Best Westerns of All Time: 10 Films Worth the Ride
The western is how American cinema argues with itself about violence, and the genre gets better as the argument gets harder. The Searchers is where the hero first becomes a problem, The Wild Bunch is where the myth is shot to pieces, and Unforgiven is the closing statement, made by the man who had spent thirty years playing the myth. Start with Unforgiven if you want the most accessible great one, Once Upon a Time in the West if you want the most beautiful, and McCabe & Mrs Miller if you want the deep cut that changes what you think the genre can do.
Unforgiven (1992)
Clint Eastwood, at sixty two, dismantling everything he had spent his career selling. A retired killer takes one more job and the film refuses to let a single killing feel good.
Gene Hackman won the Oscar as Little Bill, a sheriff who tortures men and builds a house badly. The best performance in any western.
The Searchers (1956)
John Ford and John Wayne, and the film where the western hero first becomes the thing you are afraid of. Wayne's Ethan Edwards is looking for his niece so he can kill her.
The final shot, a man framed in a doorway who cannot come inside, is the most quoted image in American film for good reason.
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Leone at his most operatic and patient. The opening credit sequence takes ten minutes and is about a fly. Henry Fonda plays a child killer and it still shocks.
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Peckinpah's outlaws are too old for a country that has just invented the machine gun. The violence was scandalous in 1969 and remains genuinely upsetting, which was the intent.
McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971)
Altman builds a muddy, cold, half finished frontier town and lets Warren Beatty fail inside it. Leonard Cohen on the soundtrack. The deep cut that redraws the whole map.
High Noon (1952)
Real time, eighty five minutes, one marshal and a town that will not help. As tight a piece of construction as the genre has produced.
Rio Bravo (1959)
Howard Hawks made this as a direct rebuttal to High Noon, arguing that professionals help each other. Warm, funny, long, and the most rewatchable film here.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
The most entertaining western ever made and better than its reputation as a stylistic exercise. The graveyard finale is a genuine piece of cinema.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Andrew Dominik and Roger Deakins make a slow, gorgeous film about celebrity and envy. The other deep cut, and the best looking film on this list.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
A modern western in everything but date. The sheriff arrives too late to every scene, which is the genre's whole late period condensed.
- Start with Unforgiven for the most accessible great one and The Searchers for the most important.
- For beauty, watch Once Upon a Time in the West and The Assassination of Jesse James.
- For deep cuts, watch McCabe & Mrs Miller.
- High Noon and Rio Bravo are a deliberate pair. Watch them in that order and enjoy the argument.
The whole idea
Watch one movie this week. Talk about it Friday.
We pick one film. You watch it alone, on your own time. Friday at 7:30pm PT you get ten minutes on Zoom with one other person who watched it too. No club, no homework, no small talk.
See this week's pick $5Common questions
- What is the greatest western of all time?
- The Searchers (1956) usually tops critics' lists. Unforgiven (1992) is the better first watch for most people and the most complete statement the genre has made about itself.
- What are revisionist westerns?
- Westerns that question the myths of the classic era, generally from the late sixties onward. The Wild Bunch, McCabe & Mrs Miller and Unforgiven are the key examples.
- Which westerns are free to stream?
- Availability moves, but High Noon, The Good the Bad and the Ugly and several Ford titles regularly appear free with ads on Tubi, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel.