OAKLAND COUNTY, Michigan (WWJ) — It was an eventful Sunday afternoon on I-75 in Holly as a runaway cow managed to get on the freeway.
According to Michigan State Police, troopers responded to a traffic control request around 2:50 p.m. Sunday along I-75 near Belford Road as a group attempted to wrangle a cow that was stuck in a gravel put on Belford Road.
A group of wranglers on horses and four-wheelers on the shoulder of I-75 attempted to capture the cow, but the bovine outsmarted them and ran across the northbound lanes of I-75.
Troopers shut down the northbound and southbound lanes for safety.
The group eventually captured and removed the cow from the freeway.
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MSP says the cow is now back in the pasture.
100 best Western films of all time
100 best Western films of all time, according to critics
For decades in America, the most popular movie genre was the Western. Audiences loved gun-slinging sheriffs, dashing outlaws, thundering cattle drives, horseback pursuits, and majestic landscapes. More Westerns were produced in the 1950s than all other movie genres combined, but while they have attracted smaller crowds since then, they still have a persistent appeal.
Early Westerns set the standard with cowboys played by the likes of Gary Cooper and John Wayne, and spaghetti Westerns, products of the Italian film industry in the ’60s and ’70s, starred box-office draws like Henry Fonda and Clint Eastwood. More recent Westerns have been romantic and thoughtful like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Dances With Wolves,” and “Brokeback Mountain.”
Stacker compiled the 100 best Western films of all time using data from Metacritic, a site that collects reviews from respected critics and uses them to determine the average rating. Whether you’re a longtime movie fan checking in on your favorites, or new to the genre, there are films on this list for you.
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#100. The Train Robbers (1973)
– Director: Burt Kennedy
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 92 minutes
John Wayne plays a Union Army veteran who signs on to help a train robber’s widow, played by Ann-Margret, find a stash of gold hidden by her late husband. Director Burt Kennedy also wrote the movie, which is action-filled with an unexpected ending.
#99. Appaloosa (2008)
– Director: Ed Harris
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 115 minutes
When a rancher terrorizes a small town in New Mexico, two lawmen, played by Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris, are hired to straighten things out. Harris not only stars in “Appaloosa,” but also co-wrote, directed, and produced it. The story is based on a novel of the same name written by Robert B. Parker.
#98. The Long Riders (1980)
– Director: Walter Hill
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 100 minutes
“The Long Riders” follows a fictionalized depiction of Jesse James’ bank-robbing escapades. Notably, four real-life sets of brothers were cast to play four sets of brothers, including James Keach and Stacy Keach, who played Jesse James and Frank James respectively. The Keach brothers also helped write and produce the film.
#97. The Electric Horseman (1979)
– Director: Sydney Pollack
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 121 minutes
Robert Redford plays a washed-up rodeo star who is hired as a spokesperson for a cereal company. He feels like such a sellout that he steals the company’s horse and runs away, soon followed by reporter Hallie Martin, played by Jane Fonda. Country music star Willie Nelson had a role in the movie and also sang five songs on the film’s soundtrack.
#96. Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)
– Director: Steve Carver
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 107 minutes
In this action Western, a Texas Ranger seeks revenge on the man who hijacked a U.S. Army convoy, injuring his daughter and killing her boyfriend. Chuck Norris stars in the film, which served as the basis for his later television series titled “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
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#95. Bomb City (2018)
– Director: Jameson Brooks
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 95 minutes
“Bomb City” is based on true events surrounding the death of 19-year-old Brian Deneke. In 1997, Deneke was murdered when 17-year-old Dustin Camp intentionally hit him with his car. The film depicts the hit-and-run, the resulting court case, and the perception of the punk rock community in Amarillo, Texas.
#94. Hostiles (2017)
– Director: Scott Cooper
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 134 minutes
Christian Bale plays an Army captain tasked with escorting a Cheyenne chief, played by Wes Studi, back to his home in Montana. The National Congress of American Indians praised “Hostiles” for representing Native Americans well, and using Native American languages appropriately.
#93. El Topo (1970)
– Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 125 minutes
The surreal “El Topo” follows the quest of a mystical man clad in black, traveling on horseback through the Mexican desert with a naked child. “El Topo” means the mole, which the movie says will go blind seeing the sun after a life digging tunnels underground. With Alejandro Jodorowsky as its director, writer, and star, the film became a cult classic.
#92. A Fistful of Dollars (1967)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 99 minutes
Clint Eastwood had his first leading role playing the Man With No Name, who gets involved in an argument between three brothers and a sheriff. “A Fistful of Dollars” is the first film of the spaghetti Western “Dollars Trilogy,” all directed by Sergio Leone.
#91. Never Grow Old (2019)
– Director: Ivan Kavanagh
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 100 minutes
A small Western town is disrupted by the arrival of an outlaw, played by John Cusack, who opens a salon and a brothel. Emile Hirsch plays an Irish immigrant and the town’s undertaker, whose life changes with the villain’s arrival. Bleak and grim, the film was shot in Ireland and directed by Irish director and screenwriter Ivan Kavanagh.
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#90. The Horse Whisperer (1998)
– Director: Robert Redford
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 170 minutes
“The Horse Whisperer” is about Tom Booker, a horse trainer who helps a girl and her horse recover after a traumatizing accident. Robert Redford played Booker, and directed the film. He was nominated for best director at the 56th Golden Globe Awards.
#89. The Missouri Breaks (1976)
– Director: Arthur Penn
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 126 minutes
Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, and Randy Quaid head up the cast of “The Missouri Breaks,” a film about a horse thief, a rancher, and an avenger. Arthur Penn also directed “The Miracle Worker,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” and “Little Big Man.” It was written by novelist Thomas McGuane.
#88. The Beguiled (1971)
– Director: Don Siegel
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 105 minutes
Set in the American Civil War, “The Beguiled” depicts a girls school in Mississippi. When one of the students comes across a wounded Union corporal, played by Clint Eastwood, the teacher must decide what to do with him. This film was based on a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan, which was the inspiration for a 2017 movie also titled “The Beguiled.”
#87. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
– Director: George Roy Hill
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 110 minutes
Outlaws Butch Cassidy, played by Paul Newman, and the Sundance Kid, played by Robert Redford, flee to South America after a failed train robbery. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” won the most awards at the 42nd Academy Awards ceremony, taking home four Oscars.
#86. Bronco Billy (1980)
– Director: Clint Eastwood
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 116 minutes
Clint Eastwood stars as Bronco Billy, a cowboy barely keeping his traveling circus afloat. He’s able to hire a new assistant, played by Sondra Locke, but his troubles don’t end. Although the film received mostly positive reviews, Locke was nominated for a Razzie Award for worst actress.
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#85. The Wind (2019)
– Director: Emma Tammi
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 86 minutes
This mix of Western and horror genres depicts the descent into madness of Lizzy Macklin, an isolated 19th century frontierswoman played by Caitlin Gerard. The pared-down story is presented in flashbacks and out-of-sequence scenes as she recalls them. One reviewer wrote: “It’s about a loneliness so overwhelming that it becomes terrifying.”
#84. The Last Christeros (2013)
– Director: Matias Meyer
– Metascore: 67
– Runtime: 89 minutes
The story picks up in 1929 at the end of the Cristero War, a conflict that erupted when the Mexican government limited the rights of the Catholic church. Though the war is over, a group of Christian guerrillas are not done fighting for religious freedom.
#83. Open Range (2003)
– Director: Kevin Costner
– Metascore: 67
– Runtime: 139 minutes
When threatened by a corrupt land baron, a cattle crew leader must use the skills he gained during his time as a soldier to defend himself. Kevin Costner directed and starred in the film along with Robert Duvall, Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, and Michael Jeter. “Open Range” was Jeter’s last film, as he died in March 2003.
#82. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
– Director: Andrew Dominik
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 160 minutes
Robert Ford, played by Casey Affleck, starts out as a young fan hoping to join the group of outlaws led by Jesse James, played by Brad Pitt. After Ford finally earns his place in the gang, his relationship with James turns sour. The film was nominated for a number of awards, and recognized as one of the best films of 2007 by numerous critics.
#81. The Desert Bride (2018)
– Directors: Cecilia Atán, Valeria Pivato
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 78 minutes
An Argentinian maid is travelling to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a new job. On her trip, her bus breaks down, leading to a chance encounter with a man named El Gringo, and the beginning of her true journey.
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#80. The Hateful Eight (2015)
– Director: Quentin Tarantino
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 187 minutes
In this Quentin Tarantino Western, eight travelers take cover from the winter weather in a lodge and end up getting into a lot more trouble than they expected. The ensemble cast includes Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The film won a number of awards, including an Academy Award for its soundtrack.
#79. My Name Is Nobody (1974)
– Directors: Sergio Leone, Tonino Valerii
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 117 minutes
In this spaghetti Western, Henry Fonda plays aging gunslinger Jack Beauregard, who wants to retire, and Terence Hill plays a young gunfighter who idolizes him and wants to arrange one last shoot-out. One reviewer called it “part spoof, part farewell to the frontier myth.”
#78. The Homesman (2014)
– Director: Tommy Lee Jones
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 122 minutes
Mary Bee Cuddy, played by Hillary Swank, takes on the task of escorting three mentally ill women from Nebraska to a church in Iowa. George Briggs, played by Tommy Lee Jones, is about to be lynched for a crime, but Cuddy saves him on the pretense that he will help her on the journey. Jones also co-wrote the screenplay and directed the film.
#77. The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2010)
– Director: Ji-woon Kim
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 130 minutes
This South Korean Western follows two bandits and a bounty hunter as they battle to obtain a treasure map. It plays off “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” one of the most lauded Western films of all time.
#76. Death of a Gunfighter (1969)
– Directors: Alan Smithee, Don Siegel, Robert Totten
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 94 minutes
The Texas town of Cottonwood Springs decides to fire its old-style marshal, but he refuses to leave, arguing that the town promised him the job for life. It features Richard Widmark, Lena Horne, and Carroll O’Connor, who went on to star as the iconic Archie Bunker in television’s hit show “All in the Family.”
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#75. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
– Director: Clint Eastwood
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 135 minutes
This Western is a revenge story, with main character Josey Wales hunting down the Union militants who killed his family during the Civil War. Clint Eastwood plays the titular character and also directed the film.
#74. High Plains Drifter (1973)
– Director: Clint Eastwood
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 105 minutes
“High Plains Drifter” is about a stranger who comes to town and is subsequently hired to unite the townsfolk before three outlaws arrive. Clint Eastwood directed and starred in this Western.
#73. Ride With the Devil (1999)
– Director: Ang Lee
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 138 minutes
Set during the American Civil War, “Ride With the Devil” is about a man who joins the Bushwackers, a guerilla gang fighting against the Union. Tobey Maguire plays the lead character Jake Roedel. The movie is based on the novel “Woe to Live On” by Daniel Woodrell.
#72. Cimarron (1931)
– Director: Wesley Ruggles
– Metascore: 70
– Runtime: 123 minutes
In “Cimarron,” a newspaper editor played by Richard Dix and his wife, played by Irene Dunne, join the land rush to the rough frontier of Oklahoma. It was the first movie to be nominated in every major Academy Award category, the first Western movie to win an Oscar, and the first Western movie to win for Best Picture. Not until 1990 did another Western, “Dances With Wolves,” win the Oscar for best picture.
#71. The Great Race (1965)
– Director: Blake Edwards
– Metascore: 71
– Runtime: 160 minutes
The Great Leslie and his rival Professor Fate compete in a daredevil race from New York to Paris—west across America to the Bering Strait and Russia—in a contest sponsored by automakers to boost sales. Tony Curtis plays The Great Leslie, Jack Lemmon plays Professor Fate, and Natalie Wood and Peter Falk round out a top-notch comic cast. The film was dedicated to silent movie comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
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#70. Slow West (2015)
– Director: John Maclean
– Metascore: 72
– Runtime: 84 minutes
Kodi Smit-McPhee plays a young man who leaves Scotland for the American West in search of his lost love. Michael Fassbender plays an outlaw who offers to assist him. “Slow West” is directed by John Maclean.
#69. Dances With Wolves (1990)
– Director: Kevin Costner
– Metascore: 72
– Runtime: 181 minutes
A Union Army lieutenant is stationed way out West in the American frontier. Once he reaches his post, he begins to form relationships with the local Indigenous people. Kevin Costner starred in and directed this film, which went on to win the Academy Award for best picture.
#68. Bone Tomahawk (2015)
– Director: S. Craig Zahler
– Metascore: 72
– Runtime: 132 minutes
When cannibals capture three residents of a small town, the sheriff and his team set off to rescue them. This Western horror film was written and directed by S. Craig Zahler, who also contributed to the soundtrack.
#67. News of the World (2020)
– Director: Paul Greengrass
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 118 minutes
Tom Hanks stars as a veteran Civil War captain and storyteller who agrees to accompany a girl returning to her family after being taken by the Kiowa people six years earlier. The two travel hundreds of miles of dangerous frontier. The making of the movie marked a reunion of Hanks and director Paul Greengrass, who had worked together on “Captain Phillips,” a film about the hijacking of a U.S. container ship by Somali pirates.
#66. Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018)
– Director: Michael Matthews
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 120 minutes
Set in South Africa during apartheid, “Five Fingers for Marseilles” begins when a young man named Tau kills two corrupt policemen. When he is released from prison two decades later, Tau wishes to renounce violence and return home. A new threat, however, prevents him from leading the peaceful life he desires.
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#65. Blazing Saddles (1974)
– Director: Mel Brooks
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 93 minutes
Mel Brooks directed and co-wrote this raunchy Western, which made American Film Institute’s list of America’s 100 Funniest Movies, coming in at #6. The film satirizes Western films and their racism by building the plot around a Black man appointed sheriff of an all-white town. Cleavon Little stars as Bart, the newly appointed sheriff, while Gene Wilder plays Jim, an alcoholic who quickly becomes his friend. Mel Brooks also appears.
#64. Skin Game (1971)
– Director: Gordon Douglas, Paul Bogart
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 102 minutes
Set before the Civil War, two men set up a con to sell one of them, who is Black, to an enslaver, with plans to split the profits when he escapes. It stars James Garner, Louis Gossett Jr., and Ed Asner. The film drew controversy and protests for using a white man in Black face as Gossett’s stunt double.
#63. The Proposition (2006)
– Director: John Hillcoat
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 104 minutes
“The Proposition” is an Australian Western directed by John Hillcoat. Police Capt. Stanley offers a proposition to outlaw Charlie Burns: He can walk free if he kills his older brother Arthur. If Charlie cannot follow through within nine days, his younger brother Mikey will be hanged.
#62. Little Woods (2019)
– Director: Nia DaCosta
– Metascore: 74
– Runtime: 105 minutes
Tessa Thompson and Lily James play estranged sisters struggling to get by in small-town North Dakota. One of the sisters has quit the life of smuggling drugs across the Canadian border, but is drawn back in by a series of family crises. The debut by writer and director Nia DaCosta won critical acclaim.
#61. Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde (2013)
– Director: Suzanne Mitchell
– Metascore: 74
– Runtime: 93 minutes
Suzanne Mitchell’s documentary includes footage shot over the course of a decade. Her subject is Dayton O. Hyde, a conservationist cowboy who devoted his life to creating and running the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary.
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#60. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
– Director: John Sturges
– Metascore: 74
– Runtime: 128 minutes
This epic tells the story of seven gunfighters hired to protect a Mexican peasant village from brutish, marauding bandits. The all-star cast includes Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and James Coburn. It is loosely based on the “Seven Samurai” by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.
#59. For a Few Dollars More (1967)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– Metascore: 74
– Runtime: 132 minutes
In the second film of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy,” Clint Eastwood plays Manco, a bounty killer who teams up with another bounty killer to take down murderous outlaw El Indio. Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni claims to have written the screenplay in nine days.
#58. True History of the Kelly Gang (2020)
– Director: Justin Kurzel
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 124 minutes
Based on a novel by Peter Carey, this film was the latest of several to portray the lives of outlaw Ned Kelly, played by English actor George MacKay, and the Kelly Gang in the Australian bush in the 1870s. Previous movie versions featured Heath Ledger and Mick Jagger as Kelly.
#57. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
– Director: Stanley Donen
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 102 minutes
After a backwoodsman brings his new wife home, his six brothers are inspired to look for wives as well. This Western musical was met with positive reviews and included on the American Film Institute’s list of Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time.
#56. The Professionals (1966)
– Director: Richard Brooks
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 117 minutes
A wealthy Texan hires a team of men to rescue his wife who has been kidnapped in Mexico. The cast includes Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Claudia Cardinale, Jack Palance, and Ralph Bellamy. Academy Award-winning Richard Brooks also directed such acclaimed films as “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “In Cold Blood,” “Lord Jim,” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
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#55. Django (1966)
– Director: Sergio Corbucci
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 91 minutes
The spaghetti Western set along the U.S.-Mexico border features a former Union soldier, a hunted runaway, a pack of white supremacists, and Mexican revolutionaries in violent confrontation. It was loosely based upon “Yojimbo” by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, as was “A Fistful of Dollars” by Sergio Leone, and its title refers to guitar great Django Reinhardt.
#54. The Retrieval (2014)
– Director: Chris Eska
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 92 minutes
Set at the start of the American Civil War, “The Retrieval” stars Ashton Sanders as Will, a Black boy who is under the influence of slave-hunter Burrell. Burrell is keeping Will’s uncle captive, so Will has no choice but to agree when he’s sent on a mission to catch an escaped slave in Union territory.
#53. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
– Director: Sydney Pollack
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 108 minutes
Robert Redford plays the title character, a Civil War veteran who heads west for a solitary life, and struggles to co-exist with the Crow Indians. The film, which took seven-and-a-half months to edit, was the first Western ever entered into competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
#52. Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys (2014)
– Director: Jessica Oreck
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 84 minutes
Jessica Oreck’s documentary follows a family of Finnish reindeer herders for one year. Though the film does not contain much dialogue, it still communicates a great deal about this challenging lifestyle.
#51. Dead Man’s Burden (2013)
– Director: Jared Moshe
– Metascore: 76
– Runtime: 93 minutes
Post-Civil War, a husband and wife living in New Mexico are struggling to stay afloat. When a mining company shows interest in buying their property, things start looking up, until the wife’s brother arrives home from the war. Clare Bowen is the lead in this Western; she also starred in the country musical television show “Nashville.”
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#50. The Revenant (2015)
– Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
– Metascore: 76
– Runtime: 156 minutes
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a hunter who is attacked by a bear and left to find his own way to safety through the frozen wilderness. “The Revenant” earned DiCaprio the Academy Award for best actor, his first Oscar, being nominated five times previously.
#49. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
– Director: James Mangold
– Metascore: 76
– Runtime: 122 minutes
Set in New Mexico, “3:10 to Yuma” is a remake of a 1957 film of the same name. It stars Christian Bale as a rancher who is given the challenging task of bringing an outlaw, played by Russell Crowe, to prison.
#48. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
– Director: Tommy Lee Jones
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 121 minutes
A young man hopes to honor his deceased best friend by bringing him to his hometown in Mexico for a proper burial. This Western, directed by Tommy Lee Jones, was inspired by the real murder of Esequiel Hernandez Jr., an American high school student who was shot by a United States marine.
#47. Jauja (2015)
– Director: Lisandro Alonso
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 109 minutes
Viggo Mortensen stars in “Jauja” as Captain Gunnar Dinesen. After Dinesen’s daughter runs away with a soldier, he must travel into unknown worlds to find her.
#46. Westworld (1973)
– Director: Michael Crichton
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 88 minutes
In “Westworld,” a Western-themed amusement park is populated with realistic androids that entertain their adult guests. This science-fiction thriller was the basis for the popular HBO television series of the same name.
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#45. Shanghai Noon (2000)
– Director: Tom Dey
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 110 minutes
Chon Wang, played by Jackie Chan, attempts to save a princess who has been kidnapped and brought to the United States. Along the way he teams up with the train robber Roy O’Bannon, played by Owen Wilson. This is the first movie in the “Shanghai” series, the second being “Shanghai Knights,” and “Shanghai Dawn,” a third rumored to be in the works.
#44. Duck, You Sucker (1972)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 138 minutes
Rod Steiger portrays a Mexican outlaw in this film, and together with James Coburn, who plays an Irish explosives expert, they find themselves in the middle of the Mexican Civil War. After “Once Upon a Time in the West,” this Western was the second in director Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time Trilogy.” The third film was “Once Upon a Time in America.”
#43. Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
– Directors: Busby Berkeley, George Sidney
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 107 minutes
Based on the 1946 stage musical of the same name, “Annie Get Your Gun” showcases the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Judy Garland was initially cast in the lead role, but after alleged issues with her on the set, she was replaced by Betty Hutton.
#42. The Shootist (1976)
– Director: Don Siegel
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 100 minutes
John Bernard Books led a long life as a talented shootist, but now is suffering from cancer and searching for the best way to die. Books was John Wayne’s final film role; he himself died of stomach cancer a few years after the film was released.
#41. The Misfits (1961)
– Director: John Huston
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 125 minutes
Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable star in the story of a divorced woman and an aging cowboy. Monroe was married at the time to Arthur Miller, who wrote the screenplay, and their union unraveled during filming in part over her unhappiness with the way her character was written. Gable died of a heart attack just days after filming ended, and Monroe died about a year and a half later.
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#40. Lone Star (1996)
– Director: John Sayles
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 135 minutes
After the skeleton of a despised sheriff is discovered, current sheriff Sam Deeds begins an investigation into the murder. “Lone Star” was highly rated, and nominated for a number of awards, including the Academy Award for writing.
#39. The Sisters Brothers (2018)
– Director: Jacques Audiard
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 121 minutes
Set in Oregon during the Gold Rush, a pair of assassins known as the Sisters brothers chase down a man who claims to have developed a formula for finding gold. John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix star as the infamous brothers.
#38. Becoming Bulletproof (2015)
– Director: Michael Barnett
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 80 minutes
“Becoming Bulletproof” is a documentary that captures the production of another film: a Western being made by a group of adults with disabilities. Director Michael Barnett showcases the individuals participating in the acting camp run by Zeno Mountain Farm, a nonprofit that organizes recreational programs.
#37. The Westerner (1940)
– Director: William Wyler
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 100 minutes
Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper star in “The Westerner,” which depicts the relationship between a self-appointed corrupt lawman and the drifter who stands up to him. Brennan received his third Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role as Judge Roy Bean, which is the record for most wins in this category.
#36. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
– Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
– Metascore: 79
– Runtime: 133 minutes
The Coen brothers wrote and directed this Western epic, which follows six stories of the American frontier. Each chapter has a different cast, featuring actors like James Franco, Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, and Zoe Kazan. The film became available on Netflix in 2018, after it ran in theaters.
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#35. Shane (1953)
– Director: George Stevens
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 118 minutes
The saga of a Western land conflict between cattlemen and settlers was supposed to shoot in 48 days with a budget of less than $2 million. Instead it took 75 days to shoot and cost more than $3 million, in part due to a long editing process. The lines “Shane. Shane. Come back!” became iconic.
#34. Sweetgrass (2010)
– Directors: Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 101 minutes
“Sweetgrass” is a documentary about shepherds working in the mountains of Montana. Anthropologist Lucien Castaing-Taylor directed the film, while his wife Ilisa Barbash produced it.
#33. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
– Director: Sam Peckinpah
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 112 minutes
A pair of bounty hunters set off in Mexico on the trail of a man wanted by a wealthy father for impregnating his daughter. It stars Warren Oates, Emilio Fernandez, Gig Young, and Robert Webber, and Kris Kristofferson appears as a biker. The movie was trounced by critics when it was released.
#32. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 175 minutes
A harmonica-wielding stranger teams up with a desperado to save a widow in this spaghetti Western. While initially receiving mixed reviews, “Once Upon a Time in the West” has since received many accolades, including being named one of the 100 greatest films of all time by Time magazine.
#31. Hombre (1967)
– Director: Martin Ritt
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 111 minutes
Paul Newman plays John Russell, a white man raised by Apaches. On his way to collect his inheritance, the other travelers treat him poorly for his upbringing. When the stagecoach is robbed, Russell is the only one who can save them.
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#30. True Grit (2010)
– Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 110 minutes
“True Grit” is a Coen brothers adaption of a novel by Charles Portis, which had already been made into a movie in 1969. Hailee Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a girl seeking to avenge her father’s death. She hires U.S. Marshal Reuben Cogburn, played by Jeff Bridges, to assist her.
#29. Destry Rides Again (1939)
– Director: George Marshall
– Metascore: 81
– Runtime: 95 minutes
Jimmy Stewart is Thomas Jefferson Destry Jr., a deputy sheriff who wants to keep the peace in the lawless town of Bottleneck without using guns. Marlene Dietrich plays a not-to-be-trusted saloon singer. The lead role was meant to go to Gary Cooper, but he demanded too much money to play the part.
#28. Django Unchained (2012)
– Director: Quentin Tarantino
– Metascore: 81
– Runtime: 165 minutes
A freed slave, played by Jamie Foxx, journeys to save his wife, played by Kerry Washington, from a Mississippi plantation, accompanied by a German bounty hunter. Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the film.
#27. Bacurau (2020)
– Directors: Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho
– Metascore: 82
– Runtime: 131 minutes
A remote town in Brazil disappears off satellite maps, loses its cellular service, and empty coffins appear at the side of the road. The town’s oddball cast of characters then must defend themselves against corrupt and greedy politicians and businesses. Former President Barack Obama listed it as one of his favorite movies of 2020.
#26. 3 Godfathers (1949)
– Director: John Ford
– Metascore: 82
– Runtime: 106 minutes
Three fugitive bank robbers—played by John Wayne, Harry Carey Jr., and Pedro Armendáriz—risk capture to take care of a newborn baby. John Ford had directed an earlier silent version of the film, “Marked Men,” with Harry Carey Sr., and this version features the silent actor’s son.
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#25. Johnny Guitar (1954)
– Director: Nicholas Ray
– Metascore: 83
– Runtime: 110 minutes
Joan Crawford stars opposite Mercedes McCambridge in this story about a headstrong saloon owner who is wrongly accused of murder. Despite initially receiving negative reviews, “Johnny Guitar” is now positively regarded, and was included in the Chicago Reader’s list of 100 best American movies.
#24. True Grit (1969)
– Director: Henry Hathaway
– Metascore: 83
– Runtime: 128 minutes
John Wayne takes top billing in the story of gruff, one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, who sets off to help avenge a killing, accompanied by a teenage girl played by Kim Darby and a Texas Ranger played by Glen Campbell. Elvis Presley is said to have been considered for the Texas Ranger role, but when his manager Col. Tom Parker wanted Presley to get top billing, the part went to Campbell.
#23. Old Yeller (1957)
– Director: Robert Stevenson
– Metascore: 84
– Runtime: 83 minutes
In this first live-action Disney film, the title character is a stray yellow dog who appears and helps protect a Texas ranch family after the Civil War while their father has gone on a cattle drive. It was based on the award-winning book of the same name by Texas writer and journalist Fred Gipson.
#22. Aferim! (2016)
– Director: Radu Jude
– Metascore: 84
– Runtime: 108 minutes
Set in 19th century Romania, an enslaved man has run away from his master’s home after having an affair with his wife. A local policeman is hired to find him. The director Radu Jude won the Silver Bear Award for best director at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.
#21. Giant (1956)
– Director: George Stevens
– Metascore: 84
– Runtime: 201 minutes
This Western epic starred Rock Hudson as a Texas cattle rancher, Elizabeth Taylor as his wife, and James Dean as cowhand Jett Rink. It was Dean’s last movie role. The young actor had major roles in only three films before he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1955, before “Giant” was released. George Stevens won an Oscar for best director.
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#20. Meek’s Cutoff (2011)
– Director: Kelly Reichardt
– Metascore: 85
– Runtime: 104 minutes
This Western survival film follows a group of settlers traveling across an Oregon desert. It becomes apparent that their guide has gotten them lost. The ensemble cast includes Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, and Neal Huff.
#19. Unforgiven (1992)
– Director: Clint Eastwood
– Metascore: 85
– Runtime: 131 minutes
Clint Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in this highly lauded Western. Eastwood plays William Munny, a retired bandit who takes on one final job in hopes of putting the money toward his failing farm. It won Oscars for best picture, best director, best supporting actor, and best fIlm editing.
#18. El Dorado (1967)
– Director: Howard Hawks
– Metascore: 85
– Runtime: 126 minutes
John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan star in the story of a gunfighter and a sheriff caught up in a battle between rival ranchers over water. Hawks also directed such acclaimed films as “Scarface,” “His Girl Friday,” “To Have and Have Not,” “The Big Sleep,” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” A racist scene of Caan impersonating a Chinese man is often edited out of television rebroadcasts.
#17. Bisbee ’17 (2018)
– Director: Robert Greene
– Metascore: 87
– Runtime: 112 minutes
Robert Greene’s documentary centers on a town bordering Arizona and Mexico. The community grapples with its past by holding a reenactment of a day that occurred 100 years earlier when more than 1,000 immigrant miners were deported.
#16. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
– Director: Ang Lee
– Metascore: 87
– Runtime: 134 minutes
Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, “Brokeback Mountain” follows the complicated romantic relationship between two cowboys over two decades. Stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, and Michelle Williams were all nominated for Academy Awards. The film failed to win the Oscar for Best Picture, leading to discussions on whether that decision was in part due to homophobia.
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#15. Sweet Country (2018)
– Director: Warwick Thornton
– Metascore: 87
– Runtime: 113 minutes
Set in the Australian outback, “Sweet Country” explores what happens when an Aboriginal farmer kills a white man in self-defense, and is forced to flee for his life. Warwick Thornton directs this Western that features Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, and Hamilton Morris.
#14. High Noon (1952)
– Director: Fred Zinnemann
– Metascore: 89
– Runtime: 85 minutes
Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, faces a dilemma when outlaws threaten to kill him. His wife, played by Grace Kelly, wants him to leave town rather than defend himself. A number of U.S. presidents have listed “High Noon” as one of their favorite films.
#13. Western (2015)
– Directors: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross
– Metascore: 89
– Runtime: 92 minutes
German construction workers start a project in the Bulgarian countryside where their differences from the locals quickly become apparent. Valeska Grisebach directed this film, and the entire cast was made up of non-professional actors.
#12. The Yearling (1947)
– Director: Clarence Brown
– Metascore: 89
– Runtime: 128 minutes
Gregory Peck plays a Civil War veteran working on a Florida farm with his wife, played by Jane Wyman, and their son, played by Claude Jarman Jr., who adopts an orphaned fawn for companionship. Wyman, who was the first wife of former President Ronald Reagan, went on to star decades later in the prime-time television soap opera “Falcon Crest.”
#11. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– Metascore: 90
– Runtime: 161 minutes
The epic spaghetti Western stars Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach as rough characters seeking Confederate gold. Italian director Sergio Leone did not speak English, and he had to use an interpreter to communicate with his English-speaking actors. The film is part of a trilogy with “A Fistful of Dollars” in 1964 and “For a Few Dollars More” in 1965.
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#10. No Country for Old Men (2007)
– Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
– Metascore: 91
– Runtime: 122 minutes
Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin star in this Western, which begins when a botched drug deal is interrupted by a hunter. “No Country for Old Men” won the Academy Award for best picture, and Bardem won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar.
#9. The Rider (2018)
– Director: Chloé Zhao
– Metascore: 92
– Runtime: 104 minutes
Chloe Zhao directed this Western drama, which centers on Brady Jandreau, a young man struggling to find his purpose after a brain injury halts his rodeo career. “The Rider” won the Art Cinema Award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
#8. Rio Bravo (1959)
– Director: Howard Hawks
– Metascore: 93
– Runtime: 141 minutes
A sheriff played by John Wayne teams up with the town drunk, played by Dean Martin; an elderly deputy named Stumpy, played by Walter Brennan; and a young cowboy played by Ricky Nelson to help keep the murderous brother of a wealthy rancher in jail. Director Howard Hawks did not want Nelson in the movie and purposely kept his lines to a minimum, but later conceded that having the young teen idol in the cast added millions of dollars to its box-office draw.
#7. Stagecoach (1939)
– Director: John Ford
– Metascore: 93
– Runtime: 96 minutes
The story of passengers on a stagecoach threatened by an Indian attack is the first starring role in a John Ford film by John Wayne, who had worked as an extra, a stuntman, and actor in other low-budget productions. Wayne wore his own cowboy hat, one that he would continue to wear in several Westerns until 1959 when it started falling apart.
#6. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
– Director: Robert Altman
– Metascore: 93
– Runtime: 120 minutes
Warren Beatty and Julie Christie play a gambler and a brothel owner who team up as business partners in a remote Western town that comes under threat for its mining riches. Director Robert Altman told the more than 50 extras to decide what local character they wanted to play, such as barber or bartender, choose their costumes, and inhabit that character for the three months of shooting near Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada.
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#5. The Gunfighter (1950)
– Director: Henry King
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 85 minutes
Gregory Peck plays Jimmy Ringo, a gunfighter who runs into his estranged wife. Even though trouble seems to follow him everywhere, he hopes to convince her he has reformed, and win her back.
#4. The Searchers (1956)
– Director: John Ford
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 119 minutes
John Wayne plays a Confederate Army veteran tracking down Comanche Indians who massacred his family, burned their ranch and kidnapped his young niece. John Ford insisted upon hiring American Indians to play the Comanche roles, although nearly all of the actors in those roles are Navajo, and the language, dress, and dances are Navajo as well.
#3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
– Director: John Ford
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 123 minutes
When U.S. Senator Ranse Stoddard returns to the West to attend a funeral, he is forced to rehash his past, including the truth regarding the killing of an infamous outlaw. This black-and-white film was directed by John Ford and stars James Stewart, John Wayne, and Vera Miles.
#2. The Wild Bunch (1969)
– Director: Sam Peckinpah
– Metascore: 97
– Runtime: 135 minutes
William Holden and Ernest Borgnine play members of a gang heading to Mexico to do one final heist as the traditional America West is dying around them in the early 20th century. The movie used more than 90,000 rounds of blank ammunition, and Warner Bros. said in publicity material for the film that it was more ammunition than had been used in the Mexican Revolution.
#1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
– Director: John Huston
– Metascore: 98
– Runtime: 126 minutes
Two penniless Americans—Fred Dobbs, played by Humphrey Bogart, and Bob Curtin, played by Tim Holt—go on a gold-prospecting trip, joined by an older prospector named Howard. Director John Huston won the Academy Award for best director, and his father Walter Huston, who played Howard, won the Academy Award for best supporting actor. Bogart was not nominated for playing Dobbs, which was considered a snub.
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100 best Western films of all time
The Western, the most produced genre in the American film industry up to 1970, explores myths around American identity. Westerns are always set in the “frontier,” a land untamed by an eastern, city-slicker mindset. The genre rewrites American history so the genocide of Indigenous peoples already settled in a land falsely conceived of as “unsettled” comes across as positive. Westerns are notoriously racist and sexist, propping up racial “others” as simple foes and women as easy foils to manly heroes.
These movies explore the cowboy figure, embodied by actors such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, who are bolstered by their moral flaws as they wander through settings rendered in stunning panoramic cinematography. Western themes obsess over codes of honor, justice, and gender; what it means to be a man. The cowboy figure in Westerns seems authentic, not carefully crafted through symbols, myths, and fantasies.
Stacker surveyed all Westerns classified as feature films and TV movies with more than 5,000 user votes on IMDb. Films are ranked by IMDb user scores and ties were broken by the number of votes. Read on for the best of classic Westerns directed by John Ford, Sergio Leone, and others, as well as recent revisions of the genre and its themes. Keep reading to see if your favorite made the top 100.
#100. Django (1966)
– Director: Sergio Corbucci
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 91 minutes
Lone gunman Django, played by Franco Nero in the role that made him a star, is introduced dragging a coffin across desolate terrain. Close-ups pan up his body to rest on his swarthy, blue-eyed visage, and like all strong, silent cowboys he’s ruthless but moral. He follows his own code. This influential Spaghetti Western, filled with striking compositions, follows Django as he fights two brutal gangs and saves the woman he loves.
#99. El Topo (1970)
– Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 125 minutes
“El Topo” is known for its hyperviolent, surrealist visual style that aims to capture a hallucinogenic hellscape both offensive and alluring. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky stars as the lone cowboy on horseback (although he travels with his son) who confronts and commits slaughter often amid Christian symbols. Jodorowsky admitted to assaulting his costar, Mara Lorenzio, to make the assault scene authentic. The film has a cult following in spite of a repugnance that’s mischaracterized as avant-garde.
#98. The Good the Bad the Weird (2008)
– Director: Kim Jee-woon
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 130 minutes
This Korean twist on the Western follows two outlaws and a bounty hunter on the run from the Japanese army in Manchuria during the 1940s. The film stars Kang-ho Song, Byung-hun Lee, and Woo-sung Jung as the titular trio, in this highly stylized, slapstick send-up of Spaghetti Westerns.
#97. Silverado (1985)
– Director: Lawrence Kasdan
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 133 minutes
This ensemble Western brings together four cowboys as unlikely heroes against a ruthless cattler. Danny Glover plays a homesteader seeking vengeance. Scott Glenn is the steely sharpshooter who survives devastating wounds to ride again. Kevin Costner plays a hot-headed bandit up for any fight. Meanwhile, Kevin Kline stars as an outlaw trying to go straight. The film’s highlight is a wondrous performance by the inimitable Linda Hunt as a saloon owner caught in the crossfire.
#96. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)
– Directors: Kelly Asbury, Lorna Cook
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 52
– Runtime: 83 minutes
Voiced by Matt Damon, the mustang hero of this animated hit film evades capture by the “two-leggeds,” including an army captain who intends to break him. Once the horse meets up with a Lakota Sioux man, also a prisoner of the army, the pair breaks free, determined to escape enslavement.
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#95. Hostiles (2017)
– Director: Scott Cooper
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 134 minutes
“Hostiles” begins with the harrowing massacre of white homesteaders by Comanche brutes complete with the senseless killing of innocents and war cries. The film shows that American troops are also brutal, but somehow less so. Christian Bale plays a captain assigned to transfer an Apache man (Wes Studi) and his family home. The ending offers the bleak hope of love and makeshift families after a vicious loss.
#94. Desperado (1995)
– Director: Robert Rodriguez
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 55
– Runtime: 104 minutes
In this sequel to Robert Rodriguez’s 1992 indie hit, “El Mariachi,” Antonio Banderas plays the title gunman in this stylish, over-the-top Western. Highlights include guitar cases fashioned as rocket launchers and Salma Hayek in the role that launched her career. Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Quentin Tarantino, and Steve Buscemi add flair and fun in small roles.
#93. Rango (2011)
– Director: Gore Verbinski
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 107 minutes
This animated family film takes place in a small western outpost called Dirt, and like all such towns, it needs a sheriff. Johnny Depp voices the chameleon Rango who seeks to impose order on chaos in a quirky film with stylized references to classic Spaghetti Westerns.
#92. The Tall T (1957)
– Director: Budd Boetticher
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 78 minutes
Randolph Scott and Richard Boone play two men on opposite sides of the law in this tense drama known for its dark and austere aesthetic as it examines morality in the Old West. Boone plays an outlaw who befriends the man he kidnaps (Scott) as the two are forced to confront the darkness within. Maureen O’Sullivan stars as a newlywed offered up for ransom by her husband after a stagecoach heist goes awry.
#91. The Tin Star (1957)
– Director: Anthony Mann
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 93 minutes
In this earnest, dramatic Western, Anthony Perkins (three years before he’d play Norman Bates in “Psycho”) stars as an inexperienced sheriff trying to keep the peace in a town beset with lawlessness. Henry Fonda plays the grizzled bounty hunter who turns up to show him the ropes.
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#90. The Westerner (1940)
– Director: William Wyler
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 100 minutes
Walter Brennan won his third Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the tyrannous Judge Roy Bean, a self-appointed lawmaker who rules with corrupt drunkenness. Gary Cooper arrives as Cole Harden, accused of horse-stealing, who befriends the judge, but then schemes to take him down.
#89. Friendly Persuasion (1956)
– Director: William Wyler
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 137 minutes
Set during the Civil War, Dorothy McGuire and Gary Cooper star as a Quaker couple so devoted to their pacifist beliefs that they refuse to take part in the fighting. Soon, the Confederate army arrives on their doorstep and they’re forced to take a stand. Anthony Perkins plays their grown son in this acclaimed drama.
#88. Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
– Director: John Sturges
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 95 minutes
Anthony Quinn and Kirk Douglas go head to head in this suspenseful drama that centers on the rape and murder of an Indigenous woman. Quinn plays Craig Belden, a powerful rancher, whose son is the culprit. Douglas stars as the widower of the woman killed who vows to get justice, but must go up against an entire town to do it.
#87. Bend of the River (1952)
– Director: Anthony Mann
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 91 minutes
Jimmy Stewart and Rock Hudson star in this wagon train drama that pits settlers against gold miners with betrayals and shoot-outs over encampment supplies. Economic tensions play out in a lawless, unregulated world. Classic Western themes around morality emerge as men steal supplies to sell to the highest bidder, and ends with a final showdown.
#86. Shenandoah (1965)
– Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 105 minutes
Jimmy Stewart plays Charlie, the patriarch of a family caught in the fray of the Civil War. Despite Charlie’s insistence that his six sons and daughter stay neutral, his oldest son joins the Union army, the youngest gets captured, and his daughter marries a Confederate soldier. Stewart’s performance offers a stalwart sentimentality as he deals with rebellion and loss.
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#85. The Man from Laramie (1955)
– Director: Anthony Mann
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 103 minutes
Anthony Mann directs Jimmy Stewart, in the final of their Western team-ups, as “The Man from Laramie,” Will Lockhart, a lone cowboy embroiled in a fight over bootleg guns sold to Apache Indigenous peoples. Lockhart takes on the corrupt, but powerful Waggoman family in a scheme to avenge his dead brother. Filled with gunfights and backstabs, and shot in widescreen Technicolor, brooding, violent drama emerges against a stunning backdrop.
#84. Let the Bullets Fly (2010)
– Director: Wen Jiang
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 132 minutes
Set in 1920s China, this blockbuster Chinese comedy stars Chow Yun-fat as Huang, a kingpin thwarted by a team of bandits after a train heist gone wrong. The bandit leader, Pocky, (played by director Wen Jiang) impersonates the local governor, thinking he’s been killed, when he’s actually still alive and pretending to be his sidekick confidante. The plot features doublecrosses, fake-outs, and reversals in funny, frenetic style.
#83. The Naked Spur (1953)
– Director: Anthony Mann
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 91 minutes
A spur prop adds to the action in this psychological Western drama about the bounty hunter Howard Kemp (Jimmy Stewart) who falls for Lina Patch (Janet Leigh), the woman bound to the criminal he’s bringing to justice. With a couple of hired guns, Howard makes his way across the wilderness to claim the reward with the outlaw and Lina in tow. Betrayals and twists take place against the backdrop of burgeoning love between Howard and Lina.
#82. Viva Zapata! (1952)
– Director: Elia Kazan
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 113 minutes
In between the acclaimed “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “On the Waterfront,” actor Marlon Brando teamed again with director Elia Kazan to play the Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata. Brando was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for each role, and won for “On the Waterfront.” Novelist John Steinbeck wrote the screenplay and Anthony Quinn won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Zapata’s brother who succumbs to the corruption of power.
#81. Old Yeller (1957)
– Director: Robert Stevenson
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 84
– Runtime: 83 minutes
Disney’s tear-jerker about the best doggone dog in the West follows the trials of a homestead, a woman alone with two sons, while the man of the house is off on a cattle drive. Enter the shaggy mutt, Old Yeller, as the mythic creature who teaches them all about the dangers and virtues available in a wild land that can’t always be tamed.
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#80. The Professionals (1966)
– Director: Richard Brooks
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 117 minutes
In this widescreen epic, macho men take on a familiar quest: retrieving a woman captured by a villain. Jack Palance plays the evil Raza, with Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin on board as the hired guns sent to retrieve a woman who doesn’t want to be saved.
#79. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
– Director: Sam Peckinpah
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 53
– Runtime: 122 minutes
Kris Kristofferson plays the mythic bandit in Sam Peckinpah’s moody and violent version of the young outlaw’s life and death. Bob Dylan scored the film and plays a small role. James Coburn plays Pat Garrett, the man sent to kill Billy the Kid. The film’s theatrical release was marred by controversy, but a cut with restored footage sealed the fate of this film as one of Peckinpah’s best.
#78. Old Henry (2021)
– Director: Potsy Ponciroli
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 99 minutes
Tim Blake Nelson plays Henry, a weathered farmer living on an isolated farm with his teen son, Wyatt. When a wounded outlaw on the run happens upon the farm, Henry protects him even after lawmen arrive. Wyatt faces that there may be more to the simple man he knows as his father in this slow burn, atmospheric Western.
#77. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
– Director: Stanley Donen
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 102 minutes
This dazzling widescreen musical follows seven brothers named for characters in the bible in alphabetical order starting with Adam and going to Gideon. It plays with the trope of taming by showing women civilizing the unkempt, wild ways of men in order to prepare them for the happy promise of marriage. The barn-raising scene shows the artifice of gender through brightly colored costumes and jubilant choreography performed against the obviously fake painted backdrop of nature, a studio set rather than a natural landscape.
#76. Bacurau (2019)
– Directors: Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 82
– Runtime: 131 minutes
Combining Western themes with sci-fi intrigue and set in the immediate future, this haunting Brazilian film opens with the aftermath of a truck crash and broken coffins strewn across a rural road. A sense of the surreal pervades the stark realism in a film about an isolated small town with looming invaders on the outskirts. Sonia Braga plays one of the locals in this searing, brutal commentary on injustice.
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#75. The Proposition (2005)
– Director: John Hillcoat
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 104 minutes
This Western set in the 1880s Australian outback focuses on a brutal assault and the community that demands justice from the youngest brother of the gang who committed the crime. The local captain proposes to hang the boy unless an older brother (Guy Pearce) finds and kills the brother responsible. Written by Nick Cave, and brutally violent, “The Proposition” shows the futility of justice, retribution, and revenge.
#74. Pale Rider (1985)
– Director: Clint Eastwood
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 61
– Runtime: 115 minutes
Clint Eastwood stars as a ghostly figure, dubbed “Preacher,” who arrives to help bullied prospectors after a young girl prays for a miracle. Eastwood brings his signature style of stoic intensity to the role of the man who arrives, doles out punishment and redemption, then rides off into the snowy hills. The film’s final scene offers a redux of the end of “Shane.” This time the youngster yells, “I love you,” instead of “come back.”
#73. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
– Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 79
– Runtime: 133 minutes
This strange and provocative Western uses vignettes to explore the violence and cruelty at the heart of survival in the Wild West. Notable stories include Liam Neeson as the proprietor of a traveling roadshow with a disabled performer and James Franco as a hapless bank robber destined for execution.
#72. Yellow Sky (1948)
– Director: William A. Wellman
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 98 minutes
Gregory Peck, as Stretch, leads a gang of outlaws with such names as Walrus, Lengthy, Half Pint and Dude, across Death Valley after a robbery. The gang nearly perishes from the harsh conditions until they stumble upon the decrepit town Yellow Sky, inhabited only by Grandpa and a woman named Mike played by Anne Baxter. Stark black-and-white photography frames stunning scenery as characters vie for the nearby gold and contend with greed and betrayal.
#71. 7 Men from Now (1956)
– Director: Budd Boetticher
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 78 minutes
Beautfiully shot in ways that make desert terrain feel both claustrophobic and expansive, this widescreen color Western follows Stride (Randolph Scott) in his quest to avenge his wife’s murder at the hands of bandits. In the stylish opening, Stride happens upon the peaceful camp of two of the seven men he’s vowed to kill in this classic with a biting sense of justice.
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#70. The Big Gundown (1966)
– Director: Sergio Sollima
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 110 minutes
This underrated, stylish Italian Western stars the charismatic Lee Van Cleef as the weathered bounty hunter, Colorado. Tasked with nabbing a monstrous child rapist, Cuchillo (Tomas Milian), the two embark on a tense cat-and-mouse chase until the criminal is finally apprehended. When Colorado realizes that neither Cuchillo nor his crime are what they seem, he’s faced with the blunt truth about corruption that pervades the Western genre.
#69. Hombre (1967)
– Director: Martin Ritt
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 111 minutes
Shot in Death Valley and featuring the natural landscape of Arizona in stunning compositions, “Hombre” follows the story of John Russell, a white man raised by Apache people. The film is part of a revisionist bent to critique white people and their treatment of Native Americans. However, with blue-eyed Paul Newman in the lead role, the film explores racism through the experience of a white man.
#68. Ride the High Country (1962)
– Director: Sam Peckinpah
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 94 minutes
“Ride the High Country” dramatizes director Sam Peckinpah’s signature Western themes around honor, the codes of masculinity, and a lawless world that depends on men to ration justice as they see fit. The film follows gunslingers protecting gold during a time when industrial expansion is making their kind obsolete.
#67. The Cowboys (1972)
– Director: Mark Rydell
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 52
– Runtime: 134 minutes
John Wayne stars in another film ostensibly about training a passel of young boys to be cattle drivers. However, with Wayne as their instructor, the film is more about teaching them about masculinity and what it is to become a man, especially when they have to step up and do the job for real.
#66. The Rider (2017)
– Director: Chloé Zhao
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 92
– Runtime: 104 minutes
Since Westerns obsess over taming what’s thought of as wild and free, unbroken horses are a powerful trope within the genre. “The Rider” uses realism to examine a rodeo contestant recovering from a life-changing accident. Using amateur actors and based on a true story, the film explores Western myths about horses and riders in an authentic, unromantic depiction that is nonetheless triumphant.
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#65. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
– Director: Sam Peckinpah
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 112 minutes
Director Sam Peckinpah made this bleak, ultraviolent Western outside the Hollywood studio system to ensure creative control. Though panned by critics at the time, the film has since found a cult following and is considered a masterpiece of the form for its brutal examination of the human condition.
#64. They Call Me Trinity (1970)
– Director: Enzo Barboni
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 115 minutes
Italian actors Terence Hill and Bud Spencer play outlaw brothers in this slapstick send-up of Spaghetti Westerns that indulges in the genre’s tropes and style for comedic effect. The brothers find themselves in a Mormon enclave after Trinity falls for two sisters, and though he intends to marry both it goes against his gunslinging, horse-thieving nature.
#63. My Name Is Nobody (1973)
– Director: Tonino Valerii
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 116 minutes
Henry Fonda stars as an aging quick-draw gunman confronted by the loner “Nobody” (Terence Hill) in this Spaghetti Western. Nobody pushes the old-timer to get back in the shoot-’em-up game so the younger outlaw can replace the legendary gunslinger in the history books. Who’s the fastest? In the film’s oft-repeated conceit, “Nobody.”
#62. Lone Star (1996)
– Director: John Sayles
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 135 minutes
John Sayle’s expressive style pans between the past and the present as it tells the story of a disappeared sheriff in 1957 whose remains are found in the 1990s. Chris Cooper and Elizabeth Peña star with Matthew McConaughey and Kris Kristofferson in this elegant drama that interrogates the myths around race and masculinity that abound in classic Westerns.
#61. Yahsi Bati – The Ottoman Cowboys (2009)
– Director: Ömer Faruk Sorak
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 112 minutes
A box office hit in its home country, this Turkish film is a surreal, comedic send-up of tropes from American Western films. The plot centers on special agents, joined by a Calamity Jane-esque sharpshooter, who take a gift to the American president. They experience the perils of the “mild West,” as the title translates.
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#60. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
– Director: Tommy Lee Jones
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 121 minutes
In his directorial debut, Tommy Lee Jones’ neo-Western examines the way the past stays present in a story about trying to right a profound injustice. A border patrol agent kills an immigrant and quickly buries the body. The killed man’s friend exhumes the corpse to provide a proper burial. Surreal imagery and a nonlinear narrative engage in a critique of border patrol and its brutality.
#59. True Grit (1969)
– Director: Henry Hathaway
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 83
– Runtime: 128 minutes
A young, but intrepid girl hires Rooster to avenge her father’s murder. John Wayne plays the macho gunman, with his stoic performance visually punctuated by an eye patch in this film about the role, and the grit, of men in enacting justice. The girl and another ranger join Rooster, and despite perils and hardship, the three form a bond fused by grit and bravery.
#58. Open Range (2003)
– Director: Kevin Costner
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 67
– Runtime: 139 minutes
Beautifully shot in Alberta, Canada, “Open Range” features sweeping widescreen shots of untrammeled terrain. Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall play cattle herders, men living a pure existence thwarted by the corruption they feel compelled to avenge; shootouts ensue. The film also depicts the classic contrasts between wilderness and civility in this romance where the land itself is the lush object of affection.
#57. The Mark of Zorro (1940)
– Director: Rouben Mamoulian
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 94 minutes
In this update to the 1920 silent version starring Douglas Fairbanks as the masked swashbuckler, Tyrone Power plays the sword-wielding hero with panache and flair. By day, Don Diego (Power) is the shallow son of a man ousted by a tyrant, while masked by night, he’s the champion of the underclass fighting for justice using virtuoso swordplay.
#56. Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
– Director: Burt Kennedy
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 92 minutes
In this silly send-up of Western classics, James Garner plays Jason McCullough, a stranger traveling through a small town who’s tagged to run the place in a parody of the common plot set-up. The proceedings are played for broad laughs with pun-filled dialogue and a breezy portrayal of civic corruption.
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#55. Fort Apache (1948)
– Director: John Ford
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 128 minutes
Another entry in John Wayne’s “Cavalry Trilogy,” “Fort Apache” casts the classic Western hero as a captain overlooked for a post that instead goes to a pompous lieutenant played by Henry Fonda, with Shirley Temple showing up as his daughter. Wayne and Fonda vie over the right way to deal with the Apache peoples nearby.
#54. Of Mice and Men (1992)
– Director: Gary Sinise
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 115 minutes
Gary Sinise stars in and directs this sensitive and haunting adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic tragic novel. Set during the Depression, Sinise plays George with John Malkovich as his intellectually disabled companion, Lennie, as the two ride the rails looking for stable ranch work and dreaming of a farm of their own. Themes concern the inhumanity of harsh working conditions and lawless mob justice.
#53. High Plains Drifter (1973)
– Director: Clint Eastwood
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 105 minutes
Clint Eastwood directs himself as another lone drifter figure, one of many in Western movies, who rides into vulnerable towns, beats down the bullies, then rides away. This film uses a style influenced by Italian Spaghetti Westerns, using allegory and symbols to create the loner myth as a ghost or spiritual figure who provokes conscience in others.
#52. Dead Man (1995)
– Director: Jim Jarmusch
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 62
– Runtime: 121 minutes
Jim Jarmusch’s arthouse take on the Western was filmed in black and white and features Johnny Depp as the easterner who turns into an ailing gunslinger after heading west. The film uses poetic visuals and a haunting style to revisit Western myths and the racism beneath them. As usual for this genre, this exploration occurs primarily through the bleak story of a white man.
#51. Legends of the Fall (1994)
– Director: Edward Zwick
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 45
– Runtime: 133 minutes
This sweeping melodrama follows the frontier adventures of a patriarch (Anthony Hopkins) and his trio of sons: Aiden Quinn, as the civilized do-gooder; Brad Pitt, as the wild individualist; and Henry Thomas, as the young idealist who brings home the woman they all fall in love with. Julia Ormond’s role offers Western myths about women as the touchstones men can use to figure out their true purpose in the new, inchoate America in clashes between frontier and city.
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#50. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
– Director: Andrew Dominik
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 160 minutes
Brad Pitt plays the mythic Jesse James, with the Coward Robert Ford of the title portrayed by the lesser star Casey Affleck. The casting works for this revisionist Western’s obsession with the nature of celebrity. The stylized cinematography and stark compositions aim to reveal the role of photography in the creation of myth.
#49. Back to the Future Part III (1990)
– Director: Robert Zemeckis
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 55
– Runtime: 118 minutes
In the franchise’s third installment, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) return, this time to 1885, smack dab into a scene of cowboys and Indians, who appear unfazed by the DeLorean time machine in their midst. Moving the story to the Old West allows the hero McFly to interact with myths just as nostalgic and “classic” as those in the original’s 1950s past.
#48. Aferim! (2015)
– Director: Radu Jude
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 84
– Runtime: 108 minutes
This acclaimed film uses black and white photography, resembling an old-time newsreel, to conjure a sense of classic Westerns in its tale about a father and son who capture an escaped enslaved person in 1830s Romania for a bounty. Set during the transitional Russian occupation, before slavery is abolished, the film explores the brutal laws of the period in a tone that moves from humor to horror.
#47. Way Out West (1937)
– Director: James W. Horne
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 66 minutes
This madcap Laurel and Hardy comedy drops the comic duo into a Western setting where they’re tasked with delivering a goldmine deed to a woman held against her will by evil saloon-owners. The pair’s signature slapstick charm offers a spoof-filled send-up of the myths of the genre with several iconic scenes such as a dance number in front of a busy Western town on rear-screen projection.
#46. Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
– Director: David Miller
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 107 minutes
Kirk Douglas stars as Jack, a war vet who resists modern times, instead preferring travel by horseback and sleeping with a knapsack on the range. He gets himself arrested in order to join his friend in prison so he can help him escape. After his friend prefers to serve his sentence, Jack escapes alone, using frontier skills to evade authorities in a suspenseful manhunt across mountainous terrain.
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#45. Destry Rides Again (1939)
– Director: George Marshall
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 81
– Runtime: 95 minutes
Marlene Dietrich shines as Frenchy, the prototypical saloon singer in this black and white Western starring Jimmy Stewart as Destry Jr., the sharpshooter who avoids guns, but brings order to a corrupt town. Frenchy is partnered with the town bad guy, but finds herself falling for Destry as crime, corruption, and cynicism lose their allure.
#44. Johnny Guitar (1954)
– Director: Nicholas Ray
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 83
– Runtime: 110 minutes
Joan Crawford’s dramatic line deliveries create a radical style in this Western that gives a woman the chance to gun sling. Crawford plays a hardscrabble saloon owner caught in the crossfire between cattlers and townies. She dresses in pants and a holster and gets to fire shots in the climactic shootout.
#43. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
– Director: Delmer Daves
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 92 minutes
Based on a short story by noir author Elmore Leonard, this suspenseful Western stars Glenn Ford, cast against type, as the villainous Ben Wade. Van Heflin plays the rancher assigned to deliver him to the law, but the honorable task proves less easy than it seems since morality codes are unstable for men in the Wild West.
#42. Winchester ’73 (1950)
– Director: Anthony Mann
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 92 minutes
This popular Western centers on the rifle in its title—“the gun that won the West,” as the opening title puts it. The plot follows the weapon as it changes hands, going from one cowboy to the next, imbued with righteous poetic justice. Jimmy Stewart plays the cowboy who wins the gun before it’s stolen by his murderous brother, forcing him to take to the trail in pursuit.
#41. The Shootist (1976)
– Director: Don Siegel
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 100 minutes
In John Wayne’s final film role, he plays an aging, legendary gunfighter who settles old scores while ailing from cancer. Also starring Lauren Bacall, the film seems a meditation on Wayne’s persona and the genre itself as a “dying” concept. The concept of the Old West must finally expire when there’s nothing left to conquer.
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#40. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
– Director: Robert Altman
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 93
– Runtime: 120 minutes
Warren Beatty stars as a frontiersman who takes refuge with an escort, Julie Christie as Mrs. Miller, in this story about the inevitable futility of running from the bad guys who want to kill you. Director Robert Altman’s realistic style and natural, hovering camera brought a new sensibility to the genre and sought to undermine its conventions.
#39. El Dorado (1966)
– Director: Howard Hawks
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 85
– Runtime: 126 minutes
Hailed as one of director Howard Hawks’ masterpieces, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum play aging gunfighters caught up in conflict with a villainous landowner over water rights in the classic “El Dorado.” James Caan also stars as a young vigilante helping out. Wayne plays Thorton, a gunslinger with a bullet lodged near his spine who doles out cowboy idioms in Wayne’s signature drawl.
#38. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
– Director: Sydney Pollack
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 108 minutes
Robert Redford stars as the ultimate mountain man, a natural loner and former soldier who braves the harsh elements of the environment, including weather and grizzlies. Along the way, he ends up with a makeshift family after he’s “given” a woman by her chief father. Despite endless perils, he ends up a solitary hero revered by Indigenous people.
#37. Duck, You Sucker! (1971)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 77
– Runtime: 138 minutes
The second film in Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time” trilogy pairs Rod Steiger and James Coburn as unlikely co-revolutionaries in 1913 Mexico. Coburn plays a munitions ace, fleeing crimes left behind in Ireland, while Steiger plays a bandit who gets caught up in the war and becomes a hero to the people. Features Leone’s signature film style that includes close-ups and dashes of humor amid extreme violence.
#36. Little Big Man (1970)
– Director: Arthur Penn
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 63
– Runtime: 139 minutes
The film begins with Dustin Hoffman as an elderly white survivor of Custer’s Last Stand. This revisionist Western aims to examine the genocide of Indigenous people, and does so through the examination of a white survivor raised by the Cheyenne people and a witness to injustice.
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#35. Giant (1956)
– Director: George Stevens
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 84
– Runtime: 201 minutes
This epic story is notable for its exploration of race and class in the midst of family melodrama. It stars screen idols Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson as a couple whose oil fortune can’t be separated from the exploitation of the Mexican American people they employ. James Dean plays the field hand Jett whose status changes once he inherits land and strikes it rich.
#34. Shane (1953)
– Director: George Stevens
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 118 minutes
Alan Ladd plays the mysterious drifter who sidles up to protect a bullied homesteader family, saves the day, and then rides off again into the sunset. It epitomizes Western tropes about the lone gunman, his code of honor, and his inevitable departure, as epitomized in the famous ending lines. “Shane! Come back,” as yelled by the child who’ll never forget the exiting hero’s masculine bravado.
#33. Hell or High Water (2016)
– Director: David Mackenzie
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 88
– Runtime: 102 minutes
This contemporary Western follows brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) as modern bandits who rob banks because of unfair foreclosure on their land. Soon, they’re on the run from the law. Jeff Bridges plays the steely ranger who won’t let them go in a mode similar to classic Western lawmen who relentlessly pursue bad guys, and in doing so, reveal themselves as the same breed.
#32. True Grit (2010)
– Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 110 minutes
The Coen brothers bring their signature quirky, mannered style to this remake of the earlier classic. Jeff Bridges stars as the iconic marshal with Hailee Steinfeld as the young girl trying to avenge her father’s death as she makes her way in a Western world of gallows and gallows humor in a landscape as harsh as it is existential.
#31. The Gunfighter (1950)
– Director: Henry King
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 85 minutes
Gregory Peck plays the mythic gunfighter Ringo in this 1950 classic. Ringo’s reputation as the fastest quick draw makes him a legend, but also a target as younger cowboys want to kill him to earn the title for themselves. Peck’s stoic performance shows the loneliness of heroism, as Ringo copes with estrangement from his wife and son, living always on the run.
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#30. The Great Silence (1968)
– Director: Sergio Corbucci
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 105 minutes
In this Spaghetti Western, the gunman Silence (so named because of slashed vocal cords) goes up against the nihilistic evil so often embodied by the corrupt villains of the genre. This film is known for its striking visual compositions that render the stark beauty of bleakness with unsentimental fatalism.
#29. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
– Director: John Sturges
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 81 minutes
This Western and noir fusion focuses on a buried secret in a sun-seared Arizona town in post-World War II America. When a wounded vet (Spencer Tracy) shows up to visit his friend Komoko, townspeople try to hide the racism that fueled a violent crime. The film is notable for depicting white American’s anti-Japanese sentiment during World War II.
#28. My Darling Clementine (1946)
– Director: John Ford
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 97 minutes
Henry Fonda plays Wyatt Earp in the first of many films to take on the myths around the shooting at the O.K. Corral. It’s considered one of John Ford’s definitive Western masterpieces because of its stunning visual style and captivating cinematography (even in black and white and 4:3 aspect ratio).
#27. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
– Director: John Sturges
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: 74
– Runtime: 128 minutes
Using Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” as a thematic and narrative template, this iconic Western depicts an innocent community in need and the cowboy “samurai” who arrive to save it. Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson star as the hero warriors in a film that explores corruption and the honor and sacrifice required to overcome it.
#26. Blazing Saddles (1974)
– Director: Mel Brooks
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 93 minutes
Mel Brooks’ send-up of Western movies spoofs the genre with slapstick silliness and lowbrow humor. While it aims to offer a satire of American racism, its bombastic style sometimes engages in crassness rather than illuminating it. Gene Wilder stars, along with Cleavon Little as the Black sheriff of a white town.
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#25. Wind River (2017)
– Director: Taylor Sheridan
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 107 minutes
Set on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, this revisionist Western takes place across a stark, snow-covered winter landscape, highlighting themes of the repression of the violent history against Indigenous people that persists. Elizabeth Olsen plays an FBI agent investigating the circumstances of frozen bodies found in the wilderness. Jeremy Renner stars as a grieving father who helps investigate in this haunting film that explores brutal injustice.
#24. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
– Director: James Mangold
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: 76
– Runtime: 122 minutes
Russell Crowe stars as the singularly diabolical Ben Wade, an outlaw so ruthless and spry, it takes epic manpower just to get him on the right train. Christian Bale plays the pioneer man who walks with a limp, and has that brand of virtue that’s flawed, but still good enough to take down a bad man, or at least try.
#23. Hud (1963)
– Director: Martin Ritt
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 62
– Runtime: 112 minutes
Paul Newman plays Hud, the rakish son of a rancher who fails to live up to his dad’s expectations. Sporting a Texas accent, the role made Newman a superstar despite him playing an anti-hero. Hud represents the immoral counterpart of his principled father, which comes across less as weakness and more as the romantic rebellion of every Western outlaw who bucks his father’s rules.
#22. Red River (1948)
– Directors: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 133 minutes
“Red River” explores the weighty drama of father-son relations—that clash between old and young, between the new-fangled versus the traditional that undergirds patriarchy. John Wayne plays the fatherly, tyrannical cattler who takes on a young orphan who grows up to be his greatest rival. Montgomery Clift plays the young rancher who challenges the elder cowboy and his ways.
#21. Stagecoach (1939)
– Director: John Ford
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 93
– Runtime: 96 minutes
This is the film that launched John Wayne as a movie star idol in his turn as the Ringo Kid. The iconic battle scene features Apache people descending upon a stagecoach in a stereotypically hapless fashion. In contrast, the white people represent civility, law and order, and in the case of women, the conflict between the pure and the profane.
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#20. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
– Director: Clint Eastwood
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 69
– Runtime: 135 minutes
Clint Eastwood directs himself as the outlaw gunman who tries to leave his tragic past behind. After his family’s murder, he joins the confederate army, engages in illegal bloodshed, and finds himself a wanted man on the lam. Eastwood gives the character his signature stoic grit and a masculine persona bolstered by frowns and quietude.
#19. Tombstone (1993)
– Directors: George P. Cosmatos, Kevin Jarre
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 50
– Runtime: 130 minutes
Kurt Russell’s campy delivery works well in this redux of the mythic Earp brothers, men trying to maintain law and order in a world brimming with villainy. The performances give this film its allure. Powers Boothe seethes with villainy as a rival leader. The gravelly bravado of Sam Elliott is right at home, and a sublime performance by Val Kilmer as the mythic Doc Holliday makes “Tombstone” a mirthful romp into the Western as male melodrama.
#18. The Hateful Eight (2015)
– Director: Quentin Tarantino
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 168 minutes
Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell star as part of the ensemble in Quentin Tarantino’s neo-Western about eight strangers hunkered in a remote Midwestern cabin during a blizzard in the post-Civil War years. Stylized, hyperviolent havoc ensues over a letter from Abraham Lincoln that may be a forgery.
#17. The Big Country (1958)
– Director: William Wyler
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 166 minutes
Gregory Peck plays another easterner, a sailor, who goes west only to find himself embroiled in the lawless conflicts of those who live in the untamed West—the kind that are resolved through duels. Shot in Technicolor widescreen, it also stars Jean Simmons as a kidnapped woman who must be saved.
#16. The Wild Bunch (1969)
– Director: Sam Peckinpah
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Metascore: 97
– Runtime: 135 minutes
“The Wild Bunch” is Sam Peckinpah’s ode to ultraviolent shootouts set in 1913, a year seen as marking the shift between an untamed West and one fully civilized. William Holden and Ernest Borgnine star as two of the gang members on the run who can’t escape their brutal, intrinsic criminality, even as their ways are becoming quickly outdated.
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#15. The Searchers (1956)
– Director: John Ford
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 119 minutes
Natalie Wood stars as a frontier girl, abducted by Indigenous people, who prompts the epic search of this film’s title. The formal visual style pairs widescreen natural vistas with studio set nature to create a sense of artifice that matches the crude racist theme—the idea that a female raped by Indigenous people is better off dead. The closing shot frames John Wayne in a cabin doorway against the frontier beyond, as if a part of it.
#14. A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Metascore: 65
– Runtime: 99 minutes
The first chapter of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” introduces Clint Eastwood as the iconic lone gunman of Western myth. Based on Akira Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo,” Eastwood’s cowboy offers to work for rival factions, then double-crosses both. Leone employs his signature stylistic elements such as striking compositions, arresting close-ups, and evocative musical scoring.
#13. Rio Bravo (1959)
– Director: Howard Hawks
– IMDb user rating: 8.0
– Metascore: 93
– Runtime: 141 minutes
Directed by stylist Howard Hawks, the film follows three cowboys trying to maintain law and order in a world of corruption who happen to go by the iconic names Chance, Dude, and Colorado. John Wayne stars as the sheriff Chance, tasked with holding a man in jail while his corrupt and wealthy brother employs all manner of violent mayhem to bust him out. Dean Martin (Dude) aids the fight, drunk, but good-hearted, and the youngster Colorado (Ricky Nelson) also finds himself pulled into the siege.
#12. High Noon (1952)
– Director: Fred Zinnemann
– IMDb user rating: 8.0
– Metascore: 89
– Runtime: 85 minutes
This quintessential classic Western displays the iconography of the old town shootout and its revelry in honor and justice. Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly play newlyweds set to skip town and start anew. Once Cooper, as a soon-to-be-retired sheriff, learns when bad guys approach, he’s conflicted over leaving with his pacifist wife or staying for his code of honor. The movie’s running time replicates the “real time” of the movie, the 80 minutes or so before a departing train and the arrival of the evil gunman.
#11. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
– Director: George Roy Hill
– IMDb user rating: 8.0
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 110 minutes
This popular buddy Western paired screen idol Paul Newman with newbie star Robert Redford as real-life bandits running from the law. It was a box-office hit that used stylized composition to rework myths about outlaw heroes. “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” won the Oscar for Best Song; it scored a scene in which Newman and costar Katharine Ross tool through meadows on a bicycle.
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#10. The Revenant (2015)
– Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
– IMDb user rating: 8.0
– Metascore: 76
– Runtime: 156 minutes
This archetypal tale pits man (Leonardo DiCaprio) against nature as it offers a meditation on masculinity through a plot about trappers, the 1800s pelt industry, and vengeance. Betrayed and left for dead by fellow trappers, a wounded captain must survive the elements in a hostile wilderness while hunted by Indigenous people (after being mauled by a surreally tenacious bear) until the final showdown with his mumbling mountain man nemesis (Tom Hardy).
#9. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
– Director: William A. Wellman
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Metascore: data not available
– Runtime: 75 minutes
Henry Fonda plays another iconic Western hero who must grapple with law and order in the late 1800s. Fonda and his companions join a posse (to avoid being incriminated themselves) to track down accused men in a film that examines mob rule and critiques the codes of vengeance at the heart of the Western genre.
#8. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
– Director: John Ford
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 123 minutes
John Ford’s flashback story about the ways legends become fact, creates a few myths of its own around what makes a heroic man. The “man” of the title exists as a conflict between an eastern politician (Jimmy Stewart) and the western cowboy (John Wayne) who always arrives to save him. Lee Marvin stars as the archetypical bully, Liberty Valance, so evil that whoever kills him will become a legend.
#7. Dances with Wolves (1990)
– Director: Kevin Costner
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Metascore: 72
– Runtime: 181 minutes
Kevin Costner’s rhapsodic epic posits the idea of the “one good white man” who understands Indigenous people and values their ways as contrasted with incoming colonial expansion in post-Civil War America. Costner plays an army captain stationed on the plains who romances a white woman raised in a Sioux tribe as he immerses in their culture and earns the name “Dances with Wolves.”
#6. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
– Director: John Huston
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Metascore: 98
– Runtime: 126 minutes
Humphrey Bogart plays a down-and-out drifter on the hunt for gold in John Huston’s classic meditation on the nature of greed and the irony of riches. Three prospectors patch together supplies and discover gold in the Sierra Nevada mountains, only to succumb to depravity.
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#5. Unforgiven (1992)
– Director: Clint Eastwood
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Metascore: 85
– Runtime: 130 minutes
Gene Hackman steals the show as a corrupt sheriff who seeks to prohibit violence with shocking displays of it. Clint Eastwood directed and stars in this story about a widower pulled back to a life of crime by the promise of bounty. Morgan Freeman stars as his sidekick, but the vengeance they promise to a group of wronged prostitutes proves bleak and futile in light of a culture that doesn’t recognize humanity, especially in women.
#4. For a Few Dollars More (1965)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Metascore: 74
– Runtime: 132 minutes
Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” returns with the second installment featuring Clint Eastwood as the “Man with No Name.” The story about hunting an iconic villain displays more of Leone’s signature stylizations, including aesthetic violence, tension created through both silence and score, arresting compositions, and masterful use of the close-up.
#3. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 165 minutes
With an epic length and a striking visual style, this notable Western is considered one of Sergio Leone’s masterpieces. The film both critiques the myths of the West and presents them with flash, grit, and characteristic fatality. The plot follows a villainous gun for hire (Henry Fonda) and the mysterious “Harmonica” (Charles Bronson) as the rival with a secret who’ll take him down.
#2. Django Unchained (2012)
– Director: Quentin Tarantino
– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Metascore: 81
– Runtime: 165 minutes
Jamie Foxx stars as Django, an enslaved man who must earn his freedom by helping a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) in the pre-Civil War South. Quentin Tarantino’s fantastical revision of American slavery portrays a too-easy vengeance against racist white enslavers, relying on stereotypes and stylization in its depiction of brutal American history.
#1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– IMDb user rating: 8.8
– Metascore: 90
– Runtime: 178 minutes
The final installment of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” with its iconic, oft-referenced title continues an exploration of the gunslinger figure, the “good,” as embodied by Clint Eastwood’s character. With an epic 178-minute running time and considered an emblematic Spaghetti Western, it shows Leone’s visual style, excessive bloodshed, and nihilistic ambiguity toward moral order. The darkly humorous sensibility meshes well with the familiar Western plot about killing bandits and stealing gold.
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