Campfire Oracle. The film was taut and suspenseful, its story told on the faces of its characters and with the relentless ticking clock. Jimmy Stewart is Thomas Jefferson Destry Jr., a deputy sheriff who wants to keep the peace in the lawless town of Bottleneck without using guns. - Runtime: 96 minutes. - Director: Quentin Tarantino - Metascore: 80 Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable star in the story of a divorced woman and an aging cowboy. For Gen-Xers who know Brando only as the roly-poly guy who kissed Larry King, heres proof that once upon a time, he was cool off the charts. - Runtime: 135 minutes. The marriage of Big John Cannon (Leif Erickson) and his Mexican bride, Victoria (Linda Cristal), inaugurated five years of sophisticated stones. The passing of the Old West was indelibly captured one unforgettable image when fugitive cowboy Kirk Douglas tries to cross a superhighway on horseback. - Runtime: 170 minutes. A companion piece to High Noon, with a more charismatic villain. Photography: Paramount Pictures/Ronald Grant Archive/Alamy Stock Photo. Yes, it was. - Director: John Ford His passion was rewarded with seven Academy Awards and an awakening of our national conscience. Brennan received his third Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role as Judge Roy Bean, which is the record for most wins in this category. Also starring Lauren Bacall, the film seems a meditation on Wayne's persona and the genre itself as a "dying" concept. We wondered if McLintock! The film is part of a revisionist bent to critique white people and their treatment of Native Americans. - Runtime: 141 minutes. Few characters in western fiction are as beloved as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, as played by Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. Crowd-pleasing comedy that resonated with middle-aged child boomers. No one played the reluctant hero better than James Garner, whose easygoing charm fit perfectly in this delightful comedy. In this update to the 1920 silent version starring Douglas Fairbanks as the masked swashbuckler, Tyrone Power plays the sword-wielding hero with panache and flair. Copyright issues and quite a lot of different authorized cockleburs stored this comedy that includes John Wayne and Maureen OHara out of circulation for many years. and more. - Metascore: 83 But children always knew he was a friend. Robert Redford played Booker, and directed the film. Set during the Civil War, Dorothy McGuire and Gary Cooper star as a Quaker couple so devoted to their pacifist beliefs that they refuse to take part in the fighting. In, The Sons of Katie Elder, John Wayne and Dean Martin reprise their Rio Bravo chemistry as 4 brothers observe down their fathers killer, with no assist from native lawmen. It sits in the difficult middle of Leone's "Man with No Name" trilogy, sans the Kurosawa-indebted flair for pastiche that marks Fistful of Dollars and the epic and . Once Upon a Time in the West (re-release) (2005), #11. For one thing, the original list Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, and Randy Quaid head up the cast of "The Missouri Breaks," a film about a horse thief, a rancher, and an avenger. Corral director John Sturges for this lean and mean western about a gunfighter-turned-marshal on the trail of menone of them the son of an old friend (Anthony Quinn)who raped and killed his Indian wife. FDA approvedOraQuick In-Home HIV Test Kit OraQuick is a diagnostic In-Home HIV test kit Because knowing is the best thing. - Metascore: 77 The second film in Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time" trilogy pairs Rod Steiger and James Coburn as unlikely co-revolutionaries in 1913 Mexico. After practically 20 years, we determined it was well past time for an replace. - IMDb user rating: 7.6 Another entry in John Wayne's "Cavalry Trilogy," "Fort Apache" casts the classic Western hero as a captain overlooked for a post that instead goes to a pompous lieutenant played by Henry Fonda (Shirley Temple shows up as his daughter.) Buy or Rent on iTunes. The odd-couple teaming of Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine actually clicks. - Director: Howard Hawks - IMDb user rating: 8.1 Why this one isnt more celebrated is a big mystery, though it gains new converts with every airing on Turner Classic Movies. Mitchum, a shifty character in any setting, plays moral relativism so well that even when he does the right thing, you still dont trust him. England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 94 minutes. Sonia Braga plays one of the locals in this searing, brutal commentary on injustice. John Wayne performs Davy Crockett in a traditionally sincere depiction of the well-known siege. Cecil B. DeMilles frontier epic about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane surrounds Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur with 2,500 Sioux and Cheyenne extras. was nearly as good as we remembered, after which it debuted on video. - Runtime: 93 minutes. Not precisely a conventional Western, however beneath the soap-opera extra, the Ewings had been ranchers who fought amongst themselves however all the time circled the wagons towards an outdoor risk. A laid-back outlaw (Willie Nelson) befriends a farm boy on the lam (Gary Busey) in this amiable, well-photographed character study. 32. - IMDb user rating: 7.4 Along the way he teams up with the train robber Roy O'Bannon, played by Owen Wilson. - Director: Radu Jude (Theres not a lot competitors.) Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993) Tombstone succeeds by re-appropriating the stylistic quirks of many a great western before it, from "the long walk" of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch to the candlelit saloons of Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs Miller, spitting them out in a spectacle of pure pop pastiche.It tells much the same story as John Ford's My Darling Clementine, but it . - IMDb user rating: 7.9 14. Check out the revised list that appeared in our July 2021 issue here. This popular Western centers on the rifle in its title"the gun that won the West," as the opening title puts it. Director Robert Altman told the more than 50 extras to decide what local character they wanted to play, such as barber or bartender, choose their costumes, and inhabit that character for the three months of shooting near Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada. Whether you're a longtime movie fan checking in on your favorites, or new to the genre, there are films in this list for you. Robert Redford plays the title character, a Civil War veteran who heads west for a solitary life, and struggles to co-exist with the Crow Indians. - Metascore: 80 Pinterest. The interplay between Wayne, Dean . Wyatt faces that there may be more to the simple man he knows as his father in this slow burn, atmospheric Western. - IMDb user rating: 8.5 America meets Clint Eastwood as cattleman Rowdy Yates and sings along between whip-cracking to the best TV western theme song ever. More Westerns were produced in the 1950s than all other movie genres combined, but while they have attracted smaller crowds since then, they still have a persistent appeal. Its on TV all the time TBS, AMC, TNT the Food Network and Animal Planet are probably next. Hailed upon its release as a touchstone in the evolution of the Western, Stagecoach is ostensibly a straightforward tale of eight passengers traveling through hostile territory. - Runtime: 83 minutes. Palance gained the Oscar for Greatest Supporting Actor, and a calf named Norman grew to become probably the most beloved bovine since Ferdinand. It becomes apparent that their guide has gotten them lost. Sometimes magic happens by accident. However thats what historical past has recorded as a result of when the legend turns into truth, print the legend. Lee Marvin offers us a beautiful villain for the ages, and John Wayne impersonators picked up a staple for his or her act within the Dukes demeaning references to Stewarts character as Pilgrim.. The brand new scenes deepen the connection between Pike (Holden) and former Bunch member Robert Ryan, now a bounty hunter on Holdens path, and after 30 years we lastly uncover how Pike acquired that limp. - Runtime: 131 minutes. This quintessential classic Western displays the iconography of the old town shootout and its revelry in honor and justice. - Runtime: 165 minutes. Red River appeals to those moviegoers who dont like westerns, but inevitably discover that, yes, John Wayne can act and, yes, movies about cowboys and cattle drives can be about more than cowboys and cattle drives. - Runtime: 139 minutes. You may also like: 50 of the best films according to women critics, - Director: Tommy Lee Jones Arthur Penn also directed "The Miracle Worker," "Bonnie and Clyde," and "Little Big Man." Lee Marvin stars as the archetypical bully, Liberty Valance, so evil that whoever kills him will become a legend. You may also like: Best and worst Al Pacino movies, - Director: Sam Peckinpah - Runtime: 123 minutes. It is loosely based on the "Seven Samurai" by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. You may also like: Steven Spielberg films ranked from worst to firs, - Director: John Sturges - Runtime: 187 minutes. Finally: During the pandemic lockdown, we have had time to rewatch and reevaluate scads of classic westerns. This Korean twist on the Western follows two outlaws and a bounty hunter on the run from the Japanese army in Manchuria during the 1940s. Joe Leydon, BY - IMDb user rating: 7.9 Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper star in "The Westerner," which depicts the relationship between a self-appointed corrupt lawman and the drifter who stands up to him. You may also like: Hitchcock vs. Spielberg: How the Legendary Directors Stack Up, - Director: Burt Kennedy . But beneath the surface, Dudley Nichols literate script examined the conflicting dynamics between the characters male and female, North and South, high-brow and low-brow, valiant and cowardly and the fascinating ways in which those dynamics change during the journey. In order to bring life to this project, Clint Eastwood traded on his status as the genres last bankable star to get a western made in a youth-driven market, then crafted a darkly poetic character study that found more to condemn than to celebrate in our western myth. ", - Director: John Sayles - Runtime: 156 minutes. - Director: Ed Harris Terrific East-meets-West discord, personified by Jack Lemmon and Glenn Ford. - Runtime: 117 minutes, In this spaghetti Western, Henry Fonda plays aging gunslinger Jack Beauregard, who wants to retire, and Terence Hill plays a young gunfighter who idolizes him and wants to arrange one last shoot-out. - Runtime: 92 minutes. Clint Eastwoods Man with No Name meets Lee Van Cleef, Man with No Facial Expression. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a hunter who is attacked by a bear and left to find his own way to safety through the frozen wilderness. Most individuals found Tombstone after it went to video. In his 1976 guide The Filming of the West, film historian John Tuska predicted that Eastwoods profession probably didnt have endurance. - Runtime: 160 minutes. Although its not possible to disconnect truth from fiction when E.W. Too dangerous moviegoers most popular to look at him preventing soiled apes in one other 1968 movie. - Metascore: 74 "The Revenant" earned DiCaprio the Academy Award for best actor, his first Oscar, being nominated five times previously. - Director: Andrew V. McLaglen Jodorowsky admitted to assaulting his co-star, Mara Lorenzio, to make the assault scene authentic. - Metascore: 82 Jack Palance plays the evil Raza, with Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin on board as the hired guns sent to retrieve a woman who doesn't want to be saved. But J.R. Ewing was the most famous cowboy in America for more than a decade, and when he was shot the whole world wondered whodunit. The all-star cast includes Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and James Coburn. Anson Mount, BY 100 Best Westerns Ever Made - Read online for free. A sheriff turned disillusioned bounty hunter (Henry Fonda) tutors an inexperienced lawman (Anthony Perkins) in this intense Anthony Mann classic. John Wayne plays a Confederate Army veteran tracking down Comanche Indians who massacred his family, burned their ranch and kidnapped his young niece. Damon Wise. A scene of Caan impersonating a Chinese man is often edited out of television rebroadcasts of "El Dorado" as racist. Two penniless AmericansFred Dobbs, played by Humphrey Bogart, and Bob Curtin, played by Tim Holt, go on a gold-prospecting trip, joined by an older prospector named Howard. Corral (1957) Burt Lancaster plays Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas plays Doc Holliday, and that's pretty much all you need to know. John Fords decision to cast John Wayne did not sit well with producer Walter Wanger, who wanted Gary Cooper. The final entry in John Fords majestic Cavalry trilogy, and the first teaming of John Wayne and Maureen OHara, a match made in movie heaven. - Runtime: 93 minutes. Shot in Death Valley and featuring the natural landscape of Arizona in stunning compositions, "Hombre" follows the story of John Russell, a white man raised by Apache people. - Runtime: 85 minutes. - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Directors: Sergio Leone, Tonino Valerii 9. David Hofstede, 8. John Bernard Books led a long life as a talented shootist, but now is suffering from cancer and searching for the best way to die. It was Dean's last movie role. Previous movie versions featured Heath Ledger and Mick Jagger as Kelly. - Runtime: 104 minutes. The plot follows a villainous gun for hire (Henry Fonda) and the mysterious "Harmonica" (Charles Bronson) as the rival with a secret who'll take him down. "Ride the High Country" dramatizes director Sam Peckinpah's signature Western themes around honor, the codes of masculinity, and a lawless world that depends on men to ration justice as they see fit. - Runtime: 81 minutes. We puzzled if McLintock! Fort Apache inaugurated the landmark Cavalry trilogy with a sobering reminder that typically the nice guys dont win. John Wayne gives one of his finest and most complex performances in John Fords enduringly popular and influential western as Ethan Edwards, a former Confederate soldier whos obsessively driven to recover his beloved niece after her family is killed and she is abducted by marauding Comanches. "True Grit" is a Coen brothers adaption of a novel by Charles Portis, which had already been made into a movie in 1969. . Two brothers (Chris Pine, Ben Foster) try to save their family farm through a series of bank robberies, all the while pursued by determined Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham) in this gripping contemporary drama scripted by Taylor Sheridan. Critics shrugged; audiences fell in love. It has all the signature elements: dusty, desolate vistas; amoral characters such as Tuco (Eli Wallach) who are motivated only by profit; a showdown in a circular arena, suggesting gladiators in a colosseum; an incomparable score whose whistling theme, by Ennio Morricone, is instantly recognizable; and Clint Eastwood as the serape-clad, cheroot-chomping Man with No Name. John Ford's flashback story about the ways legends become fact, creates a few myths of its own around what makes a heroic man. "Red River" explores the weighty drama of father-son relationsthat clash between old and young, between the new-fangled versus the traditional that undergirds patriarchy. - Metascore: 88 #83. Laugh! Seems to be such as youve acquired one other passenger, he tells driver Andy Devine, and western films would by no means be the identical. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North . - Runtime: 105 minutes. Leone employs his signature stylistic elements such as striking compositions, arresting close-ups, and evocative musical scoring. - IMDb user rating: 7.5 A new threat, however, prevents him from leading the peaceful life he desires. "The Long Riders" follows a fictionalized depiction of Jesse James' bank-robbing escapades. Jimmy Stewart performs a ruthless bounty hunter who, when informed his captive is harmless, replies, Its him theyre payin the reward on. Robert Ryan is excellent because the manipulative villain who tries to sever the uneasy alliance between Stewart and the companions who joined him on the path. Director Sergio Leone settled for TV actor Clint Eastwood, who cashed a $15,000 paycheck for the film that made him a global star. "Bomb City" is based on true events surrounding the death of 19-year-old Brian Deneke. Director Raoul Walsh cast John Wayne in The Big Trail on the advice of John Ford, who said he liked the looks of the new kid with a funny walk, Wayne went from extra to star, which would have been a great discovery story had the film been a hit. - Runtime: 104 minutes. - Director: Justin Kurzel Bob Hope runs into outlaw bother and is rescued by a historic assemblage of Hollywood cowboys, together with Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Gary Cooper, Hugh OBrian as Wyatt Earp, James Arness as Matt Dillon and Fess Parker as Davy Crockett. Randolph . - Runtime: 118 minutes. In this earnest, dramatic Western, Anthony Perkins (three years before he'd play Norman Bates in "Psycho") stars as an inexperienced sheriff trying to keep the peace in a town beset with lawlessness. John Sayle's expressive style pans between the past and the present as it tells the story of a disappeared sheriff in 1957 whose remains are found in the 1990s. Photography: Allstar Picture Library Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo. - Metascore: 73 Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni claims to have written the screenplay in nine days. It epitomizes Western tropes about the lone gunman, his code of honor, and his inevitable departure, as epitomized in the famous ending lines. - Metascore: 61 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 Jimmy Stewart plays a bounty hunter who, when told his captive is innocent, replies, Its him theyre payin the reward on. Another intense psychological drama from Stewart and Anthony Mann. You may also like: Can you answer these real 'Jeopardy!' Today, the back story forgotten, we treasure this deceit-filled saga of two old partners in crime, one revenge-obsessed but still capable of redemption, the other hiding a savage nature behind a sheriffs badge. Stewarts character as Pilgrim.. A Zapata Western involves the use of the western format out of the context of the West, specifically in the context of revolution. It may come as a shock to see a film as recent as 2012's Django Unchained regarded as one of the best Westerns ever made. - Runtime: 132 minutes. Once the horse meets up with a Lakota man, also a prisoner of the army, the pair breaks free, determined to escape enslavement. The final installment of Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy" with its iconic, oft-referenced title continues an exploration of the gunslinger figure, the "good," as embodied by Clint Eastwood's character. Stewart's performance offers a stalwart sentimentality as he deals with rebellion and loss. Dances With Wolves became a personal crusade for Kevin Costner, who coproduced, directed, starred, and raised financing overseas after a string of Hollywood studios passed. ", - Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen - Runtime: 132 minutes. At how much fun going to the movies used to be, when serials like this off-the-wall sci-fi western played before the feature. That very same yr, The Outlaw Josey Wales launched a brand new kind of Eastwood character, nonetheless quiet, nonetheless lethal, but additionally compassionate and emotionally weak. Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the film, which is his highest-grossing. Too bad moviegoers preferred to watch him fighting dirty apes in another 1968 film. Clint Eastwoods Man with No Title meets Lee Van Cleef, Man with No Facial Expression. - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Metascore: 64 When these identical viewers develop up and are available again to the movie, they see the emotional layers within the grownup relationships, which add better resonance to the story. Stuntman turned actor Richard Farnsworth waited 40 years for a lead role, and then became an overnight sensation as an aging train robber. It starred fifty-something Robert Duvall and forty-something Tommy Lee Jones, when television advertisers cared only about the youth market. - Metascore: 73 Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, faces a dilemma when outlaws threaten to kill him. The first in Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy," introduces Clint Eastwood as the iconic lone gunman of Western myth. When cannibals capture three residents of a small town, the sheriff and his team set off to rescue them. Even those that would relegate TV westerns to a standing beneath their film counterparts and we all know well be listening to from you should acknowledge the greatness of Gunsmoke. The group gets an unexpected new member when they are forced to pick up escaped criminal Ringo Kid. The two travel hundreds of miles of dangerous frontier. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959) John Wayne's sheriff faces an army of bad guys with only a drunk, a young gunfighter and a crippled old man on his side. Tessa Thompson and Lily James play estranged sisters struggling to get by in small-town North Dakota. Stacker believes in making the worlds data more accessible through A small Western town is disrupted by the arrival of an outlaw, played by John Cusack, who opens a salon and a brothel. Jimmy Stewart plays a ruthless bounty hunter who, when told his captive is innocent, replies, Its him theyre payin the reward on. Robert Ryan is superb as the manipulative villain who tries to sever the uneasy alliance between Stewart and the companions who joined him on the trail. Whereas the earlier 4 movies on this listing are justly lauded as cinematic artwork, The Magnificent Seven has no pretensions aside from to being the final word cowboy popcorn film. MESSAGES. - Runtime: 85 minutes. After portraying Indians as shooting gallery ducks for 25 years, director John Ford switched sides in his final western. After Dinesen's daughter runs away with a soldier, he must travel into unknown worlds to find her. - IMDb user rating: 7.2 Whats superb about Anthony Mann westerns is how every of his characters are absolutely developed, from Will Geers folksy tackle Wyatt Earp to the barkeep on the job at his saloon. Pure hokum as a biography of the famed outlaw, however grand leisure starring Tyrone Energy as Jesse and Henry Fonda as his brother Frank and that includes among the most perilous stunt using ever captured on movie. - Metascore: 68 - Runtime: 130 minutes. You may also like: Best and worst Leonardo DiCaprio movies, - Director: Henry King You may also like: Best and worst Leonardo DiCaprio movies, - Director: Robert Altman ", - Director: Sergio Leone - Directors: Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendona Filho Even those who would relegate TV westerns to a status beneath their movie counterparts and we know well be hearing from you must acknowledge the greatness of Gunsmoke. Once a staple of Hollywood, the biggest stars of the day - Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood - all made their name portraying gun-slingers, cowboys and bounty hunters. If your organization is interested in becoming a Stacker It takes a heap takes of time, years to construct up an expansion. - Runtime: 107 minutes. The concept of the Old West must finally expire when there's nothing left to conquer. A gadget-filled train, a megalomaniacal dwarf, and Robert Conrad in very tight pants. Word got out that Mr. New York actor was making an artsy western, and One-Eyed Jacks was released to a combination of frosty reviews and public indifference. The story is based on a novel of the same name written by Robert B. Parker. - Runtime: 124 minutes. Also: We have decidedreluctantly, we admitto heed many requests that we restrict this list to theatrical features, and provide another rundown for television series, made-for-TV movies, and miniseries (including Lonesome Dove) in a future issue. The provocative undercurrents in this tale of a hired gunslinger (Henry Fonda) and his faithful companion (Anthony Quinn) will keep the Freudians busy for hours. The stylized cinematography and stark compositions aim to reveal the role of photography in the creation of myth. #98. The first western to win the Oscar for Best Picture stars Richard Dix and Irene Dunne as Easterners heading west. - Metascore: 73 Gene Wilder plays Jim, an alcoholic who comes to Bart's assistance. I dont have them years no more. A noble cowboy at twilight, beautifully photographed by Lucien Ballard and played by Charlton Heston in one of his most understated performances. 'Oh, give me a home with a low-interest loan . Chon Wang, played by Jackie Chan, attempts to save a princess who has been kidnapped and brought to the United States. Dated, but a vital step in the maturation of the genre. William Holden and Ernest Borgnine play members of a gang heading to Mexico to do one final heist as the traditional America West is dying around them in the early 20th century. A sorrowful, quite melancholy film. Russell Crowe stars as the singularly diabolical Ben Wade, an outlaw so ruthless and spry, it takes epic manpower just to get him on the right train. However The Massive Path nonetheless deserves to be seen, not only for Waynes early-career work however for its exceptional wide-screen panoramas and close to cinma vrit motion scenes, together with a river crossing in a fierce storm that nearly drowned the forged. - Runtime: 175 minutes. Because, as the gunfighter tersely notes, There are some things a man cant run away from.. - IMDb user rating: 8.2 You may also like: 100 Greatest Movie Quotes from 100 Years of Film, - Director: Clint Eastwood - Director: Henry Hathaway Not exactly a traditional Western, but beneath the soap-opera excess, the Ewings were ranchers who fought among themselves but always circled the wagons against an outside threat. This strange and provocative Western uses vignettes to explore the violence and cruelty at the heart of survival in the Wild West. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) return, this time to 1885, smack dab into a scene of cowboys and Indians, who appear unfazed by the DeLorean time machine in their midst. Notable stories include Liam Neeson as the proprietor of a traveling roadshow with a disabled performer and James Franco as a hapless bank robber destined for execution. How much fun going to the movies used to be, when serials like this off-the-wall sci-fi western played before the feature. - Directors: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross - Director: John Sturges He remains outside, framed in the doorway, destined to wander his live-long days devoid of the comforts of home and hearth. - Metascore: 83 The film begins with Dustin Hoffman as an elderly white survivor of Custer's Last Stand. Hostetler (Jimmy Stewart) tells John Bernard Books (John Wayne), Youve got cancer (Wayne succumbed to the disease in 1979), no movie star essayed a better final bow.