best picture winner at the Oscars that year that also took home Best Director for Clint Eastwood and Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman, and is argued to be the one of the last true Westerns.
William Munny (Eastwood) enters the scene on a rainy night in a saloon with his rifle raised at Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), giving him a speech that acknowledges the awful things he did as an outlaw years ago. But Munny was there for vengeance due to what had happened to his friend Ned (Morgan Freeman) earlier in the film. Watch the scene here.
2, Tombstone (1993) – “I’m your Huckleberry.”
Tombstone is also known as one of the last great Westerns ever made. A film with an ensemble cast, loaded with plenty of other quotes that could’ve consumed this list, it’s Val Kilmer’s deliver of the simply said line, “I’m Your Huckleberry,” that takes the cake. It’s a line that goes hand in hand with the character of Doc Holliday and his wit and sharp tongue.
He utters it as he prepares for a duel against Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn). Kilmer’s performance in Tombstone would go on to be one of his career-defining acting performances.
1, True Grit (1969) – “Fill your hands you son of a b**ch.”
In True Grit, 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) hires disheveled U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) to track down the man who murdered her father. Soon after they go on the hunt, they are joined by a Texas Ranger by the name of La Boeuf (Glenn Campbell), who inserts himself into their mission as he is after the same man who is wanted for killing a Texas Senator. The three clash over bringing the same man to justice as they soon venture into Indigenous territory. The film culminates in one of the most major moments in movie history.
As Cogburn takes a stand against the gang of outlaws, all of them on horseback. He gives them an ultimatum; he shoots them or captures them and brings them in to be hung. In true outlaw fashion, they are defiant. “Fill Your Hands, You Son of a B**ch!” is shouted by Rooster Cogburn, and a duel ensues. It’s a moment of great climactic cinema. Wayne’s mannerisms and how he reloads his shotgun during the shootout were later mimicked in Terminator 2: Judgment Day by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The role earned John Wayne an Oscar late in his career and life, and some argue it was his last truly great movie.