The Essential Westerns
From Stagecoach to Eddington: the frontier myth, the films that tore it down, and the neo-westerns still riding the same trails. Movies only, in order.
115 titles
- Stagecoach (1939), John Ford
Nine strangers share a coach through Apache territory, including a drunk doctor, a banished prostitute, and an escaped outlaw named the Ringo Kid. John Ford's first sound Western made John Wayne a star, and Thomas Mitchell won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Orson Welles said he watched it… - Destry Rides Again (1939)
- The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
- My Darling Clementine (1946), John Ford
- Duel in the Sun (1946)
- Fort Apache (1948)
- Red River (1948), Howard Hawks
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
- She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
- Winchester '73 (1950)
- The Gunfighter (1950)
- High Noon (1952)
A retiring marshal learns that a killer he sent away arrives on the noon train, and the whole town declines to help. The story unfolds in roughly real time. Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor, and writer Carl Foreman was blacklisted before it opened, which explains the allegory. Clocks… - Shane (1953)
- The Naked Spur (1953)
- Johnny Guitar (1954)
- Vera Cruz (1954)
- Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
- The Man from Laramie (1955)
- The Searchers (1956), John Ford
A Confederate veteran spends five years hunting the Comanche who kidnapped his niece, and it becomes clear he may kill her when he finds her. John Wayne's darkest role, shot in Monument Valley. AFI named it the greatest Western ever made, and it placed seventh in Sight and Sound's 2012 critics'… - Giant (1956)
- 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
- The Big Country (1958)
- Man of the West (1958)
- Rio Bravo (1959)
A sheriff, a drunk deputy, an old man with a limp, and a teenage gunslinger hold a killer in jail while his rich brother lays siege. Howard Hawks and John Wayne made it as a rebuttal to High Noon: real professionals do not ask for help. Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson stop for a song. Hangout cinema… - Ride Lonesome (1959)
- The Magnificent Seven (1960)
- One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), John Ford
- Ride the High Country (1962)
- Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
- Hud (1963)
- A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
- Cat Ballou (1965)
- For a Few Dollars More (1965)
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Sergio Leone
Three gunmen chase buried Confederate gold across a Civil War landscape, forming and breaking alliances on the way. The third of Sergio Leone's Dollars films with Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name. Ennio Morricone's score is among the most recognizable in film history. The three-way standoff… - The Professionals (1966)
- El Dorado (1966)
- Hombre (1967)
- Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Sergio Leone
A widow, a harmonica-playing stranger, and an outlaw tangle with a hired killer over land the railroad wants. Sergio Leone cast Henry Fonda, America's decent man, as a child murderer with blue eyes. Morricone composed the score before shooting so actors could move to it. The opening at the train… - The Great Silence (1968)
- The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah
An aging gang of outlaws in 1913 takes one last job in Mexico as the Old West gives way to cars and machine guns. Sam Peckinpah's slow-motion, blood-spattered violence caused walkouts and fury on release. William Holden leads. It got two Oscar nominations and reshaped how Hollywood shot action… - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
- True Grit (1969)
- Little Big Man (1970)
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Robert Altman
A small-time gambler builds a brothel in a muddy mining town with the help of a sharp, opium-smoking madam, then big business arrives. Robert Altman's anti- Western stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, who got an Oscar nomination. Vilmos Zsigmond shot it in faded, smoky color, and Leonard Cohen… - The Cowboys (1972)
- Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
- Ulzana's Raid (1972)
- High Plains Drifter (1973)
- Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
- Blazing Saddles (1974)
- The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
- The Shootist (1976)
- The Missouri Breaks (1976)
- Heaven's Gate (1980)
- The Long Riders (1980)
- Paris, Texas (1984), Wim Wenders
- Pale Rider (1985)
- Silverado (1985)
- Young Guns (1988)
- Dances with Wolves (1990), Kevin Costner
- Unforgiven (1992), Clint Eastwood
A retired killer turned pig farmer takes one last bounty, to avenge a prostitute disfigured by cowboys in Big Whiskey, Wyoming. Clint Eastwood directs and dismantles his own legend. It won four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and Gene Hackman won Supporting Actor as a sheriff with… - Tombstone (1993)
- The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)
- Maverick (1994)
- Wyatt Earp (1994)
- The Quick and the Dead (1995)
- Dead Man (1995)
- Lone Star (1996)
- Ride with the Devil (1999)
- All the Pretty Horses (2000)
- The Missing (2003)
- Open Range (2003)
- Brokeback Mountain (2005), Ang Lee
- The Proposition (2005)
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
- 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
A starstruck young admirer joins Jesse James's gang in its last days, and the title tells you how that ends. Brad Pitt won the Volpi Cup at Venice, Casey Affleck got an Oscar nomination, and Roger Deakins was nominated for its amber, blurred-edge cinematography. Warner Bros. barely released it. It… - No Country for Old Men (2007), Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
A Texas welder finds two million dollars at a drug deal gone wrong, and a killer with a captive bolt pistol follows him. The Coen brothers adapted Cormac McCarthy's novel. It won four Oscars including Best Picture, and Javier Bardem won Supporting Actor for that haircut. Tommy Lee Jones's closing… - There Will Be Blood (2008), Paul Thomas Anderson
- Appaloosa (2008)
- True Grit (2010), Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
A fourteen-year-old girl hires a one-eyed, whiskey-soaked marshal to track her father's killer into Indian Territory. The Coens went back to Charles Portis's novel rather than remake the 1969 John Wayne film. Hailee Steinfeld's debut earned her an Oscar nomination, and the film got ten nominations… - Meek's Cutoff (2011), Kelly Reichardt
- Rango (2011), Gore Verbinski
- Django Unchained (2012), Quentin Tarantino
- The Homesman (2014)
- The Salvation (2014)
- The Keeping Room (2014)
- Slow West (2015)
- Bone Tomahawk (2015)
- The Hateful Eight (2015), Quentin Tarantino
- The Revenant (2016), Alejandro González Iñárritu
- Jane Got a Gun (2016)
- Hell or High Water (2016), David Mackenzie
- The Magnificent Seven (2016), Antoine Fuqua
- Hostiles (2017)
- Wind River (2017), Taylor Sheridan
- Logan (2017), James Mangold
- Woman Walks Ahead (2017)
- Sweet Country (2017)
- The Rider (2018), Chloé Zhao
- The Sisters Brothers (2018), Jacques Audiard
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), Joel Coen
- The Wind (2018)
- Bacurau (2019), Kleber Mendonça Filho
- First Cow (2020), Kelly Reichardt
In 1820s Oregon, a quiet cook and a Chinese immigrant secretly milk the only cow in the territory to sell oily cakes to trappers. Kelly Reichardt's gentle frontier story of friendship and petty capitalism premiered at Telluride and opened in 2020. The New York Film Critics Circle named it the best… - News of the World (2020), Paul Greengrass
- Let Him Go (2020)
- Nomadland (2021), Chloé Zhao
- The Power of the Dog (2021), Jane Campion
A cruel, charismatic Montana rancher torments his brother's new wife and her delicate son, until the son starts paying close attention. Jane Campion adapted Thomas Savage's 1967 novel for Netflix with Benedict Cumberbatch. It led the Oscars with twelve nominations, and Campion won Best Director… - The Harder They Fall (2021)
- Old Henry (2021)
- Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Martin Scorsese
In 1920s Oklahoma, oil makes the Osage Nation rich, and white neighbors begin marrying and murdering them for it. Martin Scorsese adapted David Grann's nonfiction book for Apple, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. Lily Gladstone won the Golden Globe for Best Actress. Ten Oscar nominations… - The Dead Don't Hurt (2023)
- Eddington (2025), Ari Aster
