45 Best Westerns of All Time, Ranked (2024)

The Western genre has been a defining hallmark of cinema ever since it first rose to prominence as far back as the 1930s. Reaching its pinnacle in the 50s and 60s, it became emblematic of American film, with screen icons like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Gary Cooper being prolific stars of the genre. However, with the advent of Italy's spaghetti Westerns, which surged in popularity through the 60s, the Western has become a cherished pillar of cinema's identity on the global stage.

One of the strengths of the Western, and the reason for its evergreen timelessness, has been its willingness to constantly evolve, with each new generation of filmmakers able to re-align the genre to contemporary sensitivities. As such, the Westerns' greatest films span across the better part of a century. From pioneering classics of the 30s and 40s to modern-day iterations of the genre, and everything in between, the 25 best Westerns of all time make up some of cinema's most iconic and enduring achievements.

45 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral' (1957)

Directed by John Sturges

Wyatt Earp’s famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral is the stuff of Western legend, being relayed time and time again, especially in Hollywood movies eager to bring his heroics to life for masses of adoring fans. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is one of the best of those films, starring Burt Lancaster as the famous U.S. Marshal who embarks on a quest for revenge alongside Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas) against the outlaw gang that killed his brother.

Well directed by John Sturges and excellently cast, the film thrives as a tense and suspenseful Western, albeit one that sensationalizes the real-life events it is based on. While a couple of awkward scenes do stick in the memory, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is largely a Western triumph that is engaging and emotionally rousing.

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44 '3:10 to Yuma' (1957)

Directed by Delmer Daves

Presenting a tighter tale compared to James Mangold’s famous 2007 remake (which will appear on this list), the original 3:10 to Yuma runs largely as a confined two-character drama. As his drought-ravaged ranch struggles and he battles to care for his two sons, Dan Evans (Van Heflin) agrees to escort ruthless criminal Ben Wade (the fast-drawing Glenn Ford) to Contention City where he will be placed on a train to be sent to his trial. Helped only by the town drunk, Evans must fight off one of Wade’s vengeful henchmen while also being tempted by a lucrative bribe from the criminal.

One of the earliest revisionist Westerns, 3:10 to Yuma has some narrative and thematic weaknesses, but its pitfalls still present intriguing ideas about the morality of the Old West and the sensitivities of those on both sides of the law who inhabited it. Its sense of claustrophobia even amid the vastness of Arizona is a triumph of atmospheric creativity.

3:10 to Yuma

Not Rated

Drama

Thriller

Western

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Release Date

August 7, 1957

Director

Delmer Daves

Cast

Glenn Ford , Van Heflin , Felicia Farr , Leora Dana , Henry Jones

Runtime

92 Minutes

43 'True Grit' (1969)

Directed by Henry Hathaway

Another classic that received a modern remake that will appear later on this list, 1969’s True Grit is a rousing story of revenge, one that also contains one of John Wayne’s best performances. In the midst of 1880s Arkansas, 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) enlists the help of an aging U.S. Marshal to help her track down and apprehend the man responsible for murdering her father. When a young Texas Ranger joins the search hoping to capture the crook to earn a bounty, the three characters begin to clash over their notions of justice and punishment.

Wayne won his only Academy Award for his grizzled performance as the cantankerous and coarse “Rooster” Cogburn, and his lead role is an obvious highlight of the picture. While the rest of the movie sometimes errs in its juggling of the characters, their ambitions and desires, and the larger thematic focus on justice, True Grit remains a terrific Western that all lovers of the genre ought to enjoy.

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42 'El Dorado' (1966)

Directed by Howard Hawks

Featuring two major stars in John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, 1966’s El Dorado is representative of the last days of the classical American Western in old Hollywood. Cole Thornton (Wayne) is a mercenary who refuses to help a crooked rancher run out the honest MacDonald family. However, when he later learns that the town’s Sheriff has become an alcoholic and the rancher is hiring other gunmen, Thornton returns to the town to offer his help to the MacDonalds.

While it didn’t reinvent the genre, El Dorado can still be celebrated as an earnest example of Western entertainment complete with likable heroes, wry humor, and a riveting climactic shootout worth waiting for. Also a fine display of Howard Hawks’ technical excellence as a filmmaker and visual storyteller, El Dorado is Hollywood Western cinema at its most comfortable and familiar.

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41 'Winchester '73' (1950)

Directed by Anthony Mann

One of Jimmy Stewart’s finest efforts in his Western filmography, Winchester ’73 sees the iconic leading man portray Lin McAdam, a cowboy on the hunt for a notorious outlaw, Dutch Henry Brown (Millard Mitchell). When Dutch ambushes McAdam, and steals a prized Winchester rifle he won in a shooting contest, the cowboy sets out to reclaim his gun and kill Dutch once and for all, putting the two men on an inevitable collision course sure to end in an epic gunfight.

With a runtime of just 92 minutes, Winchester ’73 is a brisk and high-tempo film, offering plenty of thrills and action along the way. Furthermore, it’s immense cast – including the likes of Rock Hudson, Shelley Winters, Tony Curtis, and Dan Duryea – imbues it with a vibrancy and energy that feeds into its engaging spectacle. It is undeniably Stewart’s film though, with the bold foray into Western cinema re-branding the actor as a hero of the frontier for years to come.

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40 'My Darling Clementine' (1946)

Directed by John Ford

John Ford’s take on the legend of Wyatt Earp (played in this case by Henry Fonda), My Darling Clementine might just be the acclaimed filmmaker’s most underrated movie. Fleshing out the story behind the famous O.K. Corral shootout, it follows Earp as he arrives in Tombstone with his brothers, only to awaken the next morning to find one of them dead and their cattle stolen. While the Earp brothers seek revenge, Wyatt sparks a romantic interest in Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs), the former lover of Doc Holliday (Victor Mature).

Fonda turned in a truly iconic cowboy performance while Mature had a career-best outing as the ailing Doc Holliday. With the film displayed in the brand of epic, cinematic grandiosity that defined many of John Ford’s greatest pictures, it remains a true Western classic and one of the best depictions of Wyatt Earp ever put to screen.

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39 'Johnny Guitar' (1954)

Directed by Nicholas Ray

Despite being released to mixed and uncertain domestic reviews, Johnny Guitar became an instant hit in the European market and has endured as a progressive and captivating classic that has earned greater praise over time. Starring Joan Crawford, it follows an abrasive saloon owner as the sympathy she extends to a wounded outlaw sees her become the target of a lynch mob spurred on by her arch nemesis.

Unafraid of breaking genre conventions, Johnny Guitar makes an immediate impression with its rich sense of style, its bold and blistering narrative and characters, and its lyrical dialogue that few Westerns have embraced quite so eagerly. Hinging on Crawford’s performance, the film has become a true classic of the genre, even receiving a stage musical adaptation in 2004 as a testament to its long-running popularity.

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38 'High Plains Drifter' (1973)

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Marking Clint Eastwood’s second effort as a director, and his first in the Western genre, High Plains Drifter is an impressive achievement, especially considering he also occupies the starring role with no small amount of presence. It follows a nameless gunfighter who drifts into a small town and is hired to help the townspeople defend their homes from three ruthless bandits soon to be arriving in the area.

Eastwood excels on both sides of the camera, with his performance an attention-grabbing enigma of harsh violence and dry humor, and his direction defined by his sharp and snappy camerawork. It went on to be a significant box office success as well as a rousing tale of defiance that has endured impressively over the course of 50+ years, and it remains one of Eastwood’s strongest directorial outings.

High Plains Drifter

R

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Release Date

April 6, 1973

Director

Clint Eastwood

Cast

Clint Eastwood , Verna Bloom , Mariana Hill

Runtime

105 Minutes

Main Genre

Western

37 'The Rider' (2017)

Directed by Chloé Zhao

Marking the second feature from Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao, 2017’s The Rider stands as an underrated modern Western even with critics heaping praise upon the character drama. It follows a rodeo rider who suffers a serious head injury that leads doctors to advise him against further riding. While he struggles to come to terms with the diagnosis, he takes a job at a local grocery store to help his poverty-stricken family which is struggling under the burden of their alcoholic and gambling-addicted patriarch.

Despite being a hard-hitting narrative film, Zhao strayed away from using trained actors, instead opting to cast real Lakota people as fictionalized versions of themselves, including star Brady Jandreau who did suffer a serious head injury as a horse trainer. Completely natural, evocative, and profoundly human, The Rider is a highlight of understated drama and is a film that explores complicated notions of masculinity while posing as a criminally underrated modern Western.

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36 'Dances with Wolves' (1990)

Directed by Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner’s directorial debut, Dances with Wolves is an overawing visual spectacle that encompasses the sheer vastness of the frontier and the emotional might that can be found in American history. With Costner also starring, it follows a Civil War veteran who is assigned to a remote western outpost and forms a tight bond with the local Sioux tribe. His new relationships with the tribe members are tested when Union soldiers arrive to take their land.

While it is easy to criticize the movie for the simplicity with which it addresses its cultural focuses, Dances with Wolves maintains an arresting and rousing grandiosity that has seen it, as a whole, age admirably even if some of its parts haven’t. In addition to having a significant impact upon release, it also won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Costner.

Dances With Wolves

PG-13

Adventure

Documentary

Drama

Romance

Western

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Release Date

March 30, 1990

Director

Kevin Costner

Cast

Kevin Costner , Mary McDonnell , Graham Greene , Rodney A. Grant , Floyd Westerman , Tantoo Cardinal

Runtime

181 minutes

35 'Fort Apache' (1948)

Directed by John Ford

While its impact today is perhaps underappreciated, Fort Apache is an important landmark in the Western genre as one of the first mainstream Westerns to cast a sympathetic light on the Native Americans and the plights they faced as the frontier expanded. It focuses on the hostile relationship between a respected Civil War veteran, who is the new commander of Fort Apache, and his level-headed deputy, with the two men clashing over a planned attack on the Native Americans in the area.

Director John Ford was able to use the film to elaborate on a world-weary and contemplative view on interpersonal and racial conflicts, and even warfare itself, that would become a defining point of his greatest films going forward. Linked to the legend of General Custer’s cavalry charge, Fort Apache finds its brilliance in its ambiguity and complexity, while Ford’s directorial precision is a feature, as are the performances of John Wayne and Henry Fonda.

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34 'The Big Country' (1958)

Directed by William Wyler

A true epic, The Big Country utilizes a 165-minute runtime to depict the Old West in all its sweeping grandiosity as it explores a dramatic tale of family feuding and land rights. Captain James McKay (Gregory Peck) finally retires to America to marry his fiancé, but he soon finds himself embroiled in her family’s squabble with the lawless Hannassey family concerning land and water resources in the area. While the Hannasseys try to provoke violence, McKay prefers to be reasonable, an approach that aggravates his fiancé and soon-to-be father-in-law.

Both its beautiful visual display and its arresting soundtrack imbue The Big Country with a captivating enormity that gives the central conflict a terrific urgency. The cast at large excel in their parts, even if some of the roles may be a touch wooden by today’s standards, making The Big Country a trademark 50s period epic. It was also a favorite movie of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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33 'The Proposition' (2005)

Directed by John Hillcoat

While Westerns typically make use of the vast, open ranges of America and the frontier, Australia has established itself as an adequate substitute with its barren outback and its sun-scorched landscapes. Dubbed “meat pie Westerns,” Australia has produced a number of excellent films in the genre, with 2005’s The Proposition one of the best and most brutal.

Featuring an all-star cast, it follows a criminal who is given an ultimatum when he and his younger brother are arrested; he can bring his sadistic older brother in to be hanged, or his comparatively innocent younger sibling will face the noose in his stead. All the while, the policeman in charge struggles with the moral ramifications and what he is doing as the force around him take issue with his idea. Gritty, violent, and loaded with complicated characters at breaking strain, The Proposition is an underrated Western and one of the best examples of the genre in the 21st century.

The Proposition

R

Crime

Drama

Western

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Release Date

September 12, 2005

Director

John Hillcoat

Cast

Guy Pearce , Ray Winstone , Danny Huston , John Hurt , David Wenham , Emily Watson

Runtime

104 Minutes

32 'Red River' (1948)

Directed by Howard Hawks

An underrated John Wayne film compared to some of the Western icon’s other acclaimed pictures in the genre, Red River excels as a character-driven drama with a neat, focused story. It follows Texas rancher Thomas Dunson (Wayne) and his adopted son Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift) as they embark on a cattle drive to Missouri as the Civil War rages on. The further they trek, the more hostile their relationship grows.

With esteemed director Howard Hawks at the helm, the film is an exemplary Western rich with awe-inspiring, sweeping visuals and an arresting emotional journey of desperation and tragedy. It maybe sacrifices some of the exhilarating thrills associated with Western stories in pits pursuit of a more grounded depiction of a bleak chapter in American history, but it is a stronger, more powerful film for it. Wayne’s portrayal of Dunson also remains one of the best and most nuanced performances of his career.

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31 'Tombstone' (1993)

Directed by George P. Cosmatos and Kevin Jarre

A sleek and stylish Western that was strikingly modern upon release and has endured admirably with its immaculate cast, Tombstone has to be the huckleberry of every 90s Western fan. A dramatized retelling of Wyatt Earp’s (Kurt Russell) exploits, it follows the famous gunman as he and his brothers settle in the Arizona town of Tombstone where they find themselves opposed to a band of outlaws known as “the Cowboys.”

The ensemble cast features A-listers like Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, and Michael Biehn alongside Kurt Russell, but it was Val Kilmer’s portrayal of Doc Holliday that was the true scene stealer. His chemistry with Russell is sensational, with the bond between Holliday and Earp a defining element of the film’s brilliance. Triumphant, rousing, and imbued with gritty fun, Tombstone is a hallmark of Western entertainment in the 1990s.

Tombstone

R

Western

Biography

Drama

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Release Date

December 25, 1993

Director

George P. Cosmatos , Kevin Jarre

Cast

Bill Paxton , Charlton Heston , Sam Elliott , Powers Boothe , Val Kilmer , Kurt Russell , Michael Biehn , Jason Priestley

Runtime

130 minutes

30 'Compañeros' (1970)

Directed by Sergio Corbucci

While Sergio Corbucci was typically known for the confronting sense of violence he brought to spaghetti Western cinema, his 1970 film, Compañeros, was a masterful blending of comedy and Western. Essentially a buddy movie, it follows a Swedish arms dealer and a Mexican peon as they are dispatched to reclaim an intellectual leader of the revolution from an American prison. Hilarious misadventures aplenty ensue, while the duo are also tracked by a one-handed gunslinger harboring a vengeful fury.

With genre icons Franco Nero and Tomas Milian occupying the starring roles, Compańeros boasted a vibrant energy that saw it go from Western to comedy to all-out action on a whim. There is a degree of ridiculous excess to Compańeros which is perfectly balanced against its narrative progression to be an exuberantly fun viewing experience for Western lovers.

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29 'Hell or High Water' (2016)

Directed by David Mackenzie

Hell or High Water has become an underrated cult classic as a well-acted neo-Western that also functions as a lean and gritty heist thriller. It follows Toby (exceptionally portrayed by Chris Pine), a divorced father, and his ill-tempered brother Tanner (Ben Foster), an ex-con, as they are told the bank is readying to foreclose on their family ranch. As they conduct a series of armed robberies on the bank, they find themselves on a collision course with Sheriff Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges), a veteran lawman on the cusp of retirement.

While it replaces the horses and rifles with pick-up trucks and pump-action shotguns, it cuts to the core of the genre with its complex exploration of morality, violence, and justice. David Mackenzie succeeds in walking a tightrope in that audiences are permitted to be roused by the poetic justice of the brothers robbing the bank they are indebted to, while also forcing viewers to grapple with its evocative story of desperation.

Hell or High Water

R

Crime

Thriller

Western

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Release Date

August 12, 2016

Director

David Mackenzie

Cast

Chris Pine , Jeff Bridges , Ben Foster , Katy Mixon , Dale Dickey , Kevin Rankin

Runtime

102 minutes

28 'Brokeback Mountain' (2004)

Directed by Ang Lee

A renowned Western romance from director Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain was famously snubbed for Best Picture at the Oscars. That being said, it has endured as a true gem of 21st century cinema that is an essential viewing experience for all movie lovers. It follows the romance that develops between sheep herders Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), one that grows complicated when they both return to their girlfriends and get married.

Its concentration on the emotional turmoil of both men gave the film a pointed focus that was poignant and painstakingly specific while still touching on a universal sense of heartache and despair. Impressively, this character-centric approach takes away none of the enormity associated with the genre, with Brokeback Mountain still utilizing an epic scale and spellbinding visuals to enhance the story. The end result is one of the greatest revisionist Westerns of all time.

Brokeback Mountain

R

Drama

Romance

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Release Date

December 9, 2005

Director

Ang Lee

Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal , Heath Ledger , Michelle Williams

Runtime

134 minutes

27 'The Hateful Eight' (2015)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

A spaghetti Western thriller that also runs as a twisted whodunit, The Hateful Eight is a somewhat underappreciated gem within Quentin Tarantino’s career and of the Western genre at large. It tracks eight strangers stuck in a cabin in 1870 Wyoming when a blizzard strikes, forcing a bounty hunter escorting a violent captive to the hangman to grow suspicious of those in his company.

The close confines and the ever-mounting tensions in The Hateful Eight presented Tarantino with plenty of opportunity to flaunt his signature intensity, seeing the movie border on a level of suspense synonymous with horror films. With an epic scale that allows the story to unfold over its three-hour runtime, The Hateful Eight also holds up incredibly well on multiple rewatches, with all the sly twists and eruptions of violence only becoming more engrossing. Additionally, the wintery Western setting made for a relatively unique aesthetic within the genre.

The Hateful Eight

R

Western

Crime

Mystery

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Release Date

December 25, 2015

Director

Quentin Tarantino

Cast

Demián Bichir , Michael Madsen , James Parks , Dana Michelle Gourrier , Lee Horsley , Gene Jones

Runtime

182 minutes

26 'Shane' (1953)

Directed by George Stevens

A Western classic that was catapulted back into mainstream consciousness with its appearance in, and influence on, 2017's superhero hit Logan, Shane is a brilliant and contemplative example of the genre. Set in 1880s Wyoming, it follows the titular bounty hunter as he arrives in a small town and begins working as a farmhand. As Shane (Alan Ladd) befriends the family who employ him, he begins dreaming of a quieter life on the homestead, before the arrival of a ruthless cattle baron forces the gunslinger to take up arms once more.

One of the most influential films in Western cinema, its tale of a violent man hoping to settle into some normality and peace only to return to his brutal ways for the greater good is one which has been replicated countless times. Few films, however, have done it with as much pathos as Shane. Rich with gorgeous views that embody the Old West, Shane won Best Cinematography at the Oscars while also earning a further five nominations.

Shane

NR

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Not available

Not available

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Release Date

April 23, 1953

Director

George Stevens

Cast

Jean Arthur , Van Heflin , Jack Palance

Runtime

118 minutes

Main Genre

Western