10 Greatest Western Movies of the Last 40 Years, Ranked
If you think of the Western genre as a bit of a dated one, that’s not entirely fair, but it also might well be understandable. There’s this feeling that it was at its most popular around the middle of the century, and though the genre never died completely, it felt like there weren’t as many Westerns in the latter half of the 1970s and most of the 1980s as there were, say, during the 1950s and 1960s (see The Searchers, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and High Noon for a handful of heavy-hitters).
The appetite never went away entirely, though, and the 1990s did see Westerns come back into style a little, thanks to Dances with Wolves and another (soon-to-be-mentioned) Western winning Best Picture at the Oscars in the early ‘90s. So, what follows is an attempt to highlight some of the best Westerns made after the (arguable) heyday of the genre; specifically, those particularly great ones that came out in the last 40 years.
10
‘Bone Tomahawk’ (2015)
There’s something about Kurt Russell that makes him well-suited to Westerns, with Bone Tomahawk being one of his best (his greatest came out in 1993 and will be gotten to in due time). The rest of the cast here is also impressive, with the likes of Patrick Wilson, Richard Jenkins, and Matthew Fox also delivering career-best performances, all starring as men who form a group to go find some missing townspeople.
Bone Tomahawk is as effective as a horror movie as it is a Western, and it’s not for those with weak stomachs.
It starts out feeling like a gritty and pretty brutal Western, but then at a point, the journey undertaken in Bone Tomahawk turns extra horrific, and emerges as perhaps the grisliest Western of all time. It’s as effective as a horror movie as it is a Western, and though it’s not for those with weak stomachs, it is pretty remarkable how visceral and intense this one ends up being.
9
‘Walker’ (1987)
Okay, not all the Westerns in this ranking are going to be intense bloodbaths, but Walker is another that, like Bone Tomahawk, doesn’t mess around when it comes to depicting brutality on screen. But it’s grim for good reason, being an unapologetically angry film about a man named William Walker who, along with some mercenaries, pulled off a coup d’état in Nicaragua during the 1800s and attempted to run the country themselves.
It’s intended to critique certain wars that were fought well after the 1800s, too, as the end of the movie makes very clear (subtext turns to text in a memorable way). So it’s a harsh and perhaps incendiary movie, but it’s also admirably difficult to shake, and might well feature the most underrated performance Ed Harris (as Walker) has ever given, too.
8
‘Tombstone’ (1993)
That previously alluded to Kurt Russell Western even better than Bone Tomahawk is Tombstone, which has Russell billed first in the cast, but it gives a bunch of other actors plenty of time to shine. Val Kilmer arguably steals the show as Doc Holliday, but Russell is also great as Wyatt Earp and, given those two are characters, yes, Tombstone is indeed about the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, plus some other things.
It’s a big and meaty film, for lack of a better word, and even if there weren’t many impressively sized mustaches on screen throughout, it’d still feel like one of the manliest Westerns ever made. If you want something blunt and unapologetically masculine, then this movie will be your huckleberry, and it’s undeniably entertaining, cinematically over-the-top, and quite funny when it needs to be, too. It’s a crowd-pleaser, but a successful one, so that’s more than okay.
7
‘The Good, the Bad, the Weird’ (2008)
While it’s not quite a remake of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Good, the Bad, the Weird isn’t far off, since it’s also about three people trying to find some kind of treasure buried in the desert. Stylistically, it does go for something rather different, though, being more broadly comedic and also focusing more on action than the classic Sergio Leone Western did.
It’s a blast of a film, even with its very simple premise, since the characters help make it entertaining, and there’s also a large number of very impressively executed action scenes found throughout. The Good, the Bad, the Weird is just very good entertainment, and a textbook example of how to update a well-worn premise and have fun with it, rather than making something that feels a bit “been there, done that.”
6
‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ (2007)
One year before The Good, the Bad, the Weird, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and the only similarity the two share, really, is that they’re both technically Westerns. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is going for something on the opposite end of the spectrum, tonally and when it comes to genre, being a slow, sad, and surprisingly eerie film about exactly what the title suggests it’ll be about.
Actually, it is about that, but it’s also largely focused on the aftermath of the titular assassination, and more broadly about the nature of fame, legend, and history. Brad Pitt is excellent as Jesse James, but Casey Affleck is more than capable of leading the film as Robert Ford once Pitt, understandably, exits the picture. It’s a fantastic character study, and an impressively haunting movie, too.
5
‘Django Unchained’ (2012)
Sure, Quentin Tarantino has made better movies than Django Unchained, but that doesn’t mean Django Unchained isn’t fantastic (sorry for the double negative). It’s his best Western, at least, and was also his first, marking a point when he went from referencing spaghetti Westerns to having a shot at making something that felt like the modern-day equivalent of one.
Kind of. Django Unchained is also about slavery, which a good many Westerns of old don’t really touch upon, and it functions as a revisionist Western in the sense that it revises history, and features one previously oppressed man fighting back against his oppressors. It’s a tad long, and maybe should’ve ended about 20 minutes earlier, but most of Django Unchained is pretty great, especially if you’re the sort of person who likes a good deal of over-the-top action in their Westerns.
4
‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)
No Country for Old Men stands out for being a neo-Western, rather than a traditional one, but it’s still very much worthy of being counted as a Western nonetheless. It’s about the aftermath of a drug deal that goes wrong, with a large amount of cash being left in the desert. One man stumbles across it, takes it for himself, and then all hell kind of breaks loose, albeit gradually.
It’s also got three central characters, like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Good, the Bad, the Weird, but it plays out narratively in a very different – and ultimately more surprising – way. If it’s not the best Coen Brothers movie, then No Country for Old Men is, at the very least, right up there as a contender, doing for the crime/Western genres what The Big Lebowski did for comedy.
3
‘The Revenant’ (2015)
A few years after playing the villain in Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio returned to the Western genre with the starring role in The Revenant, and won that Oscar people were convinced might never come (a very much pre-2016 meme). He plays a man who’s left for dead and betrayed, and the movie is mostly just him trying to survive long enough to get vengeance on those he wants dead.
There’s not much more to The Revenant on a narrative front than that, but there doesn’t have to be, since it works fantastically well as a no-nonsense survival/revenge movie. Also, beyond the story, it’s simply a visceral and difficult-to-forget cinematic experience, because The Revenant is most concerned with making you feel a certain way, and is startlingly effective at doing just that. It’s a cold, harrowing, and sometimes thrilling film, and perhaps one of the most technically impressive of the 2010s, too.
2
‘Hell or High Water’ (2016)
Like No Country for Old Men, Hell or High Water is a neo-Western, and it also functions as a pretty damn great heist movie, too. There are a pair of desperate brothers who have to resort to criminal activities to save their family’s farm, and they’re quite sympathetic, as are two older men – both Texas Rangers – who are on their tail, trying to prevent more robberies from happening.
The villain, similar to something like Parasite, is more a flawed system, and Hell or High Water emerges as a tragedy about people in opposition because of the system they’re forced to live under. And that might make it sound a bit heavy, and yeah, it kind of is, but Hell or High Water is also tremendously entertaining and exciting, not to mention extremely well-acted, too.
1
‘Unforgiven’ (1992)
After first making his mark on the Western genre early in his career, both on the small screen and the big one, Clint Eastwood also became quite accomplished at directing Westerns. His best, it’s hopefully uncontroversial to say, is Unforgiven, which also features one of his best performances, even though the supporting cast – including Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and (briefly) Richard Harris – might be somehow even better.
But still, it’s a hell of a thing, starring in and directing a Western this good, and it’s no wonder Eastwood himself considers it one of his finest efforts. Unforgiven explores justice, violence, and legacy in the West without ever feeling clichéd or preachy, and also while never losing sight of the core emotions that make this story engaging without necessarily diving into what’s being explored thematically. That’s all to say that Unforgiven is a remarkable Western on multiple levels, and it’s easily the best that’s been made in the last four decades, too.
