100 Greatest Westerns of All Time

The Old West has been a source of American mythology for well more than a century. The genre grew alongside the birth of cinema. The character of the “cowboy” is instantly recognizable across the globe – and is synonymous both with Hollywood and the United States itself. These 100 films explore the varied ways filmmakers have creatively used the Western and created these larger-than-life legends.

TOP 100

#TitleReleasedDirectorTop Lists
483:10 to Yuma1957Delmer DavesGreatest Westerns

After outlaw leader Ben Wade is captured in a small town, his gang continue to threaten. Small-time rancher Dan Evans is persuaded to take Wade in secret to the nearest town with a railway station to await the train to the court at Yuma. Once the two are holed up in the hotel to wait it becomes apparent the secret is out, and a battle of wills starts.

 

687 Men from Now1956Budd BoetticherGreatest WesternsEx-sheriff Ben Stride tracks the seven men who held up a Wells Fargo office and killed his wife. Stride is tormented by the fact that his own failure to keep his job was the cause of his wife's working in the express office and thus he is partly responsible for her death. Stride encounters a married couple heading west for California and helps them. Along the way they are joined by two n'er-do-wells, Masters and Clete, who know that Stride is after the express-office robbers. They plan to let Stride lead them to the bandits, then make away with the loot themselves. But they aren't the only ones carrying a secret.
727 Women1966John FordGreatest Westerns

In a mission in China in 1935, Agatha Andrews is a rigid missionary beset by Mongolian bandits led by Warlord chief Tunga Khan. With her are her assistant Jane Argent, staff members Emma Clark, Miss Russell and Miss Binns, head of the British mission, Charles Pather, a teacher at the mission and his pregnant wife Florrie. When Dr. D.R. Cartwright arrives, she agrees to sacrifice herself to the Tunga Khan in exchange for his letting the ladies go free.

 

65A Bullet for the General1967Damiano DamianiGreatest Westerns

El Chuncho’s bandits rob arms from a train, intending to sell the weapons to Elias’ revolutionaries. They are helped by one of the passengers, Bill Tate, and allow him to join them, unaware he is an assassin working for the Mexican government.

 

22A Fistful of Dollars1967Sergio LeoneGreatest Westerns

An anonymous, but deadly man rides into a town torn by war between two factions, the Baxters and the Rojo’s. Instead of fleeing or dying, as most other would do, the man schemes to play the two sides off each other, getting rich in the bargain.

 

77A Man Called Horse1970Elliot SilversteinGreatest Westerns

During the early 1800s, English Lord John Morgan is hunting in the Dakotas but he is captured by a group of Sioux warriors. Morgan’s guides are killed but he is spared by Sioux chief Yellow Hand who marvels at Morgan’s blond hair.Brought to Yellow Hand’s tribal village, Morgan has to endure physical abuse and mockery at the hands of women and children who consider Morgan to be a wild horse.Restrained by a rope around his neck, Morgan is given as a gift to an old squaw, Buffalo Cow Head, to be her slave and help her with daily chores.In the village, Morgan meets Running Deer, the beautiful young sister of chief Yellow Hand.Morgan witnesses the traditional courtship process when Running Deer is asked in marriage by a tribe member who presents Yellow Hand with gifts in return for his sister’s hand in marriage.Morgan starts to fall in love with her.Also in the village is half-breed, Batise, whose mother was Sioux and father was French.Batise becomes Morgan’s friend and interpreter.Batise advises Morgan against escaping citing his own escape attempt when he was re-captured and hamstrung by the savage Sioux.Despite these warnings, Morgan tries to escape several times but he is re-captured.He decides to bid his time for another escape opportunity.When a rival Shoshone war party approaches the Sioux village, Morgan kills two of the Shoshone scouts, winning the respect of his Sioux captors.Instead of escaping, Morgan plans to learn the ways of the Sioux, become a warrior and gain his place among them.But this would require much more than killing a few Shoshone scouts.Lord John Morgan’s true ordeal is just beginning.

 

86Angel and the Badman1947James Edward GrantGreatest Westerns

Notorious gunman Quirt Evans is wounded and on the run. He arrives at a Quaker farm owned by Thomas Worth and his family where he collapses from exhaustion. Evans asks Thomas and his daughter Penelope to drive him into town in their wagon in order to send an urgent telegram. The telegram contains a land claim and is sent to the land recorder’s office. The Quaker family is ignoring the town doctor’s advice to rid themselves of the gunfighter and they compassionately tend to the delirious Evans. Penny Worth becomes intrigued by his ravings of past loves.When Evans regains consciousness, Penny explains to him about the Quaker credo of non-violence and way of life. Three weeks later, two desperadoes, Laredo Stevens and Hondo Jeffries, ride into town looking for Evans.Penny’s younger brother, Johnny, rushes home to inform Evans of his visitors and Evans prepares to flee. Penny, now smitten with Evans, offers to run off with him. Upon hearing the sound of approaching horses, Evans grabs his revolver and, to his horror, discovers that it has been emptied. His life is in serious danger.

 

20Blazing Saddles1974Mel BrooksGreatest Westerns

The Ultimate Western Spoof. A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar (Harvey Korman), a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor (Mel Brooks). Hedley convinces him to send the town the first Black sheriff (Cleavon Little) in the west. Bart is a sophisticated urbanite who will have some difficulty winning over the townspeople.

 

100Blood on the Moon1948Robert WiseGreatest Westerns

When a shady-looking stranger rides into town to join his old friend it is assumed he is a hired gun. But as the new man comes to realise the unlawful nature of his buddy’s business and the way the homesteaders are being used, the two men draw apart to become sworn enemies.

 

11Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid1969George Roy HillGreatest Westerns, Mega Money Makers Through History

Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rock, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, “Let’s go to Bolivia”. Based on the exploits of the historical characters.

 

62Cat Ballou1965Elliot SilversteinGreatest Musicals, Greatest Westerns

Cat(herine) Ballou’s family farm is being threatened by the Rail Road. She sends for Kid Shelleen, finding him to be the drunkest gunfighter in the west. When her father is killed by the rail road magnate’s gunman, she vows to fight on. Shelleen manages to ride sideways in several scenes, while minstrels sing the ballad of Cat Ballou in between scenes.

 

88City Slickers1991Ron UnderwoodGreatest Westerns

Mitch is a middle aged big-city radio ads salesman. He and his friends Ed and Phil are having mid-life crisis. They decide the best birthday gift is to go on a two week holiday in the wild west driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There they meet cowboy Curly who not only teaches them how to become real cowboys, but also one or two other things about life in the open air of the west.

 

70Cowboy1958Delmer DavesGreatest Westerns

Chicago hotel clerk Frank Harris dreams of life as a cowboy, and he gets his chance when, jilted by the father of the woman he loves, he joins Tom Reece and his cattle-driving outfit. Soon, though, the tenderfoot finds out life on the range is neither what he expected nor what he’s been looking for…

 

18Dances with Wolves1990Kevin CostnerBest Picture Winners, Greatest Westerns

Lt. John Dunbar is dubbed a hero after he accidentally leads Union troops to a victory during the Civil War. He requests a position on the western frontier, but finds it deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone, but meets a wolf he dubs “Two-socks” and a curious Indian tribe. Dunbar quickly makes friends with the tribe, and discovers a white woman who was raised by the Indians. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and sheds his white-man’s ways.

 

55Day of the Outlaw1959André De TothGreatest Westerns

Cowboys and ranchers have to put their differences aside when a gang of outlaws, led by army captain Jack Bruhn, decide to spend the night in a little Western town.

 

59Decision at Sundown1957Budd BoetticherGreatest Westerns

Bart Allison arrives in Sundown planning to kill Tate Kimbrough. Three years earlier he believed Kimbrough was responsible for the death of his wife. He finds Kimbrough and warns him he is going to kill him but gets pinned down in the livery stable with his friend Sam by Kimbrough’s stooge Sheriff and his men. When Sam is shot in the back after being told he could leave safely, some of the townsmen change sides and disarm the Sheriff’s men forcing him to face Allison alone. Taking care of the Sheriff, Allison injures his gun hand and must now face Kimbrough left-handed.

 

35Destry Rides Again1939George MarshallGreatest Westerns

Kent, the unscrupulous boss of Bottleneck has Sheriff Keogh killed when he asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game that gives Kent a stranglehold over the local cattle rangers. The mayor, who is in cahoots with Kent appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as the new sheriff assuming that he’ll be easy to control. But what the mayor doesn’t know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under famous lawman, Tom Destry, and is able to call upon the equally formidable Tom Destry Jr to be his deputy. Featuring a career reviving performance from Marlene Dietrich as bar singer Frenchie, which could well have been the inspiration for Madeline Kahn’s “Blazing Saddles” character, Lili Von Schtupp.

 

23Django1966Sergio CorbucciGreatest Westerns

In the opening scene a lone man walks, behind him he drags a coffin. That man is Django. He rescues a woman from bandits and, later, arrives in a town ravaged by the same bandits. The scene for confrontation is set. But why does he drag that coffin everywhere and who, or what, is in it?

 

74Dodge City1939Michael CurtizGreatest Westerns

Dodge City. A wide-open cattle town run by Jeff Surrett. Even going on a children’s Sunday outing is not a safe thing to do. What the place needs is a fearless honest Marshal. A guy like Wade Hatton, who helped bring the railroad in. It may not help that he fancies Abbie Irving, who won’t have anything to do with him since he had to shoot her brother. But that’s the West.

 

69Duck, You Sucker1971Sergio LeoneGreatest Westerns

In Mexico at the time of the Revolution, Juan, the leader of a bandit family, meets John Mallory, an IRA explosives expert on the run from the British. Seeing John’s skill with explosives, Juan decides to persuade him to join the bandits in a raid on the great bank of Mesa Verde. John in the meantime has made contact with the revolutionaries, and intends to use his dynamite in their service.

 

60Duel in the Sun1946David O. Selznick, Josef von Sternberg, King Vidor, Otto Brower, Sidney Franklin, William Cameron Menzies, William DieterleBestselling Blockbusters Through History, Greatest Westerns, Mega Money Makers Through History

When her father is hanged for shooting his wife and her lover, half-breed Pearl Chavez goes to live with distant relatives in Texas. Welcomed by Laura Belle and her elder lawyer son Jesse, she meets with hostility from the ranch-owner himself, wheelchair-bound Senator Jackson McCanles, and with lustful interest from womanising, unruly younger son Lewt. Almost at once, already existing family tensions are exacerbated by her presence and the way she is physically drawn to Lewt.

 

66El Dorado1966Howard HawksGreatest Westerns

Hired gunman Cole Thornton turns down a job with Bart Jason as it would mean having to fight an old sheriff friend. Some months later he finds out the lawman is on the bottle and a top gunfighter is heading his way to help Jason. Along with young Mississippi, handy with a knife and now armed with a diabolical shotgun, Cole returns to help.

 

34El Topo1970Alejandro JodorowskyGreatest Fantasy Films, Greatest WesternsEl Topo decides to confront warrior Masters on a trans-formative desert journey he begins with his 6 year old son, who must bury his childhood totems to become a man. El Topo (the mole) claims to be God, while dressed as a gunfighter in black, riding a horse through a spiritual, mystical landscape strewn with old Western movie, and ancient Eastern religious symbols. Bandits slaughtered a village on his path, so El Topo avenges the massacred, then forcibly takes their leader’s woman Mara as his. El Topo’s surreal way is bloody, sexual and self-reflective, musing of his own demons, as he tries to vanquish those he encounters.  
63Face to Face1967Sergio SollimaGreatest Westerns

History Professor Brad Fletcher heads west for his health, but falls in with Soloman Bennett’s outlaw gang. Fascinated by their way of life, Fletcher finally takes over the gang, leading with a new ‘efficient’ ruthlessness.

 

26For a Few Dollars More1967Sergio LeoneGreatest Westerns

Monco is a bounty killer chasing El Indio and his gang. During his hunting, he meets Col. Douglas Mortimer, another bounty killer, and they decide to make a partnership, chase the bad guys together and split the reward. During their enterprise, there will be lots of bullets and funny situations. In the end, one of the bounty hunters shows the real intention of his hunting.

 

44Fort Apache1948John FordGreatest Westerns

In John Ford’s sombre exploration mythologising of American heroes, he slowly reveals the character of Owen Thursday, who sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, Thursday attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.

 

42Forty Guns1957Samuel FullerGreatest Westerns

An authoritarian rancher, Barbara Stanwyck, who rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new marshall arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling, brutally for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunmaker enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.

 

94Friendly Persuasion1956William WylerGreatest Westerns

The story of a family of Quakers in Indiana in 1862. Their religous sect is strongly opposed to violence and war. It’s not easy for them to meet the rules of their religion in everyday life but when Southern troops pass the area they are in real trouble. Should they fight, despite their peaceful attitide?

 

64Giant1956George StevensGreatest Westerns, Mega Money Makers Through History

Texan rancher Bick Benedict visits a Maryland farm to buy a prize horse. Whilst there he meets and falls in love with the owner’s daughter Leslie, they are married immediately and return to his ranch. The story of their family and its rivalry with cowboy and (later oil tycoon) Jett Rink unfolds across two generations.

 

61Gunfight at the O.K. Corral1957John SturgesGreatest Westerns

After a long career as a lawman that made him a legend, Wyatt Earp decides to quit and join his brothers in Tombstone, Arizona. There he would see them in a feud with the Clantons, a local clan of thugs and cattle thieves. When the showdown becomes inevitable, the help will come from Doc Holliday, a terminally-ill gambler who happens to be another Wild West legend.

 

38Heaven's Gate1980Michael CiminoGreatest Westerns

In Michael Cimino’s bleak anti-western based on events in 1890s Wyoming, Sheriff James Averill attempts to protect immigrant farmers from wealthy cattle interests, and also clashes with a hired gun, Nathan Champion, over the woman they both love. Both men find themselves questioning their roles in the furious conflict between wealthy landowners and European immigrants attempting to build new lives on the American frontier, which culminates in a brutal pitched battle.

 

90Hell or High Water2016David MackenzieGreatest Westerns

In Texas, after the death of his mother, the unemployed oil and gas worker Toby Howard is losing his ranch to the Texas Midlands Bank. Toby is divorced from his wife who lives with their two sons. When his brother Tanner Howard is released from the prison, they team up to rob agencies of the Texas Midlands Bank to raise money to pay the loan so that Toby may leave the real estate to his sons. Meanwhile the Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton who is near retirement and his Indian descendant partner Alberto Parker try to anticipate the next move of the thieves.

 

6High Noon1952Fred ZinnemannGreatest Westerns

On the day he gets married and hangs up his badge, lawman Will Kane is told that a man he sent to prison years before, Frank Miller, is returning on the noon train to exact his revenge. Having initially decided to leave with his new spouse, Will decides he must go back and face Miller. However, when he seeks the help of the townspeople he has protected for so long, they turn their backs on him. It seems Kane may have to face Miller alone, as well as the rest of Miller’s gang, who are waiting for him at the station…

 

19High Plains Drifter1973Clint EastwoodGreatest Westerns

A Stranger rides into in the dusty mining town of Lago, where the townspeople are living in the shadow of a dark secret. After a shootout leaves the town’s hired-gun protectors dead, the town’s leaders petition the Stranger to stay and protect them from three ruthless outlaws who are soon to be released from prison. The three have their sights set on returning to Lago to wreak havoc and take care of some unfinished business. A series of events soon has the townspeople questioning whether siding with the Stranger was a wise idea as they quickly learn the price that they each must pay for his services. As the outlaws make their way back into Lago, they discover that the town is not exactly as they had left it, and waiting in the shadows is the Stranger, ready to expose the town’s secret and serve up his own brand of justice.

 

25Johnny Guitar1954Nicholas RayGreatest Westerns

Vienna has built a saloon outside of town, and she hopes to build her own town once the railroad is put through, but the townsfolk want her gone. When four men hold up a stagecoach and kill a man the town officials, led by Emma Small, come to the saloon to grab four of Vienna’s friends, the Dancin’ Kid and his men. Vienna stands strong against them, and is aided by the presence of an old acquaintance of hers, Johnny Guitar, who is not what he seems.

 

37Little Big Man1970Arthur PennGreatest Westerns

Jack Crabb is 121 years old as the film begins. A collector of oral histories asks him about his past. He recounts being captured and raised by indians, becoming a gunslinger, marrying an indian, watching her killed by General George Armstrong Custer, and becoming a scout for him at Little Big Horn.

 

32Lonesome Dove1989N/AGreatest Westerns

Epic story about two former Texas rangers who decide to move cattle from the south to Montana. Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call run into many problems on the way, and the journey doesn’t end without numerous casualties. (6 hrs approx)

 

13McCabe & Mrs. Miller1971Robert AltmanGreatest Westerns

Set in winter in the Old West. Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a young Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. The shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to use her experience to help McCabe run his business, while sharing in the profits. The whorehouse thrives and McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. He refuses, and his decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.

 

39Meek's Cutoff2011Kelly ReichardtGreatest Westerns

The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in each other’s instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as the natural enemy.

 

14My Darling Clementine1946John FordGreatest Westerns

Wyatt Earp and his brothers Morgan and Virgil ride into Tombstone and leave brother James in charge of their cattle herd. On their return they find their cattle stolen and James dead. Wyatt takes on the job of town marshal, making his brothers deputies, and vows to stay in Tombstone until James’ killers are found. He soon runs into the brooding, coughing, hard-drinking Doc Holliday as well as the sullen and vicious Clanton clan. Wyatt discovers the owner of a trinket stolen from James’ dead body and the stage is set for the Earps’ long-awaited revenge.

READ: John Wayne, Colonel Blimp and War Crimes

 

 

84My Name Is Nobody1973Tonino ValeriiGreatest Westerns

Jack Beauregard, once the greatest gunslinger of the Old West, only wants to move to Europe and retire in peace, but a young gunfighter, known only as “Nobody,” idolizes him and wants to see him go out in a blaze of glory. He arranges for Jack to face the 150-man gang known as The Wild Bunch and earn his place in history.

 

95No Country for Old Men2007Ethan Coen, Joel CoenBest Picture Winners, Greatest Westerns

In rural Texas, welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Rather than report the discovery to the police, Moss decides to simply take the two million dollars present for himself. This puts the psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), on his trail as he dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even employer in his pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss desperately attempts to keep one step ahead, the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the laconic Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) blithely oversees the investigation even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart.

 

92Oklahoma!1956Fred ZinnemannGreatest Westerns

In Oklahoma, several farmers, cowboys and a traveling salesman compete for the romantic favors of various local ladies.

 

2Once Upon a Time in the West1969Sergio LeoneGreatest Westerns, Sight & Sound 2022 Critics' Top 100, Sight & Sound 2022 Directors' Top 100

Story of a young woman, Mrs. McBain, who moves from New Orleans to frontier Utah, on the very edge of the American West. She arrives to find her new husband and family slaughtered, but by whom? The prime suspect, coffee-lover Cheyenne, befriends her and offers to go after the real killer, assassin gang leader Frank, in her honor. He is accompanied by Harmonica, a man already on a quest to get even.

 

21One-Eyed Jacks1961Marlon BrandoGreatest Westerns

Running from the law after a bank robbery in Mexico, Dad Longworth finds an opportunity to take the stolen gold and leave his partner Rio to be captured. Years later, Rio escapes from the prison where he has been since, and hunts down Dad for revenge. Dad is now a respectable sheriff in California, and has been living in fear of Rio’s return.

 

46Open Range2003Kevin CostnerGreatest Westerns

Boss Spearman, Charley Waite, Mose Harrison and Button freegraze their cattle across the vast prairies of the West, sharing a friendship forged by a steadfast code of honor and living a life unencumbered by civilization. When their wayward herd forces them near the small town of Harmonville, the cowboys encounter a corrupt sheriff and kingpin rancher who govern the territory through fear, tyranny and violence. Boss and Charley find themselves inextricably drawn towards an inevitable showdown, as they are forced to defend the freedom and values of a lifestyle that is all too quickly vanishing. Amidst the turmoil, life suddenly takes an unexpected turn for the loner Charley when he meets the beautiful and warm spirited Sue Barlow, a woman who embraces both his heart and his soul.

 

71Pale Rider1985Clint EastwoodGreatest Westerns

A gold mining camp in the California foothills is besieged by a neighboring landowner intent on stealing their claims. A preacher rides into camp and uses all of his powers of persuasion to convince the landowner to give up his attacks on the miners.

 

30Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid1973Sam PeckinpahGreatest Westerns

It’s 1881 in New Mexico, and the times they are a’changing. Pat Garrett, erstwhile travelling companion of the outlaw Billy the Kid has become a sheriff, tasked by cattle interests with ridding the territory of Billy. After Billy escapes, Pat assembles a posse and chases him through the territory, culminating in a final confrontation at Fort Sumner, but is unaware of the full scope of the cattle interests’ plans for the New West.

 

89Rancho Deluxe1975Frank PerryGreatest Westerns

Jack McKee (Jeff Bridges) and Cecil Colson (Sam Waterston) are bumbling drifters who make a living by rustling cattle in the wilds of Montana. Jack left his wealthy parents because he resented their posh lives. Cecil is of Caucasian and Native American descent seeking his own path in life away from his grumpy cowboy father (Joe Spinell). Both Jack and Cecil hustle and rustle their way in the world by targeting cattle owned by wealthy ranch-owner John Brown (Clifton James). Frustrated that someone is killing his cattle, John hires a pair of ranch hands, Burt and Curt (Richard Bright and Harry Dean Stanton), to find the rustlers. When Brown realizes he cannot trust his two inept ranch hands, he turns to the grizzled former rustler Henry Beige (Slim Pickens) to find the cattle thieves. Jack and Cecil always stay a step ahead of their pursuers, not realizing that their luck must run out sometime.

 

49Rancho Notorious1952Fritz LangGreatest Westerns, Mega Money Makers Through History

A western based on the story “Gunsight Whitman” by Silvia Richards. Vern Haskell, a nice rancher, seeks out to avenge his fiancé’s death when she is killed during a robbery. His revenge leads him to Chuck-a-luck, Altar Keane’s ranch set up to hide criminals, and he finds more than he bargains for.

 

97Rango2011Gore VerbinskiGreatest Westerns

Rango is a pet chameleon always on the lookout for action and adventure, except the fake kind, where he directs it and acts in it. After a car accident, he winds up in an old western town called Dirt. What this town needs the most is water, but they also need a hero and a sheriff. The thirsty Rango instantly takes on the role of both and selfishly agrees to take on the case of their missing water.

 

9Red River1948Arthur Rosson, Howard HawksGreatest Westerns

Fourteen years after starting his cattle ranch in Texas, Tom Dunston is finally ready to drive his 10,000 head of cattle to market. Back then Dunston, his sidekick Nadine Groot and a teen-aged boy, Matt Garth -who was the only survivor of an Indian attack on a wagon train – started off with only two head of cattle. The nearest market however is in Missouri, a 1000 miles away. Dunston is a hard task master demanding a great deal from the men who have signed up for the drive. Matt is a grown man now and fought in the Civil War. He has his own mind as well and he soon runs up against the stubborn Dunston who won’t listen to advice from anyone. Soon, the men on the drive are taking sides and Matt ends up in charge with Dunston vowing to kill him.

READ: John Wayne in Red River

 

 

56Requiescant1967Carlo LizzaniGreatest WesternsIn Fort Hernandez, San Antonio, a group of Mexican villagers is betrayed by Confederate soldiers led by aristocratic Officer George Bellow Ferguson and they are slaughtered. After the massacre, the boy Requiescant wanders in the desert but he is rescued by the religious Father Jeremy that is traveling with his wife and daughter in his wagon. The boy is raised like a son and when he grows-up, Requiescant is very close to his stepsister Princy. One day, the rebellious Princy leaves her family, traveling with a theater company. Requiescant promises to his foster family to seek Princy out and bring her back home. Along his journey, Requiescant proves that he is a great skill with his gun to self-protect. When he arrives in San Antonio, he finds that the city belongs to Ferguson. He goes to a saloon and he finds that Princy has become a prostitute pimped by Ferguson's henchman, the gunslinger Dean Light. Requiescant asks Ferguson to let Princy go with him, but the boss of the town is reluctant to release her. When Requiescant learns that he is Mexican and the fate of his family, he decides to help the priest Don Juan to start an uprising against Ferguson.
31Ride the High Country1962Sam PeckinpahGreatest Westerns

Aging ex-marshal Steve Judd is hired by a bank to transport a gold shipment through dangerous territory. He hires an old partner, Gil Westrum, and his young protege Heck to assist him. Steve doesn’t know, however, that Gil and Heck plan to steal the gold, with or without Steve’s help. On the trail, the three get involved in a young woman’s desire to escape first from her father, then from her fiance and his dangerously psychotic brothers.

 

10Rio Bravo1959Howard HawksGreatest Westerns

Sheriff John T. Chance has his hands full after arresting Joe Burdette for murder. He knows that Burdette’s brother Nathan, a powerful rancher, will go to any lengths to get him out of jail. Chance’s good friend Pat Wheeler offers to help but within 20 minutes of making the offer is gunned down in the street, shot in the back. That leaves his elderly deputy Stumpy, the town drunk Dude – once a deputy and a pretty good shot when he was sober – and a young hand, Colorado, who used to work for Wheeler. Nathan Burdette meanwhile has a couple of dozen men at his disposal. Chance does his best to prepare all the while romancing a pretty gamblers who goes by the name of Feathers.

 

82Rio Grande1950John FordGreatest Westerns

Rio Grande takes place after the Civil War when the Union turned their attention towards the Apaches. Union officer Kirby Yorke is in charge of an outpost on the Rio Grande in which he is in charge of training of new recruits one of which is his son whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years. He whips him into shape to take on the Apaches but not before his mother shows up to take him out of there.The decision to leave is left up to Trooper Yorke who decides to stay and fight. Through it all Kirby and Kathleen though separated for years fall back into love and decide that it’s time to give it another try. But Yorke faces his toughest battle when his unorthodox plan to outwit the elusive Apaches leads to possible court- martial. Locked in a bloody Indian war, he must fight to redeem his honor and save the love and lives of his broken family

 

7Shane1953George StevensGreatest Westerns

Shane rides into a conflict between cattleman Ryker and a bunch of settlers, like Joe Starrett and his family, whose land Ryker wants. When Shane beats up Ryker’s man Chris, Ryker tries to buy him. Then Shane and Joe take on the whole Ryker crew. Ryker sends to Cheyenne for truly evil gunslinger Wilson. Shane must clear out all the guns from the valley.

 

41She Wore a Yellow Ribbon1949John FordGreatest Westerns

After Custer and the 7th Cavalry are wiped out by Indians, everyone expects the worst. Capt. Nathan Brittles is ordered out on patrol but he’s also required to take along Abby Allshard, wife of the Fort’s commanding officer, and her niece, the pretty Olivia Dandridge, who are being evacuated for their own safety. Brittles is only a few days away from retirement and Olivia has caught the eye of two of the young officers in the Company, Lt. Flint Cohill and 2nd Lt. Ross Pennell. She’s taken to wearing a yellow ribbon in her hair, a sign that she has a beau in the Cavalry, but refuses to say for whom she is wearing it.

 

83Silverado1985Lawrence KasdanGreatest Westerns

In 1880, four men travel together to the city of Silverado. They come across many dangers before they finally engage the “bad guys” and bring peace and equality back to the city.

 

8Stagecoach1939John FordGreatest WesternsA simple stagecoach trip is complicated by the fact that Geronimo is on the warpath in the area. The passengers on the coach include a drunken doctor, two women, a bank manager who has taken off with his client’s money, and the famous Ringo Kid, among others.  
67Support Your Local Sheriff!1969Burt KennedyGreatest Westerns

McCullough is “passing through on my way to Australia” when he takes a job in a gold rush town. After a startling display of marksmanship he immediately arrests the youngest son of the evil landowner (Danby). A battle of hired guns begins as McCullough continues to tame the town and defeat the gunslingers with a combination of skill and wit.

 

43The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007Andrew DominikGreatest Westerns

Taking place in the American Northwest in the early 1880s, the film dramatizes the last seven months in the life of famed outlaw Jesse James, beginning with the Blue Cut train robbery of 1881 and culminating in his assassination at the hands of Robert Ford the following April. In the time between these two fateful events, the young and jealous Ford befriends the increasingly mistrustful outlaw, even as he plots his demise.

 

58The Big Trail1930Louis R. Loeffler, Raoul WalshGreatest Westerns

Breck leads a wagon train of pioneers through Indian attack, storms, deserts, swollen rivers, down cliffs and so on while looking for the murder of a trapper and falling in love with Ruth.

 

91The Claim2001Michael WinterbottomGreatest Westerns

A prospector sells his wife and daughter to another gold miner for the rights to a gold mine. Twenty years later, the prospector is a wealthy man who owns much of the old west town named Kingdom Come. But changes are brewing and his past is coming back to haunt him. A surveyor and his crew scout the town as a location for a new railroad line and a young woman suddenly appears in the town and is evidently the man’s daughter.

 

57The Gold Rush1925Charles ChaplinGreatest Silent Films, Greatest Westerns, Mega Money Makers Through HistoryA lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm. Also read: Movies entering the Public Domain in 2021  
4The Good, the Bad and the Ugly1967Sergio LeoneGreatest Westerns

Blondie (The Good) is a professional gunslinger who is out trying to earn a few dollars. Angel Eyes (The Bad) is a hit man who always commits to a task and sees it through, as long as he is paid to do so. And Tuco (The Ugly) is a wanted outlaw trying to take care of his own hide. Tuco and Blondie share a partnership together making money off Tuco’s bounty, but when Blondie unties the partnership, Tuco tries to hunt down Blondie. When Blondie and Tuco come across a horse carriage loaded with dead bodies, they soon learn from the only survivor (Bill Carson) that he and a few other men have buried a stash of gold in a cemetery. Unfortunately Carson dies and Tuco only finds out the name of the cemetery, while Blondie finds out the name on the grave. Now the two must keep each other alive in order to find the gold. Angel Eyes (who had been looking for Bill Carson) discovers that Tuco and Blondie met with Carson and knows they know the location of the gold. All he needs is for the two to lead him to it. Now The Good, The Bad and The Ugly must all battle it out to get their hands on $200,000 worth of gold.

 

33The Great Silence1969Sergio CorbucciGreatest Westerns

Bounty killers led by Loco prey on outlaws hiding out in the snowbound Utahn mountains. After Pauline’s husband becomes Loco’s latest victim, she hires a gunman for revenge; Silence, mute since his throat was cut when he was a boy.

 

51The Great Train Robbery1903Edwin S. PorterGreatest Silent Films, Greatest Westerns

Among the earliest existing films in American cinema – notable as the first film that presented a narrative story to tell – it depicts a group of cowboy outlaws who hold up a train and rob the passengers. They are then pursued by a Sheriff’s posse. Several scenes have color included – all hand tinted.

 

87The Grey Fox1983Phillip BorsosGreatest Westerns

Old West highwayman Bill Miner, known to Pinkertons as “The Gentleman Bandit,” is released in 1901 after 33 years in prison, a genial and charming old man. He goes to Washington to live and work with his sister’s family. But the world has changed much while he has been away, and he just can’t adjust. So he goes to Canada and returns to the only thing familiar to him — robbery (with stagecoaches changed to trains).

 

45The Gunfighter1950Henry KingGreatest Westerns

A reformed Gunfighter Jimmy Ringo is on his way to a sleepy town in the hope of a reunion with his estranged sweetheart and their young son who he has never seen. On arrival, a chance meeting with some old friends including the town’s Marshal gives the repentant Jimmy some respite. But as always Jimmy’s reputation has already cast its shadow, this time in the form of three vengeful cowboys hot on his trail and a local gunslinger hoping to use Jimmy to make a name for himself. With a showdown looming, the town is soon in a frenzy as news of Jimmy’s arrival spreads. His movements are restricted to the saloon while a secret meeting with his son can be arranged giving him ideas of a long term reunion with his family far removed from his wild past.

 

93The Hired Hand1971Peter FondaGreatest Westerns

Harry Collings returns home to his farm after drifting with his friend, Arch. His wife, who had given up on him, reluctantly allows him to stay, and soon believes that all will be well again. But then Harry has to make a difficult decision regarding his loyalties and priorities.

 

98The Long Riders1980Walter HillGreatest Westerns

The origins, exploits and the ultimate fate of the Jesse James gang is told in a sympathetic portrayal of the bank robbers made up of brothers who begin their legendary bank raids because of revenge.

 

16The Magnificent Seven1960John SturgesGreatest Westerns

A bandit terrorizes a small Mexican farming village each year. Several of the village elders send three of the farmers into the United States to search for gunmen to defend them. They end up with seven, each of whom comes for a different reason. They must prepare the town to repulse an army of thirty bandits who will arrive wanting food.

 

50The Man from Laramie1955Anthony MannGreatest Westerns

Mysterious Will Lockhart delivers supplies to storekeeper Barbara Waggoman at Coronado, an isolated town in Apache country. Before long, he’s tangled with Dave Waggoman, vicious son of autocratic rancher Alec and cousin of sweet Barbara. But he sticks around town, his presence a catalyst for changes in people’s lives, searching for someone he doesn’t know…who’s been selling rifles to the Apaches.

 

96The Man from Snowy River1982George MillerGreatest Westerns

Jim Craig has lived his first 18 years in the mountains of Australia on his father’s farm. The death of his father forces him to go to the low lands to earn enough money to get the farm back on its feet. Kirk Douglas plays two roles as twin brothers who haven’t spoken for years, one of whom was Jim’s father’s best friend and the other of whom is the father of the girl he wants to marry. A 20 year old feud re-erupts, catching Jim and Jessica in the middle of it as Jim is accused of letting a prize stallion loose.

 

12The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance1962John FordGreatest Westerns

When Senator Ransom Stoddard returns home to Shinbone for the funeral of Tom Doniphon, he recounts to a local newspaper editor the story behind it all. He had come to town many years before, a lawyer by profession. The stage was robbed on its way in by the local ruffian, Liberty Valance, and Stoddard has nothing to his name left save a few law books. He gets a job in the kitchen at the Ericson’s restaurant and there meets his future wife, Hallie. The territory is vying for Statehood and Stoddard is selected as a representative over Valance, who continues terrorizing the town. When he destroys the local newspaper office and attacks the editor, Stoddard calls him out, though the conclusion is not quite as straightforward as legend would have it.

READ: John Wayne, Colonel Blimp and War Crimes

 

 

54The Missouri Breaks1976Arthur PennGreatest Westerns

Tom Logan is a horse thief. Rancher David Braxton has horses, and a daughter, worth stealing. But Braxton has just hired Lee Clayton, an infamous “regulator”, to hunt down the horse thieves; one at a time.

 

24The Naked Spur1953Anthony MannGreatest Westerns

Howard Kemp is a bounty hunter who’s been after killer Ben Vandergroat for a long time. Along the way, Kemp is forced to take on a couple of partners, an old prospector named Jesse Tate and a dishonorably discharged Union soldier, Roy Anderson. When they learn that Vandergroat has a $5000 reward on his head, greed starts to take the better of them. Vandergroat takes every advantage of the situation sowing doubt between the two men at every opportunity finally convincing one of them to help him escape.

 

15The Outlaw Josey Wales1976Clint EastwoodGreatest Westerns

Josey Wales makes his way west after the Civil War, determined to live a useful and helpful life. He joins up with a group of settlers who need the protection that a man as tough and experienced as he is can provide. Unfortunately, the past has a way of catching up with you, and Josey is a wanted man.

 

27The Ox-Bow Incident1943William A. WellmanGreatest Westerns

Two drifters are passing through a Western town, when news comes in that a local farmer has been murdered and his cattle stolen. The townspeople, joined by the drifters, form a posse to catch the perpetrators. They find three men in possession of the cattle, and are determined to see justice done on the spot.

 

99The Revenant2016Alejandro G. IñárrituGreatest Westerns

While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack. When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home while avoiding natives on their own hunt. Grief-stricken and fueled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald, the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.

 

1The Searchers1956John FordGreatest Westerns, Sight & Sound 2022 Critics' Top 100, Sight & Sound 2022 Directors' Top 100Ethan Edwards, returned from the Civil War to the Texas ranch of his brother, hopes to find a home with his family and to be near the woman he obviously but secretly loves. But a Comanche raid destroys these plans, and Ethan sets out, along with his 1/8 Indian nephew Martin, on a years-long journey to find the niece kidnapped by the Indians under Chief Scar. But as the quest goes on, Martin begins to realize that his uncle’s hatred for the Indians is beginning to spill over onto his now-assimilated niece. Martin becomes uncertain whether Ethan plans to rescue Debbie…or kill her.  
40The Shooting1966Monte HellmanGreatest Westerns

An ex- bounty hunter turned miner returns to his mine dig to find one of his partners dead, how brother has run away and the remaining partner is slightly simple and unclear as to what happened. warren is enlisted by a mysterious women to take her across the desert. The woman is strange and keeps changing her story about what she wants and why. On the journey they pick up a gunslinger the woman has hired. The party ends up tracking a rider who is ahead of them. Warren figures out that the trip is really to track down the rider. It’s along hot trip across the desert with a purposeful woman,a homicidal gunslinger, the former bounty hunter and his simple sidekick and the unknown quarry.

 

36The Shootist1976Don SiegelGreatest Westerns

John Books an aging gunfighter goes to see a doctor he knows for a second opinion after another doctor told him he has a cancer which is terminal. The doctor confirms what the other said. He says Books has a month maybe two left. He takes a room in the boarding house and the son of the woman who runs it recognizes him and tells his mother who he is. She doesn’t like his kind but when he tells her of his condition, she empathizes. Her son wants him to teach him how to use a gun. Books tries to tell him that killing is not something he wants to live with. Books, not wanting to go through the agony of dying from cancer, tries to find a quicker way to go.

 

80The Sons of Katie Elder1965Henry HathawayGreatest Westerns

The Elder boys return to Clearwater, Texas for their Mother’s funeral. John the eldest is a well known gunfighter and trouble follows him wherever he goes. The boys try to get back their ranch from the towns gunsmith who won it from their father in a card game with which he was shortly murdered there after but not before getting through the troubles that come with the Elders name.

 

29The Treasure of the Sierra Madre1948John HustonGreatest Westerns

Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled prospector named Howard and decide to join with him in search of gold in the wilds of central Mexico. Through enormous difficulties, they eventually succeed in finding gold, but bandits, the elements, and most especially greed threaten to turn their success into disaster.

 

79The Virginian1931Victor FlemingGreatest WesternsMolly Wood arrives in a small western town to be the new schoolmarm. The Virginian, foreman on a local ranch, and Steve, his best fiend, soon become rivals for her affection. Steve falls in with bad guys led by Trampas, and the Virginian catches him cattle rustling. As foreman, he must give the order to hang his friend. Trampas gets away, but returns in time for the obligatory climactic shootout in the streets.
3The Wild Bunch1969Sam PeckinpahGreatest Westerns

It’s 1913, and the traditional American West is dying. Among the inhabitants of this dying time era are a outlaw gang called “The Wild Bunch”. After a failed bank robbery, the gang head to Mexico to do one last job. Seeing their times and lives drifting away in the newly formed world of the 20th century, the gang take the job and end up in a brutally, violent last stand against their enemies who deemed to be corrupt in a small Mexican town, ruled by a ruthless general.

 

47Tombstone1993George P. Cosmatos, Kevin JarreGreatest Westerns

After success cleaning up Dodge City, Wyatt Earp moves to Tombstone, Arizona, and wishes to get rich in obscurity. He meets his brothers there, as well as his old friend Doc Holliday. A band of outlaws that call themselves The Cowboys are causing problems in the region with various acts of random violence, and inevitably come into confrontation with Holliday and the Earps, which leads to a shoot-out at the OK Corral.

 

81True Grit2010Ethan Coen, Joel CoenGreatest Westerns

Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with “true grit,” Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her “grit” tested.

 

73True Grit1969Henry HathawayGreatest Westerns

The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy, Mattie Ross, (Kim Darby), on a mission of “justice”, which involves avenging her father’s death. She recruits a tough old marshal, “Rooster” Cogburn (John Wayne), because he has “grit”, and a reputation of getting the job done. The two are joined by a Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, (Glen Campbell), who is looking for the same man (Jeff Corey) for a separate murder in Texas. Their odyssey takes them from Fort Smith, Arkansas, deep into the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) to find their man.

 

53Ulzana's Raid1972Robert AldrichGreatest Westerns

Report reaches the US cavalry that the Apache leader Ulzana has left his reservation with a band of followers. A compassionate young officer, Lieutenant DeBuin, is given a small company to find him and bring him back; accompanying the troop is McIntosh, an experienced scout, and Ke-Ni-Tay, an Apache guide. Ulzana massacres, rapes and loots across the countryside; and as DeBuin encounters the remains of his victims, he is compelled to learn from McIntosh and to confront his own naiveté and hidden prejudice.

 

5Unforgiven1992Clint EastwoodBest Picture Winners, Greatest Westerns

The town of Big Whisky is full of normal people trying to lead quiet lives. Cowboys try to make a living. Sheriff ‘Little Bill’ tries to build a house and keep a heavy-handed order. The town whores just try to get by.Then a couple of cowboys cut up a whore. Dissatisfied with Bill’s justice, the prostitutes put a bounty on the cowboys. The bounty attracts a young gun billing himself as ‘The Schofield Kid’, and aging killer William Munny. Munny reformed for his young wife, and has been raising crops and two children in peace. But his wife is gone. Farm life is hard. And Munny is no good at it. So he calls his old partner Ned, saddles his ornery nag, and rides off to kill one more time, blurring the lines between heroism and villainy, man and myth.

 

85Union Pacific1939Cecil B. DeMilleGreatest WesternsOne of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows’ agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau’s partner Dick Allen is Jeff’s war buddy and rival suitor for engineer’s daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?  
76Vera Cruz1954Robert AldrichGreatest Westerns

After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz. Ben and Erin find that the stagecoach is transporting US$ 3,000,000.00 in gold hidden below the seat and they scheme to steal it. Along their journey, betrayals and incidents happen changing their initial intentions.

 

52Wagon Master1950John FordGreatest Westerns

As Mormon settlers head to the promised land at the San Juan river in Utah, they hire horse traders Travis Blue and Sandy as wagon masters. They have to forge a trail across unknown territory and face many hardships along the way. They quickly come across some stranded travelers, a medicine show run by Dr. A. Locksley Hall which includes the attractive Denver. Along the way however, they are also joined by Shiloh Clegg and his murderous clan of robbers and thieves. An encounter with the Navajo leads to an invitation to their camp but after one of the Clegg boys gets a whipping for attacking one of the Navajo women, Uncle Shiloh plans his revenge. It’s left to Sandy and Travis to protect the travelers and get them to their destination.

 

78Warlock1959Edward DmytrykGreatest Westerns

The town of Warlock is plagued by a gang of thugs, leading the inhabitants to hire Clay Blaisdell, a famous gunman, to act as marshal. When Blaisdell appears, he is accompanied by his friend Tom Morgan, a club-footed gambler who is unusually protective of Blaisdell’s life and reputation. However, Johnny Gannon, one of the thugs who has reformed, volunteered to accept the post of official deputy sheriff in rivalry to Blaisdell; and a woman arrives in town accusing Blaisdell and Morgan of having murdered her fiancé. The stage is set for a complex set of moral and personal conflicts.

 

17Winchester '731950Anthony MannGreatest Westerns

In a marksmanship contest, Lin McAdam wins a prized Winchester rifle, which is immediately stolen by the runner-up, Dutch Henry Brown. This “story of a rifle” then follows McAdams’ pursuit, and the rifle as it changes hands, until a final showdown and shoot-out on a rocky mountain precipice.