30 Most Underrated Westerns You Need To Watch

One of Hollywood's oldest genres, Westerns were the hottest ticket in Tinseltown for decades before beginning to fall out of favor in the 1970s. In their heyday, they were the most popular and critically acclaimed films, with some of the most celebrated movies of the '40s, '50s, and '60s being cowboy adventures. Some of the biggest movie stars of the day were Western heroes like John Wayne, James Stewart, and Gary Cooper. Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, and Steve McQueen came later.

From "The Wild Bunch" and "The Searchers" through to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," the most heralded Westerns have become some of the most famous movies ever made. But for every "High Noon," there are dozens more that are nearly as good, but never seem to get the attention and recognition they deserve. They may get critical accolades and be talked about in film classes, but they're overlooked by wider audiences. 

With the Western genre making a comeback, the number of underappreciated Westerns has only continued to grow. We think it's time to look back, from the 1940s to today, and put together a list of some of the most underrated Westerns that you should be watching.

Starring Charles Bronson less than a year after he headlined the revenge classic "Death Wish," the 1975 heist movie "Breakheart Pass" is definitely not the best Western in the actor's catalog, but it may be his most underrated. It starts when an outbreak of diphtheria ravages the soldiers and staff at Fort Humboldt, necessitating a resupply of troops and medical supplies. An express train is sent to aid the Fort. Also aboard are the governor of Nevada and his bride-to-be (played by Bronson's real-life wife, Jill Ireland), plus an apparently dangerous fugitive named Deakin (Bronson) escorted by a U.S. Marshal named Pearce (Ben Johnson), who he claims will net him a massive cash reward. 

As the train zooms to the Fort, passengers and troops alike begin to turn up dead or go missing, and a crate that's supposed to be full of medical supplies is discovered to be a stash of heavy weapons instead. As the danger mounts, the marshal begins to suspect that something more is afoot than a simple resupply for the Fort. He becomes unsure of whom he can trust. We also learn that Deakin isn't what he appears to be, and in fact could be the only person standing between the Fort's salvation and its damnation. With plenty of stunning twists, "Breakheart Pass" is more than a Western adventure or great train robbery; it's also a suspenseful thriller punctuated by a raucous, thrilling, can't-miss battle sequence. 

"Yellowstone" star Kevin Costner has always loved Westerns, from "Dances With Wolves" to "Wyatt Earp." One of his most underrated is the 1985 film "Silverado," written and directed by "Star Wars" veteran Lawrence Kasdan. An old-school Western adventure, it sees cowboy Emmett (Scott Glenn) assemble a group of rough riders, including his young upstart brother Jake (Costner), a down-on-his-luck outlaw named Paden (Kevin Kline), and the tough-as-nails renegade Mal (Danny Glover). Together they ride to the town of Silverado to find their fortune.

As they get to know each other, they form a unique kinship. Instead of only seeking riches, they eventually fight a ruthless cattle baron who's been attacking settlers and stealing their land, along with a dirty Sheriff who controls the town. They soon discover that the baron is connected to them, and they have more than just a moral motivation to stop him. They find themselves simultaneously seeking revenge and the nobler cause of bringing peace to the now-lawless Silverado.

"Silverado" flopped on its release, and was quickly forgotten amid flashier cowboy fare like "Young Guns." But with loads of gunslinging outlaws, sharp-shooting cowboys, and a dastardly villain, it might be the most underrated Western of the 1980s.

Steve McQueen starred in "Tom Horn," a Western based on the adventures of a legendary real-life outlaw. The film hit theaters in 1980, just months before the actor's tragic death in November of that year, and recounted the tail end of Horn's life. In the film, he is an aging gunslinger struggling to survive in the waning days of the Wild West as the untamed frontier gave way to the 20th century. Chronicling the tragic events that lead to his own untimely end, the film takes liberties with the historical account but does so with conviction and heart.

In this account of Horn's final days, we find the one-time former outlaw in the employ of a cattle rancher named Coble, who's banded together with other ranchers to protect themselves from bandits. Horn is brought aboard to help fight off thieves and troublemakers who've been causing problems for the ranchers, but his violent tendencies begin to rub some of the ranchers the wrong way. In an effort to run him out of town, the ranchers devise a scheme to frame him for the murder of a young boy. 

In reality, Horn's guilt has been the subject of much debate. McQueen's film makes the judgment that he was a wrongly convicted man who was the victim of a personal vendetta. A powerful story of an aging cowboy looking for redemption, "Tom Horn" may not get the accolades of the actor's more famous pictures, but he gives a fine performance in an unusual film that deserves the spotlight.

The 1990 Western "Quigley Down Under" was TV star Tom Selleck's first attempt to become a big-screen action hero after the conclusion of "Magnum P.I." two years prior. Here he stars as Matthew Quigley, a Wild West gunslinger seeking adventure. He finds it halfway across the globe in Australia, then under British rule. Wielding a specially modified rifle of his own design, Quigley is hired by a ruthless English tyrant named Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman), who wants him to find and kill the Australian Aboriginals whose land he wants for himself. 

When Quigley refuses to be party to genocide, Marston has him beaten and abandoned in the harsh Australian outback. The Aboriginals help Quigley survive. Thankful for their generosity, Quigley joins their fight against the cruel and vicious Marston. A rollicking early '90s adventure, it's a fast-paced, hearty, pulp-inspired Western full of energy and action. 

Unfortunately, the film didn't find success with audiences, and Selleck never did wind up being a Hollywood star, content instead to be a hero on the small screen in shows like "Blue Bloods" and "The Closer." Despite being a box office blunder, "Quigley Down Under" is a lively adventure that should be dusted off from the forgotten bin.

2005's "Appaloosa" came and went from theaters so quickly that you were probably more likely to have seen it while flying on a plane. If you've seen it — back then or more recently on streaming — then you've seen what might be the most underrated Western of the decade. Based on a novel by Robert B. Parker (creator of "Spenser: For Hire"), the film put Ed Harris in a black cowboy hat a full decade before "Westworld."

In a new take on a tried-and-true formula, the film centers on the town of Appaloosa, where an overzealous rancher named Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) has killed the U.S. Marshal stationed there in order to take over the small mining town. The people hire noted lawman Virgil Cole (Harris), who brings his old friend Everett Hitch (Mortensen) to fight Bragg and retake Appaloosa. When they meet a young widow named Allie (Renée Zellweger) who romances them both, it creates a love triangle that endangers their partnership.

Full of impeccable performances from its star cast, "Appaloosa" may not have offered anything too inventive, but what it did, it did with aplomb. Despite being a dud in theaters, it's been remembered by those who saw it as one of the best modern Westerns that nobody ever talks about.

A landmark film that sparked the arrival of an entire sub-genre of Westerns, "Red Sun" was the first of the 'East Meets West' movies that paired a Wild West gunslinger with a warrior from the Far East. In this case, action star Charles Bronson (of "Once Upon a Time in the West" fame) starred as a dangerous desperado named Link. Link joins forces with a French outlaw named Gauche (Alain Delon) to commit a daring train robbery full of gold. When they get aboard, they discover there's more than money aboard, as the speeding locomotive also carries the Japanese Ambassador and his royal samurai guardsmen.

The double-crossing Gauche steals the Ambassador's sword, which he'd brought with him as a gift for the United States President. Now the Ambassador's toughest samurai — a skilled warrior named Jubei — recruits Link to help him track his former partner and return the sword to him. Time is running out for them both: if Jubei cannot return the blade within one week, he has sworn to commit ritual suicide as honor demands. He also vows to take Link down with him.

Directed by Terrence Young ("Dr. No"), "Red Sun" proves a thrilling and graphic Spaghetti Western. With enough blood to make Quentin Tarantino blush, the film has plenty of action, sword fights, and shoot-outs to satisfy fans of both Westerns and samurai cinema.

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Though the title refers to Tommy Lee Jones' character, make no mistake: "The Homesman" is really all about its female characters, who are the true center of the story. Jones, who also directed, gets star billing, but Hilary Swank is the movie's driving force. She plays Mary Bee Cuddy, a strong-willed and independent landowner — a rarity in 1854, the year the movie is set. Despite her financial security, she is deeply unhappy in her pioneering life in Nebraska. When three troubled women in her community need an escort to a church back East that can care for them, Cuddy volunteers.

Wary of making the dangerous trip all by herself, Cuddy frees a claim jumper named George Briggs in exchange for his help getting the women safely to their destination. Together they set off on the harrowing upstream journey. His hardened experience on the Plains is put to good use as the party encounters risks along the way. When tragedy strikes, Briggs suddenly finds himself unprepared for a challenge he never could have expected.

Critics loved the movie, but audiences looking for something more adventurous were probably a little disappointed. Go into it knowing that it's a slow-moving, gritty look at the hardships faced by women in the untamed West and you won't be disappointed. 

IndieWire may have put it best when they described "Brimstone" as a "gnarly revisionist Western that trembles with Biblical weight." That succinct description is all you really need to know about this unique 2016 effort by Dutch filmmaker Martin Koolhoven. There's something to be said for going into it with few expectations and little knowledge. Without going into too much detail, the story follows Liz (Dakota Fanning), a young midwife who kills a baby during childbirth to save its mother but is persecuted as a callous murderer by a crusading minister (Guy Pearce).

Be warned that "Brimstone" isn't for those looking for an exciting Western adventure with cowboys and gunslingers shouting "hi-yo silver." Instead, what you'll find here is a wretched tale of obsession and religious fury, and one that you'll have to watch intently to fully grasp. Its innovative four-act structure makes it a labyrinth of storytelling that may prove difficult to navigate for some — in fact, it proved impenetrable for quite a few reviewers. If you can stick with it and want a Western that is darn near Shakespearean in its tragedy and ecstasy, you'll find it both brilliant and breathtaking.

While the 1995 Sam Raimi film of the same name (starring Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone) got all the attention from audiences and critics, the made-for-television movie "The Quick and the Dead" from nearly a decade before quickly faded into history despite being the far better film. Oddly, the two movies have no relation other than sharing a title, with the telefilm being based on a 1973 novel.  

Airing on premium network HBO in 1987, the movie told the story of a Wyoming settler and former soldier turned pacifist named Duncan McCaskel (Tom Conti), his wife Susanna (Kate Capshaw), and their young son Tom, who find themselves targets of a range-roving villain named "Doc" Shabitt (Matt Clark). The pioneering family finds protection in the form of Con Vallian (Sam Elliott), a mysterious solitary drifter they meet during a clash with Shabitt. When Susanna falls to the advances of their protector Vallian, it risks the friendship that has saved their lives. 

More of a neo-Western and revisionist historical drama than most on this list, "Matewan" takes place in 1920 in West Virginia, where a major coal miner's strike threatens to shut down the Stone Mountain Coal Company. Like the best films in the Western genre, the story focuses on a steely-eyed hero who comes to town to save the people from their tyrannical grip. In this case, it's a union organizer named Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), who arrives and does his best to settle down the striking miners so as not to provoke the company. Tensions nonetheless escalate when Stone Mountain brings in Black and Italian laborers to cross the picket line.

As the situation reaches a boiling point, the company brings in a group of hired guns to push the striking workers around, leading to violence that swells to engulf the nearby hill people. Eventually, Joe becomes the company's target. He finds himself framed for a violent attack he didn't commit thanks to the company's efforts to turn his people against him. 

A strong cast that included James Earl Jones ("Field of Dreams"), Mary McDonnell ("Battlestar Galactica"), and Bob Gunton ("The Shawshank Redemption") helped earn the film rave reviews on its release in 1987. Unfortunately, it's been long overlooked, but as a dramatization of a forgotten part of American history, it's an important film that Western fans will likely love.

The 1960s were awash in Westerns, including some of the best that were ever made, from evergreen Eastwood classics like "Fistful of Dollars" to John Wayne heavyweights like "True Grit." Among so many classics, a few underrated flicks have slipped through the cracks. One such potential powerhouse is the Italian film "Death Rides a Horse," starring Lee Van Cleef, a veteran of the "Dollars" trilogy. Though diehard fans of the genre will cite the film as one of the best movies of the decade, wider audiences have likely never gotten a taste of its greatness.

The 1967 Spaghetti Western introduces audiences to Bill Meceita (John Phillip Law), a young man who's spent most of his life as a rough-riding drifter seeking revenge on the outlaws who murdered his family as a boy. Since that fateful day, he's trained himself to be a skilled gunfighter and has committed the identity of his family's killers to memory. As he searches for them, Bill meets Ryan (Van Cleef), a mysterious outlaw who was framed by the same men that he is hunting. The two team up to take them down.

An unforgettable revenge film, "Death Rides a Horse" also features a stunning score by Ennio Morricone, who scored so many classics of the genre. Though not as widely known, this film should be remembered alongside the very best of the era's Westerns.

By 1985, Clint Eastwood was already a Hollywood legend, but his best Western movies, like "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and "Hang 'Em High," were roughly a decade behind him. He'd already moved into action films, like the "Dirty Harry" series, and his efforts in the cowboy genre during the '70s and early '80s had largely been forgettable. 

"Pale Rider" unexpectedly proved a worthy addition to the Western catalog of his filmography. It's never been considered among his very best, but perhaps it should be. In fact, it might be the most underrated film of his career. 

Eastwood plays a mysterious and ghostly gunslinger known only as the Preacher. Mixing the Western genre with some supernatural elements, we meet the Preacher as he helps a group of besieged gold miners fend off attacks from ruthless interlopers. A dark and foreboding mystical Western drama unlike any other, the film largely succeeds thanks to Clint Eastwood's towering, ethereal presence. Somehow, after nearly three decades in the genre, having played several similar characters before, the actor still managed to find new and powerful ways to play the man with no name.

The film also proved that the actor could never outgrow a wide-brimmed hat and a six-shooter. Eastwood would return to the Western genre in 1992 with "Unforgiven," an all-time classic.

Another overlooked 1960s Spaghetti Western that needs wider recognition than it receives, "The Great Silence" is an Italian-French production starring Klaus Kinski ("Nosferatu the Vampyre") and Jean-Louis Trintignant ("The City of Lost Children"). Set just before the Great Blizzard of 1899 that left over 100 dead, it centers on a silent outlaw nicknamed, fittingly, "Silenzio." A vicious and highly trained killer, he rides into the town of Snow Hill, Utah.

As snow and ice blanket the region, the townspeople are forced into survival mode, with many resorting to theft to keep themselves afloat. Having become bandits themselves, their dire situation has left them vulnerable to bounty hunters out to cash in. One such desperado is a sadistic gunslinger named Pollicut, who uses the opportunity to collect rewards for nabbing the desperate bandits. Silenzio is the one man who might be able to stop him. We also learn that the voiceless avenger has a personal score to settle with Pollicut that reaches back to his childhood.

With buckets of blood, political allegory, rip-roaring action, and another fantastic score from Ennio Morricone, "The Great Silence" might be the most underrated Spaghetti Western ever made.   

Over the last 50 years, Hollywood has mined the works of author Elmore Leonard for plenty of movies and television shows, resulting in TV hits like "Justified" as well as big-screen successes like "Out of Sight," "Jackie Brown," and "Get Shorty." One of the first adaptations of his works is the 1967 film "Hombre" starring Paul Newman. Though it's never gotten the same level of recognition as the first Leonard-penned Western, "3:10 to Yuma," the silver screen adaptation of the author's fifth novel is in sore need of broader appreciation.

In the film, a pre-"Butch Cassidy" Newman stars as John Russell, a white man who had been raised by the Apache. He comes back to his old town in Arizona upon the death of his father, who has left him a family heirloom. Leaving town on a stagecoach, his fellow passengers subject him to bigotry and intolerance for his Native American upbringing. When a gang of outlaws attacks them on the trail, it's up to Russell to defend those who despise him from those who want them dead.

A revisionist Western and cowboy adventure with everything a fan would want in a movie of its kind, its bold social commentary helps elevate it to something even better.

The second Western on the list to be set in the Australian outback, "The Proposition" is an Australian production with a mostly English cast. Written and scored by musician Nick Cave, the film starred Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson, and John Hurt. Pearce plays Charlie Burns, a renegade outlaw who, along with his younger brother Mikey, is finally cornered and caught by a no-nonsense lawman, Captain Morris Stanley (Winstone). 

Facing execution, Stanley offers Charlie a proposition to win him and his little brother their freedom: head across the desert to track and kill his older brother Arthur, who's wanted for rape and murder. Setting out across the dangerous outback, Charlie soon realizes he's not alone when he encounters a gruff old bounty hunter named Jellon Lamb (Hurt), who has a mysterious agenda of his own. 

Described by The Guardian as "a blast of grittiness" and a "violently complex masterpiece of genre revisionism," the Proposition is another Western lost to the glut of limited release and direct-to-streaming fare that deserved better.

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