The success of the Westerns from the 1930s until the late 1970s is unmatched. Although once in a blue moon, the genre releases something that draws us back into the world of films like that with the beautiful settings and the themes that come with them, Westerns are kind of hit or miss these days. Maybe the younger generation doesn't pick up on them quite well, but the old timers of the world connect heavily with the messages conveyed in a superb Western, hence why there are so many classics within the genre still today.
The Westerners birthed greats like Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, and director John Ford, as well as the countless Italian-produced Spaghetti Westerns that Quentin Tarantino likes to praise. There is a lot of rewatch value in the genre, so we've narrowed it down to ten of the most rewatchable films that define the Wild West!
10 Shane (1953)
1953's Shane is about a gunslinger (Alan Ladd, in the title role) who shows up in a small Wyoming town looking to settle down and make a life for himself as a helper on a farm. He soon finds himself caught in between a battle with the townspeople and a cattle baron with a vicious plan.
The Anti-Western so to Speak
Shane has a serious conflict in it between the rancher Shane works for and the cattle baron that he is now at odds with. It also should be added that he falls for the wife of the man he works for, thus only adding to the main conflict of the film. Shane does kind of go against the grain in showing you how a man must make the right choices, even if they carry a lot of weight. It also shows the audience that violence is a brutal way of solving problems. This sure does sound like an anti-western movie, but still, people flock to this film over and over again. Stream on Hoopla.
Watch the trailer of Shane here.
9 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one big flashback of a movie that takes place when a senator (Jimmy Stewart) arrives for the funeral of a local man in a small western town named Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). We learn that years ago, Tom saved the now-Senator from a scuffle with some of the town outlaws.
John Ford and John Wayne
One of the best westerns of the 1960s would have to be this John Ford-directed gem, which is known as his last truly great film. When John Wayne and John Ford got together, magic happened on screen. Add to it Jimmy Stewart, playing a man who wants nothing to do with gunslinging but uses his brains to match John Wayne's bronze as they try to put an end to Lee Marvin's portrayal of the outlaw Liberty Valance, who terrorizes a small town in the west. It's an ensemble cast with a great message of truth and the creation of a so-called hero. Stream on Paramount+.
Watch the trailer for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
8 Unforgiven (1992)
Unforgiven is about two groups of gunfighters who arrive in a town in Wyoming to collect the reward posted by some brothel workers after one of their own was attacked. This creates tension in the town between one of the bounty hunters (Clint Eastwood) and the town's ruthless sheriff (Gene Hackman).
The Last Great Western
Up until recently, some have liked to say that Unforgiven is the last great western ever to be released. The best picture winner has an all-star cast including Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Frances Fisher, and, of course, Clint Eastwood, who stars and directs. Unforgiven takes a part of what you have seen in the old western films of who was good and who was bad and shows the blurred line between them. Eastwood would also dedicate this film to a man he acted for in numerous other western films, Sergio Leone. Stream on Tubi.
Watch the trailer for Unforgiven.
7 True Grit (1969)
True Grit 1969
- Release Date
- June 11, 1969
- Director
- Henry Hathaway
- Runtime
- 128
True Grit is about when Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey) murders the father of 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), she decides to seek out the aid of U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) to hunt down Chaney. The pair ventures into a territory that belong to the indigenous tribes of the American West. They are also joined by Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Glen Campbell), who has a mutual interest in catching Chaney for the murder of a senator.
"Fill Your Hands You Son of a B*tch!"
John Wayne only had a few more roles left in him by this point in his career. Some would argue that it was his last great film. True Grit got a respectable remake in 2010 by the Coen Brothers. Both the original and the remake explore important themes such as power, discrimination, vengeance, and redemption. However, True Grit was a casualty of changing times and culture in America, but it still got John Wayne his one and only Oscar. Stream on Paramount+.
Watch the trailer for True Grit.
6 Rio Bravo (1959)
Rio Bravo
- Release Date
- April 4, 1959
- Director
- Howard Hawks
- Cast
- John Wayne , Dean Martin , Ricky Nelson , Angie Dickinson , Walter Brennan
- Runtime
- 141 Minutes
Rio Bravo is about when a gunslinger kills a man in a small town saloon. The Sheriff (John Wayne) arrests him and locks him up, but that isn't the end of the story. Soon, the gunslinger's brother comes to town to cause some tension and pressure on law enforcement as the gang of outlaws plots to break him out.
Tarantino's Praise for Rio Bravo
Quentin Tarantino once said (before he got married) that Rio Bravo is the perfect date movie, and he would show it to a girl he was dating, and if she liked it, it proved to him that the relationship had the potential to progress. Rio Bravo has quite a different approach than most Westerns. Plain and simple, it's a hangout movie.
Yes, there is a looming plot line that needs to have a big payoff, but for the bulk of the film, you're kind of just getting to know John Wayne's character, John T. Chance, the down drunk named Dude (Dean Martin), Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson), and Angie Dickinson's character, Feathers. It's a pretty laid back change of pace film, in a way it doubles as a 'slice of life' film, so to speak. Rent on Prime Video.
Watch the trailer for Rio Bravo here.
5 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Based on the true story, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is about two partners in 1890s Wyoming who lead a band of outlaws on a train robbery gone wrong. As the dust settled, the pair head to South America with a gang of gunslingers on their heels.
There's No Better Pair Than Newman and Redford
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid have incredible rewatch value based on their two leading men in the title role alone. Paul Newman and Robert Redford are iconic in their respective roles that we may always remember them by. If True Grit was the last of a dying breed of American Westerns, then Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid very much modernized the genre with its two leads and the wild adventures they go on. Rent on Prime Video
Watch the trailer for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid here.
4 The Searchers (1956)
The Searchers
- Release Date
- May 26, 1956
- Director
- John Ford
- Cast
- John Wayne , Vera Miles , Jeffrey Hunter , Ward Bond
- Runtime
- 1hr 59min
The Searchers is directed by John Ford and stars John Wayne as the character Ethan Edwards. Edwards had just returned home to Texas after the Civil War. When members of his brother's family are either killed or abducted, Edwards treks out into Comanche territory to find those responsible.
White Settlers and Indigenous Tribes of the American West
Many know by now John Wayne's strong right-wing stances that even border opinions that feel backed by personal prejudices, yet here he is in a film that still holds up as it examines race relations between white settlers and natives. The Searchers is also one of the most beautifully shot films of all time, with credit going to Winton C. Hoch whose work on this film has been duplicated in other movies for years to come. Rent on Prime Video.
Watch the trailer for The Searchers here.
3 Stagecoach (1939)
Stagecoach
- Release Date
- March 3, 1939
- Director
- John Ford
- Cast
- John Wayne , Andy Devine , Thomas Mitchell , John Carradine
John Ford once again directed a film that perfectly embodies how one got from point A to point B in the American West and how it was never an easy task. Stagecoach is about many different passengers boarding a stagecoach bound for New Mexico and the ever-present threat of attacks from the Apache tribes of the Wild West.
The First-Ever Adult Western
Before Stagecoach, Westerns never really attacked adult themes in their films. Here, there is a lot to explore through the plot, setting, and characters that are all on the transport. It's a film that gave us the arrival of John Ford and what would become his many contributions to the genre. It also launched John Wayne into the stratosphere. He was 32 when it was made, and if you want to pinpoint the beginning of his long career, Stagecoach is the perfect starting point. Stream on Tubi.
Watch the trailer of Stagecoach on YouTube.
2 Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West is Sergio Leone's operatic tale of the American frontier and how cutthroat and vicious it can be. The film follows a mysterious harmonica-playing stranger and a desperado who must protect a woman and her land from a murderous assassin who is working for the railroad.
Leone's Opus of the American West
There are so many wild ideals surrounding the film, one of which is how an Italian director can make a film that, once it ends, feels so American. The visuals of the movie are so iconic, from the close-ups of the characters' eyes to the scenes with no dialogue in them, and yet you know exactly what is going on. Sergio Leone's always felt like they were on a grander scale than just about anything, and how can we forget that this is the only film you get to see Henry Fonda play one of the meanest, most violent killers ever to grace the big screen. Stream on Fubo.
1 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly takes place during the civil war in the South West, where three men catch wind of $20,000 buried out in the desert and try to go out and find it. Alliances are created, broken, and then created again, all of which leads to a showdown out in the desert for money.
Best of the Best in Terms of Rewatches
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly may not be the greatest Western of all time, or maybe some think it is. For some, if you want to get into Westerns, you start with a film like this. The hyper-stylized way of storytelling was ahead of its time. It is most likely the greatest spaghetti Western of all time. Ennio Morricone's score is used to this day in anything from commercials to Metallica songs. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly has three of the best characters of all time in the genre, played by some of the best tough guys who ever were on screen. It wasn't just a movie; it was a cultural phenomenon. Stream on Max.
Watch the trailer of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly here.
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