Like the old American west itself, the glory days of the movie western are well behind us, but it is nevertheless enshrined in history as one of the most venerable of genres. The style and tropes of the western have been adopted or adapted in one way or another by pretty much everyone who's ever picked up a camera. (Star Trek, after all, was envisioned as a western in space).
Sometimes it's seen as a reflexively nostalgic and conservative genre, with reactionary John Wayne serving as its poster child, but many filmmakers have also explored its dark side of (even some of Wayne's own movies are much more complex than simple "cowboys versus Indians" stories). Here are 25 movies that represent the best of a broad genre. Enjoy, pardner.
Blood on the Moon (1948)
Robert Wise's isn't a name that comes up often among the great directors of classic Hollywood, perhaps because he's so hard to pin down; his resume includes musicals like West Side Story and the Sound of Music, horror/sci-fi like The Haunting and The Day the Earth Stood Still, and one of the great westerns, Blood on the Moon, starring Robert Mitchum. It's western as film noir, with a young Mitchum playing Jim Garry, a drifter brought in to act as the heavy in a scheme to defraud a cattle owner and the locals on an native reservation. Things quickly go south.
Where to stream: digital rental
Johnny Guitar (1954)
This low-budget Nicholas Ray film isn’t one of Joan Crawford’s better known movies, but it's one of my absolute favorites—visually stylish and textually fascinating. Playing a single, no-nonsense saloonkeeper in the wilds of old-west Arizona, Crawford’s character is introduced by one of her employees just so: “I never met a woman who was more man.” Her arch-nemesis is a “cattle baron” played by Mercedes McCambridge. There are male love interests, but they’re largely incidental to the seething battle of vengeance between the two women, who frequently facing off while decked out in black leather that borders on the fetishistic. Astonishing stuff.
Where to stream: digital rental
The Harder They Fall (2021)
This modern western takes on the story of real-life Black American cowboy Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), who is joined by several other characters out of American history, played by the likes of Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, and Delroy Lindo. It’s not a history lesson by any means, but western movies have never been particularly troubled about helevating true stories of the old American west into something like mythology. Here, young Nat Love’s parents are killed by Elba’s outlaw Rufus Buck, sending Love on a lifelong quest for revenge and into a series of brilliantly exciting shoot-outs, stunts, and chases that pay tribute to the classics of the genre.
Where to stream: Netflix
Red River (1948)
Offering up a heavily fictionalized take on the very first cattle drive on the Chisolm Trail from Texas to Kansas, this Howard Hawks film follows once-successful rancher Thomas Dunson (John Wayne), short on cash in the wake of the Civil War, as he leads the drive alongside his sensitive young protégé, Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift). The two clash on the long journey, their rivalry reaching epic proportions, but the real heat comes in when they're joined by professional gunman Cherry Valance (John Ireland), who immediately rubs Matt the wrong way before seemingly rubbing him the right way—the scene during which the two men compare guns nearly makes the gay subtext text.
Where to stream: Tubi, MGM+, digital rental
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Speaking of non-subtextual queer themes, Jane Campion’s revisionist slow-burn western is incredibly gay. Benedict Cumberbatch is a revelation as Phil (who'd have expected the lanky Brit to lead a western effectively), determined to prove that he's the toughest cowboy in 1925 Montana (by way of New Zealand, where this was filmed). Phil is vicious, perhaps compensating for the loss of the man he once loved, and keeps his family in line as ruthlessly as he does the cattle, at least until Rose (Kirsten Dunst) begins a romance with Phil's gentler brother George (Jesse Plemmns), throwing everyone's place on the ranch into question.
Where to stream: Netflix
Nope (2022)
Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as the sibling caretakers of a rural California horse ranch, who find themselves beset by...something? Wildly original, if frequently vexing, the tagline called it a "neo-Western science fiction horror film," which tells you that you're in for something unique. Writer/director Jordan Peele makes the most of the wide open vistas surrounding the Haywood ranch, both on the ground, and in that great western sky.
Where to stream: Starz, digital rental
Tombstone (1993)
One of the best films about that famous shoot-out at the O.K. Corral, Tombstone did OK (sorry) at the box office time, but its reputation has only grown with the decades—in large part thanks to Val Kilmer's transformative performance as the slick, sickly, and boozy Doc Holliday. That performance ("I'm your huckleberry"), alongside that of Kurt Russell's stoic Wyatt Earp, that has given the movie an afterlife in the pantheon of "dad movies," and everything that unfolds around them is good too.
Where to stream: Paramount+, Hulu, digital rental
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The earlier, definitive O.K. Corral movie, and one of John Ford's very best—even if it doesn't have the name recognition of the director's other western classics. Henry Fonda plays Wyatt Earp in the story of the famous shootout, with Victor Mature as Doc Holliday. The pacing is far slower than you'd expect from a movie about a notorious gun battle, but that's very much to the film's credit: Ford is interested less in the shooting than in the day-to-day rituals of western life, with the specter of violence is always waiting just outside the frame.
Where to stream: digital rental
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Kurt Russell, no stranger to modern westerns, stars as Sheriff Franklin Hunt, in charge of a posse attempting to rescue a young woman (shades of The Searchers) from a group of inbred cannibals in the 1890s west. The "Weird" western, in which we encounter ghosts, aliens, or, in this case, cannibals in the old west, is a venerable genre in literature rarely attempted on screen. Even with elements of comedy, this one grows increasingly brutal in ways that are well suited to its dual horror/western identity.
Where to stream: Netflix, Hulu, digital rental
Stagecoach (1939)
John Ford had been a director for more than two decades before Stagecoach, kicking off a year that also saw the release of his films Young Mr. Lincoln and Drums Along the Mohawk, with The Grapes of Wrath and The Long Voyage Home to follow in 1940, and all of which earned Oscar nominations in various categories. Stagecoach is also the movie that gave John Wayne his breakout role, but he's just one part of an impressive ensemble—the titular stagecoach passengers, who we follow on their journey through dangerous territory. Some elements of the plot now play as western clichés—largely because this movie invented them.
Where to stream: Tubi, The Criterion Channel, Max, Prime Video
Forty Guns (1957)
Director Samuel Fuller gave Barbara Stanwyck one of the best entrances in her career: Dressed all in black on a white horse, she leads the title's forty gunmen down a desert trail, terrorizing some guys on a wagon. She's the swaggering Jessica Drummond, who rules her Arizona town with an iron fist. A gunslinger arrives looking to put one of her men behind bars, and the sparks fly as the two clash while developing the hots for each other. Drummond is unquestionably a villain here, but Stanwyck plays her with such an effortless cool that you don't care a bit.
Where to stream: Tubi
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
As Italian spaghetti westerns have taught us, it's not always Americans who have the best handle on the western genre—here, Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee directs Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in a lovely, melancholy adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story. Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are a couple of sheep herders out on Brokeback Mountain with too much time on their hands and a growing infatuation. That's all well and good when out on the mountain, less so when they're back in town.
Where to stream: Max, digital rental
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
It's a tribute to Humphrey Bogart's unique charm that he played one of the biggest bastards (Fred C. Dobbs) in cinema history, and yet we can never quite bring ourselves to hate him. Though set in Mexico, writer/director John Huston's film is so uniquely American in its preoccupations: Dobbs and company head off into the mountains in hopes of promised gold, but greed and paranoia overtake the party in increasingly horrifying ways as a grasping, sweaty, American brand of stupidity leads them to their doom.
Where to stream: digital rental
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Though set just a few years before its release, John Sturges' neo-western feels authentic to more traditional period westerns, while also wearing its noir sensibilities on its sleeve. Spencer Tracy plays John J. Macreedy, a one-armed stranger who arrives in a desert town to investigate the death of a Japanese-American interned during World War II. The locals aren't used to city slickers riding in and asking them questions, and the suspense builds amid the vast open landscape as Macreedy tries to uncover the truth among the racist townspeople.
Where to stream: digital rental
Shane (1953)
Charming former gunslinger Shane (Alan Ladd) is the definition of a western hero in George Stevens' essential movie. He's a quiet, incredibly talented shooter with a mysterious past who rides into town and unwittingly upends the social order by running afoul of a less savory character in Jack Palance’s Jack Wilson. At the movie's heart is Joey Starrett (Brandon DeWild), a gentle kid who becomes enamored of Shane even as a conflict between planted homesteaders and nomadic cattlemen threatens to explode. The ending is a real all-timer.
Where to stream: Paramount+, MGM+, Prime Video
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Cleavon Little plays Bart, a Black railroad worker who becomes sheriff of a small western town that's not very excited about having a non-white lawman. The film will likely stand as Mel Brooks magnum opus, as sharp a satire of the utter dumbness of American racism as you're likely to see, while also being utterly silly, and admirably determined to keep us laughing throughout. Gene Wilder plays an alcoholic gunslinger, Harvey Korman is crooked politician Hedley Lamarr [sic], while Madeline Kahn's performance as Lili Von Shtupp earned her an Oscar nomination (she should've won.)
Where to stream: digital rental
High Noon (1952)
Former marshal Will Kaine is headed out of town with his new wife, Amy (Grace Kelly), when he learns that a criminal he'd put away is coming for revenge. Seeking help from the local townspeople, he finds that his friends are happy to desert him in his darkest hour, and the tension builds as the plot stratches out in real time. High Noon’s anti-blacklist, anti-witchhunt politics were so potent at the time that John Wayne called it “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” He made Rio Bravo in response, and while that movie’s also a classic, High Noon's simple power holds up much better.
Where to stream: Paramount+, MGM+, Prime Video
Back to the Future, Part III (1990)
The conclusion to the Back to the Future trilogy goes full western (more or less) as Marty (Michael J. Fox) follows Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) back to the Hill Valley of 1885, where history records Doc being killed by "Mad Dog" Tannen. It's the sweetest of the three films, centered around Doc's charming romance with resourceful school teacher Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen), while also having fun with all the big western movie tropes: a cavalry chase, a shootout, a saloon bender, and even a tremendous chase involving a steam engine.
Where to stream: Netflix, digital rental
True Grit (2010)
It’s easy forget this is a Coen brothers film, eschewing as it does most of the quirkiness that goes along with that label. Instead, it’s a surprisingly effective and affecting western in the classic sense, balancing real heart with well-earned cynicism, and going a deeper and bleaker than the 1969 original (also based the Charles Portis novel). When Josh Brolin's outlaw Tom Chaney murders her father, 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) hires Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to avenge him. They're joined by a Texas Ranger played by Matt Damon, with the resulting film treating old west violence as a grim fact of life rather than something thrilling.
Where to stream: Paramount+, digital rental
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Sergio Leone's Clint Eastwood-starring Man with No Name trilogy remains among the definitive spaghetti western epics, but he followed it up with this statement on the genre that's simultaneously definitive, and rule-breaking. It's long, with a convoluted plot involving water rights around a town called Flagstone, fought over by everyone who knows that water means that a new railroad will have to stop there (think Chinatown, decades earlier). Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci contributed to the screenplay, which strays from American western-movie orthodoxy in its nods to ideas of exploited workers and ruthless capitalists.
Where to stream: MGM+. Paramount+, Prime Video
Unforgiven (1992)
This Clint Eastwood Best Picture Oscar winner captures a melancholy moment in cinema history, when it was clear, even to old hands like Eastwood, that the western was, if not quite dead, than certainly a relic of the past. It's not unlike the changes underway in the 1880 of Unforgiven: the violent frontier days are giving way, even while plenty who are still alive only know the old ways. Aging bandit William Munny (Clint Eastwood) and his friend Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) are called upon to avenge a disfiguring attack on a prostitute, while sheriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), representing the new west, tries to stamp out their sort of vigilantism. What felt like a swan song in 1992 gave rise to a new generation of westerns like Tombstone.
Where to stream: digital rental
Django (1966)
Sergio Corbucci spaghetti western classic was consciously intended to rival Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, and given its 30+ (mostly unofficial) remakes and sequels, I'd say mission accomplished. Considered wildly violent for the time, the movie finds a radiant Franco Nero wearing the remains of a Confederate uniform and dragging a coffin along the US-Mexico border. When a former Confederate officer attempts to murder a Mexican-American sex worker by strapping her to a burning cross, we discover what's in the coffin, and why racists are better off not running afoul of Django—a theme picked up in Quentin Tarantino's homage, Django Unchained.
Where to stream: Peacock, digital rental
Dead Man (1995)
Jim Jarmusch's postmodern western (it's got a Neil Young soundtrack, ffs) sees mild accountant William Blake (Johnny Depp) on the run after having committed an unplanned murder. An indigenous man only called Nobody (Gary Farmer, more recently playing Dan Twelvetrees in Resident Alien), finds him and warns him that the bullet lodged in his chest will kill him, if only eventually. A psychedelic journey ensues that sees Blake coming to understand Nobody's story, and his own place in it.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Another genre-tinged Coen Brothers film, this one even more successful (and bleaker) than True Grit. Though set in the 1980s, it's hard to watch even a single moment of No Country for Old Men and not feel as though we're fully saturated in western tropes. Adapting the Cormac McCarthy novel, the crime drama also has the quality of a nightmare—a sense of bleak inevitability for all the main characters. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds he can't resist grabbing the cash left behind after a drug deal gone wrong, putting him in the sights of a stalking assassin named Chigurh (a terrifying Javier Bardem); both are sought by aging Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), who has all but given up on believing in America. This one isn't about the splendor of big skies and open country, but about the despair that creeps in around the edges.
Where to stream: Prime Video
Buck and the Preacher (1972)
Sidney Poitier's directorial debut doesn't always come up on lists of the great westerns, and that's too bad; the actor/director deftly moves between tones of melancholy and rage, somehow doing so with a light touch that borders on the comedic. Foregrounding the tensions and affinities between Black and Native Americans in the old west (circa the 1860s), the film sees Poitier's Buck leading wagon trains of Black Americans from the south westward and away from former slave territories, negotiating with Indigenous tribes for safe passage along the way. At the outset, Buck and company are dogged by the hired guns of plantation owners who want their work force back or dead, not really caring which. Buck gets unexpected help from Harry Belafonte's (fake) Preacher, a thoroughly disreputable but oddly admirable con man; the mismatched pair have great chemistry.
Where to stream: Prime Video