*** - Young Charlton Heston is a bitter Indian scout attached to the Calvary on the west Texas frontier in this somewhat mean-spirited oater. Politically correct it ain't.

** - Uninspired mess that will make you wonder what Paul Newman and Robert Altman were thinking.

** - Soapy, modern-day rodeo drama with a shaky love triangle/quadrangle. Of the aging brat-backers (Darryl Hannah, Molly Ringwold) Kiefer Sutherland fares best, and almost manages to breath life into the movie. For those queasy about such things, there's an awful lot of slow motion bull drool getting whipped around.

**** - A relaxed Joel McCrea plays the good/bad guy running from Pat Garrett and squiring a frontier nurse, real-life wife Frances Dee.

*** - Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren are traveling actors in the Old West. Odd little film from Oscar-winning director George Cukor.

*** - Typical Disney western about a pair of separated twins, an inheritance, and a contest to see which twin - both played by Jim Dale; one's an outlaw, one's a missionary - will win a race and get the money. Co-stars Don Knotts, Jack Elam, Karen Valentine, and a host of other generally pleasant actors. Family fare.

** - Suave & assured Yul Brynner is wasted on this stewpot of a western/soap opera/social commentary movie.

** - Screen icon Steve McQueen plays the title character, a modern-day rodeo star. Aimless, pointless, and - from this perch - disappointing collaboration between McQueen and director Sam Peckinpah.

**** - I liked this homesteaders vs. the bad guys, gun violence vs. rule of law, 1930-something b-western better than I should have.

**** - Entertaining take on the Tarzan tale, relocated to America and starring Richard Harris as the English nobleman who is kidnapped and then adopted by a Native American tribe. The initiation rites are still grisly enough to make you squirm.

** - Limp western about a gun-slinger (Clint Walker) who served his time and now just wants to settle down with frontier artist Anne Francis. Walker can't generate the fire a character like this needs. Interesting mainly for the rare appearance of Vincent Price in a western.

**** - Angel Naomi Watts takes in wounded Badman Tim Daly in this thoughtful 2002 Showtime production. Involving and worth your while.

**** - Tom Selleck's the crackshot cowboy who ships to Australia and soon finds himself at war with evil land baron Alan Rickman & his nefarious minions. Fairly recent release in the classic mode.

***** - If not THE classic western, Shane is pretty close to it. Alan Ladd plays the mysterious stranger who rides in from nowhere and stops long enough to join forces with a group of oppressed farmers in deadly battle with a ruthless cattle baron. Alan Ladd's best movie - by far - but Jack Palance nearly steals the movie as the sinister hired gun.

***** - John Wayne's last film finds him a gunfighter dying of cancer. A haunting and memorable capstone to a fine career.

**** - A restrained Burt Lancaster straps on the gun irons and clears out the bad guys in this smart adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel.