Along with the Gangster film, the Western is America’s greatest genre gift to the movies. While its staples are well known – man-alone drifters who spit droll dialogue and bullets from a six shooter – in the hands of the masters the genre has been subverted and upended to reflect their times, proving endlessly durable.
With Tarantino’s second Western arriving soon, we’ve been getting fired up for gun-slingin’ and asked which are your favourites. Over 1,500 votes were cast and here are the results.
10. The Searchers (1956)
When you think John Ford, you think of The Searchers – despite none of his many Oscar wins and nominations as a director being attributed to the John Wayne classic. This adventure drama used Monument Valley in all its natural glory (the Blu-ray is seriously gorgeous) to tell the purest of Westerns. Sure, its racial politics are woefully outdated, but this is a time-capsule that has been preserved with the utmost delicacy.
“Figure a man’s only good for one oath at a time; I took mine to the Confederate States of America.” -Ethan (John Wayne)
9. Shane (1953)
Not every Western needs to be full of shoot-outs in order to reflect the ruthlessness of the era. Although Shane heats up to a boiling point that sees bullets flying, the film goes a step further. Side characters are explored with great depth, consequences are emphasised, and every death matters. This is why many consider Shane a masterpiece.
“I like a man who watches things go on around. It means he’ll make his mark someday.” -Shane (Alan Ladd)
8. True Grit (2010)
The Coen brothers delivered their brand of cinematic justice to this classic story of injustice, powered by staggering performances by Hailee Steinfeld, playing a 14-year-old seeking vengeance for her murdered father, and Jeff Bridges, filling John Wayne’s shoes as the mushy-tongued gun-for-hire Rooster Cogburn. This is a superb remake. Or, as Cogburn would put it, “ders’ll be’re seeperrb rermeek!”
“I am struck that LaBoeuf is shot, trampled, and nearly severs his tongue, and not only does not cease to talk but spills the banks of English. “ -Cogburn (Jeff Bridges)
7. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Today, we groan at the thought of an Americanised remake of a foreign film, but back in 1960, director John Sturges struck a goldmine of inspiration by Westernising Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The tale of against-the-odds heroism slots in perfectly with the ruthless West, as do the iconic personas of Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson.
“If God didn’t want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.” -Calvera (Eli Wallach)
6. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (1969)
Paul Newman and Robert Redford cinematically immortalised the legend of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid with this buddy-bandit Western, aided by Conrad Hall’s glorious cinematography and William Goldman’s immaculate screenplay. Fun Fact: this movie birthed the Oscar-winning song Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.
“Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.” -Butch (Paul Newman)
5. High Noon (1952)
Perhaps the first Western to break away from audience-friendly escapism in search of deeper meaning, disappointing many upon release. High Noon boasts an Oscar-winning Gary Cooper performance as Will Kane, a town marshal staring down a midday death sentence. The lawman is shunned by his townsfolk who want nothing to do with his dilemma. In the film’s closing moments, Kane’s disillusionment is expressed visually – reputedly disgusting John Wayne when he saw the film.
“If you’re honest, you’re poor your whole life and in the end you wind up dying all alone on some dirty street. For what? For nothing. For a tin star.” -Martin (Lon Chaney Jr.)
4. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
After completing his Dollars trilogy, and “retiring” from Westerns, Sergio Leone was offered the chance to work with iconic gunslinger Henry Fonda – and for an American studio no less. Swiftly casting Fonda against type as a ruthless villain, Leone went about one of the first, and greatest, deconstructions of the Western genre. Meditative and moody, Once Upon a Time in the West relishes referencing its cinematic predecessors and delving deeper into the environment and rituals of its characters, as well as a darker tone, than Leone had done before – to winning effect.
“How can you trust a man that wears both a belt and suspenders? Man can’t even trust his own pants.” -Frank (Henry Fonda)
3. Django Unchained (2012)
Quentin Tarantino’s first “proper” Western came on the heels of Inglourious Basterds’ spaghetti-fied WWII and plenty of gunslinger iconography in his prior films. But in embracing the genre from start to finish (including a digression into plantation politics that Apocalypse Now-era Coppola would be proud of), QT did more than hitch his cart to the Western horse – he bloody well rode it bareback and even taught it a little dance.
“Kill white people and get paid for it? What’s not to like?” -Django (Jamie Foxx)
2. Unforgiven (1992)
Tearing down the man-with-no-name archetype he himself had primarily established, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven did what all great Westerns do – saying as much, if not more, about the time it was made as the era it was set. In Unforgiven’s case that meant reclaiming “low” culture as “high” culture (even winning a Best Picture Oscar); examining the mortality of ageing screen icons; and pondering the morality of heroes (or anti-heroes). Plus, it flat-out ruled and Gene Hackman was a vile powerhouse of a villain.
“I’ll see you in hell, William Munny.” -Little Bill (Gene Hackman)
1. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Sergio Leone’s nearly three-hour-long spaghetti Western epic is the rousing conclusion to his Clint Eastwood-starring Dollars trilogy and earns its spot atop this list as the most memorable of his masterpieces. Eastwood is the Good of the title, Lee Van Cleef the Bad and Eli Wallach draws the short straw as the Ugly. Leone’s directorial style, particularly his slow-building tension, and the film’s classic Ennio Morricone score are almost stars in their own rights, and while Leone made other undoubtedly great films, the stars aligned so powerfully here that it became the top film to be reckoned with in the Western genre.
“In this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.” -Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
