Westerns have been around for over a century, which means the genre is full of hits and
misses. So how can you find the very best of the best? Well, we've got you covered because
these are some of the Westerns you need to see before you die.
Clint Eastwood and director Sergio Leone didn't invent the spaghetti Western, but they pretty
much perfected it with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Leone's eye for beautiful shots
and his ability to film brutal, intense action scenes, aided, of course, by Ennio Morricone's
amazing musical score, makes this film stand out as a masterclass in creating a simple
plot that means a great deal.
Eastwood plays "the man with no name," although he's referred to as "Blondie" throughout the
film. He and two other gunslingers are searching for a lost stockpile of Confederate gold.
Throughout the movie, they keep running into each other, gleaning more and more information
about the whereabouts of their prize, until they finally arrive at their destination.
What follows is a three-way duel for all the marbles, with plenty of twists and intense
staredowns.
Spaghetti Westerns are a great demonstration of how a genre can adapt and evolve over time.
If you like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, check out the other Eastwood-Leone team-ups,
A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. All of these films are classics that
deserve a lot of praise.
"Bravo."
It's one of the best "buddy" Westerns of all time. You can't go wrong with Robert Redford
and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It's a movie where, almost from the get-go,
you can tell that disaster is inevitable for our leading men. Regardless, it never gets
old watching the two struggle with their attempts to escape the long-reaching arm of the law,
all while cracking jokes and being undeniably cool.
The story goes like this: Butch is the charismatic leader of a gang, and Sundance is his trusty
lieutenant. After a score goes wrong, the two realize they need to escape from the mobilized
law men who are after them. Their solution is to flee to South America, along with Sundance's
girlfriend, where they'll be able to continue their crime spree unimpeded.
It's a fairly bare bones plot, but the star power of the two leads is magnetic. You really
root for Butch and Sundance to figure things out and find the life they're searching for,
and it seems like it just may happen, right up until it doesn't. The finale is a massive
standoff against a literal army of soldiers, with a closing shot you'll have a hard time
forgetting.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a nice little revival for the Western genre, with
films like Silverado and Dances with Wolves. However, one of the best of the bunch has
to be 1993's Tombstone. It's a veritable who's who of some of the biggest actors of the time.
You've got Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, and Kurt Russell, among many others. It's
also immensely quotable, mostly due to a career-defining performance from Kilmer as Doc Holliday, a
movie sidekick who doesn't get nearly enough credit.
"You're probably seeing double."
"I have two guns. One for each of ya."
At first glance, Tombstone reads an awful lot like a big, dumb action movie, but the
truth behind the film is actually pretty fascinating. Although it's obviously been dramatized, most
of the events that take place in the movie really occurred in the town of Tombstone,
Arizona. There's the shootout at the OK Corral, Wyatt Earp's miraculous stand at the creek
ambush, and the final ride to destroy "the Cowboys." In fact, some of the most ridiculous
aspects of the film are, reportedly, what truly happened.
Some people might dismiss Tombstone as a "pop Western," but don't fall into that trap. Just
because it stars a lot of popular '90s actors doesn't mean it's a lesser movie.
Regarded by many as Sergio Leone's best spaghetti Western, Once Upon a Time in the West does
a brilliant job of matching impressive substance to Leone's well-known style. Clint Eastwood
is nowhere to be found here, but we get the equally enigmatic gunslinger known only as
"Harmonica," played with steely intensity by Charles Bronson. It also features a masterstroke
of casting-against-type. The normally lovable Henry Fonda chews scenery as the despicable
outlaw Frank.
Once Upon a Time in the West is an epic tale, clocking in at almost three hours and featuring
a variety of interwoven plots that help ramp up the intensity and stakes as the film progresses.
It culminates in a classic Western showdown between Harmonica and Frank, where it's finally
revealed exactly why Harmonica is so hell-bent on taking down the outlaw. The movie's got
the classic style you expect from Sergio Leone, alongside another timeless Ennio Morricone
soundtrack. It also boasts two extremely impressive performances from Bronson and Fonda. So, the
next time someone claims that Westerns are just too simplistic, all you need to do is
cue this one up.
It would hardly be a list of must-see Westerns if John Wayne didn't show up once or twice,
and The Searchers is regarded as one of his best.
The Searchers is basically about a man named Ethan and his quest for revenge. At the beginning
of the film, members of Ethan's family are murdered, and others captured, by a Comanche
leader. Ethan and a group of men go looking for the captured girls. The movie makes a
major point to focus on Ethan's thirst for vengeance at any cost, rather than an actual
desire to do the right thing. This is most clearly illustrated when he eventually finds
his niece, Debbie, who decides she'd prefer to stay with her captors than return with
her uncle and brother. In retaliation, Ethan threatens to shoot her.
"Stand aside, Martin."
"No you don't, Ethan."
If the goal of a Western is to provide a look at the war going on inside the human psyche,
few films do it as well as The Searchers. The movie has influenced everyone from George
Lucas to Martin Scorsese, who was inspired by the movie's plot when developing his classic
film Taxi Driver, starring Robert DeNiro.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has many strengths, including
its impressive cast. It generally plays as a quiet, character-driven drama, but it's
punctuated by loud, violent acts that keep the plot rolling. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck
star, and it also features Sam Rockwell and Jeremy Renner. Sadly, this underrated film
didn't perform very well at the box office, and that's a real tragedy because it's a genuine
masterpiece.
The film is based on a novel by Ron Hansen, and it follows James' gang and the events
that eventually lead up to his killing. As the members of his gang start to grow distrustful
and stab one another in the back, Jesse keeps searching for men he can trust, and he puts
his faith in the wrong person.
One of the best aspects of the film is how the aftermath of James' death is handled.
Ford expects to receive a massive reward and gain celebrity status for doing the deed.
Instead, he's reviled by anyone who knows, and the government never follows through with
the bounty. The Assassination of Jesse James does as good a job as any Western of showing
that the glamorized ideals of the "Wild West" fall far short of reality.
It may not seem cutting edge nowadays, but The Wild Bunch was a fairly revolutionary
film in 1969, both for its cinematography and its subject matter. It was nominated for
several awards across a variety of categories, earning accolades for its writing, cinematography,
and direction. The film was also controversial, as the violence was extremely graphic for
a mainstream film at the time. Plus, the main characters, for the most part, are inherently
unlikable.
"If they move, kill 'em."
Like many Westerns, The Wild Bunch focuses on a group of men trying to find their place
in a changing world. It tells the story of a gang of aging outlaws who get entangled
in several different conflicts as they try to stay alive and find their fortune. They
wind up falling in with a Mexican general who they know they can't trust, but with options
running low and the law closing in, they decide he's their best bet. The tension builds throughout
the movie, rarely getting a chance to diffuse until the end, when a massive firefight brings
everything crashing down.
The Wild Bunch stars Hollywood legends like William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, and it's
a great reference point for the evolution from "classic" to "modern" Western. And seriously,
that final shoot-out is one of the most epic movie gunfights of all time.
Unforgiven was Clint Eastwood's homage to the films that jump-started his career. However,
this 1992 movie also does a stunning job of telling a modern Western tale while staying
grounded in the real world. Eastwood directed and starred, playing a retired gunslinger
who agrees to do "one more job" and, in the process, has to face up to his bloody past.
"I've killed women and children. Killed just about everything that walks or crawled at
one time or another."
It's a familiar story, but it works so well in Unforgiven because of Eastwood's impressive
performance and personal history. Though he never actually left Hollywood, Eastwood feels
like "the retired gunslinger," sliding back into the type of role that made him famous
and finding it just a little too easy.
As a director, Eastwood subverts a lot of our expectations of the genre and removes
much of the romantic nature of the Old West, leaving an ugly, dark scary place without
a lot of rules. Unforgiven is a practically flawless movie, and it won several Academy
Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Released in 1939, Stagecoach may seem a little simplistic compared to the plots of other
legendary Westerns. However, it's a great way to see the roots of the genre and how
it's evolved over the decades. It's also one of John Wayne's best roles, and we'd be remiss
to not include it here.
At its core, Stagecoach is a simple story of a group of very different people forced
to share space and trust in one another. Almost every character in the film is an archetype,
the sex worker prostitute with a heart of gold, the reformed outlaw, and the drunken
doctor, to name just a few. But what makes Stagecoach work so well is how it throws these
archetypes together in different situations and combinations. It isn't an overly action-packed
film. It's more of a character drama that weaves a tale about the mythology of the Old
West, highlighted here and there by wild chases and a few good shootouts. So if you want to
experience a classic Western and see where the genre comes from, Stagecoach is an excellent
choice.
Many film fans consider High Noon to be the first true "adult Western," one that examines
the morals of the Old West and explores the psychology of the men and women living on
the frontier. This 1952 movie also won several Academy Awards, including Best Actor for star
Gary Cooper. As for the film itself, it's a tense, pared-down Western that explores
the nature of duty and morality, all through one man's desperate attempts to stay alive.
High Noon stars Cooper as Marshal Will Kane, a man who's getting married and is about to
retire. But right as he's preparing to set out for a new life, he learns that an outlaw
he put behind bars has been released and is coming to town to exact revenge. His new wife,
played by Grace Kelly, tries to get him to leave, but he refuses to run. Instead, Kane
tries to round up a group of men to help him fight. Unfortunately, he slowly learns that
the town has turned against him, too cowardly to help and fearful that they'll only get
themselves killed in the process. So Kane decides to make a solitary, final stand at
"high noon" when his nemesis comes into town.
Compared to modern Westerns, High Noon may seem a bit slow, but it features some powerful
and famous scenes, like an iconic crane shot showing how alone Kane really is. Whether
you're a fan of Westerns or not, this is a thoughtful and suspenseful film that everyone
should see.
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