Gifts for western fans: a DVD roundup

Once upon a time, westerns ruled TV primetime and the boxoffice. Much like the cop shows of today, they were the vehicle of choice for the best television writers.

On the big screen, of course, directors like John Ford, Howard Hawks and Sergio Leone combined art with commerce, leaving behind legacies as big as Monument Valley.

DVDs are only now starting to catch up with the many outstanding but little-known westerns of the 1940s-60s. The past year has seen a flood of titles from directors such as Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher.

Movie and TV westerns make great DVD gifts for men of the Greatest Generation and their Baby Boomers.

Here’s an honest dozen of the top western DVDs and Blu-rays.

The Films of Budd Boetticher: In westerns, “There’s John Ford and there’s Howard Hawks and there’s Budd Boetticher,” says director Taylor Hackford, who rolls out to honor the late filmmaker on Sony’s essential new five-DVD set. Boetticher did his best work with a series of 1950s B-movie westerns starring aging cowboy star Randolph Scott. These are dramatic plays as much as anything, played out by a campfire, with the men drinking coffee and a woman rustling up some grub. “You can look at them as one long extended movie,” says Boetticher fan Martin Scorsese, in the set’s generous extras.

Ford At Fox: For gift-givers with deep saddle pockets. This heavyweight Fox set contains 24 Ford films — many of them debuting on DVD. The tentpole film is “The Iron Horse” (1924), which received a major restoration and a new roots-style musical score. The movie about the railroading of young America is terrific, all sweep and action. The best-known films include “Drums Along the Mohawk” and “My Darling Clementine.” The set’s “Becoming John Ford” is the latest documentary on the father of the American western. For those who can’t handle the 12-pound set, there are smaller John Ford DVD sets featuring the best stuff.

The Furies: Anthony Mann’s emotionally deep and improbably entertaining western from 1950. The Shakespearean-style tale tells of a cattle barron (Walter Huston) and his feisty daughter (Barbara Stanwyck), who eventually go to war over their enormous ranch, the Furies. Mann is considered on of the great western directors; see this Criterion Collection release and see why.

3:10 to Yuma: The 1957 original, featuring one of Glenn Ford’s greatest roles as an outlaw who manages to outsmart everyone … except, perhaps, for a dirt-poor farmer. One of the few good things that came out of the blacklist were some great existential movies, like this one. Ultimately, it’s a film about the morality of lone justice. Terrific-looking images from the video wizards at Sony. Younger rough riders might appreciate the Russell Crowe/Christian Bale remake.

Gunsmoke: Paramount has done right by the classic western TV series, famously the longest running show in primetime. Matt Dillon, Miss Kitty and the good citizens of Dodge City enjoyed a two-decade ride across TV land. Paramount has celebrated the show with a series of DVD sets. The earliest seasons are a revelation, tough and hard with a sexy side that’s pretty surprising for the times. The show’s dramatic early success often is credited to its adult subject matter, unheard of in TV Westerns of the early 1950s.

The Sergio Leone Anthology: Contains the three great spaghetti westerns the Italian director made with Clint Eastwood, then a TV actor known only for “Rawhide.” They are “A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” The Anthology also includes the DVD debut of “Duck, You Sucker,” a three-hour oddity starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn. Solid extras and commentaries make this an essential DVD box set. If you’re just buying single discs, go with “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

The John Wayne Western Collection: John Wayne’s belated Oscar came for 1969′s True Grit,” a rousing entertainment in which he created the one-eyed bounty hunter Rooster Cogburn. Kim Darby plays kid who sets out to avenge her father’s death, and drags along sputtering Cogburn. Not Wayne’s best, but a crowd-pleaser that seems to get better with age. Also essential: “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”

The Searchers: The ultimate John Ford-John Wayne collaboration, with the Duke chasing down the Indians who kidnapped his niece (Natalie Wood). An American classic. Warner has released the film on Blu-ray and there is a newish double-disc DVD set.

More DVD westerns that’ll please any fan of the genre:

Cat Ballou: Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin star in this comic look at a bunch of misfits who take on the baddest outlaw of them all. Marvin plays both the bad guy and the washed-up gunslinger Fonda recruits to save the family land. A lot of fun.

Rawhide: Clint Eastwood’s rise to superstardom began with this fine hourlong western series. For seven seasons, “Rawhide” brought viewers along on a cattle drive that never seemed to end.

Have Gun Will Travel: Fans of intelligent Westerns shouldn’t miss Paramount’s resurrection of this Richard Boone series. The show, which ran on CBS for five seasons beginning in fall 1957, starred Boone as Paladin, a tough guy do-gooder who ran his one-man mercenary business out of a San Francisco hotel.

The Proposition: For the toughest guys on your list. A violent, thrilling visit to Australia’s Outback in the late 19th century. The rock star Nick Cave wrote the Aussie western and its soundtrack. Stars Danny Huston and Guy Pearce, both sensational.