EXCLUSIVE: Clint Eastwood Leads Look Back at Greatest Movie Westerns

Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner and John Wayne are among the stars featured in a look back at classic movie Westerns, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Their recollections offer a glimpse into the performances, rivalries and personal influences behind the films.

'Unforgiven'

As this 1992 film won Best Picture and Best Director, Eastwood's decision to wait over a decade to play an aging killer riding off to one last job was the right one. "I felt like that was the genre I became known in, it had been so good to me, and that this would be the perfect last Western for me, and so far it has turned out that way.

'Dances With Wolves'

Though Costner won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for this 1990 tale of a Union officer swept up by the frontier, he confessed, "I'm not a fan of most Westerns. It's too much black hat, white hat. It's not the truth."

'Shane'

While Alan Ladd became an icon as the titular gunslinger out to protect helpless ranchers in this 1953 classic, Jack Palance cemented his image as a screen heavy playing Shane's nemesis. That's ironic, seeing how Palance felt about good-guy cowboys Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson growing up: "Those were my heroes."

'The Magnificent Seven'

Chronicling a gang of gunfighters out to protect a Mexican village, this 1960 take on The Seven Samurai had costars Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen taking plenty of shots – at each other. "We didn't get along," said McQueen, then starring on TV's Wanted: Dead or Alive. "I was in my element. He wasn't."

'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'

Culminating in this 1966 epic about three desperados out for gold, director Sergio Leone's Man With No Name trilogy made a name for Eastwood on the big screen. "Sergio was terrific for me," admitted Clint. "I was this young man, having done three years on [TV's] Rawhide, with an Italian director who spoke no English. I thought it was insanity, and that insanity was intriguing for me."

'Rio Bravo'

Costarring Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson, this 1959 rip-snorter about a Texas sheriff who finds plenty of help shooting it out with a rancher's gang was Wayne's answer to High Noon. "[The Western is] the good guys against the bad guys," he said. "No nuances. It's an American art form. It represents what this country is about."

'True Grit'

For this 2010 remake of the 1969 classic, Jeff Bridges didn't use Wayne's Oscar-winning turn as vengeful U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn as a model... but his father, Lloyd. "I used to love it when my dad would play a Western," he said. "When he'd appear at the front door all dressed up in his cowboy clothes, it was a thrill to me."