10 Iconic Westerns You’ve Probably Never Seen
For every High Noon, Unforgiven, or Once Upon a Time in the West, there are many other lesser-known Westerns that warrant dusting off and rediscovery.
The 12-minute 1903 film The Great Train Robbery is considered one of the first Westerns ever made, but it wasn’t until the 1923 silent film The Covered Wagon that all of the trademarks of the Western genre began to coalesce: horses, cowboys, Native Americans, covered wagons, gunfights, and a home where the buffalo roam. Although the popularity of Westerns ebbs and flows, every decade since the 1920s has yielded at least one standout movie that elevates the genre.
The American Film Institute defines a Western as a “genre of films set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier.” Whether the following lesser-seen Westerns are traditional, revisionist, or bend the AFI definition of the genre, Western fans will still want to lasso them up.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Bone Tomahawk is a rare horror-Western hybrid about a small-town sheriff (Kurt Russell) who leads a rescue posse to a remote location to free three people abducted by a cannibalistic tribe of Native Americans. Directed by S. Craig Zahler in his directorial debut, Bone Tomahawk also stars Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and David Arquette.
Critics praised Bone Tomahawk for its performances, gorgeous cinematography, and haunting music by Jeff Herriott and S. Craig Zahler. Brutal scenes like this, in which Russell’s sheriff fights off cave-dwelling cannibals, might feature too much Tarantino-style violence for Western purists, but horror fans liked it and gave the movie a deserved cult following.
The Proposition (2005)
In the Australian Western The Proposition, three outlaw brothers (Guy Pearce, Danny Huston, and Richard Wilson) face off against British officers. One captured brother is given an impossible proposition: help the lawmen hunt down and kill his older brother in exchange for sparing the life of the youngest.
Although not set in the American West, The Proposition still features gunfights, an unforgiving landscape, and the morally questionable lawmen frequently seen in traditional American Westerns. The Boston Globe described the movie as a “a near-masterpiece of mood and menace,” and others praised the “pitiless” screenplay by Australian goth-adjacent singer-songwriter Nick Cave.
The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Sam Raimi — best known for directing The Evil Dead and the original Spider-Man trilogy — switches up genres with this revisionist Western that focuses on a gunfighter known as “The Lady” (Sharon Stone) who moseys into the frontier town of Redemption looking for revenge for her father’s death. Gene Hackman plays the town mayor with an outlaw’s past in a movie that also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
Although Raimi failed to successfully reinvent the Western with The Quick and the Dead, the underrated movie still crackles with energy and was meta with its nods to classic Westerns before meta was even a thing. Hackman formally announced his retirement from acting in 2008, so it’s terrific to revisit one of his underappreciated performances here as an unhinged mayor with imposter syndrome.
Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
In Don Siegel’s Two Mules for Sister Sara, Clint Eastwood plays an American mercenary who rescues a nun (Shirley MacLaine) from bandits in this movie set during the Second Franco-Mexican War.
By 1970, Eastwood had already become a household name for his performances in spaghetti Westerns such as Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars. Although Two Mules for Sister Sara isn’t the first Western that people associate with Eastwood, critics appreciated the movie’s attempt to keep Old Hollywood alive, with one reviewer describing it as “The African Queen gone west.” Sometimes you just need Eastwood, dynamite, and some tough talk to make a Western worth watching.
The Great Silence (1968)
Sergio Corbucci directed this revisionist spaghetti Western that takes place in Utah during the Great Blizzard of 1899. The Great Silence is so named because if follows a mute gunslinger (Jean Louis Trintignant) who fights alongside a group of outlaws against a posse of ruthless bounty hunters.
Not only was the universally praised The Great Silence considered Corbucci’s best film, many critics name it as one of the top spaghetti Westerns of all time. German actor Klaus Kinski stands out as Loco, the leader of the bounty killers.
Despite its pitch-black tone and general bleakness, The Great Silence developed a not-so-silent cult following.
The Furies (1950)
In The Furies, Barbara Stanwyck plays Vance Jeffords — the daughter of a wealthy cattle baron — who fights for her stake in the family ranch in the New Mexico Territory circa the 1870s. Walter Huston, in his final film role, plays ruthless ranch owner T. C. Jeffords.
Based on the 1948 Niven Busch novel of the same name, The Furies represents one of the few Westerns of its time period aimed at adults instead of younger moviegoers who just wanted to see cowboy-vs.-Indian battles. Described as a “Freudian Western,” The Furies got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Hombre (1967)
Set in 19th-century Arizona, Hombre is a revisionist Western based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard, the author who wrote Get Shorty and Rum Punch. Paul Newman plays John Russell — an Apache-raised White man who gets nothing but static from the White community after he returns his inheritance upon his father’s death.
Hombre received mostly glowing reviews from critics, with particular praise given to Diane Cilento for playing a boarding house manager who talks ethics with Russell, and Richard Boone for playing stagecoach robber Cicero Grimes.
Although the compelling movie made a decent amount of coin in 1967, Hombre gets unfairly lost in most discussions about both Westerns and Newman films for some reason. Perhaps the Spanish title confuses those allergic to subtitles into thinking Hombre is a foreign-language film?
Silverado (1985)
Silverado stars Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and Kevin Costner as four justice-seeking misfits who team up to fight a tyrannical rancher and corrupt sheriff who are terrorizing the small town of Silverado, New Mexico.
Although the 1980s were hardly the golden age of Westerns, Silverado stands out as one of the most well-received that came out during the MTV era. Roger Ebert praised the style and energy that director Lawrence Kasdan brought to the rare ’80s Western even though the story echoes films that preceded it.
Silverado galloped away with $32 million at the worldwide box office and got nominated for two Oscars: Best Original Score and Best Sound.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Ron Hansen that dramatizes the relationship between the two titular American outlaws. Brad Pitt stars as Jesse James and Casey Affleck plays Robert Ford.
One critic described this well-filmed period piece as “the best Western since Unforgiven.” In a breakout role, Affleck convinces us that Ford is so enamored with James that the most intimate thing they can do together — since being lovers is out of the question — is for Ford to kill James.
Affleck received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Roger Deakins received an Oscar nom for Best Cinematography.
Seraphim Falls (2006)
This revisionist Western set in the years immediately following the Civil War stars Liam Neeson as a former Confederate colonel who obsessively hunts down a Union soldier (Pierce Brosnan) for a bounty.
Two years before Neeson reinvented himself as a late-life action hero in Taken, he flexes his muscles for his impending career renaissance by playing Colonel Morsman Carver like Captain Ahab. Although critics praised Seraphim Falls‘ beautiful cinematography, some felt the brutal story was sluggish. Still, Brosnan is terrific to watch in an authentic-feeling performance of a character originally intended for Richard Gere.
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
This James Mangold-directed Western action-drama set in 1884 is a remake of 1957’s 3:10 to Yuma, also based on a shorty story by Elmore Leonard. The 2007 adaptation stars Christian Bale as a drought-poor rancher who tries to bring an infamous outlaw (Russell Crowe) into custody.
Most critics agree that 3:10 to Yuma is the rare remake that surpasses the original. This is mostly thanks to the fiery intensity both Bale and Crowe bring to their roles as two men desperate for very different reasons.
The movie made $71.2 million worldwide and received two Oscar nominations, but for some reason it often gets undeservedly overlooked in discussions about modern Westerns worth checking out.
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Robert Redford stars as legendary Old West mountain man Jeremiah Johnson in this 1972 Western directed by Sydney Pollack. Will Greer plays the elderly Chris Lapp, aka “Bear Claw,” who mentors Johnson about mountain life.
Critics praised the ponderous, slow-paced Jeremiah Johnson for its gorgeous cinematography of Utah, deeper insights into Indian-White relations than previous Westerns, and for thrilling action moments like when Johnson battles a pack of wolves. Pollack makes you feel as if you are out there braving the elements and enduring the hardships of the frontier right along with Johnson.
Fort Apache (1948)
John Ford’s Fort Apache is set at a remote Southwest outpost where tensions intensify between the U.S. Army and the Apache tribe. Henry Fonda plays an intolerant Army colonel, and John Wayne plays a more experienced officer who tries to reason with him.
Fort Apache is noteworthy for being one of the first Hollywood Westerns with a sympathetic view toward Native Americans, which is reason enough to add this historical Western to your must-watch list. The movie is also listed on multiple best-of lists, including AFI’s 50 Western Nominees, American Cowboy Magazine’s 100 Greatest Western Movies of All Time, and the Western Writers of America’s Top 100 Westerns.
