Hats Off

I love a good Western, and integral to a good Western are good cowboy hats, right? Hell, yeah. I don't usually wear hats, myself, but I appreciate a good hat when I see one. Three of my favorite cinematic cowboy hats...

3. "You be the Josey Wales!" The Josey Wales hat is a good one. Almost enough to make me forget that he was a no good damned Johnny Reb. Good mix of practicality, looks, and no-nonsense badassery.

2. Speaking of Southerners, Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday from "Tombstone" -- great performance, anchored by a great hat worn at a rakish tilt. His hat has a bit of a big brim for my tastes, but the jaunty angle he wears it at nicely offsets it. It's a perfect topper for a gentleman scoundrel.

1. Johnny Ringo (perfectly played with psychopathic intensity by the one and only Michael Biehn) from "Tombstone" has a great hat. I think he has the best hat in the movie, mingling deadly practicality, a horsehair lanyard, and with that hint of a roguish swoop of the slim brim. Perfecto.

I covet the actors who get their pick of perfect hats, selected for them by the movie's costume designers, and surely pick something ideal for the character and the actor.