5 Best Kirk Douglas Western Movies, Ranked

Of all the leading men during Hollywood's golden age, few had more star power than Kirk Douglas. A true original with his iconic bright smile, Douglas could always be relied on to deliver an amazing heroic role. Whether he was playing a gladiator, a captain, or a war hero, the best and worst Kirk Douglas movies always delivered a good tough guy performance. Douglas acted in 95 projects and was nominated for three Academy Awards, so he naturally was quite a popular presence across many genres. While never solely a Western actor,  he made a mark in the land of cowboys, too.

Many of Douglas' movies were amazing, and that goes double for his major Westerns. Douglas knew how to select interesting roles. As such, while his best Westerns don't always rank among the obvious classics, his filmography features a number of hidden genre greats that you may very well not have seen before ... and all are far superior to the legendary Western actor's terrible sci-fi movie efforts. Here are the five finest Westerns Kirk Douglas ever made, ranked by their Rotten Tomatoes scores.

"The War Wagon" has an interesting premise for a Western film. It's actually a pretty crafty heist movie, in which the main character group is tackling the titular war wagon; a heavily armored, armed, and protected stage coach carrying a fortune in gold. Oh, and if you need an additional draw, apart from the it being a Western-themed heist film with Kirk Douglas in it? His co-star is none other than fellow Western movie icon John Wayne.

"The War Wagon" was directed by genre veteran Burt Kennedy, so you know its plaudits are on point. On top of this, the movie is constructed like a classic heist film of the "Oceans 11" variety, complete with that delicious "gathering the team" sequence and a slick execution of the heist process itself. In other words, the film offers the best of both worlds — complete with a cast led by two of Hollywood's biggest stars.

This recipe for success is backed by stellar reviews, leading to its solid Rotten Tomatoes score of 82%. While not quite enough to challenge for the title of the best Western movie of all time, "The War Wagon" definitely deserves a podium spot in the category of Western-heist hybrids. 

Val Kilmer's turn as stylish Doc Holliday in "Tombstone" is far and away the sexiest gunslinger that Western fiction has ever seen. Now, imagine that character played by Kirk Douglas, and he's facing none other than Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp. Such is the basis of John Sturges' 1957 Western movie "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," which loosely draws inspiration from the real events of the 1881 incident of the same name.

"Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" is exactly what you probably imagine, in the best possible way. It has a screenplay by novelist Leon Uris, a cast of Hollywood greats, and production values that ensure every single thing you'd expect in an enjoyable Western is present and accounted for. Virtually every character is based on a real life figure, and supporting roles are rife with legendary actors like John Island, Dennis Hopper, DeForest Kelley, and Lee Van Cleef. In other words, "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" is a big ol' Western firing on all cylinders. 

A two-time Academy Award nominee, the movie is a wonderful experience, and perhaps the seminal adaptation of this historic shootout. With its 87% Rotten Tomatoes rating, this film should be on every Western fan's watching list.

Howard Hawks' 1952 epic "The Big Sky" is a slightly unconventional Western that doesn't really focus on cowboys and marshals. Instead, it tells a tale about two fur traders embarking on a grand quest to trade with Native Americans, eventually connecting with them and embracing their culture.

Your mileage may vary on what you think about fur trade as the centerpiece of a major adventure movie, but "The Big Sky" definitely delivers on excitement. The story is full of thrilling action, and veering toward the feel of later Kevin Costner's epic Western revival "Dances With Wolves." Kirk Douglas is the obvious star here as Jim Deakins, the Kentucky wildman who has a number of adventures in the wilderness. Dewey Martin co-stars as Boone Caudill, and Elizabeth Coyote Threatt steals scenes left and right as Teal Eye — her first and unfortunately only movie role. 

Instead of gunfights and blazing saddles, "The Big Sky" details the various problems and victories of early pioneers, and its borderline fantastical imagery of the great outdoor Western vistas are virtually without peer. With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 89%, "The Big Sky" remains one of the best outdoorsman movies out there, and while it's not your traditional Western, there's no denying that it belongs among the greats of the genre.

"Last Train from Gun Hill" is a John Sturgis piece that should rank among the greats of the Western genre, as indicated by its stellar 91% Rotten Tomatoes score. It stars Kirk Douglas as Marshal Matt Morgan, with his old friend and cattle baron Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn) as his sparring partner an interesting and brutal clash. After two young cowboys assault and kill his wife (Ziva Rodann), Morgan  tracks them down. He soon finds out that Rick Belden (Earl Holliman), Craig's son, is to blame, and things get worse when Craig refuses to let Morgan arrest the boy.

Belden and Morgan recognize the situation's complexity, but justice needs to be served — and with one driven and vengeful gunslinger standing against a rich man's personal army, every Western fan knows that there is only one possible outcome. "Last train from Gun Hill" tells its complex and relentless story extremely well, and its atmospheric, desperation-tinted tone makes for an important movie that every Western fan should see.

Kirk Douglas may be associated with Westerns, but neo-Westerns weren't the actor's regular cup of tea, making it surprising that his highest-rated Western on Rotten Tomatoes is one. David Miller's 1962 black and white "Lonely Are the Brave" is a moody affair with a 93% Tomatometer rating. It sees Douglas as Jack Burns — a modern cowboy who ends up a fugitive after unsuccessfully trying to break an old, unjustly imprisoned friend out of jail. Burns goes through a series of escalating difficulties, and a reluctant Sheriff Johnson (Walter Matthau) has to chase him despite knowing full well that he's a good man who happened to catch a bad break.

"'Lonely and the Brave" is a unique movie — a moody Western with shades of "First Blood" and "The Fugitive." It was something of a passion project for Douglas, too. In a 2014 interview with Huffpost, he outright named it his finest work. "As I have said, this is my favorite movie" Douglas said. "I love the theme that if you try to be an individual, society will crush you. I play a modern-day cowboy still living by the code of the Old West. Dalton [Trumbo] wrote a perfect screenplay — one draft, no revisions." Douglas would no doubt be happy to know that Rotten Tomatoes critics deem "Lonely and the Brave" his best Western.