55 Best Western Movies Of All Time Ranked

Westerns have gone in and out of style over the years, but they've never gone away completely. The classics continue to last, offering good adventures, powerful moral dilemmas, and fantastic desert landscapes. And new — even revolutionary — films keep being made, broadening the genre's scope and telling new kinds of stories. Historical depth, a sense of national mythos, and a look at the kind of lives — good, bad, and ugly — that people have in harsh and sometimes desolate environments all help make Westerns eternally intriguing. Plus, call us old-fashioned, but we'll always have a soft spot for cowboy hats and shootouts on Main Street.

The genre also has a long history of iconic stars and directors who've been incredibly prolific, so if you like someone's work, you often have a lot of other films to look forward to. You can start with this list, but trust us, Westerns, like the West itself, seem to go on forever. These are some of our favorite landmarks for your journey through one of Hollywood's signature genres.

Updated on May 10, 2022: The Western will never truly ride off into the sunset. As filmmakers around the planet continue to visit the world of cattle drives and gunfights, we'll keep this list updated with the very best of the West.

Outlaws Link Stuart and Gauche rob a train, taking not only money but also a treasured samurai sword that its guard, Kuroda, is determined to regain. When Link's partner double-crosses him, Kuroda gains a new assistant in his quest to find Gauche, recover the goods, and get revenge. "Red Sun" feels like an epic movie crossover event, bringing together three iconic stars from three different countries — Charles Bronson, Toshirō Mifune, and Alain Delon — and giving audiences both outlaw bandit action and samurai action. It's such an unusual fusion that it could probably never be universally beloved, but fans of any of these actors or these kinds of genre-bending mash-ups should get an enormous kick out of it.

• Starring: Charles Bronson, Ursula Andress, Toshirō Mifune

• Director: Terence Young

• Year: 1971

• Runtime: 112 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 40%

"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is a kind of psychological epic, a leisurely and hypnotic progression to the doom its title tells you is coming. Young Bob Ford is obsessed with his outlaw hero, Jesse James — he's even happy to have the chance to move his furniture. When Bob realizes that Jesse holds him in a certain contempt, however, their relationship sours, and Bob decides to turn on Jesse to save himself. The film tightens the screws on its characters, building the pressure and muddled emotions until the inevitable finally comes.

• Starring: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard

• Director: Andrew Dominik

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 160 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

"Tombstone" is an engaging look at some of the key parts of Wyatt Earp's lasting legacy, and it gives itself a unique flavor by putting more weight on the close friendship between Wyatt and Doc Holliday, who's slowly dying of tuberculosis (but refuses to let that get in the way of backing up Wyatt). As Wyatt put his badge back on to take on the persistent threat of a gang called the Cowboys, the cost of justice steadily rises, with Wyatt's own brothers paying some of the price. Val Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday puts the finishing touches on "Tombstone" and makes it a classic.

• Starring: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott

• Director: George P. Cosmatos

• Year: 1993

• Runtime: 127 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%

"Silverado" has a breezy, earnest charm. Unlike a lot of later Westerns, it doesn't try to inject more grit or darkness into the genre. Instead, it just gathers up a spectacular (and sizable) cast and lets them have a lot of fun with a classic story. Emmett, Paden, Jake, and Mal are all cowboys who've been dealt a bit of a bad hand, but they have considerable skills, and they make a great team. They're just the men to take on the corruption in Silverado, which is being spearheaded by a power-hungry rancher with a cruel sheriff and a wily gambler in his pocket. Saving the town also means getting the chance for some personal revenge too.

• Starring: Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner

• Director: Lawrence Kasdan

• Year: 1985

• Runtime: 132 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

The Civil War is in full swing, and Drew Dixon is headed west to dodge conscription. To survive, he falls in with "bad company" — namely the affable but dangerous Jake Rumsey and his untrained gang of thieves and would-be outlaws. Drew tries to stick to his morals while still keeping on the right side of the gang, but no amount of careful tightrope-walking can stop him from getting into trouble. Sometimes comedic and sometimes bleakly cynical, "Bad Company" paints the Old West as a place full of desperation, petty vices, and a fatal lack of foresight. That can sound grim, but the lively chemistry between Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown keeps it brisk and energetic.

• Starring: Jeff Bridges, Barry Brown, Jim Davis

• Director: Robert Benton

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

In desperate need of both money and his son's respect, rancher Dan Evans takes on the dangerous task of making sure outlaw Ben Wade makes his 3:10 train to Yuma Prison. Dan is tough enough for the job, but all the circumstances are against him: Wade's right-hand man is on a vicious hunt to get him back, some of Dan's fellow guards are more interested in harassing Wade than transporting him, and danger and distraction are around every corner. "3:10 to Yuma" is gritty and exciting, but its best attribute is the slow build of mutual respect and even a kind of friendship between Dan and Wade.

• Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda

• Director: James Mangold

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

While "Winchester '73" does have a central storyline — involving Lin McAdam's long hunt for the outlaw Dutch Henry Brown, a man he has a devastating personal connection to — it's also structured as a series of vignettes, following the ownership of a rare "one of 1,000" Winchester rifle, said to be the single most perfect gun ever made. Lin wins it in a shooting contest in Dodge City — one that becomes a tense two-man show between him and Dutch Henry — but via theft, trade, chance, and death, it travels from owner to owner and story to story. This approach lets the movie offer a fascinating kaleidoscopic view of the Old West. The results are unusual and complex, even though some of the portrayals are outdated.

• Starring: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea

• Director: Anthony Mann

• Year: 1950

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"Buck and the Preacher" brings a new perspective to the story of the imperiled wagon train. Sidney Poitier plays Buck, who makes his living escorting Black settlers to new lives out west — a job that carries considerable risks, especially when he and his passengers are being targeted by a group of "labor recruiters" hired to harass and menace the settlers until they return to plantation work in Louisiana. Still, Buck's honor is on the line, and he won't give up easily. He winds up with a very unexpected ally: Harry Belafonte's Preacher, who keeps a gun stashed in his hollowed-out Bible. High stakes and a strong sense of daily life help make "Buck and the Preacher" feel fresh even now.

• Starring: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee

• Director: Sidney Poitier

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 60% (Audience)

This intense and hypnotically shot horror movie might be an unusual Western, but it's also an essential one. Caleb Colton is a sweet, charming young man who proves irresistible to the pretty young Mae and gets bitten for it. Soon, he's swept up into her world of traveling outlaw vampires. But his citizenship there is a tenuous thing, one that may hang on him embracing their violence and bloodthirst and even choosing them over his own family. "Near Dark" has a perfect sense of the Western landscape, and its characters — mortal and immortal — feel like a microcosm of what happens when the Old West meets the New.

• Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen

• Director: Kathryn Bigelow

• Year: 1987

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

"Geronimo: An American Legend" got lackluster reviews upon its initial release, but its fine acting, nuanced and powerful storytelling, and beautiful cinematography are destined to slowly increase its critical reputation. Geronimo initially agrees to lead his tribe to a reservation, but when the situation there deteriorates, with the Army enforcing harsh and even humiliating policies, he rides out with a band of men and begins a systematic attempt to reclaim Apache land. Some of the U.S. Army officials tasked with stopping him have real respect and sympathy for him — and their superiors are obviously uncomfortable with that. The film excels at portraying the bitter, melancholy outcome that results.

• Starring: Wes Studi, Jason Patric, Robert Duvall

• Director: Walter Hill

• Year: 1993

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 48%

Frank Usher and his gang of hotheads are aiming to hold up the regular stagecoach, but they wind up with a privately hired one instead, carrying Willard and Doretta Mimms, a honeymooning couple, and rancher Pat Brennan, who just needed a ride. The cowardly Willard quickly suggests the outlaws let him go and hold his wife hostage, demanding a ransom from her wealthy father. Frank is disgusted by this, but he's not one to turn down a good idea. Pat will have to draw on all his honor, courage, and practicality to get himself and Doretta out of this alive. "The Tall T" is a well-crafted look at cowboy virtues put to a nail-biting test.

• Starring: Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Maureen O'Sullivan

• Director: Budd Boetticher

• Year: 1957

• Runtime: 78 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"Bend of the River" achieves an unusual feat in making a supply chain crisis the catalyst for an intriguing and gripping drama about people's capacity to change. Glyn McLyntock is trying to reinvent himself as a wagon train scout and finally settle down, and he wants to believe that Cole, the man he saved from being strung up as a horse thief, can also turn over a new leaf. That theory is put to the test when a supplier tries to cheat the new settlement out of desperately needed supplies for the winter. (Note: "Bend of the River" contains racist character depictions intended as comedy.)

• Starring: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams

• Director: Anthony Mann

• Year: 1952

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"The Magnificent Seven" remakes Akira Kurosawa's famous "Seven Samurai" as a Western, and the story fits into the genre like it was made for it. The inhabitants of a small Mexican village have suffered through endless devastating bandit attacks, and they're ready to fight back. They don't have much money, but they wind up with an odd assortment of gunfighters — seven men who are either skilled but down on their luck, eager for a fight, or worried they've lost their courage. It all builds up to a high-stakes battle for the village's survival, one that ably balances action with pathos.

• Starring: Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen

• Director: John Sturges

• Year: 1960

• Runtime: 126 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

In this lively revision of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," three men are on a frantic hunt through Manchuria. What are they hunting? Sometimes treasure — and sometimes each other. Park Chang-yi's planned theft of a treasure map goes awry when Yoon Tae-goo beats him to it ... and then it gets infinitely more complicated as other characters keep entering the scene. Both Manchurian thieves and the Imperial Japanese Army are anxious to get hold of the map, and bounty hunter Park Do-won is relentlessly determined to collect Chang-yi himself and cash in on the price on his head. The film is busy, action-packed, and consistently engaging.

• Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jung Woo-sung

• Director: Kim Jee-woon

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 127 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Griff Bonnell has tried to put his gunfighting past behind him, but Brockie Drummond — kid brother of the bold, authoritative Jessica Drummond, who all but runs Tombstone — is making it difficult. The wild and cruel Brockie terrorizes the town, but when Griff pistol-whips him to teach him a lesson, Brockie starts concentrating his viciousness on Griff in particular. What complicates their mutual hatred is Jessica, who practically raised her brother but who soon falls for Griff. It's an unusual kind of love triangle, and "Forty Guns" invests it with a lot of emotion and suspense.

• Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Gene Barry

• Director: Samuel Fuller

• Year: 1957

• Runtime: 80 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

In 1845, traveling the Oregon Trail was always going to have its risks. For the wagon train in "Meek's Cutoff," the risks might be deadly enough to wipe them out completely. As their journey continues to stretch out far past the timeline their guide promised them, they understandably start to doubt him — but they're desperate, and trusting him seems like their only option. The movie throws them a curveball when they capture a Native American scout. Can they trust him to lead them to life-saving water, or does he want his captors dead? Who can they believe? Potent dilemmas — both practical and moral — make "Meek's Cutoff" tense, and its ambiguity makes it linger in viewers' minds.

• Starring: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton

• Director: Kelly Reichardt

• Year: 2010

• Runtime: 101 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

"Brokeback Mountain" is a heartbreaking look at a romance — between cowboys/sheepherders Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist — that persists despite the hostility of its time and place. Jack and Ennis share a brief but heartfelt connection out on the trail, but "real life" seems to demand that they move on and pretend all this never happened ... and pretend to be people they're not. Though each of them marries, they continue to steal time with each other. The festering unhappiness in their lives affects their wives too, with bitterness and distress mounting as the movie goes on. In its plain and unstinting look at the slow unfolding of Jack and Ennis' tragedy, "Brokeback Mountain" hits like a hammer.

• Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Linda Cardellini

• Director: Ang Lee

• Year: 2005

• Runtime: 134 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Atmospheric and beautifully acted, "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" reinvents the Western as an intimate and leisurely character drama thoroughly embedded in its setting. The emotional centerpiece is the multifaceted and unconventional relationship between gambler McCabe, who opens a mining town brothel, and his partner, Mrs. Miller, who volunteers herself as the brothel's madam. When McCabe resists selling off his successful business to mining company agents, he puts himself in danger. Director Robert Altman's distinctive style makes this film stand out, especially via its dreamlike tone.

• Starring: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, René Auberjonois

• Director: Robert Altman

• Year: 1971

• Runtime: 121 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Homer Bannon is an upstanding, trustworthy, and dutiful rancher, a man who gives his word and means it and who will sacrifice his own business interests to do the right thing. His son, Hud, proves that the apple fell far from the tree. Hud is unscrupulous and selfish — but he's not immune to feeling bitter and hurt about his father's obviously low opinion of him. Things between the two of them come to a head when their ranch turns out to have a serious outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which could ruin them financially. "Hud" is a thorny story full of difficult emotions and hard-to-resolve family dynamics, all played to perfection.

• Starring: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon deWilde

• Director: Martin Ritt

• Year: 1963

• Runtime: 112 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

"Sergeant Rutledge" blends the Western with the courtroom drama to produce a gripping and high-stakes study of prejudice on the frontier. Sergeant Rutledge stands accused of the sexual assault and murder of a white officer's daughter, and a racist furor over the crime makes it hard to believe he can get a fair trial, despite his impeccable war record. One of the rare early Westerns to focus on anti-Black racism, "Sergeant Rutledge" is still more than just a cinematic landmark: It's also a well-crafted peek into a seldom-discussed part of military history, and Woody Strode is superb in his key role.

• Starring: Woody Strode, Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers

• Director: John Ford

• Year: 1960

• Runtime: 118 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Seven men robbed a Wells Fargo in the town of Silver Springs — and unfortunately for them, the clerk they killed in the process had a very devoted husband, Ben Stride, who's now doggedly determined to hunt down and kill every last one of them. In the middle of his hunt, however, he agrees to escort a greenhorn couple down the border, a task that gives him a few tentative new connections to life. His goal remains the same, however ... and it may be more tangled-up with his new friends than he realizes. Deft character development adds to the poignancy of the tale.

• Starring: Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin

• Director: Budd Boetticher

• Year: 1956

• Runtime: 78 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Outlaw Rufus Buck killed Nat Love's parents and changed the course of his life forever, remaking Nat in his own image and saddling him with a revenge quest that will bring them back together years down the line. Their high-stakes clash is destined to come with a high body count — and also explosions, gunfights, and at least one startling revelation. The use of real historical figures — some of them little-known — is an excellent bonus. "The Harder They Fall" is an intense, incredibly watchable film with a fantastic cast, all of whom are at their charismatic best here.

• Starring: Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz

• Director: Jeymes Samuel

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 137 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Infused with a tricky and chilling strand of the supernatural, "High Plains Drifter" frames its (seemingly) nameless gunslinger protagonist as a kind of embodiment of vengeance. He's not a good man — and may not really be a man at all — but he's the terrible force the weak town of Lago needs to protect them from its resident vicious outlaws. The Stranger wrings every possible perk out of the job, but he's also icily determined to face down Stacey Bridges and the Carlin brothers ... maybe after playing with them a little, the way a cat toys with a mouse. The film stands out as a grim and disconcerting drama about consequences and revenge.

• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Mariana Hill

• Director: Clint Eastwood

• Year: 1973

• Runtime: 105 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

In 1858, the enslaved Django gets his independence in a strange twist of fate — the eccentric Dr. King Schultz needs his help tracking down some men and collecting their bounties. The two gradually form a real bond, and Schultz agrees to join Django's quest to free his wife, Broomhilda, who now legally belongs to the capricious and vindictive Calvin Candie. By wit or force, they need to infiltrate "Candyland" and rescue her. "Django Unchained" rewrites the past into a kind of a manic, blood-spattered fantasy where Django and Broomhilda can finally get both justice and revenge.

• Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio

• Director: Quentin Tarantino

• Year: 2012

• Runtime: 165 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

Vienna's had a hard life, but when the railroad finally comes, the location of her saloon means she's all set to make a fortune. Unfortunately, she's also made enemies, especially the wealthy, respectable, and bitterly vindictive Emma, who hates that the Dancin' Kid, the outlaw she's infatuated with, loves Vienna instead. The tensions come to a head when Vienna's old lover, Johnny — once a notorious gunfighter, now endeavoring to simply be a guitarist — comes to town at the same time as Emma and her cohort are trying to order Vienna and the Kid out. Joan Crawford makes Vienna a vivid, passionate, dangerous, and morally complex character who will keep you glued to the screen.

• Starring: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge

• Director: Nicholas Ray

• Year: 1954

• Runtime: 110 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

"Django" is harsh, violent, and so vividly cinematic that some of its images will be seared into your mind forever — whether you want it or not. Django — hauling a coffin that turns out to have a deadly (and iconic) secret — walks into the pitched conflict between the Red Shirts (die-hard white supremacists loyal to the fallen Confederacy) and Mexican revolutionaries. Django doesn't side with either of them ... at least not for any longer than it takes to get what he wants. He's out for himself and for his new love interest, María. The revisionist "Django" is as cynical as it is stylistically striking.

• Starring: Franco Nero, Loredana Nusciak, José Bódalo

• Director: Sergio Corbucci

• Year: 1966

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Steve Judd takes on the dangerous job of escorting a shipment of gold, but he doesn't know that he's brought potential thieves along with him in the form of his old partner, Gil, and Gil's young partner, Heck. Steve and Gil are both getting older, but they're reacting to their years differently. Steve is wistful and ultimately just wants to end up with a life he can be proud of, even if the rewards aren't too tangible, and Gil wants a little more security in this life. He's willing to take the gold in order to get it, and he's coached Heck to go along with him. The journey will put everyone's morals and courage to the test in this nuanced and mournful film.

• Starring: Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley

• Director: Sam Peckinpah

• Year: 1962

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Josey Wales exists outside the bounds of ordinary society. A brutal Union Army captain oversaw the massacre of Josey's family, so Josey goes from farmer to cold-blooded killer. He may fight for the South, but what he's really fighting for is his own revenge. It's no surprise, then, that he refuses to surrender just because the war is over. He winds up with a price on his head, and his independence and blend of gruff care and hardened gunfighting skills help him attract a motley group of traveling companions. "The Outlaw Josey Wales" is exciting, complex, and deeply entangled in both American history and the Western mythos.

• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke

• Director: Clint Eastwood

• Year: 1976

• Runtime: 135 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Peter's spindly figure and "girly" interests make him a target for men like Phil Burbank, who can't resist lashing out. Peter and Phil are brought into an unlikely and strange collision when Phil's brother, George, marries Peter's mother, Rose. Under Phil's relentless bullying and negativity, Rose's timidity turns into desperate self-medication. Peter wants to help her — and as he's drawn into a surprisingly intimate relationship with Phil, he looks for the opportunity to do it. Full of fraught relationships, subtle power struggles, and lots of bittersweet longing, "The Power of the Dog" immediately establishes itself as a new classic of the genre.

• Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons

• Director: Jane Campion

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 128 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

"Lone Star" is a layered and mature neo-Western mystery centered on one man's investigation of his small town's corrupt history — some of which includes his own family. Sam Deeds has technically stepped into his dead father's role as sheriff, but he still struggles with his father's legacy, which is publicly spotless but personally fraught. He gets a surprising entry point into the past when his father's predecessor as sheriff — a murderous bully long assumed to have fled town with embezzled money — turns up as a skeleton buried out at a shooting range. Sam works to find the truth, no matter where it takes him.

• Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Matthew McConaughey, Chris Cooper

• Director: John Sayles

• Year: 1996

• Runtime: 134 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

14-year-old Mattie Ross is absolutely determined to find Tom Chaney, the man who killed her father, and make sure he pays for that crime instead of another one. If Texas Ranger LaBoeuf hauls him back to face Texas justice for a Texas crime, that won't satisfy her at all. She attaches herself to LaBoeuf and her chosen U.S. marshal, the ornery Rooster Cogburn, and their team-up becomes the emotional cornerstone of the movie. The movie gets audiences so invested in the characters' fates that it's not enough for them to find Chaney: We need them to find some kind of happiness too. Gorgeous cinematography, a powerful script, and finely crafted performances help make "True Grit" absolutely compelling.

• Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon

• Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

• Year: 2010

• Runtime: 110 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Westerns are full of mysterious strangers who ride into town and change everything, and Shane is one of the best. He takes on work as a farmhand for the Starrett family, forming a close bond with them — especially with young Joey, who soon hero-worships him. Obviously, when a cattle baron begins to try to push Shane and the Starretts around to get them off their land, Shane will have to stand up against the wealthy Rufus Ryker and all his hired guns. Simple, emotionally stirring, and extremely influential, "Shane" ends with us — and Joey — wanting more.

• Starring: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin

• Director: George Stevens

• Year: 1953

• Runtime: 118 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Strange things are afoot in the impoverished Brazilian village of Bacurau. Ordinary tensions are soon drowned out by a surreal and almost feverish paranoia — and the villagers' hyper-alertness is completely justified. There is a reason their connections to the outside world are getting severed, leaving them without phones or internet; the tourists are malicious forces of colonization. It's a Western land-grab plot infused with a distinctly Brazilian perspective and sense of history, and it isn't afraid to go to dark and weird places. "Bacurau" has big ambitions, and it accomplishes them with flair.

• Starring: Sônia Braga, Udo Kier, Bárbara Colen

• Directors: Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 132 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

"High Noon" confronts its hero with a stark and unforgettable choice. Will Kane is a marshal on the verge of hanging up his spurs and settling down with his new bride, but there's a deadly standoff waiting for him on his way out of town — if he chooses to show up for it. One thing is clear: If Kane meets his appointment with this murderous gang, he'll be on his own. Out of cowardice, selfish pique, and stubborn propriety, the town refuses to help him. Furthermore, his pacifist wife is horrified by the idea of her husband knowingly walking into a gunfight. All that's on the other side of the scale is duty ... but for Kane, that's a lot.

• Starring: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges

• Director: Fred Zinnemann

• Year: 1952

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

"The Wild Bunch" not only makes its protagonists outlaws, it makes them exceptionally brutal and unscrupulous in the bargain. Even now, the sight of them using human shields is jaw-dropping. But despite all their violence, Pike Bishop and his men have a strange kind of honor and camaraderie, one that former gang member Deke Thornton — now reluctantly working for the law — wishes he could get back to. That honor is put to the ultimate test when one of the gang, Angel, angers General Mapache, and supporting their friend could easily get the rest of them killed. Like the outlaws at its core, "The Wild Bunch" is bleak and vicious, but it's not heartless, and it's always riveting.

• Starring: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan

• Director: Sam Peckinpah

• Year: 1969

• Runtime: 142 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Laugh-out-loud funny and full of cutting insight, "Blazing Saddles" is a movie only Mel Brooks could have made. Bart becomes the first Black sheriff of the provincial town of Rock Ridge not as some progressive venture but as a sneaky part of a land grab — attorney general Hedley Lamarr wants all the white settlers to leave in a huff so he can buy their property up cheaply. But despite the town's prejudices, Bart's intelligence and anarchic inventiveness soon start winning him friends and allies, especially the washed-up gunslinger the Waco Kid. The fight for Rock Ridge is about to get a lot bigger, a lot more obvious, and a lot stranger.

• Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens

• Director: Mel Brooks

• Year: 1974

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

No outlaws are as laid-back and charming as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, played by the effortlessly charismatic Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Charm, though, might not be enough to save them from the slow civilizing of the West. The owner of the railroad they've robbed so many times has hired a tireless, nearly superhumanly skilled posse to track them down, and our two rogues are running out of options and corners to hide in. Together with Sundance's girlfriend, Etta, they flee to Bolivia and briefly try to reinvent themselves, but it's hard not to fall back into old habits. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is funny, wistful, and tragic, and it boasts multiple iconic scenes and quotes.

• Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross

• Director: George Roy Hill

• Year: 1969

• Runtime: 110 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

"Giant" is a family saga, following the fortunes and misfortunes of one wealthy Texas family and their one-time hired man. When Leslie Lynton marries rancher Bick Benedict, she doesn't quite realize what she's getting into. Their sometimes-testy marriage is complicated by Jett Rink, who goes from a ranch hand to an oil baron in his own right without ever falling out of love with Leslie. The film is an unabashed epic, taking on race, gender, generational differences, class, worker rights, and more without ever stinting on visuals or losing its foundation in rich human drama.

• Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean

• Director: George Stevens

• Year: 1956

• Runtime: 201 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

A low-key approach makes "The Rider" a memorable and delicately crafted neo-Western that feels almost documentary-like in its realism. Rodeo riding left Brady Blackburn with a traumatic brain injury and no real career prospects; he tries to scrape together money to support his family and find opportunities to get back to horses, even as his doctors warn him that riding could exacerbate his seizures and even kill him. The film has a quiet beauty to it — especially in its bittersweet handling of hope and family — and its coverage of a less-explored corner of the modern West makes it particularly valuable.

• Starring: Brady Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau, Tim Jandreau

• Director: Chloé Zhao

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 104 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

This powerful neo-Western also serves as a dark mystery, one that's thoroughly grounded in America's past. Black Rock is a desert town in the middle of nowhere, and its latest (and only) visitor puts it on edge, especially since John J. Macreedy is asking questions about a Japanese-American man named Komoko. It quickly becomes clear that the whole town wants Macreedy gone — and it wants whatever happened with Komoko to stay buried. Uncovering the truth beneath all the layers of guilt, intimidation, and terror means sparking a confrontation that could easily turn deadly.

• Starring: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis

• Director: John Sturges

• Year: 1955

• Runtime: 81 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name is as laconic and deadly as ever in this follow-up to "A Fistful of Dollars." Here, he's a bounty hunter — known as Manco — who reluctantly forms a temporary but increasingly respectful partnership with Colonel Douglas Mortimer, another hunter on the same scent. They're both after a notorious and brutal bank robber known as El Indio, whose backstory — as embodied by a particular pocket watch — will make you shudder. Manco and Mortimer have their work cut out for them, but as the spectacular, action-packed climax proves, they're up to the challenge.

• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté

• Director: Sergio Leone

• Year: 1965

• Runtime: 132 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell feels like he no longer understands the world and all the violence and apathy he routinely sees. It's a bad time for him to have to investigate the trail of destruction left behind by Anton Chigurh, a hitman hired to recover stolen drug money and wipe out any stray witnesses. Chigurh is a determined and almost otherworldly presence whose weapon of choice is a cattleman's bolt gun, and he's after Llewelyn Moss, a hunter who impulsively took a bag of cash from a dead man. The three men are fated to intersect in this weighty, gorgeously shot neo-Western that can turn on a dime from funny to harrowing.

• Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin

• Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 122 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

The desert town of Sweetwater becomes the center for a struggle in "Once Upon a Time in the West." Frank, a vicious hired killer, will stop at nothing to free up the land for the railroad. An alliance forms against him, made up of a bandit Frank tried to frame, the rightful owner of the Sweetwater land, and a mysterious man nicknamed "Harmonica," who turns out to have a personal connection with Frank. This epic has a lot of draws, including its cinematography and score, but its best aspect might be seeing Henry Fonda in a rare but utterly convincing turn as an ice-cold villain.

• Starring: Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson

• Director: Sergio Leone

• Year: 1968

• Runtime: 165 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

"The Ox-Bow Incident" involves an attempt to avert the lynching of three men, all strangers who can serve as scapegoats for the town's anger over the death of an especially beloved rancher. While the mob whips itself up into an almost-gleeful frenzy — one where even the lip service to judicial procedure is really just an excuse to toy with the captives and draw out their terror — a handful of disparate men try to stand up for what's right. This is a psychologically realistic, complexly characterized film about conscience and courage; its drama is intense and unsparing.

• Starring: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Harry Morgan

• Director: William A. Wellman

• Year: 1943

• Runtime: 75 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

The tension in a father's conflicted dynamic with his adopted son drives "Red River." Tom Dunson adopted the orphaned Matt on his first trip into Texas, but years later — despite the obvious love between them — their relationship still feels undecided, as if Dunson is weighing whether or not Matt can really fill his shoes. Over the course of a long and desperate cattle drive, he has the chance to decide ... but his pride and rigidity may get in the way of him making the right decision. Both epic and intimate, "Red River" combines adventure and stunning locations with realistic human drama.

• Starring: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan

• Director: Howard Hawks

• Year: 1948

• Runtime: 127 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Fame is a curse in "The Gunfighter." There's a target on Jimmy Ringo's back: Even though he's weary of killing, he can't shake his reputation as the fastest gunfighter in the West, which means that shooting him would instantly give an up-and-coming gunslinger serious clout. Ringo is plagued by men itching to steal his now-unwanted title, but all he wants is to reunite with his estranged wife and finally get to know his young son. This taut, well-characterized, and bitterly insightful film builds to a memorable knife-twist of a conclusion.

• Starring: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell

• Director: Henry King

• Year: 1950

• Runtime: 84 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"A Fistful of Dollars" introduces Clint Eastwood's iconic Man with No Name, and it instantly makes him one of the most indelible Western characters of all time. Here, he's an opportunistic stranger who no sooner hears about a town's tense, violent power struggle than he decides to use it to his own advantage — with the side benefit of leaving the town safer for the ordinary folks he has a soft spot for. Using both his formidable intelligence and his impressive skills as a gunfighter, he plays both sides against the middle, setting them up to tear each other apart.

• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volonté

• Director: Sergio Leone

• Year: 1964

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

These days, almost everyone in Shinbone will tell you that Tom Doniphon is a failure and a nobody. As for Senator Ranse Stoddard, he's the hero who shot the notoriously brutal outlaw Liberty Valance. He's also the man who traveled halfway across the country to attend Tom Doniphon's funeral, and the reason why is the heart of this insightful, deeply felt Western. There was once a complex love triangle between Tom, Ranse, and Hallie (Ranse's future wife), and there was an equally intense triangle of conflict between the practical Tom, the civilized Ranse, and the bullying Liberty Valance. The resolution of it all marks "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" as one of the most haunting commentaries on all the legends of the West.

• Starring: James Stewart, John Wayne, Lee Marvin

• Director: John Ford

• Year: 1962

• Runtime: 122 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

"Stagecoach" has a simple recipe for success: Take a cross-section of everyone's favorite Western movie archetypes — especially the fugitive with a heart of gold and the vulnerable "dance hall girl," who have a sweet and touching romance here — cast them perfectly, put them all on a stagecoach together, and send them on a dangerous trip through a hotly contested part of the frontier. The movie throws plenty of other obstacles at its characters too, including the Ringo Kid's need for revenge against the men who killed his family and the sudden need to deliver one woman's baby. "Stagecoach" delivers both excitement and multiple well-handled emotional arcs.

• Starring: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine

• Director: John Ford

• Year: 1939

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

William Munny has spent years as a farmer, but no one thinks of him that way. He's a "killer of women and children," and most people can't believe that the changes he made for his wife — now dead — are going to stick. His reformation is put to the test when he's desperate enough to take on some more violent work — tracking down two men who got away with mutilating a woman who laughed at one of them. Partnering up with his old friend, Ned Logan, and the untested Schofield Kid, Will rides out into trouble. Killing his targets means going up against the violent, despotic sheriff Little Bill. The film's incredible script and powerful performances may make it Clint Eastwood's best directorial work ever.

• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman

• Director: Clint Eastwood

• Year: 1992

• Runtime: 130 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Westerns love Wyatt Earp and the story of the gunfight at the OK Corral, and "My Darling Clementine" stands out as one of the best retellings. When the youngest Earp brother, James, is murdered, Wyatt Earp and his other siblings wind up bringing a kind of order to the lawless frontier town of Tombstone — in direct opposition to the murderous Clantons. While tension with the Clantons builds, so does the more complex tension between Wyatt and the testy (and dying) Doc Holliday, as well as Wyatt's sweet romance with Clementine, Doc Hollidays' one-time love. "My Darling Clementine" is gently funny and lovingly characterized, and it makes its legendary Western figures thoroughly human.

• Starring: Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Linda Darnell

• Director: John Ford

• Year: 1946

• Runtime: 97 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"The Searchers" provides an unusually brutal and unsentimental look at the Old West, one that strips away a lot of the mystique to reveal all the ugliness, racism, and cynicism underneath. John Wayne turns in possibly the best performance of his career as the deglamorized Ethan Edwards, a hard-talking and bad-tempered man driven by an obsession that rivals Captain Ahab's. Ethan wants to find his niece, Debbie, who was abducted by Comanches, but he isn't really out to rescue her. When it seems that she's adopted Comanche culture as her own, he would rather just kill her. The only grandeur here is from the staggering desert vistas — and maybe the weight on everyone's souls.

• Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles

• Director: John Ford

• Year: 1956

• Runtime: 119 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

When Sheriff John T. Chance arrests a rich man's brother for murder, he's letting himself in for a lot of trouble: Nathan Burdette is willing to send a lot of armed men into town to set his brother free. Chance needs some allies of his own, and he winds up with an odd assortment that includes his past-his-prime deputy, the town drunk who craves redemption, and a cocky young gunslinger who wants nothing to do with the job at first. The film has great siege-style action, with our heroes facing off against terrible odds, but the movie's biggest charm is the companionable chemistry between its leads.

• Starring: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson

• Director: Howard Hawks

• Year: 1959

• Runtime: 141 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Fred C. Dobbs is no hero in a white hat. He's just scraping by, taking odd jobs and trying to get his wages out of tight-fisted and untrustworthy bosses. Eventually, with two friends, he buys up some prospecting tools and sets out to find gold. It takes a grimy and seemingly endless slog, but they wind up with a fortune — enough to set them all up for life. In this dark, psychologically realistic Western, though, that's no guarantee of a happy ending. Instead, it's a recipe for greed, paranoia, and betrayal. Humphrey Bogart is raw, rough-edged, and unforgettable here.

• Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt

• Director: John Huston

• Year: 1948

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Cool and controlled bounty hunter Blondie has a mercurial partnership with Tuco, an outlaw with a price on his head: Blondie turns Tuco in, collects the reward, and then rescues him from the hangman's noose. Their fights, however, can turn potentially deadly, and they're on the outs when they discover the location of a stash of stolen Confederate gold — and need each other's help to retrieve it. Their tense alliance is at least better than anything the ruthless, cold-blooded Angel Eyes — also on the trail of the gold — can offer them. The movie delivers pulse-pounding excitement and pure Western grit while also providing a stellar score and awe-inspiring cinematography.

• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef

• Director: Sergio Leone

• Year: 1966

• Runtime: 161 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%