Westerns

Ray Winstone in yesterday's Times is interviewed about his obsession with Westerns. He loved them as a kid and he still loves them; he didn't actually say so but I had the feeling he would like to be in one ( he did make an Australian film that was close to being a Western). When he was a kid he played "cowboys and indians" and said that modern children were missing out sending their time with heads bowed over small game machines by not playing games like that - health n' safety rears its ugly head again!
He mentions a few films he liked: "The Searchers" and "High Noon" being particular favourites; he also gave tremendous praise to John Wayne believing him to be a very fine actor indeed. He specially mentioned a scene in "Red River" when Wayne says to his son "I'm going to kill you" wiith real vehemence.
He didn't mention any of the Anthony Mann westerns, the ones that mostly starred James Stewart, like "Winchester 73" or one I particularly like by Mann, "Man of the West" which has an ageing Gary Cooper and an ageing but brilliant Lee J. Cobb (was he ever anything but brilliant?). Nor did he mention "Shane" which is one of the greats, surely.
There are a few I like that aren't considered great or, for that matter, very good. I'm thinking of the one in which John Wayne uses children to take his cattle across country - always given 2 stars in the Radio Times. Then there's "Stagecoach".
I was brought up on Westerns: The Lone Ranger, Buck Jones, Hopalong Cassidy etc. Not much good but good fun and always with the showdown at the ebd where, in all great Westerns, the man in white meets the man in black in the street and it's good against evil.
When John Ford was interviewed, which he didn't like, he said dismissively: "I just make Westerns".
What greater achievement can there be?