Western films hold a special place in many people’s hearts due to their ability to transport you to an entirely different reality. Their sweeping desert landscapes whisk us away from the bustle of everyday life or simply give us a sense of wanderlust without ever leaving our couches. In some Western movies, you root for the moral character, sometimes you cheer for the antiheroes, and in others, you want the bandits to succeed, but the storylines are always meant to excite.
And the style — we’ll wear vintage dungarees, Western bow ties, and Boss of the Plains brimmed hats any day of the week. If you’ve been wanting to dive into the film category but don’t know where to start, these are the 14 best Western movies to watch right now, listed from oldest to newest.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Unforgiven (1992)
If you look at this list, there’s a big gap between Butch Cassidy and Unforgiven. And that’s not a mistake, as the American West experienced somewhat of a drought in the 70s and 80s. But then Unforgiven came along and reinvigorated the genre. Clint Eastwood returned to the Wild West as the star and director of the film, which he dedicated to Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, who he considered mentors who helped catapult his career. Unforgiven is a classic story for modern times, a tale that, like many other Westerns, obscures the oftentimes thin line between justice and revenge. It was a seamless transition for Eastwood to dive head first back into the genre, and it paid off when he picked up Oscars for best picture and best director that year.
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
True Grit (2010)
Hell or High Water (2016)
Django Unchained (2012)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
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