What’s the Best Movie Shootout?

Are you partial to ultra-cool shootouts like the set-destroying gunplay in The Matrix? Would you select something from the exotic filmography of John Woo? Are you a pure classicist, going for sturdy fare like High Noon? Would you make the somewhat irreverent choice (as I would) and pick The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly—which is really more about the anticipation of the shootout than the actual bullets flying?

If you thought Movie Irv would have chosen any of the above, you’d be wrong. Here’s his choice:

You don’t want to shoot from the hip on this one. Consider your choice carefully…then fire away below.

  • Tito Pannaggi

    For me is the shootout of “Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid” (1969) the best or maybe “Bonnie And Clyde” (1967). “The Wild Bunch” (1969) was too much. I never seen the whole film again because of its violent ending but i LOVED Movie Irv’s argument. He is a real cinephile. I wish there was more like him around.

  • Jerseyjoe

    I’m not into gore so “Bonnie and Clyde” & The Wild Bunch” are out for me. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is number 1 for me. It still has humor yet you know what lays ahead but it isn’t something you must see to have in your minds eye.

  • Isis

    MY DARLING CLEMENTINE

  • Frankenshep

    Mine is indeed a Peckinpah, but it’s RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962). Scott and McCrea are absolutely magnificent. The code of honor between the two men is tested, but ultimately prevails in the heroic shootout finale all the way through the firing of the last bullet. And if you don’t get a lump in your throat during the final death scene that parts the old friends, then your heart is truly made of stone.

    • Jszostaksr

      Frankenshep: YES!!!  Extremely well said.

      JonJon

  • John George

    Call me a sappy sentamentalist if you will, but I think the shoot out between Jennifer Jones and Gregory Peck at the conclusion of DUEL IN THE SUN is the grand-daddy of them all!

  • Kentgravett

    I agree that Ride The High Country brings that lump in the throat as much for,as an audience member, realizing that those two icons are on their last fight. It brings memories and sadness with a very quick battle. However, for recent times the Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner TV film, Open Range has a great one. It is lengthy, involving many turns and pauses and the eventual involvment of the whole town. Probably one of the longest on film with character evolution as well as action.

  • Wayne P.

    Its hard to argue with any of the picks so far…The Wild Bunch is right up there, as is My Darling Clementine, which is my personal fave, because I like the way the ‘good guys’ at the OK Corral waited for the stagecoach to come by and kick up some dust before making their move on the baddies.  Its good to see everyone going with westerns so far, except for Bonnie & Clyde. 

    George… do you think Ben Johnson could be considered one of, if not perhaps, the best stunt men of all time (Burt Reynolds notwithstanding)?  He was in the WB and, of course, a lot of the great Ford/Duke Wayne pics.  Hes also credited with that great fall off the horse in The Alamo…as well as a highly entertaining fight with Alan Ladd in Shane, which helped change his whole view of the homesteader vs. rustler battle at the heart of the story…he’s very under-rated actor, if you please, and thanks again for another superb topic!  ;)

    • Shadow0109

      I love Ben Johnson, but Yakima Canutt has to be the greatest stunt man ever. He did the stunts on the stagecoach in STAGECOACH. Sliding under it and catching the rear axle and climbing back on the coach, jumping down from the boot onto the horses and jumping from one pair to the next to get to the lead horses! Wow! Also he coordinated if did not actually do the chariot race in “Ben Hur”.

  • Jasonrfleming

    Peckinpah is definitely a genius. The Wild Bunch is my favorite western. For a more modern example I’d suggest Heat the shootout in the streets of L.A. is one of the best. There’s an indonesian film called The Raid which has to be seen to be believed.

  • Brian

    Rio Bravo(1959)

  • OZ ROB

    From the Gangster Genre the most Explosive Shootout would have to go to James Cagney and his demise at the end of White Heat…

  • Blair Kramer

    The shoot-out that opened every episode of the TV show called GUNSMOKE in the early 60′s…  Definitely!

  • Brygolf

    what about my darling clementine with  henry fonda and walter brennan

  • Spencer

    Shane.  It was tense.

    • Blackr423

      I always loved when the dog got up and left the saloon.

  • Kathy

    I loved the shootout between Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West.  That music made it awesome.

  • bonaparte3

    I’ve got to admit it’s hard to argue with Movie Irv on the final shootout in “The Wild Bunch,” but I think I’d also give honorable mention to the shootout in “Open Range.”

    • rufnek

      I liked the Open Range shoot-out better. More realistic. With all of Holden’s lip service to “side the man you ride with” I never bought into the motivation for the big shootout in The Wild Bunch. In real life, bandits and killers look out for No. 1 and don’t give a damn for anyone else. In Open Range, however, the shooters all had something to protect or to gain–they all had expectatons of survival. The Wild Bunch shoot-out was suicidal.

      • Jasonrfleming

        Of course the final shootout was suicidal that’s the point they had reached the end of the line. The Wild Bunch is about the death of the west. At the end when they all say ” Why not” its like saying what’s the point. Holden and the rest realize time has passed them by they have no place in the modern world.

  • Nicklowe1971

    Michael Mann’s “Heat” was the only one I have ever seen that deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as “The Wild Bunch.”

    • Sam

       I agree.  Mann put’s you in the shoes of Pacino, Kilmer and De Niro with the POV perspective.

  • Maxman

    Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo in ‘Tombstone’.

    • Shadow0109

      Oh I forgot that one. Great scene.

  • Brenda

    Definitely “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” with Paul Newman & Robert Redford.

  • Gocorky

    High Noon.

  • Jimbo

    John Wayne in the last scene of his last movie, The Shootist.

    • Emily

      I agree. High Noon is my second favorite.

  • Danpupo10151

    Undoubtedly High Noon, followed by Shane

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Trotman/1405848618 Gary Trotman

    THE WILD BUNCH.
    When William Holden gets his hands on the spandau , watch out.

  • Mickey

    Most of these shootouts are westerns, but that shootout in the train station with the baby carriage, made the Untouchables a “stand out”!

  • Guest

    The best movie shootout is the final scene at Sad Hill Cemetary when “The Clint”, Lee van Cleef and Eli Wallach have the Duel (or “triel”, as they are not two but three)

  • Crbarclift

    The Wild Bunch, without question, that’s never been topped.  My personal runner-up would be the practically prone shoot-out between Paul Newman and Richard Boone in Hombre.  The both just lay there firing away at each other.  Off topic but from the same film, Boone has one of my favorite lines of all time when he addresses Newman: “Mister, you’ve got some hard bark on you.”

  • Doc Dion

    The Outlaw Josey Wales was saturated with the what is is going to happen next scenes. The entire movie gave the viewer over and over great shootouts. The film drew viewers in as though they were doing the shooting. “Just don’t stand there … draw”.

  • Jarod

    Without a doubt it was High Noon. The entire movie leads up to a spectacular shoot out. You just can’t compare any movie to it as far as tension is concerned. One man against a gang of ruthless killers and no-one to help him in his hour of need. And the musical score….well the best there ever was to set the tone of a movie. I guess that’s why this is my all time favourite movie! Not to forget the exciting twist at the very end when it’s all down to the last two.

    • R-higginbotham

      Thank you. I agree. I don’t need blood spurting out al over the place to place High Noon at the top of the list.

  • Rob in L.A.

    “The Wild Bunch,” I agree.

  • Doddfrancis

    “heat “  1995  a classic….

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/CGRLUPNLT6P3VWL42P2VG2I22I hockeyguy 08

    I like 3 in particular, The Wild Bunch, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Magnificent Seven are all good if slightly styled different. 

    • Riogarhed

      I am always moved–sucker partly to the stirring score–as the two saddle pals Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott stride in sync and forthrightly to the three scumbags, already forcing a gulp of consternation from Warren Oates, at the end of “Ride the High Country.” I am moved even though so much of it ought to be cornball-laughable. I think the committed character (in both senses) of the lead actors compel a respect from Oates, and us. I have often wondered if Peckinpah’s frontal shot from below of the two heroes has a deliberate asymmetry: There is so much symmetry–again, you might laugh, yet you are held by it–it is as if Peckinpah arranged it so McCrea looks taller and more massive than Scott just to break the picture up a bit. The shootout itself is brief. McCrea’s lament of three bullets “all in the same spot,” Scott’s almost wordless solicitude are poetry. 

  • Gthomson

    I think Vera Cruz needs to be on the list. A whole movie that is simply a lead-up to a shootout between Lancaster and Cooper

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713983697 Gordon S. Jackson

    Yup, it’s “High Noon.”

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/PODTFFPVEUXYHXVGNS5G5FWKGI DIRK

    I will humbly submit a mention here of RESEVOIR DOGS (gore, for sure but for the Most Unlikely person being the Cop, it was a Big Surprise, c’mon!!!!  There was a reason the film was told out of order).

    • frillbot

      Poor Marvin Nash, followed moments later by the untimely demise of Mr. Blond…..as he stumbles toward the back of the warehouse thanks to a surprise I won’t give away…in case you’ve never seen this great film.

  • Joeyfive

    all are great choices i would add the shootout in western union with randolph scott and robert young against the bad guys not to mention gunfight at the ok corral

  • Blackr423

    The shoot-out between William Muny and everbody including Little Bill in “Unforgiven”.

  • tim ed kenneally

    my favorite shoot-out is between charles bronson and henry fonda in “once upon a time in the west” only at the point of dying do we the audience learn the secret of why bronson is after fonda. the background music by morricone is most excellant, the tight close-ups by leone are legendary and the look on fonda’s face after he is shot is a mixture of disbelief and amazement

  • Joe_m_31069

    The Long Riders

  • lfgbear

    I submit 3 – Antonio Banderas as El Mariachi in Desperado #1 The ”Looking for Bucho” bar shootout, #2 from the same movie the”Together Again…Let’s Play” showdown. 
    The carrot chomping Clive Owen in Shoot ‘Em Up #3 delivering a baby and saving it from 50 gun toting Bad Guys

  • Bill

    I would have to put Heat first, then Butch Cassidy  and The Sundance Kid, honorable mention goes to Bonnie and Clyde then the toll booth scene in the Godfather when James Caan meets his demise.

    • carterce

      Bill, I wouldn’t call the scene at the tool booth on the causeway with Sonny Corleone a ‘Shoot Out’ as far as shoot outs go. I was more a ‘Turkey Shoot’ since he was set up for ambush, didn’t produce a firearm in his own defense or shoot back at his killers. “Shoot Out”??  I don’t think so.

      • Wayne P.

        So true…speaking of turkey shoots…Gary Cooper does a pretty fine job of that using Germans instead of birds in “Sergeant York.”  It may just qualify as a decent shootout!

  • Geneva P.

    Magnificent 7, Outlaw Josey Wales and the OK Corral gunfight with Kevin Costner and Dennis Quaid as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday.

    • Rappa_n

      The older film of ok corral was better.With Kirk Douglas,Burt Lanchanser

  • Usasylum

    I would vote for Open Range with Duvall and Costner.

  • rufnek

    My favorite shoot-out is when Wayne takes on the outlaw brothers in Stage Coach. I like it because it mostly occurs offscreen–you see Wayne’s opening shot as he drops to the ground with his rifle and then the scene switches to the barroom with sounds of shooting in the background, followed by silence until the last brother standing comes through the swinging doors. What’s great about that shoot-out is that the director has the guts to let the audience imagine it in their minds–I can imagine better than Hollywood can portray, so I like it when a director treats his audience like grown-ups without having to show every detail of a shoot-out.

    On the other hand, I appreciate realism over gore, so I like every shoot-out involving Lee Marvin. Marvin is the only actor I’ve ever seen who always looked like he’s really carrying a weapon instead of a prop. Thought maybe it was his Marine experience, but I read somewhere once that on every set, Marvin would work on how he handled a pistol or rifle. As for the realism of a wild west shoot-out, watch him in the dramatic climax of the Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. That’s how the real killers in the old west behaved–never give the opponent an even break.

    Another good example of wild west realism is when Jack Palance murders Elisha Cook on the main street in Shane. The later shoot-out between between Alan Ladd and Palance is one of the most dramatic ever, although for realistic violence nothing can match the fist-fight between Ladd and Van Heflin in that same film. Always wondered how they got such great performances from the horses and cattle that acted so fearful of the violence so close to them, as animals will do in real life. Read somewhere that was achieved by a man wearing a bear suit standing just outside camera range but within sight of the livestock, which reacted in fear of a perceived threat.

    Another example of the real thing in a movie was Glenn Ford’s fast draw. He really was one of the fastest draws among Hollywood actors (also one of the best horse-riders). The fastest gun of them all back then, however, was Sammy Davis Jr.–he really won fast-draw competitions but never got to demonstrate it on screen except maybe the one episode of The Rifleman TV series.

    • GeorgeDAllen

      A terrific appreciation! I enjoyed your focus on the sound element in the beginning.

      Your comment about “not showing every detail” of a shoot-out brought to my mind the great bit from the (terrific) movie “Three Kings,” where George Clooney gets to explain just what makes a gunshot so grotesque. Here’s the bit:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8j4GIRYbZw

      Kudos to David O. Russell for creatively taking the glamour out of gunfire, if only for a few moments. Also, I think, this is in keeping with what you say about a director treating his audience like grownups–showing them something more of “the real thing.”

    • Wayne P.

      Lee Marvin is pretty good, in a losing cause also, for his role in “Seven Men from Now.”  A classic Budd Boetticher western.  The final duel with Randolph Scott over the booty chest is awesome, especially since Scott is not 100% (a bad leg or arm; dont remember). Who ever had to be as long as theyre not the bad guy, back in the day!?

  • CoughlinTh

    “Duel in the Sun”

  • Deipper

    True Romance.

  • Rappa_n

    Gun fight at the ok carool

  • Qazadoo

    Classic…High Noon…Modern…The Replacement Killers

  • Bill

    Kirk Douglas and Burt Langcaster in Gunfight at OK Corral.

  • R. Mcgraw

    Duel in The Sun, with Greg Peck & Jennifer Jones.
    R. McGraw

  • mrbadhabits

    The Unforgiven.  The final shootout in the bar confirms what we learned from earlier in the movie:  it’s not how many or how fast are the guns involved, William Muny was in fact the most cold-blooded killer that ever lived, and we all got it comin’.  All the blood spurting, dynamite throwing, machine gun shooting scenes are great special effects but nothing matches the look in Clint’s eyes when he says he’s killed fwomen and children and just about everything that walks or crawls.  BAAD.

    • GeorgeDAllen

      My own favorite line from that sequence in “Unforgiven” also comes from Clint:

      “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”

  • tunaman62

    Open Range

  • Daisy

    Raiders of the Lost Ark – Indiana Jones vs the black-clad guy in the marketplace

  • Jim

    Shane is always number 1. Alsoh henry fonda my darling clemitine with walter brennan victor jory and ward bond. and Linda darnell as docs love interest. Grear AAAAA+++++

    • hiram

      Victor Jory?  Too bad the only thing histrorically true about the film is that Doc had tuberculosis.

  • Roger Lynn

    gunfight at the OK corral

  • smoky

    I stand with usasylum and tunaman62, the shootout at the end of Open Range is the best. Love the Wild Bunch and Magnificent Seven, but Open Range stands above them. As for a war movie shoot out it has to be the battle for the bridge in Saving Private Ryan.

  • Mary

    I agree with John Woo about The Wild Bunch, but the gun battle at the end of John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946) is also brilliant both in terms of visuals and sound.

  • GoFaster58

    All of these are great shootouts but one of my favorites is Ride The High Country with Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea.

  • Linda

    You can’t beat the music to build up to High Noon, if you hear it you can picture the walk down the street.

  • Mgaffney48

    The Wild Bunch, FYI it’s a water cooled .30 cal. Browning Machine gun. NOT a Gatling gun. Magnificent Seven, My Darling Clementine,

  • Cato

    My roommate in college had  a “Violence in Film” class (is that great or what?) and I bought the ticket just to see the movies (did not take the class).  We saw The Wild Bunch on a Friday night with the rest of the class.  It was probably a self-selecting group, 90% male, but that one scene where William Holden spares that woman in the room, turns his back on her and she shoot him – he shouts “BITCH!” and gives her both barrels – the entire audience erupted with a standing ovation.

    I have seen plenty of shootouts, many good ones, but none as viseral as this.  I had it picked out even before I saw the video.  The best.

  • Evrrdy1

    I think the best movie shootout was in the film, “Heat” with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino.  Realistic, intense, and well orchestrated.  I don’t remember hearing any soundtrack music, which, if I’m correct, lent more realism and intensity to the confrontation between the police, led by Pacino, and the robbers, led by DeNiro.  Do you agree?

  • DEBRES

    enjoyed all the mentioned shootouts but no one mentioned SILVERADO.

    • Wayne P.

      You just beat me to Silverado, but also am not sure anyones mentioned The Quick and the Dead yet, either!   That movie’s nothing if not about a well-staged shootout contest…but Silverado has the exceptional quality of having multiple 1-on-1 duels going on at the same time and switching back and forth, which adds to the suspense IMHO.

  • Gus

    The Wid Bunch!

  • Maxfabien

    The climactic shootout at the end of “True Romance”.

  • Puppalumpa

    I agree with most of the choices. The sound work in “Road to Perdition” is amazing for the guns used. The “hit” that Tom Hanks does to Paul Newman and gang is amazing and almost silent!

  • Silvertungd1

    Could be either one of the shootouts in 3000 Miles to Graceland.  Costner was awesome in that role!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=721613574 Dolf DeRovira Jr.

    Easy Open Range or Heat

  • Jschaefer19

    High Noon!

  • Jerry

    I am not sure that this shoot out would qualify, but when I think of shoot outs that stick in my mind, It was the final shoot out in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.

  • director101

    I love the opening scene of “The Killers” for it’s ballet-like qualities;  the climatic gunfight of “Open Range” due to its realism; and the showdown with Jack Palance and Alan Ladd in “Shane,” because it’s beautifully cathartic. 

  • Czechules

    The opening scene of Hard Boiled (John Woo). When Chow-Yun Fat is sliding down the banister, guns a-blazing – non-stop action! But there are so many others, it’s very hard to pick a favorite. I like all the suggestions!

  • Bowdenj

    High Noon and Shane!

  • TF

    Another Sam Peckinpah movie: The 1975 version of The Killer Elite.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OC6SKJLQDZEY674X7VRYBWH6AI Tom

    When I think of a movie ” Shootout “, I think Western.  Many, if not most, Western shootouts are made up of two shooters; white hat good guy and dark hat bad guy.  In “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”  there are three shooters, none of which are really good guys.  The set-up of the three shooters, in a graveyard, no less  and the close-ups of each shooter’s face, eyes and “gun hand” is ultimate suspense.  You instinctively know that Clint Eastwood will come out on top, but will he ?  The third shooter in the mix, adds the element of “Murphey’s Law” to the scene.

  • Jshowen

    Open Range . It’s the only & obvious choice !

  • Ptemple62

    ptemple62@aol.com

    Definitely Duel in the Sun – they practically shoot each other to pieces and then kiss goodbye!  Don’t  ever see that arrangement anymore!!!

  • hiram

    I think Western, too, and I don’t see how Costner and Duvall going up after Gambon and his boys can be topped except by the finish of The Wild Bunch.  For historical accuracy, the shootouts in the vacant lot next to Fly’s photography studio (not at the OK Corral) in Tombstone and Wyatt Earp top the ones in Frontier Marshal (Earp alone!), My Darling Clementine (no McLaury brothers, and a real dead Old Man Clanton left fictitiously alive to mourn his kids while a real Doc who survived gets killed , and Gunfight at the OK Corral (a ludicrous eight minutes, with three wounded in the Earp party and seven dead in the Clanton).  One-on-one I might consider rifles in the rocks in Winchester 73..

  • Orsh549

    Spaghetti Westerns in my opinion had the best shootouts ever example:  MY NAME IS NOBODY  Henry Fonda in shootout at beginning of movie directed by Leone, Henry Fonda taking on the Wild Bunch near end of movie Classic. There are many more from this genre. MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, SHANE, HIGH NOON, and TOMBSTONE  are also among my favorites.

  • victor0630

    Open range was great and the ending of Pale Rider was super also.

  • watthyer

    Irv gets this one right. The Wild Bunch set the standard.  I doubt it will ever be raised.  Some of the movies mentioned have met that standard, though.  I’m real glad to see so many people appreciating Open Range.  They even went to the trouble of having the different weapons use their own unique sound.  I’m not too sure if that had been done before.  What a great film.  Speaking of sound, I’m so glad to see people mentioning Road To Perdition.  Another fantastic film.
    Shane, The Matrix, and Heat are all some of my favorites.
    Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has a pretty good shoot out or two, and Bonnie and Clyde as well.
    I think Taxi Driver deserves mention, too.

  • Netherlandj

    No contest on this one – although not technically a shootout – Silverado.  Nobody dies like Brian Dennehy!!  That scene will stay will me forever…..

  • OldLobo

    Irv has got it right! No other shootout on the silverscreen can ever compare with the Wild Bunch! (in any of the shootouts) McGaffeny is right also! The MG was a 1917 water cooled Browning, but where is the watercan? And where did Borgnine get those ‘pineapple” grenades?  Another question! How did Strother Martin come to be using a 1903A3 Springfield? That model was manufactured in WW2!   But I still think the WIld Bunch was the best!

  • nooneyboy

    the best movie shootout is in the 2006 movie”rapid fire”.a true story of a bank robbery gone bad.it happend in 1980 in Narco califonia.

  • GrizzlyIX

    As opposed to so much ‘spray & pray’, ala John Woo & Matrix type flics, some of the GREATEST SHOOTING comes from Tom Selleck’s ‘Quigley Down Under’, in which his custom Sharpe’s long rifle should have won an Oscar itself! ! ! !

  • Ultrakaz

    Magnificent Seven of course!

  • Psychotron

    The shootout at the end of “Open Range” has to be included as one of the best.  It shows that you don’t always hit what you shoot at like some action movies.

  • Allanrams99

    The climax of The Wild Bunch (1969). A great shoot out to a great movie.  Lets pray that it never falls victim to Remakemania!

  • Flipgbm

    If you’re reading this and haven’t yet seen John Woo’s “Hard-Boiled”, a direct descendant of the “Wild Bunch”, you should treat yourself to it’s beautiful mayhem, as in the famous hospital shootout, among others, and then re-consider your list. 

  • Jeacoacha

    stage coach with john wayne

  • Plh136535

    the opening scene of Once upon a time in the west

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/OTNWYGESFE535DRONTENX4PMZM MichaelC

    I have to agree with The Wild Bunch final shoot out.  Though I have become a big fan of the Open Range shoot out too.  And then there’s the Reservoir Dogs shoot out.  And then there’s The Shootist and then …  

  • Ann

    End of Open Range for Cowboys
    End of Bataan for War Movies

  • rocman

    Wow, great responses. For westerns one has to think of the opening and closing sequences of SP’s “Wild Bunch”, the “Long Riders”, “Tombstone” , and the “Magnificent Seven” plus “Butch and Sundance”. All Eastwood revenge films. Contemporary, “The Professional”, and a foreign entry called “The Nest”. 
    How about “Blackhawk Down”? A compelling walking, running shootout over the course of about 2 hours that includes the heroism of eventual posthumous MOH recipients Shugart and Gordon as they shot it out with hundreds of Somali’s in an effort to save pilot Durant’s life(which they did).  

    • Geneva P.

      THE PROFESSIONAL!!!!  OH YES!

  • Freton13

    Open Range. can’t beat it.

  • Tcpasss

    the wild bunch. it was a land mark achievment. so many set ups, you can’t even think about doing it  today.

  • Rizzottoj

    No question about it, THE WILD BUNCH.  Sam Peckinpah knew exactly what he was doing behind the camera.  He also had a cast that can’t be beat. Holden, Borgnine, Oates and Johnson, some of the best of the best.  This is followed closely by the shoot out during the Northfield Minnesota Bank robbery in THE LONG RIDERS.  I would definitely give that an Honorable Mention.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/7P5WLTAP7Q5LTHP7733DA5FDZE John Houle

    thanks for not including my comment. nooneyboy35@yahoo.com

    • GeorgeDAllen

      ? Are you referring to the comment below about “Rapid Fire”? We did include it — the comment software intercepted it because you had sandwiched the words “bad” and “it” together separated by a period, which the software interpreted as a link that might be bad. Those things get held for moderation. I fixed the issue and published the comment shortly after you left it.

  • Takeabride2001

    One of the best shoot outs is from The Culpepper Cattle Company…no doubt.

  • Big Pauly

    A Tie. Wild Bunch Inglorious Basterds and Tombstone.

  • golden1

    The bank robbery shootout in Heat.  Especially since it was done in real life several years later in Los Angeles.
    The shootout in Open Range was also thrilling- in fact, the movie was very underrated. More people should see it.

  • Doc

    It’s got to be Tombstone…. Huckleberry  :-)

  • Mdg1054

    The Movie Takers

  • mike

    fastest gun alive, brodrick crawford and glenn ford

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/WQ2BSTMDEES4RIKGT4ECSVRE5I Whirlpooloff

    Several different scenes from Once Upon a Time in the West from the very open to the very close.

  • Claylangemo

    old school  guy  butch and sunday kid 1969

  • che gouvierra

    Bruce Willis deserves at least an honorable mention for his role in “Last Man Standing”.  

  • Thgoodwin

    I agree with Wild Bunch & Heat, but don’t overlook The Long Riders

    • CarterCE

      Couldn’t agree with you more for an excellent gunfight scene. Taking fire from all angles, showing the gang members getting hit and still returning fire, and the use of slow motion had an interesting way of enhancing the action. And after the shoot-out, using the canteen in Randy Quaid’s death scene was one of a kind. “The Long Riders” definitely had one of the best gunfight scenes. The cast assemblying and James Keach’s directing of the movie helped make this a top-notch western. 

  • Kmiller223

    Lest we forget SHANE and HIGH NOON

    • Wedows

      Agree ….Alan Ladd and Jack Palance in Shane. Been in some great movies that
      Jack Palance.

  • edro3111

    Man! How could you really pick just one? I think most everyone on this board has definitely hit upon a great movie shootout.

     I’m not sure how it would be classified but for sheer number of rounds fired, I still get crazy every time I see the Dillon mini-gun and everyone else’s weapons destroy a half acre of jungle on “The Predator” with “Ahnold” and Jesse Ventura. 

    For westerns, I’d have to go with The Wild Bunch as well.

  • Calif.Sunshine

    Two John Wayne’s movies came to mind = The Shootist
    and for humor, the contest in the saloon in  North to Alaska

  • hupto

    Woo’s A BETTER TOMORROW 2 is my pick. Not just over the top but brilliantly so, right down to the samurai sword.

  • truthpro

    “Gunfight at OK Corral,” starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in his finest performance — IMHO.

  • old bob

    true grit   Duke Wayne    ” fill your hands you son-ofa-bitch”

  • Rjwidmann

    Miichael Mann’s “Heat” with Val Kilmer and Al Pacino

  • bsteele2

     The last shootout in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is tops on my list.  The anticipation, the suspense, the distrust in each ones eyes!  Winchester 73 is my second choice.

  • Djcj1

     Open Range is the best !!!!

  • Gendiellee

    Howabout “Way of the Gun” and the apocalyptic shootout in the brothel during the C-section delivery of Juliette Lewis’s surrogate baby? 

  • Buf-guns

    The shootout at the end of The Shootest

  • Jones79

    FOR PURE NOSTALGIA….and the  “straight up and at ‘em” approach, lets not forget “RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY” with Scott & McCrea.

    Lawman

  • Tony

    I Liked the massive shootout @ the end of “In The Line Of Duty:The FBI Murders” starring David Soul

  • ekim smada

    I like the shootout in “Open Range”. It seems to me that shootout was most realistic because you have a crowd of people blazing away at each other at close range and mostly missing! If you have ever tried to hit anything with a hand gun you can appreciate those scenes. I was at the range today and had a tough time hitting anything that I aimed at, and I wasn’t worried about somebody shootin back ….at me!!!!!!!

    • TUfan

      I hadn’t seen your remark when I made my case for “Open Range” a few minutes ago.  I agree, it was a great shootout.  Like you said, it was pretty realistic.  I really liked the way it made you feel each shot as it was taken and as it found its mark.  The scenes in which the crowd all shot at the same time were almost overwhelming, but I was also impressed with how the gunfight slowed, sped up, then slowed again.  Especially in the slower parts, each shot was powerful.  The shot that started it all was the most shocking, then all heck breaks loose.  Then it slows again as Charlie is trying to hit the boss man hiding behind the water trough.  Then when the Doc’s sister is taken hostage, Charlie runs around the back of the building, cuts him off and takes slow aim…. BANG!  BANG! BANG!  Again, shocking.  And that only sets the stage for yet another face off in front of the jail.  Wow, I’m gonna go home and watch this movie again tonight!

    • rocman

      yes, and I left this one off. It’s one of my favorites but question the realism aspect. Real yet unreal, Costner’s character initiates the shootout by drilling the supposed gunslinger/gunhand with a headshot, right off. Nah, no way Jose, but hey, Costners character was obviously the greatest gunman of the West, a good syrupy story and some stilted dialogue I don’t think we’ve ever heard between characters in a melodramatic western – Clint’s Unforgiven run’s counter to all that – love both movies though, AMC’s been running Open Range around the clock, seems like

  • Jaxxr

    The shootout scene in Heat was great for a group fight, but one on one,
    the gun duel between Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone at the end of
    The Quick and the Dead was a classic.

  • James Martin

    John Wayne in True Grit. Reins in mouth, pistol in one hand, rifle in other & 3 bad guys in front, they didn’t stand a chance did they. Well I’m biased as my E-Mail moniker suggests 

    • Panama007

       I’m with you on THAT one!  Duke and Ol’ Beau, driving into Lucky Ned Pepper and his gang!  That’s True Grit!

  • TLC

    Rio Bravo,The shootist, and anything with John Wayne!

  • GYSGTOFMARINESRET

    THAT WOULD BE “THE D.I. WITH JACK WEBB”!     (Yes Sir, I changed my name)

  • Chefnush

    Bar none the best movie shootout was the final shootout in the Wild Bunch w William Holden E. Borgnine and Warren Oates Oh and don’t Forget Ben Johnson !!!

  • Brianish

    If this qualifies, the final scene in “Attack!” where Jack Palance gets his arm run over by a tank, and then goes in the basement and tries to raise his gun to shoot Eddie Albert as the last act of his life, and then dies before he can kill him is one of the best movie scenes of all time.

  • Brolga

    I don’t think either of these two great shootouts have been mentioned so far: 
    - Gary Cooper versus a trio of bad guys in the “ghost town” gunfight from “Man of the West” – an extended and excellently choreographed shootout, this one!and- the climactic shootout between Sean Penn and a group of thugs led by Ed Harris in “State of Grace”. I’d personally nominate the “State of Grace” shootout as the best of all time – it’s filmed in slow motion in the confined space of a basement bar, and really generates tremendous power and intensity.But hey, I know that there are many other great shootouts besides these two! 

  • TUfan

    Among more recent movies, I think the final shootout in “Open Range” is one of the best.  The viewer really feels each shot as it is taken and finds its mark. 
    “Are you the man who shot our friend?”
    “Yep, and the little kid too!  I really enjoyed…”
    BANG!

  • Richard

    My top three movie shootouts would have to be the shootout at the train station on the stairway in “The Untouchables” by Brian DePalma, “Open Range” with Kevin Costner, and one of the most dramatic shootouts in the last 20 years, in my opinion of course, would have to be after the bank robbery in Michael Mann’s “Heat” starring Robert DeNiro,Al Pacino and Val Kilmer.

  • SONNY LACHNER

    WITHOUT A DOUBT, “THE WILD BUNCH” WITH WILLIAM HOLDEN, ERNEST BORGNINE, BEN JOHNSON AND WARREN OATES AND DIRECTED BY SAM PECKINPAW….ALTHOUGH HE WAS NOT IN THE FINAL SHOOT OUT, BO HOPKINS WHO WAS KILLED OFF EARLY IN THE MOVIE DURING  A BANK HOLD UP ALSO HAPPENS TO  BE A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE…HE GAVE ME SEVERAL PHOTOS  FROM SCENES IN THE PICTURE  AND AUTOGRAPHED THEM FOR ME,,,TRULY A MASTER PIECE IN BLOOD LETTING AND BLOWING THE BAD GUYS AWAY…BY THE WAY, MY LATE MOTHER IN LAW WENT TO SCHOOL WITH SAM PECKENPAW IN FRESNO, CALIFORNIA……-30-…..

  • DaveP326

    “Scarface” -Al Pacino or “The Wild Bunch” – William Holden & Ernest Borgnine

  • Panama007

    Try the Duke in “True Grit” as he teethes the reins to drive Ol’ Beau into ‘Lucky’ Ned Pepper and his gang…Fill your hand, you sunovabitch! 

  • Panama007

    I still love Duke (or Jeff Bridges) in True Grit, but I have been reminded of that wonderful Michael Mann film, “Heat,” and that iconic shoot-out after the bank robbery!  Whew!  That was awesome!

  • http://www.facebook.com/hudsonjrp P.g. Hudsonjr

    ” Mean Guns ” w/ Ice – T, ” Bonnie and Clyde “w/ Warren Beatty, ” St. Valentines Day Massacre “, w/Jason Robards and ” Sons of Katie Elder ” w/ John Wayne.

  • bobbyv

    Saving Private Ryan, The FBI murders w/David Soul, Bonnie and Clyde, The Shootist, March or Die w/ Gene Hackman, The Omega Man, Heat.

  • greycrow50

    Goin’ South with Jack Nicholson and Mary Steenburgen. Hilarious and probably more true to life. A whole lotta shooting but no one gets hit.

  • Moorejeffrey9

    Tombstone/shoot em up

  • Dana-thompson

    I love the Ok Corral Shootout in Tombstone

  • Bwillis

    There are TWO   one is “the good,the bad and the ugly”  The other is Bronson in ” Once upon a Time in the West”

  • supernursealana

    I agree with The Quick and the Dead, but the one that I keep coming back to is the ending duel on Silverado, “Good-by Cobb”, “Good-by Paden”.

  • Jimbo

    Both True Grit’s, John “The Duke” Wayne & Jeff “The Dude” Bridges taking on Lucky Ned Pepper (Bobby Duvall & Barry Pepper & their gang.  “Fill your hand you son of  a bitch”!

  • Maximusap

    The outlaw Josey Whales…hello

  • Kitkatpress

    The ending shootout in “The Wild Bunch”  During boot camp we say this a dozen times !

  • http://www.moviereporter.com/ PhilBoatwright

    Kind ofhard to top John Wayne coming up against Lucky Ned Pepper in True Grit.  “Fill your hand…”
    Phil Boatwright, The Movie Reporter

  • Johnfburton

    Oh boy, for me it’s the climatic confrontation in “The Wild Bunch.” Dubbed “Battle of Bloody Porch,” by those who worked on the film, that shootout, which took a week to film, sums up Peckinpah’s themes that run through what I see as his masterpiece. From when William Holden tells the rest “Let’s go,” and Warren Oats responds “Why not?” and Ernest Borgnine gives that little smile, as they march to get their compatriot Angel from General Mapache, it stlll gives me goosebumps. And it really expresses the romanticism, the nihilism and melancholy of the characters and their creator, about the end of their world. And that Peckinpah shot it in slow motion, before it had become so hackneyed, makes it a truly visceral experience.
    Legend has it more shots were fired during the filming of that scene than were fired during the actual Mexican Revolution. 

  • ken

    Wild Bunch movie was entertaining. Pure Hollywood make believe. Great for someone who hasn’t been in combat or a real shootout. One of the best and closest to reality is the final shootout in Open Range. As close as you can get.

  • Christina West

    jimmy stewart, john wayne and lee marvin ‘the man who shot liberty valance’.

    • Wayne P.

      Good pick!  Did you know that theres at least 3 John Wayne movies where someone throws Duke a rifle (not just a gun;) just in the nick of time?  Rio Bravo (Ricky Nelson)…Red River (Walter Brennan)…and, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Pompy-cant get the spelling of that or his real name, right quick:).

      • Foxwatcher63

        Woody Strode

  • Facklerama

    Clint Eastwood in “The Unforgiven” and the one is “Shane” is also good, but the biggest may be “The Wild Bunch”.

  • Joekocimski

    The Shootist with John Wayne and Rooster taking on 4 riders charging at him and his horse buck.

  • Joekocimski

    I forgot – the absolute best is the end of the movie in BATAAN and the moments before this.

  • Agsur4

    There are a number of great western shootouts but for something contemporary and non-western, I would like to mention the shootout in Guggenheim from the movie The International, with Clive Owen. I thought it was a great action scene.

  • gopher

    2 catagories-,modern-HEAT    western-OPEN RANGE, but John Wayne overall had many “a good un”.

  • Stomp

    Specific to Westerns (and I’ve seen them all)  the best ever shootout is with Kevin Costner (and Robert Duval) up against the bad guys in Open Range.  Very realistic.  Has a great emotional component. If you haven’t seen it, get it and enjoy.

    • Jrsepeda

      I can’t believe no one has mentioned The Magnificent 7 – best Western ever and one of the best shoot outs.

  • BobinTX

    I’ve always liked the final battle scene in “WE WERE SOLDIERS”.  Mel Gibson and the Americans charging into certain ambush, with the North Vietnamese guns just waiting for the Americans to pop up over the ridge to gun them down… and then Snake and his choppers, with their side mounted miniguns, rise up over the horizon.

    There are so many good Western shootouts, it’s hard to pick.  the gunfights in “PALE RIDER” and “HIGHNOON” immediately came to mind… but there are so many more.  The gunfights are what make Westerns so much fun to watch.

  • Lawrence Ressler.

    The shootout in “Tom Horn”, starring Steve McQueen in his final movie, doesn’t get the respect that it deserves.  That was a pretty good shootout, too, involving shotgun action that is not all that common in Western pictures.

  • http://twitter.com/Bryankr Bryan Ruffin

    The Good, The Bad , and The Ugly had this tremendous tension builder. They went from one to another and then to another and……built the tension to a fever! That having been said, I think the best is at the end of Open Range. THAT was a great shootout! Fantastic!

  • Dave B

    The final scene of Butch & Sundance.  Hands down.

  • Clupton

    Hard to believe no one mentions The Fastest Gun Alive. Glenn Ford was a fast draw, and this entire film leads up to the shootout at the end, but in a realistic, psychological manner. Even the gunfight is handled psychologically more than physically, with a non-standard result.

  • Sinker

    A current film but incredible shoot outs! Jason Straham in “Safe” with the chinese girl child.

  • William Grove

    I’ve read the comments so far and I agree with them pretty much. My choices are Wild Bunch and Heat. I’ll have to check out Open Range. Thanks for the suggestion.

  • Dave Marchetti

    I have a really tough time picking a single one. But I think I have to go with Open Range.

  • Bill

    Itr’s not exactly a shoot-out, more just a shooting, but it’s James Coburn’s killing of the fastest and meanest gun in town at the beginning of Waterhole No. 3.

  • Vix

    I agree with Dave – Open Range was very realistic to me- I love the sound editing too. Well done.

  • Beckyhiggins1

    Tombstone with Kurt Russell

  • Parkerr71

    the slo-mo ending of the wild bunch!

  • Smurray

    Montgomery Cliff and John Wayne–RED RIVER
    James Stewart and Lee Marvin — THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALENCE.

  • Barryfleckmann

    “The Wild Bunch” (1969).

  • Rick Cardona

    TOMBSTONE!!!!!! The OK Coral shootout! If not that one, then the shootout in Heat when they rob a bank.

    • Wayne P.

      Did anyone else like the bank robbery shoot out in Point Break?  Thought the (semi)-dead Presidents mask routine added something special to the whole scene although it was pretty one sided…there was better stuff to come later on in that picture that was more suspenseful.

  • Uncle Felix

    Lots of votes for Tombstone. But for OK Corral action, I prefer My Darling Clementine.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OCBND5C6EE5EVPF4CKVELWQOQ4 tomas moray

    The Wild Bunch.  Period.  The final shootout is the standard for all movie shoot-outs since.

  • W Tartt

    The final shootout in Tombstone with Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, and Sam Elliott where Bill Paxton gets killed is probably the best, but I also like John Wayne’s True Grit where he holds the horse’s bridle in his mouth and shoots the bad guys while on horseback on the open range.  Both are great movies.

  • Hangarbud

    The Wild Bunch, without a doubt.

  • Bernard

    The Wild Bunch was unlike any shoot out I had seen on the initial viewing. I also never cease to be impressed by the shoot outs that Butch Cassidy and Open range.

  • JoSis

    In Harm’s Way..battleships during WWII.

  • Creepfarm

    What about the final shootout at the end of Tears in the Sun. Very intense and very emotional. Open Range was great to.

  • classicsforever

    “Open Range” is probably the most realistic. The anticipation is built up very well in “Shane”, “High Noon” and “Once Upon A Time In The West”. While the action in “The Wild Bunch” is great, it’s more like a small battle than a shootout. There are so many good ones to choose from.

  • William

    The final shootout in LA Confedential, Final shootout in Set It Off, The Dirty Dozen, The Gauntlet, The Professional, The Professionals. They all come to mind.

  • Wayne P.

    It wasnt all a shootout as is from a period piece, The Patriot, but the final scene and the sword/gun play with Mel Gibson and the bad guy is pretty darn good…especially the ending…which reprised an earlier duel between the baddie and Gibsons son in the picture, played by Heath Ledger!

  • Luigi From NYC

    Luigi From  NYC
    ( Fanfare Guest )
     
    In order of priority –
     
    High Noon
     
    Once Upon A Time In The West
     
    Gunfight At The OK Corral
     
     
     
     

  • Bjodrie

    Streets Of Loredo(1949)

  • TwentyCents

    Lin McAdam (James Stewart) and brother Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally) shooting it out in the Arizona rocks at the conclusion of Winchester ’73.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mike.malfi Mike Malfi

    THE WILD BUNCH………..PERIOD, END OF STORY.

  • Cyfairbob

    Alan Ladd versus Jack Palance, et al in Shane. Relatively short as shoot-outs go, but well done in a very compact setting. I especially liked the short conversation between Ladd and Emile Meyer (Ryker), when Ladd tells him, “You’ve lived too long.”

  • Tropshirt69

    the last shootout from the wild bunch…..bank robery from Heat…….Open Range

  • Meggyx13

    American Outlaws and Young Guns II

  • PKMeans

    The final shoot out in The Shootist where John Wayne gets what he’d asked for. 

  • Alex

    The shootout in MY DARLING CLEMINTINE. and also SEVEN MEN FROM NOW.
    They are the greatest

  • Filmax

    THE WILD BUNCH stands alone, but strong consideration to SHANE, WINCHESTER 73, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, SCARFACE (Pacino), THE SHOOTIST, BATAAN, OPEN RANGE, and for
    pure tension building THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY. 

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/AEI5KB6BJ65OCHYTWZMAH75O3I Jeffrey

    The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, followed closely by The Wild Bunch

  • Vann Morrison

    As far as shootouts go in modern movies, I’d have to say “Sinners and Saints” and “Way of the Gun”.
    But the funniest shootout has to be the one with Robin Williams and Jerry Reed in “Survivors”

  • duncanjay01

    I believe that my favorite shoot-out movies is The Matrix why because there is so much action going
    on and the movie proved to me that Mr. Reeves can do action films and as well as comedy!!

  • HarryFaversham

    Shane…Tombstone w/ Val Kilmer…The Culpepper Cattle Company…and Ride the High Country. Good nose to nose action.

  • Carroll

    True Grit, no question

  • Maggie

    Three favorites: High Noon, My Darling Clementine, and Shane. Wow! Those three really date me!

  • Ganesha375

    True Romance by Tony Scott 1993. (Written by Q. Tarentino)

  • edro3111

    Yeah, Open Range.

  • Christiana19119

    The shootout at the end of Warlock, with Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark.  One of the greatest westerns ever (and the only one I remember where we see the “gun-for-hire” man actually practice so he can stay good).

  • Rick A

    Shane

  • nick

    For me It is John Woo’s “The Killer” the beginning and the end of that film. Unreal yes, but unforgettable. I once gave a tape of that film to someone. He said, Yeah, but it reminded him of Rodriquez ‘Desperado’. As I point out to him, yes but made some 6 years before that film.

  • Susan Green

    The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

  • Steve

    The bank robbery in Heat, The Wild Bunch, & Scarface

  • Marsbonfire2020

    open range,wild bunch,heat,matrix,shootist (my fav john wayne moive),butch c and sundance. lots of good ones

  • Regina

    My Darling Clementine, Rio Bravo, The Westerner, High Noon

  • jampod

    Surprised I haven’t seen anybody mention the shootout at the end of the Outlaw Josie Wales.

  • Eccolima54

    I wonder why nobody has yet mentioned the final duel between Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda in “Once upon a Time in the West”.
    (The scene that contains the flashbacks from when Fonda hung Bronsons elder brother – and of course, the harmonica).

    • nick

       Good point, though the beginning perhaps is a litte better. Remember, sometimes when you think your short a horse, you actually brought two too many. Also, if some have not seen it, you should not give anything away.

    • Mike

      Eccolima54, this is the first movie that I thought of under this topic…..so you are not alone.  It was a VERY good movie.  No one has mentioned Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Westerns ????

  • Willgideos

    Michael Manns 1995 crime heist thriller “Heat”….. the shootout during the bank heist that spills out on to the streets is so well done…..it keeps you on the edge of your seat for about 10 minutes..

  • Danny_gonzalez1

    I like the shootout in Heat and also the one in Miami Vice

  • JohnM43

    The shootout at the beginning of The Wild Bunch – Sam Peckinpah made the damage caused by bullets super realistic.

  • Ponduca

    I agree.  The Wild Bunch is the best.  A close second is Open Range.  My third would be the bank robbery in Heat.  P.S. The is no Gatling Gun in the Wild Bunch.  That’s a Browning M1917A1 .30 Water-cooled. 

  • Chevya2k

    I SOO AGREE!! The Wild Bunch———> #1

  • Wayne P.

    Here’s a different one:  “Enemy at the Gates”  … A great mano-a-mano sniper shootout set against a backdrop of the Battle of Stalingrad in WW2.  Jude Law played the Russian and Ed Harris the German.

  • chrijeff

    The extended confrontation in “Silverado.”

  • John

    I loved the Wild Bunch, Once Upon a Time in the West, High Noon, True Grit and others, but for me John McClain, Bruce Willis, in Die Hard was the best.  

  • TmtJo8

    Hard Boiled by John Woo

  • zohar

    ride with the devil.when i saw the shootout at the store and afterwards i thought it was the most realistic i have seen.

  • Movie Buff

    The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

  • Randallhorn000

    Shane. Fast-on-the-draw Wilson vs. Shane at the climax. Beyond classic.
    The Wild Bunch. The shoot-outs that bookend this masterpiece.
    High Noon. You wait along with Will the sheriff & the shootout goes all over the town. Great.
    True Grit. The bold talk by the one-eyed fat man wins the day. GO ROOSTER!
    Ride the High Country. Out in the open, boldly facing each other. Wow.
    Tombstone. Wyatt goes for it! Blazing away as he crosses the river. Amazing!
    Yes, there are great shootouts in the urban jungle, but I think “westerns” when I see “shootouts.”

  • Leedegrance54

    The Good the Bad and the Ugly

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Perl/1820530613 Gary Perl

    The Climactic bloodbath of The Wild Bunch can never be beaten.

  • Cubby

    The Shootist was excellent.  He went down there after loading the extra chambers in each of his guns.  Wayne had advised Howard earlier on the wisdom of this strategy and now was heeding his own advice.  I enjoy the way Wayne drains the last of the opiate and tosses the empty bottle down.

  • Dog888k

    I thing it would count as a shootout maybe, but at the end of Throne of Blood (Japanese Samurai version of MacBeth), the besieged warlord is trapped in his fortress and the attackers start shooting arrows into him and they keep at it till he looks like a pincusion and the viewer is wondering how long it is till this guy is going to die. He finally dies, but Kurusawa keeps the arrows hitting him for what seems like forever. 

  • Dee6760

    The Good the Bad and the Ugly, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

  • Joestalin

    “Shane” without a doubt.

  • Ohkennyo

    The Shootist,True Grit

  • guest

    The ending of Scarface easily. The 1983 one.

  • JMS

    Bank robbery scene in Michael Mann’s Heat, hospital shoot out in John Woo’s Hard Boiled and final shoot out in Killers (also Woo). Honorable mention to mini gun jungle landscaping scene in Predator. 

  • JMS

    Forgot about lobby shootout in The Matrix. 

  • Chett56

    When Sonny get it at the tollbooth in “The Godfather”, and when Bonnie and Clyde get it.

    • Fjblume2000

      The slo-mo is what made the “Bonnie and Clyde” scene!

  • Hockeyguy

    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or The Wild Bunch….

  • dog888k

    Not so of a shootout as a boneout, when Samson Victor Mature wipes out a whole Philistine army with that jawbone of an ass. No one in the whole Phil. army had the sense to aim a spear at Samson and finish him. They just kept coming at him and he kept whacking them. Kinda like the big battle finale in Kagemusha, when the whole Shingun army kept charging at the enemy troops who fired muskets at them till the whole Shingun army was wiped out.

  • Glogan

    Wild Bunch. Best ending I ever saw

  • Drl1

    Gunfight at OK Corral

  • Chicagomike47

    nothing has even come close to the shootout in SHANE ! even the dog lying down in the bar had enough brains to to get out of there!

  • elginman

    Pale Rider. Clint shot and killed 13 men in 15 minutes. Not too bad.

  • Chicagomike47

    I’d rather face 13 men blindfolded than have to face WILSON {JACK PALANCE}  “HE’S FAST! FAST ON THE DRAW!

    • Wayne P.

      But not too fast for Shane!

  • dog888k

    In Yojimbo(?) Mifune gets surrounded by a dozen bad samurais, pulls out his sword,and kills all of them one after the other.
    And in Hannie Caulder Raquel Welch! kills Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam.

    • Wayne P.

      Toshiro Mifune, cordially, but more respectfully than that, referred to as the Japanese John Wayne (the Duke)!

    • HCUA

      That was a hack-out.

  • Larrykandel

    the wild bunch shoot out against general mapache

  • Workshed

    Stagecoach… rewrote the rulebook on shoot-out editing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mike.malfi Mike Malfi

    THE WILD BUNCH.

  • elginman

    Pale Rider. In a 15 minute period, Clint, a/k/a “The Preacher” wasted 13 bad guys. Top that one!

  • dog888k

    The big shootout at the bank in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid.

  • Barbaramoss1

    WHAT MAKES SHANE STRONGER OVER THE OTHER GREAT ANGLED, ZOOM IN LENS, AND SLOW MOTIONED, BLAST IT IN YOUR FACE MOVIES WAS IT’S RELEVANCE TO THE OVERALL STORY, AND INTENSE UNDER THE RADAR ACTING THAT IMPACTS A YOUNG BOY.

    SHANE BRINGS US INTO THE ACTION THROUGH IT’S CONNECTION TO CHARACTER DRIVEN PATHOS, AND A NEED FOR THE VIEWER TO FEEL VINDICATED.

    SHANE, COME BACK SHANE…..

  • Llmathies

    The shootout in the movie “Tombstone” Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) shot Johnny Ringo. 

    • Maxman

       My pick too!

  • Shadow0109

    This might be kind of out there for this string, but the final shoot out between Col Scott (Dennis Morgan) and Tokyo Joe (Richard Loo) in GOD IS MY CO-PILOT is right up there for me.

  • Doc Reid

    High Noon…

  • Susan

    I loved High Noon. We know for the entire film that there is going to be be a price to pay, but we don’t leave our seats without the ending. Just as Gary Cooper is walking toward the final showdown we are included in a private joke that plays out the tension in the movie ending. If you look in the skyline above Gary’s hat, you can see city buildings and telephone lines in the distance. I love the Hollywood ending that makes me a part of the movie’s story. The shoot out is not only beginning as a genre, but coming to an end as the western set must give way to city growth.

  • 303sbcanady

    who shot liberty valance?

    • John Patterson

      It’s”The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”.

  • http://www.facebook.com/whatever41 Cynthia LaRochelle

    I only seen mentioned The western shootouts, but my favorite was LA Confidential, see it then judge.

  • mike

    Viggo Mortensen vs Jeremy Irons in “The Appaloosa”…… I just loved the stance that Viggo’s character takes , turning his body to offer the smallest target, tucking his left hand behind him and pulling his coat clear of his body to limit interference with his draw. That and how he provokes his opponent, rattling him so his blood pressure will be pounding and his nerves /confidence undermined. Perfect.

  • mike

    And Harvel Kietel and Kieth Carridine in “The Duelists” is another classic.

  • azviewer

    There are a variety of great shoot-out scenes.
    “Rio Bravo” and “El Dorado” have very similar climatic shoot-out scenes. “Rio Bravo” is just funnier with Walter Brennan cackling with the dynamite. However, “Shakiest Gun in the West” and “Paleface” also have similar shoot-out sequences, which are also fun to watch.
    By far, the best shoot-out scene is “True Grit” with John Wayne placing the reins between his teeth and riding toward the bad guys shooting. Just awesome!

  • http://www.facebook.com/hlynnknits Heidi Lynn McDonald Stetler

    “Open Range”. For me this is it without a doubt. I love this movie and watch it from time to time when I have a chance.

  • Cara

    The Wild Bunch is certainly a seminal shootout. But my personal favorites are Shane and High Noon.

  • Cara

    And Once upon a Time in the West, because it was so surreal to see Henry Fonda as the bad guy.

  • THE GUNNY RET

    THE D.I. with JACK WEBB!…..No, Wait, didn’t have a shoot out in THE D.I. with JACK WEBB., Let’s go with the last Battle in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN! The Gunny Sends

  • Robert Feldman

    Gunfight at the OK Coral

    • Robin

      I agree. It’s great because it’s credible. Most shoot-outs in modern films are just plain stupid.

  • William

    No question about it, the best shootout on film is Gary Cooper’s cleanup of the gang in High Noon!

  • Jack Fitzpatrick

    “Open Range”! Nothing compares.

  • TYRONE

    THE WILD BUNCH LATER THE SCENE WAS UPDATED AND USED BY WALTER HILL IN HIS MOVIE EXTREME PREJUDICE.ALSO CHECK OUT THE MOVIE HARD BOILED THAT HAS A NICE BLOODY ONE

  • Monique LaCosta

    Heat. A Michael Mann film. All of his films have a certain attractive quality. The sound editing in this movie was superb. Very realistic and I felt like I was there. Well photographed. Heat is my test movie when I am looking for high definition and good sound.

  • Robert Chalmers

    There are so many great shootouts to choose from, it’s difficult to choose the best. I suppose my favorite was in the final battle scene in “We Were Soldiers”. As Mel Gibson and his soldiers were cresting a hill into a waiting NVA ambush, suddenly “Snake” pops up with his twin minigun mounted choppers. The scene was awesome, even though slightly inaccurate, as miniguns weren’t in use in Vietnam in November 1964.

    • John Patterson

      And of course Al Pacino in”Scarface”!!

  • the Taminator

    The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was the first that sprang to MY mind, which I think says a great deal; also the Johnny Ringo/Doc Holliday scene from Tombsone, and the part in Silverado where Kevin Costner stands at the corner doorway of the saloon and shoots two guys at once coming from both sides!

  • no name

    “Shane”, the last scene were Shane shoots the “Bad Guy”,then is shot and turns to shoot his attacker.

  • http://twitter.com/RotorhedGreg Greg Evans

    It’s not an old classic, but Pacino and Deniro in the movie “Heat” is awesome!

    • Movies_Unlimited

      “approve”

    • http://www.facebook.com/charles.m.lee.10 Charles M Lee

      That was the first one to come to my mind. It was spectacular

  • footcenter

    I’ve always been fond of a few dollars more , with the hat. Also the finale of Bonnie & Clyde is pretty ground breaking

  • http://www.facebook.com/vincent.j.anello Vincent J. Anello

    The Wild Bunch was the first graphic shoot out, and all the gun fights at the OK corral movies starting with Henry Fonda’s, Burt Lancaster’s, James Gardner’s, Kevin Costner’s and Kirk Russell’s Wyatt Earps plus a few of the older westerns

  • Brian

    The Savage Horde(1950)

  • http://www.facebook.com/charles.m.lee.10 Charles M Lee

    There were two great shoot outs in the Magnificent Seven

  • HCUA

    Shane is the best, but, Unforgiven is good when Clint gets Hackman and the rest.

  • cinemabon

    Silverado, High Noon, OK Corral (Burt Lancaster), Magnificent Seven

  • John Patterson

    Definitely”The Wild Bunch”.Followed by John Wayne in”True Grit”and Paul Newman and Robert Redford in”Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.
    Also”Tombstone”;Brad Pitt and Sir Anthony Hopkins in”Legends of the Fall”.
    Jeff Bridges in the”True Grit”remake and Russell Crowe in the”3:10 to Yuma”remake.
    Also,when Denzel Washington gets his payback from the Russian Mob in”Training Day”.
    Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway at the climax of”Bonnie&Clyde”.
    Of course,let’s not leave out Clint Eastwood in”Outlaw Josey Wales”;”Unforgiven”and”Gran Torino”.