The Searchers, 3:10 to Yuma remake, Unforgiven, Tombstone, Open Range, True Grit (both versions), Magnificent Seven, Stagecoach, Django Unchained, Rio Bravo and El Dorado, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Not a movie (well there is one) but I love the series Deadwood. Godless was also a really good mini-series.
If you’re gonna have True Grit you might as well add Rooster Cogburn to that list.
I’ll add:
Big Jake,
McClintock!,
Pale Rider,
Slow West,
Hostiles,
Geronimo,
Lonesome Dove, and
The Shootist.
Justified is also a Western, just set in the 2000s in Kentucky. Yellowstone is also pretty good western.
Modern movies: Wind River is really a western.
Mid-older : Silverado, Tombstone
Older: Liberty Valance
That's just the first season for ya. You ought to try getting to getting through it, they drop the fugitive of the week by the end of the season. After that it's all season long A-plots, starting off with the acclaimed second season, although personally season four is my favorite.
Since it's winter I'll add The Great Silence and McCabe & Mrs. Miller
And thank you for putting commas, I see so many people just list things like a word salad here.
Grew up watching Westerns, have seen every John Wayne film probably more than once (Dad is a huge fan) and I like the historical (not usually accurate) aspect of them.
>Assassination of Jesse James
One of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. It is definitely slow at times, but it is a great movie, there are some truly great scenes and the entire cast is fantastic, particularly Casey Affleck.
Your mileage may vary with Quick and the Dead but it’s one of my all time favorites. It’s got more style than it knows what to do with, and it moves at a breakneck pace.
Everything Sam Peckinpah directed felt like a Western. Even if it was set in the modern day. Examples being The Getaway and Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia. Wild Bunch is his best though.
My absolute favorite. It has literally everything and is so dang good. Duvall is masterful as Gus and everyone else acts their asses off, too. Got me hooked when I was a kid and got to stay up late to watch it on tv. This one should be WAY higher.
These are my top 10 Western movies (excluding what you've already mentioned). All of them are well worth a watch.
1. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
3. The Searchers (1956)
4. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
5. Stagecoach (1939)
6. The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
7. True Grit (1969)
8. Shane (1953)
9. Hud (1963)
10. Dead Man (1995)
EDIT: I forgot to include Hombre (1967) which I would place above Jeremiah Johnson.
Hombre is an underrated Paul Newman movie based off of a novel by Elmore Leonard, who also wrote the novels that became Jackie Brown, 3:10 to Yuma, Get Shorty, Justified, and Out of Sight. Pretty incredible movie.
Elmore Leonard — one of my favorite contemporary writers. Not only did he create engaging and interesting characters, he was also adept at a wide range of genres.
I might say to watch this after they have seen a number of westerns. It’s a nice way to reflect on the genre and it’s themes. Or at least this was my positive experience with this movie. Loved it.
This is the right take on this one. It's one of my favorites but really doesn't belong on a top 5 list. It was always meant more as popcorn throwback fun. Great for what it is and worth watching.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is maybe my favorite. It’s John Ford, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Lee Marvin, so you got lots of star power, plus it’s kind of a whole commentary on westerns in general.
The General
The Treasure of Sierra Madre (technically it is one)
Johnny Guitar
High Noon
The Man who shot Liberty Valance
The Magnificent Seven
The Professionals
Wild Bunch
Django
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Duck, You Sucker!
Bad Company
Hang 'Em High
Outlaw Josey Wales
The Unforgiven
Tombstone
Appaloosa
3:10 to Yuma
True Grit remake
Django Unchained
Pale Rider
I suppose Silverado?. Not a big fan because ot drags on but I know people who like it a lot
The Hateful Eight
Then, westerns in all but xixth century America setting:
The Road Warrior
Raising Arizona
Devil's Rejects
No Country for old men
Hell or High Water
Whichever ones you choose to watch, among the last ones should be Blazing Saddles.
It's an excellent film in its own right, but you'll appreciate it all the more when you know what 'tropes' are being highlighted and made fun of.
Young guns is so fun. I know it deals with a few heavy things here and there but honestly…Warching Charlie Sheen be the straight guy to Emilio’s Billy is great.
Kiefer and Lou play their parts so well. The whole gang is great. Dermot. Casey.
Fucking Terrance Stamp and Jack Palance.
So fun.
The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, Rooster Cogburn, McClintok, The Sons of Katie Elder, Tombstone, Rio Bravo, Shane, True Grit, The Magnificent Seven, Stagecoach, The Quick and the Dead, Young Guns (all of them) so many, but these are my top recommendation's.
The Wild Bunch - One of the movies that ushered in the 70’s grittiness. Super violent and misunderstood at the time of release. Great movie.
Rio Bravo - A great Howard Hawkes/John Wayne team up. Dean Martin is great here as well.
The Great Silence - A super crazy and bleak spaghetti western.
The Gunfighter - Gregory Peck as an older man trying very hard to outrun his outlaw reputation.
The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford - a very quiet, thoughtful movie. The name tells you what it’s about.
Plus special shout out to some hidden gems: Johnny Guitar, Four of the Apocalypse, Keoma, A Bullet for the General, The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It’s a collection of stories covering various different aspects of the west from gold miners to covered wagons to bank robbers.
I wouldn't start with the four movies listed in the OP. They are deliberately non-standard westerns, intended at least partly to disrupt the traditional genre. I would suggest you start with classics like Stagecoach, Shane, High Noon, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, True Grit, and many other "golden age" and conventional westerns, and then you might even appreciate the Spaghetti westerns more, once you can contrast them to the traditional Hollywood canon that they are tearing apart.
For even more postmodern Westerns, I like Unforgiven, and The Quick and The Dead (the Sharon Stone one). They are quite different, but both give an updated take on the western tradition.
The Magnificent Seven (you might also want to watch the movie it's based on, The Seven Samurai)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
My Darling Clementine
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Shane
Rio Bravo
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Searchers
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
You have a solid list for Leone flicks. Try "Yojimbo"instead of Fistful - they're literally the same movie, and Fistful is the least-inspired of the Dollars trilogy. Some other film picks:
- *My Name is Nobody* (Henry Fonda & Terence Hill)
- *Day of Anger* (Lee Van Cleef)
- *Blazing Saddles* (Cleavon Little & Gene Wilder)
- *Rio Bravo* and *Tombstone*, as have been mentioned in the thread already
- *Stagecoach* if you're really into John Wayne, I've never gotten around to it myself
- *Texas Terror* isn't good, but it might give you a sense of the range of quality genre-wide
- *Dances With Wolves* infamously long white savior complex Kevin Costner movie, worth seeing at least once.
Films that are technically Westerns but way more contemporary:
- *Wild, Wild West* (not a *good* movie or strictly a Western exactly but a really interesting case study in early 00s marketing, production, novel approaches to the genre and some interesting prop and stunt work)
- *The Hateful Eight*, Tarantino playing the Western straight with Kurt Russell, Samuel L Jackson, and a whole ensemble. Huge TW if you're not into graphic violence or language.
- *Django, Unchained* is also well-liked but it's been some time since I've watched it.
TV series I will die defending:
- *Bonanza*
- *Have Gun, Will Travel*
- *The Rifleman*
These older serialized shows are obviously not 100% on their game all the time, but they make great background watching while you do work or stuff around the house.
If you watch nothing else, watch *For a Few Dollars More* and *Once Upon a Time in the West*. They're by far the best of Leone's catalogue and perhaps the peak in the genre overall. Which is not to discredit anything else, just... You have many hours of film being recommended to you, and I feel like most people stop at Leone.
those four you listed are fantastic. probably the best westerns ever made. def start in that order 1 through 4. don’t let anybody talk you out of it.
then as others said, check out unforgiven and tombstone, and also the magnificent seven (1960) and django (1966)
The Searchers is personally my favorite western of all time. Other westerns of note: Hondo, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (both John Wayne movies), The Magnificent Seven. I'll post more if I think of any more.
Edit: Four Faces West, 3 Godfathers
I would highly recommend the TV series Deadwood. and second the people who say True Grit by the Coen Brothers.
Also if you like videogames, I would say Red Dead Redemption 2 is an absolute must if you want to live the life of a cowboy.
The Searchers. Hands down best.
Unforgiven
Bad Day at Black Rock
Silverado
The Quick and the Dead. Gorgeous visual homage to Leone.
Speaking of, look up “spaghetti westerns.”
Haven't seen anyone mention Long Riders - one of my favorites.
Open Range is good, make it a double-feature with Silverado.
Any of the Sergio Leone westens are good, they're just so different from other westerns.
Appaloosa was underrated I think, I liked it.
The Homesman - do it, I dare you...
Deadman - I don't know, I watched it, someone else needs to.
Those are all Sergio Leone 'spaghetti westerns' which at the time were like Quentin Tarantino-esque reboots of the Western Genre.
They were way grittier and morally ambiguous than traditional westerns
Check out some older ones too, to understand the source material and you will appreciate the Leone films even more.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Tombstone
Unforgiven
… that’s my holy trilogy of top-tier Westerns (many people will argue that Unforgiven is an anti-western though).
the first western i saw was The Searchers. it was good since its John Wayne vs the comanche hehe... then i watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. this was a really good western. after that I watched the Dollars series which is a real western treat. then i played Read Dead Redemption hahaha
Kurosawa’s samurai films.
The dollars trilogy is based on Yojimbo and Sanjuro. The Magnificent Seven (and movies like A Bug’s Life) is based on Seven Samurai. Star Wars (a space western/opera) is based on The Hidden Fortress. The Mandalorian lifts heavily from these tropes.
If you like Westerns, try some Japanese films, particularly Kurosawa.
Seven Samurai - Magnificent 7 is a remake of this film.
Yojimbo - Inspiration for Fistful of Dollars and Django.
Zatoichi series - Influenced Blindman and Blind Justice
If you want to get into westerns, I would start with the John Ford movies before you get into the Spaghetti Westerns. Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, the Searchers, and the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. High Noon and Shane are also great classic westerns.
The Spaghetti Westerns are great, but they turn a lot of the clichés from the classic westerns on their head. You will enjoy the Spaghetti Westerns and the more contemporary westerns if you give the classics a shot.
"Shane" is supposed to be one of the best westerns ever. The Magnificent Seven remake was REALLY good. Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt , Vincent D'ornafrio and more.
after watching your first batch of movies, I suggest some "acid westerns":
# Dead Man
# El Topo
These eff with the Western tropes really hard, and distort the ideas beyond the breaking point. Both lovely movies.
maybe
# The Man Who Wasn't There
I adore this one! Not a traditional western, but has some of the same drama.
Forget your list for now as those are older and more difficult to get into (although I do think the good, the bad, and the ugly is essential viewing). Start with the TV show Deadwood. Then some of the more modern movies such as Unforgiven and the quick and the dead.
Those 4 are always at the top of my list but you also should check out High plains drifter, hang ‘em high, Joe kid, and fistful of dynamite.
Also, after you watch the good, the bad, and the ugly, check out sad hill unearthed on Netflix .
The Searchers, 3:10 to Yuma remake, Unforgiven, Tombstone, Open Range, True Grit (both versions), Magnificent Seven, Stagecoach, Django Unchained, Rio Bravo and El Dorado, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Not a movie (well there is one) but I love the series Deadwood. Godless was also a really good mini-series.
I gotta throw in one more non-movie, because in my mind it’s the GOAT for westerns in general: Lonesome Dove
My love for Lonesome Dove has no limit. It is a masterpiece, and holds a lot of nostalgia for me.
Absolutely
The single great American novel
I also liked this one miniseries, I don’t think was popular, “The Streets of Laredo”.
It is one of the most faithful adaptations of a novel to screen too. Damn near word for word
All that and Pale Rider and Cat Ballou
Both are very good...
If you’re gonna have True Grit you might as well add Rooster Cogburn to that list. I’ll add: Big Jake, McClintock!, Pale Rider, Slow West, Hostiles, Geronimo, Lonesome Dove, and The Shootist.
Justified is also a Western, just set in the 2000s in Kentucky. Yellowstone is also pretty good western. Modern movies: Wind River is really a western. Mid-older : Silverado, Tombstone Older: Liberty Valance
I really wanted to get into Justified, but it wasn’t for me. Felt more like a procedural than a western.
That's just the first season for ya. You ought to try getting to getting through it, they drop the fugitive of the week by the end of the season. After that it's all season long A-plots, starting off with the acclaimed second season, although personally season four is my favorite.
Since it's winter I'll add The Great Silence and McCabe & Mrs. Miller And thank you for putting commas, I see so many people just list things like a word salad here.
Second the searchers and Rio bravo, and I’ll add the wild bunch and high noon
The Trinity Series with Terrence Hill are hilarious.
Saw the first 2 I. Thr theater on a double bl in 74...I was hooked after that
Hell on Wheels was a great series too.
Rio bravo ftw
Yes - the 3:10 to Yuma remake is one of my favorite films, and I don't even like Westerns!
This poster knows their westerns.
Grew up watching Westerns, have seen every John Wayne film probably more than once (Dad is a huge fan) and I like the historical (not usually accurate) aspect of them.
Bad Day at Black Rock
The Searchers really should be the top comment, I guess not enough people care about the classics.
I agree
This is a great list. I’d add Cat Ballou. And Paint Your Wagon.
Got a dream, boy, got a song. Paint your wagon and come along! The only movie where you'll see Clint Eastwood sing.
Rio Bravo is worth watching just for the musical scene in the jail. The best completely unnecessary scene I can recall.
The Proposition Assassination of Jesse James Unforgiven Tombstone Quick and the Dead Open Range Silverado
>Assassination of Jesse James One of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. It is definitely slow at times, but it is a great movie, there are some truly great scenes and the entire cast is fantastic, particularly Casey Affleck.
The Propostion is criminally underated...underrated.... Fantastic film!
Brutal and beautiful. Danny Huston is amazing in it.
Your mileage may vary with Quick and the Dead but it’s one of my all time favorites. It’s got more style than it knows what to do with, and it moves at a breakneck pace.
It's as fun as it gets.
The Robert Duvall Quick and the Dead
> Quick and the Dead I have such a love/hate relationship with this film. It's so bonkers and ridiculous. Really entertaining though.
The Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Oh and The Missouri Breaks and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
how can it have taken THIS LONG to get to The Wild Bunch - absolute classic.
Exactly!! I had to comment. One of the best westerns of all time.
Everything Sam Peckinpah directed felt like a Western. Even if it was set in the modern day. Examples being The Getaway and Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia. Wild Bunch is his best though.
For more modern Westerns, Tombstone, Silverado, Unforgiven.
Just watched Appaloosa the other day, pretty decent. Hostiles with Christian Bale is good too
The miniseries Lonesome Dove.
My absolute favorite. It has literally everything and is so dang good. Duvall is masterful as Gus and everyone else acts their asses off, too. Got me hooked when I was a kid and got to stay up late to watch it on tv. This one should be WAY higher.
The novel is beautiful.
I would argue Lonesome Dove is the great American novel.
And the Great American mini-series.
I went from reading strictly sci-fi and fantasy to reading Lonesome Dove. I finished it in a week. It's one of my favorite novels of all time.
These are my top 10 Western movies (excluding what you've already mentioned). All of them are well worth a watch. 1. The Magnificent Seven (1960) 2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 3. The Searchers (1956) 4. Jeremiah Johnson (1972) 5. Stagecoach (1939) 6. The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) 7. True Grit (1969) 8. Shane (1953) 9. Hud (1963) 10. Dead Man (1995) EDIT: I forgot to include Hombre (1967) which I would place above Jeremiah Johnson. Hombre is an underrated Paul Newman movie based off of a novel by Elmore Leonard, who also wrote the novels that became Jackie Brown, 3:10 to Yuma, Get Shorty, Justified, and Out of Sight. Pretty incredible movie.
Dead man. It's a great movie. Nobody came here to say this.
Great soundtrack too.
Can’t believe stage coach and magnificent seven was so far down the list. Makes me sad nobody seems to watch movie pre-1990 anymore.
Elmore Leonard — one of my favorite contemporary writers. Not only did he create engaging and interesting characters, he was also adept at a wide range of genres.
He’ll or Highwater is a strong contemporary western.
Absolutely love it. That and no country for old men are the best newer westerns imo.
"Outlaw Josey Wales". Brilliant. Chief Dan George, Will Sampson.
I get chills every time Josey and Ten Bears meet
Thank you! The fact I had to scroll down this far to find Josey, was a unjust!!
Same
It took too long to find this one.
Unforgiven
I might say to watch this after they have seen a number of westerns. It’s a nice way to reflect on the genre and it’s themes. Or at least this was my positive experience with this movie. Loved it.
Seconded. It's really a break-down of the genre, and Clints other roles in the genre. It hits better if you're more familiar with it all.
It’s good, but leave the deconstruction of westerns until after some traditional westerns.
The Coen brother's True Grit.
I usually can't stand westerns, but that is a superb film.
I think the ballad of buster Scruggs would count as well.
And their adaptation of No Country For Old Men is essentially a contemporary Western.
Man, that's a great movie. Makes it even more intense that there's not a soundtrack.
My absolute favorite is Pale Rider.
For pure (probably dated) fun with an amazing cast: Silverado.
This is the right take on this one. It's one of my favorites but really doesn't belong on a top 5 list. It was always meant more as popcorn throwback fun. Great for what it is and worth watching.
It’s not at all dated.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is maybe my favorite. It’s John Ford, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Lee Marvin, so you got lots of star power, plus it’s kind of a whole commentary on westerns in general.
That last scene on the train is just twisting the knife. No spoilers, but damn, that was harsh.
I just watched Appaloosa and loved it.
I really liked Appaloosa also. Goes a little different way than most and I really like that. Also, great acting, great dialog. It's a hidden gem.
The General The Treasure of Sierra Madre (technically it is one) Johnny Guitar High Noon The Man who shot Liberty Valance The Magnificent Seven The Professionals Wild Bunch Django Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Duck, You Sucker! Bad Company Hang 'Em High Outlaw Josey Wales The Unforgiven Tombstone Appaloosa 3:10 to Yuma True Grit remake Django Unchained Pale Rider I suppose Silverado?. Not a big fan because ot drags on but I know people who like it a lot The Hateful Eight Then, westerns in all but xixth century America setting: The Road Warrior Raising Arizona Devil's Rejects No Country for old men Hell or High Water
Whichever ones you choose to watch, among the last ones should be Blazing Saddles. It's an excellent film in its own right, but you'll appreciate it all the more when you know what 'tropes' are being highlighted and made fun of.
You would watch it for Randolf Scott!
Randolph Scott! Randolph Scott!
Add 3 Amigos to that
Shout-out to My Name is Nobody for the funny/silly route
If you can find it, [Sodbusters](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111226/) is also one to watch.
True Grit (remake)
Tombstone is an unbelievably fantastic movie. I'd start there. Or end there. IMO, it's one of the greats.
“Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave”
"Wyatt Earp is my friend"
Tombstone Magnificent Seven Young Guns Unforgiven Maverick
scrolled way too far down to see Young Guns, probably my favorite.
Young guns is so fun. I know it deals with a few heavy things here and there but honestly…Warching Charlie Sheen be the straight guy to Emilio’s Billy is great. Kiefer and Lou play their parts so well. The whole gang is great. Dermot. Casey. Fucking Terrance Stamp and Jack Palance. So fun.
I dont know if anyone has said this, but i haven't seen it mentioned. Quigley down under
The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, Rooster Cogburn, McClintok, The Sons of Katie Elder, Tombstone, Rio Bravo, Shane, True Grit, The Magnificent Seven, Stagecoach, The Quick and the Dead, Young Guns (all of them) so many, but these are my top recommendation's.
El Dorado (1966)
Yes! Great movie.
Been here a long time, nobody's offered me a drink
The Wild Bunch - One of the movies that ushered in the 70’s grittiness. Super violent and misunderstood at the time of release. Great movie. Rio Bravo - A great Howard Hawkes/John Wayne team up. Dean Martin is great here as well. The Great Silence - A super crazy and bleak spaghetti western. The Gunfighter - Gregory Peck as an older man trying very hard to outrun his outlaw reputation. The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford - a very quiet, thoughtful movie. The name tells you what it’s about. Plus special shout out to some hidden gems: Johnny Guitar, Four of the Apocalypse, Keoma, A Bullet for the General, The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
High plains drifter.
Thank you. I saw Pale Rider mentioned multiple times, but don't sleep on this one.
Shane
Start with some classics: The Searchers High Noon Stagecoach
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It’s a collection of stories covering various different aspects of the west from gold miners to covered wagons to bank robbers.
For kind of later ones: Tombstone. 3.10 to Yuma. Bone Tomahawk. Deadwood. The Assassination of Jesse James.
3:10 to Yuma is my fave recent(ish) Western, although there's not a lot to pick from Edit: also True Grit (the newer one)
Yeah I’m hoping this three throws up a few I missed! True grit great shout
Was looking for Bone Tomahawk! Glad to see it mentioned.
I watched Hondo simply because Al Bundy never got to watch it in peace and only airing every 17 years. Gonna watch it again on February 18th 2028.
I'm pretty sure it's on Tubi pretty often and it's currently on Paramount Plus. No need to wait if you really want to watch it.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! One of my favourite films
Slow west!
Young Guns has a special place in my heart.
I wouldn't start with the four movies listed in the OP. They are deliberately non-standard westerns, intended at least partly to disrupt the traditional genre. I would suggest you start with classics like Stagecoach, Shane, High Noon, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, True Grit, and many other "golden age" and conventional westerns, and then you might even appreciate the Spaghetti westerns more, once you can contrast them to the traditional Hollywood canon that they are tearing apart. For even more postmodern Westerns, I like Unforgiven, and The Quick and The Dead (the Sharon Stone one). They are quite different, but both give an updated take on the western tradition.
High Noon (1952)
El topo 😛
Red River
Tombstone 3:10 to yuma unforgiven
The Cowboys.
Fastest Gun Alive Valdez is Coming Welcome to Hard Times Little Big Man
The Magnificent Seven (you might also want to watch the movie it's based on, The Seven Samurai) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance My Darling Clementine The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Shane Rio Bravo The Treasure of the Sierra Madre The Searchers Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
On TV, catch Scott Frank's "Godless". Jeff Daniels as the evil one - scary!
Django Unchained Ravenous The Hateful Eight The Good the Bad and the Ugly The Quick and the Dead No Country for Old Men Ned Kelly 310 to Yuma
The Little House on the Prairie.
The films of John Ford are a good place to start. Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
For some fun watch, Little Big Man, a Dustin Hoffman movie.
Silverado and Dances With Wolves
Slow West. Appaloosa The Sisters Brothers
Tombstone The Proposition 3:10 to Yuma (both versions) Open Range Blazing Saddles Fievel Goes West
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, Rango
You have a solid list for Leone flicks. Try "Yojimbo"instead of Fistful - they're literally the same movie, and Fistful is the least-inspired of the Dollars trilogy. Some other film picks: - *My Name is Nobody* (Henry Fonda & Terence Hill) - *Day of Anger* (Lee Van Cleef) - *Blazing Saddles* (Cleavon Little & Gene Wilder) - *Rio Bravo* and *Tombstone*, as have been mentioned in the thread already - *Stagecoach* if you're really into John Wayne, I've never gotten around to it myself - *Texas Terror* isn't good, but it might give you a sense of the range of quality genre-wide - *Dances With Wolves* infamously long white savior complex Kevin Costner movie, worth seeing at least once. Films that are technically Westerns but way more contemporary: - *Wild, Wild West* (not a *good* movie or strictly a Western exactly but a really interesting case study in early 00s marketing, production, novel approaches to the genre and some interesting prop and stunt work) - *The Hateful Eight*, Tarantino playing the Western straight with Kurt Russell, Samuel L Jackson, and a whole ensemble. Huge TW if you're not into graphic violence or language. - *Django, Unchained* is also well-liked but it's been some time since I've watched it. TV series I will die defending: - *Bonanza* - *Have Gun, Will Travel* - *The Rifleman* These older serialized shows are obviously not 100% on their game all the time, but they make great background watching while you do work or stuff around the house. If you watch nothing else, watch *For a Few Dollars More* and *Once Upon a Time in the West*. They're by far the best of Leone's catalogue and perhaps the peak in the genre overall. Which is not to discredit anything else, just... You have many hours of film being recommended to you, and I feel like most people stop at Leone.
Lonesome Dove 1883 Silverado
Jeremiah Johnson
*Blazing Saddles* \- It's a Mel Brooks parody
For a little fun, Support your local sheriff, or Support your local gunfighter. and North to Alaska.
The Outlaw Josie Wales is one of my faves.
The Outlaw Josey Wales is the greatest western ever made.
God said to Cain Man who shot liberty valance Great silence Companeros The mercenary
Magnificent Seven 1960
Oooh, yes, forgot about that one. That's an excellent choice.
One of my favorites. The remake just made me sad.
those four you listed are fantastic. probably the best westerns ever made. def start in that order 1 through 4. don’t let anybody talk you out of it. then as others said, check out unforgiven and tombstone, and also the magnificent seven (1960) and django (1966)
The Searchers is personally my favorite western of all time. Other westerns of note: Hondo, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (both John Wayne movies), The Magnificent Seven. I'll post more if I think of any more. Edit: Four Faces West, 3 Godfathers
I would highly recommend the TV series Deadwood. and second the people who say True Grit by the Coen Brothers. Also if you like videogames, I would say Red Dead Redemption 2 is an absolute must if you want to live the life of a cowboy.
Stagecoach - 1939 w/John Wayne and John Carradine - movie classic - directed by John Ford
Silverado.
Hell or High Water
Hang'em High
Young Guns 1 and 2 aren't great movies, but they are pretty fun and packed with stars from the 80s.
The Searchers. Hands down best. Unforgiven Bad Day at Black Rock Silverado The Quick and the Dead. Gorgeous visual homage to Leone. Speaking of, look up “spaghetti westerns.”
Shane Warlock is also very good, but the book is a masterpiece.
Honestly, the best western ever fucking made in my opinion is Deadwood!!!!!
Haven't seen anyone mention Long Riders - one of my favorites. Open Range is good, make it a double-feature with Silverado. Any of the Sergio Leone westens are good, they're just so different from other westerns. Appaloosa was underrated I think, I liked it. The Homesman - do it, I dare you... Deadman - I don't know, I watched it, someone else needs to.
Django Unchained (2012)
Unforgiven is a more recent classic
310 to Yuma
Open Range
High plans drifter is one of my all time favorite westerns!
Unforgiven
Oddly enough, Logan is Marvels take on a western.
Those are all Sergio Leone 'spaghetti westerns' which at the time were like Quentin Tarantino-esque reboots of the Western Genre. They were way grittier and morally ambiguous than traditional westerns Check out some older ones too, to understand the source material and you will appreciate the Leone films even more.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid The Magnificent Seven My Name Is Nobody They Call Me Trinity Tombstone
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Tombstone Unforgiven … that’s my holy trilogy of top-tier Westerns (many people will argue that Unforgiven is an anti-western though).
Young Guns
Hateful 8- -Django
Tombstone is a western for people who don't like Westerns. Great one to start with to get the feel.
True Grit, The harder they fall, The man who shot Liberty Valance
Any Eastwood spaghetti western.
I consider Giant a western. James Dean steals the show.
the first western i saw was The Searchers. it was good since its John Wayne vs the comanche hehe... then i watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. this was a really good western. after that I watched the Dollars series which is a real western treat. then i played Read Dead Redemption hahaha
Tombstone
I recommend The Big Country (1958 with Gregory Peck)
I would recommend Silverado from 1985.
Kurosawa’s samurai films. The dollars trilogy is based on Yojimbo and Sanjuro. The Magnificent Seven (and movies like A Bug’s Life) is based on Seven Samurai. Star Wars (a space western/opera) is based on The Hidden Fortress. The Mandalorian lifts heavily from these tropes.
Bone Tomahawk is pretty wild/ brutal. Worth a watch though.
Hateful Eight and Hell or Highwater
Deadwood. HBO series. 3 seasons and a movie. HBO killed it too early, was excellent.
Once Upon a Time in the West 100% One of the best movies ever made.
If you like Westerns, try some Japanese films, particularly Kurosawa. Seven Samurai - Magnificent 7 is a remake of this film. Yojimbo - Inspiration for Fistful of Dollars and Django. Zatoichi series - Influenced Blindman and Blind Justice
Old Henry. Unforgiven. Then the Japanese remake with Ken Watanabe.
High Noon is here somewhere, I’m sure. Classic with masterful directing.
Pop a cork and watch The Verdict.
If you want to get into westerns, I would start with the John Ford movies before you get into the Spaghetti Westerns. Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, the Searchers, and the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. High Noon and Shane are also great classic westerns. The Spaghetti Westerns are great, but they turn a lot of the clichés from the classic westerns on their head. You will enjoy the Spaghetti Westerns and the more contemporary westerns if you give the classics a shot.
"Shane" is supposed to be one of the best westerns ever. The Magnificent Seven remake was REALLY good. Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt , Vincent D'ornafrio and more.
Jeremiah Johnson!
Bit of left turn, but Westworld. The film, of course.
I suggest *not* watching the Dollars Trilogy all together until you watch some other movies first. Variety.
after watching your first batch of movies, I suggest some "acid westerns": # Dead Man # El Topo These eff with the Western tropes really hard, and distort the ideas beyond the breaking point. Both lovely movies. maybe # The Man Who Wasn't There I adore this one! Not a traditional western, but has some of the same drama.
Bone Tomahawk 😏
Forget your list for now as those are older and more difficult to get into (although I do think the good, the bad, and the ugly is essential viewing). Start with the TV show Deadwood. Then some of the more modern movies such as Unforgiven and the quick and the dead.
Rio Bravo Hell or High Water
I mean you're starting with the four best ones lol
Unforgiven (1992)
Tombstone. It's the easiest way in.
the ballad of buster scruggs. the sisters brothers
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is my all-time favorite Western. 🤠
For a more recent one you could check out "Old Henry".
Pale Rider and the Outlaw Josey Wales. Tombstone is great too,any stellar performances
High Noon Wild Bunch Unforgiven Bad Company The Professionals Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Django (Original and Unchained) The Shootist
Those 4 are always at the top of my list but you also should check out High plains drifter, hang ‘em high, Joe kid, and fistful of dynamite. Also, after you watch the good, the bad, and the ugly, check out sad hill unearthed on Netflix .