Vulture's The 50 Greatest Western Movies Ever Made

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A hard look at one of cinema’s oldest genres.
By Keith Phipps
JAN. 18, 2021

America can only claim a few art forms as its own. Jazz, for sure. Comic books, certainly. It’s probably safe to add the Western to that list, too, even if — like jazz and comics — the Western has roots around the globe and has since been adopted in many lands.

The history of movie Westerns more or less begins with the end of the Old West itself. Westerns thrived in the silent era, and though the genre’s popularity has ebbed and flowed ever since — largely fading from view in the ’80s but enjoy several resurgences in succeeding decades — it’s never threatened to fade away. The Western is a vital genre with the habit of reinventing itself every few years that doubles as a way to talk about America’s history while reflecting on its present. A strand of violent, psychologically complex Westerns that appeared in the 1950s, for example, captures both changing attitudes toward the settlement of the West and the treatment of Native Americans while channeling the spirit of a country still recovering from a devastating World War. And while there are certain themes and elements that define the genre, it’s also proven to be flexible, capable of playing host to many different stories and an infinite variety of characters. In Paul Greengrass’s terrific new film News of the World, for instance, Tom Hanks plays a traveling newsreader whose attempt to return a girl to her family doubles as a tour of a country whose divisions look like clear roots to some of our current national troubles.

This list of the 50 greatest Westerns reflects that wide legacy from the very first entry, a film directed by a Hungarian and starring a Tasmanian. It’s been assembled, however, working from a fairly traditional definition of the Western: films set along the America frontier of the 19th and the first years of the 20th century. That means no modern Westerns, no stealth Westerns starring aged X-Men, and no space Westerns with blasters instead of pistols. (We did, however, make an exception for a certain comedy that concludes with its stars attending its own premiere.)

That, of course, still leaves a lot of great Westerns. More, of course, than could possibly fit on a top-50 list interested in capturing the full scope of the genre. As such, not every John Ford film made the list. Anthony Mann and James Stewart made eight Westerns together. Any of them could have been included, but not all of them have been. This list is designed to double as a guide to the genre’s many different forms in the hopes it will send readers to corners they might not know and reconsider some classics they might not have seen before.

So with all that said, let’s kick it off with a trip to an especially rowdy Old Western town.

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  1. 1 new

    The Searchers

    1956, in 26 top lists Check
  2. 2 new

    Unforgiven

    1992, in 24 top lists Check
  3. 3 new

    C'era una volta il West

    1968 — a.k.a. Once Upon a Time in the West, in 28 top lists Check
  4. 4 new

    Stagecoach

    1939, in 21 top lists Check
  5. 5 new

    McCabe & Mrs. Miller

    1971, in 20 top lists Check
  6. 6 new

    Red River

    1948, in 16 top lists Check
  7. 7 new

    The Wild Bunch

    1969, in 25 top lists Check
  8. 8 new

    Rio Bravo

    1959, in 19 top lists Check
  9. 9 new

    The Naked Spur

    1953, in 10 top lists Check
  10. 10 new

    Meek's Cutoff

    2010, in 6 top lists Check
  11. 11 new

    The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

    1962, in 16 top lists Check
  12. 12 new

    Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo

    1966 — a.k.a. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in 28 top lists Check
  13. 13 new

    Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

    1969, in 21 top lists Check
  14. 14 new

    My Darling Clementine

    1946, in 20 top lists Check
  15. 15 new

    Johnny Guitar

    1954, in 22 top lists Check
  16. 16 new

    Forty Guns

    1957, in 9 top lists Check
  17. 17 new

    High Noon

    1952, in 19 top lists Check
  18. 18 new

    3:10 to Yuma

    1957, in 7 top lists Check
  19. 19 new

    Shane

    1953, in 18 top lists Check
  20. 20 new

    She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

    1949, in 8 top lists Check
  21. 21 new

    Per un pugno di dollari

    1964 — a.k.a. A Fistful of Dollars, in 10 top lists Check
  22. 22 new

    7 Men from Now

    1956, in 2 top lists Check
  23. 23 new

    Dead Man

    1995, in 12 top lists Check
  24. 24 new

    The Gunfighter

    1950, in 8 top lists Check
  25. 25 new

    True Grit

    2010, in 6 top lists Check
  26. 26 new

    Winchester '73

    1950, in 7 top lists Check
  27. 27 new

    Per qualche dollaro in più

    1965 — a.k.a. For a Few Dollars More, in 11 top lists Check
  28. 28 new

    The Ox-Bow Incident

    1943, in 14 top lists Check
  29. 29 new

    The Outlaw Josey Wales

    1976, in 11 top lists Check
  30. 30 new

    The Shooting

    1966, in 4 top lists Check
  31. 31 new

    Ride the High Country

    1962, in 7 top lists Check
  32. 32 new

    Vera Cruz

    1954, in 2 top lists Check
  33. 33 new

    Quién sabe?

    1967 — a.k.a. A Bullet for the General, in 3 top lists Check
  34. 34 new

    Bend of the River

    1952 — a.k.a. Where the River Bends, in 3 top lists Check
  35. 35 new

    The Magnificent Seven

    1960, in 11 top lists Check
  36. 36 new

    Django

    1966, in 5 top lists Check
  37. 37 new

    The Tall T

    1957, in 7 top lists Check
  38. 38 new

    Blazing Saddles

    1974, in 14 top lists Check
  39. 39 new

    The Shootist

    1976, in 6 top lists Check
  40. 40 new

    The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward...

    2007, in 7 top lists Check
  41. 41 new

    The Left Handed Gun

    1958, in 1 top list Check
  42. 42 new

    Little Big Man

    1970, in 9 top lists Check
  43. 43 new

    One-Eyed Jacks

    1961, in 10 top lists Check
  44. 44 new

    Broken Arrow

    1950, in 1 top list Check
  45. 45 new

    The Great Train Robbery

    1903, in 11 top lists Check
  46. 46 new

    I giorni dell'ira

    1967 — a.k.a. Day of Anger, in 1 top list Check
  47. 47 new

    Bad Company

    1972, in 2 top lists Check
  48. 48 new

    Buck and the Preacher

    1972, in 1 top list Check
  49. 49 new

    Les frères Sisters

    2018 — a.k.a. The Sisters Brothers, in 0 top lists
    Check
  50. 50 new

    Dodge City

    1939, in 2 top lists Check
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Last updated on Apr 3, 2021; source