For the purposes of this poll, I'm labelling anything post-2000 as modern. There are too many before to do a fair enough poll.

1. Shanghai Noon
2. Seraphim Falls
3. Django Unchained

Had a tough time with number three, but as it is:

1. Django Unchained (A)
2. Rango (A-)
3. Shanghai Noon (A-)

Hon. Mention: 3:10 to Yuma (A-)

So is Unforgiven and Dances With Wolves, and the earlier 90s westerns considered too old?

Just read the original post, nix what I just asked.

I wish you would stretch this out to the 90s and maybe the 80s even

They would have been my 2nd and 3rd choices if they qualified.

Same.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Proposition
Django Unchained

BOM has about 50+ films listed if it got stretched to the 90s and 80s. I couldn't take the criticism of which ones should or should not have been on the poll, so I limited it to an era where all the films relating to the category are in the poll.

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2. 3:10 to Yuma
3. True Grit

Does No Country For Old Men not count?

My #1 is Brokeback Mountain. Don't know if I'm going to vote yet though because I plan on checking out Assassination of Jesse James soon and I have a feeling I could love that one.

Django is such a masterpiece, and I know such a claim coming from me has little gravity to it, but I truly find this gem to capture the spirit of America unlike any other Western. It is a film that takes the most glorified aspects of Americana, namely the Western genre with its brevity for the spirit of Independence and rugged masculinity. And then, the film throws in the scars of America that are so often ignored and puts them right in front of our face. In fact, the first shot in this film is the scars of Django himself. There is no sweeping slavery under the rug in this film.

Shack compared this movie to as a whole to that of its own character Calvin Candie, and where as Shack used it as a metaphor for insult, I find the comparison a compliment. Here we have Calvin Candie, a playboy, a connoisseur, an intellectual, and indeed the very essense of what is desired upon Americans. Yet everything about him is fake, and where this is first visualized is through his teeth, rotting away like the very heart of his soul. There is nothing genuine about him, much like there is nothing truly genuine about American culture, which is one built on hypocrisy.

You can't have anyone else but Leonardo play the role, because everything that makes Leo, both on and off screen, captures the message of the film, and the character. Here you have a leading man who audiences are so accustomed to liking and falling in love with his charm, but Tarantino brilliantly twists those expectations much like he twists your expectations of America through its own beloved genre.

And throughout this film we tare down this character. First it is revealed that Calvin Candie, a francophile can't even speak French. Next we see this proclaimed gentleman, who does not even properly introduce himself, show his real taste, for violence. Is that not indeed what America is, we claim to be this enlightened country, grown for the lessons of the French enlightment, yet where is our taste? It is for violence. We claim to be riding high on our moral horses, but in reality, we want to watch the Mandigos fight, for our own amusement.

But we as an audience, even an American audience do not side with Candie. Of course not, he is vile. No, we side with Dr. King Schultz, a pilgrim in this unholy land known as Americana. This is why the handshake scene is so brilliant, because we as an audience, who haven fallen in love with Schultz, perhaps more than Django himself, truly understand the hypocrisy of Calvin Candie in the parlor that fateful night, when the despicable slaveowner, the acclaimed master of the French refinery, does not even know that Alexandre Dumas was black. We want Schultz to pull that trigger because like Schultz, we have grown restless with this American, and we want him to suffer for everything wrong he stands for.

Basically, Calvin Candie is Tarantino's critique on the whole White-American race.

Just some of my thoughts

1. Django Unchained
2. 3:10 to Yuma
3. Brokeback Mountain

1. Django Unchained
2. True Grit
3. The Assassination of Jesse James

Really? I mean, REALLY?

Surely the spirit of a Western was born with movies like Shane, The Searchers and The Magnificent Seven, so I don't think Django Unchained can capture the spirit more than these types of films. Plus, isn't Django basically a film about slavery? This featured very little in the classic idea of a Western..

The spirit of America is best captured in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Oh, dang, he wrote "the spirit of America". My post was referring to the "spirit of a Western". Ignore my post, Darth.

Did you read the entire post, or just my initial comment and establish a pre-determined conclusion?

Just the opening comment and then I established a pre-determined conclusion.

Assassination of Jesse James
Brokeback Mountain
Django Unchained

Ok, I've now read it all, but I didn't want Candie to die. He was a good character. A man that wasn't afraid to live, unafraid to indulge in the activities that all of us humans love to do. The horror movie genre wouldn't be as big as it is if humans didn't like to watch death and suffering. We're intrigued. Candie, to me, is the best character in Django. Schultz is good, but also kind of boring. Django is paper thin.

I suppose if you don't fall in love with Schultz, it does take away from the power of the film.