Top 100 Westerns

Best Westerns Ever Made

(Top 100)

1. The Searchers (1956)

It would be impossible to come up with a unanimous No. I, with thousands of films and a century to span, but is there anyone who loves Westerns who doesn’t love The Searchers? John Ford may have written the language of the movie Western in Stagecoach, but with The Searchers he demonstrated a mastery of visual storytelling to craft a film that is the cinematic equivalent of the Mona Lisa. Unheralded in its time, The Searchers has become an icon for those who take their movies seriously. Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese rank it among their most profound cinematic influences. Even moviegoers who have never been to film school debate the film’s best camera shots.

If that makes watching The Searchers sound as exciting as attending a classroom lecture, nothing could be further from the truth. Ethan Edwards’ seven-year search for his niece, who is kidnapped by Indians, has the dramatic sweep of epic poetry. The embittered, bigoted Edwards undertakes an inner search for grace that mirrors his journey through Monument Valley. The quests end simultaneously, as Edwards, who had planned to kill the girl rather than see her raised as a savage, lifts her triumphantly into the air and lovingly cradles her in his arms, uttering four words that make Western fans cry: “Let’s go home, Debbie.”

But there is no home for Ethan. He’s seen too much, done too much, to ever be accepted into polite society. In the classic final scene, Ethan returns Debbie to her family but cannot cross the threshold of their cabin. He remains outside, framed in the doorway, destined to wander his live-long days devoid of the comforts of home and hearth.

John Wayne’s uncompromising portrayal of one of the movies’ most ferocious tragic heroes should have earned him an Academy Award. But it would be more than a dozen years before Wayne finally hooked up with Oscar for his portrayal of Marshal Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (No. 60).

Three years after the Civil War, battle-scarred Confederate veteran Ethan Edwards returns to his brother Aaron's remote Texan homestead. But instead of finding peace, the taciturn soldier finds tragedy when the murderous raiding party of ruthless Comanche Chief Scar massacres his family, burns the ranch to the ground, and abducts his 9-year-old niece, Debbie. Fearing the worst, Ethan and his young companion, Martin Pawley, embark on a dangerous 5-year odyssey to rescue the girl, fuelled by hatred and a thirst for vengeance. However, as the searchers ride through the unforgiving desert to track down their lost Debbie, they must confront their demons and answer an unvoiced question. Is the woman they seek still the same person they once knew?

2. Stagecoach (1939)

Hailed upon its release as a touchstone in the evolution of the Western, Stagecoach is ostensibly a straightforward tale of eight passengers traveling through hostile territory. But beneath the surface, Dudley Nichols’ literate script examined the conflicting dynamics between the characters — male and female, North and South, high-brow and low-brow, valiant and cowardly — and the fascinating ways in which those dynamics change during the journey.

John Ford’s decision to cast John Wayne did not sit well with producer Walter Wanger, who wanted Gary Cooper. But as Stagecoach became a template for the genre, The Ringo Kid established the John Wayne persona: a strong, independent man who lives by a moral code that doesn’t always conform to the law of the land. He is respectful toward women, but awkward and timid when it comes to romance. Ringo’s marriage proposal to the prostitute Dallas (Claire Trevor), delivered with head bowed and voice wavering, is a kind of quiet, poignant moment not found in Westerns before Stagecoach.

John Wayne’s entrance scene seems to have been deliberately designed to introduce a significant new presence in the genre, as the long shot from the moving stagecoach closes rapidly toward a figure in the distance. Wayne forces the stagecoach to a halt. He stands, legs apart, a saddle slung over his shoulder, twirling his customized Winchester. “Looks like you’ve got another passenger,” he tells driver Andy Devine, and western movies would never be the same.

A simple stagecoach trip is complicated by the fact that Geronimo is on the warpath in the area. The passengers on the coach include a drunken doctor, two women, a bank manager who has taken off with his client's money, and the famous Ringo Kid, among others.

3. Shane (1953)

Shane is not just a story of the West; it’s all the stories of the West: ranchers vs. homesteaders; the taming of the frontier; the showdown between good and evil; and the gunfighter who protects law and order (Alan Ladd), then feels out of place once the job is done.

Younger viewers tend to experience Shane through the eyes of Brandon De Wilde and share his hero worship of the buckskin-clad stranger with the pearl-handled revolver. Shane is soft-spoken and polite (“I hope you don’t mind my cuttin’ through your place”), but his hair-trigger response to a sudden noise betrays his identity as a gunfighter. Alan Ladd may have stood only 5’4” but to little Joey (De Wilde) his presence is larger than life.

When these same viewers grow up and come back to the film, they see the emotional layers in the adult relationships, which add greater resonance to the story. Marian (Jean Arthur) warns Joey about getting too attached to Shane, but clearly she’s trying to warn herself. Her husband Joe (Van Heflin) recognizes her attraction as well as the way his son idolizes Shane, but he does nothing, hoping Shane will do the right thing when the time comes.

Every scene works, every performance rings true. Director George Stevens turns the removal of a tree stump into a moment of exhilaration. The smiles Shane and Joe exchange when they turn the tide in their general-store brawl arc irresistibly infectious. Jack Palance, as the embodiment of evil, set a standard for western villainy that is yet to be surpassed. And De Wilde’s plaintive cries of “Come back, Shane!” at the fade-out still echo in the memory.

Shane rides into a conflict between cattleman Ryker and a bunch of settlers, like Joe Starrett and his family, whose land Ryker wants. When Shane beats up Ryker's man Chris, Ryker tries to buy him. Then Shane and Joe take on the whole Ryker crew. Ryker sends to Cheyenne for truly evil gunslinger Wilson. Shane must clear out all the guns from the valley.

4. My Darling Clementine (1946)

The title provides the first clue to John Ford’s intent. Although My Darling Clementine was based on Wyatt Earp’s dubious biography, Frontier Marshal, and follows the events leading up to the gunfight at the OK Corral, Ford concentrated on the romance between Wyatt (Henry Fonda) and Clementine (Cathy Downs). It is fitting that the gunfight, though exciting, doesn’t come close to being the most memorable scene in the film. The quieter moments — the church dance, the hilarious hair tonic scene, Doc’s Shakespearean soliloquy — are most indelible. This is the most beautiful black-and-white western ever made. In fact, it’s worth watching once with sound off to better appreciate the chiaroscuro created by cinematographer Joseph MacDonald.

Wyatt Earp and his brothers Morgan and Virgil ride into Tombstone and leave brother James in charge of their cattle herd. On their return they find their cattle stolen and James dead. Wyatt takes on the job of town marshal, making his brothers deputies, and vows to stay in Tombstone until James' killers are found. He soon runs into the brooding, coughing, hard-drinking Doc Holliday as well as the sullen and vicious Clanton clan. Wyatt discovers the owner of a trinket stolen from James' dead body and the stage is set for the Earps' long-awaited revenge.

5. The Magnificent Seven (1960)

With Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach, Brad Dexter, and Horst Buchholz in the cast, this Western was sure to be a hit. The 1960 version was a remake of the 1954 Japanese film, “Seven Samurai.” Wallach plays the leader of a bandit gang terrorizing a Mexican village. Seven mercenaries, each with unique skill sets and character traits, take on the task of protecting the villagers. It’s still a top favorite for fans of the genre.

A bandit terrorizes a small Mexican farming village each year. Several of the village elders send three of the farmers into the United States to search for gunmen to defend them. They end up with seven, each arriving with his own reason. They must prepare the town to repulse an army of 30 bandits who will arrive wanting food.

6. Lonesome Dove (1989) - TV Mini Series

It was a western at a time when no one else was making them. It was six hours long, when the national attention span had shrunk to the length of a Madonna video. It starred fifty-something Robert Duvall and forty-something Tommy Lee Jones, when television advertisers cared only about the youth market. And it was produced by Motown, and that made no sense at all. But in 1989, for four nights in February, it seemed as if everybody was watching Lonesome Dove. Larry McMurtry’s story of two retired Texas Rangers and their conversations and adventures during a cattle drive sought to “strip the glamour from the Old West.” But it was also a celebration of friendship, loyalty, and endurance of hardship, virtues long associated with the genre.

Texas, late-1800s. Two retired Texas Rangers, Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Woodrow Call, run a cattle ranch outside the small town of Lonesome Dove. The quiet life is not for them and the ranch is not prospering so when a fellow ex-Ranger, Jake Spoon, arrives and tells them of the opportunities in Montana and suggests they move there, they consider his suggestion. Soon they have made up their minds and embark on an epic 1,500-mile journey, facing dangers on all sides.

7. High Noon (1952)

No classic western divides movie fans more than High Noon. Carl Foreman, a blacklisted screenwriter, based the film on personal experience, hence the cold shoulder Marshal Will Kane receives when he asks his community for help. John Wayne and Howard Hawks were outraged that Kane would try to recruit amateurs into his fight and made Rio Bravo to remind moviegoers how the West was won. But the public loved High Noon, with its vulnerable hero (Gary Cooper, who won the Best Actor Oscar), lovely newcomer Grace Kelly, and haunting theme song. The film was taut and suspenseful, its story told on the faces of its characters and with the relentless ticking clock.

On the day he gets married and hangs up his badge, Marshal Will Kane is told that a man he sent to prison years before, Frank Miller, is returning on the noon train to exact his revenge. Having initially decided to leave with his new spouse, Will decides he must go back and face Miller. However, when he seeks the help of the townspeople he has protected for so long, they turn their backs on him. It seems Kane may have to face Miller alone, as well as the rest of Miller's gang, who are waiting for him at the station.

8. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

“Not that it matters, but the following story is true.” William Goldman’s “history with a twist” formula mixes fact and legend to create a high-spirited adventure. Butch and Sundance may not have been as glib or good-looking as Paul Newman and Robert Redford, but Goldman’s script stayed close to the facts as they’re known, and if Butch and Sundance didn’t really jump off that cliff to escape a posse, they should have. Redford and Newman’s potent chemistry inspired legions of attempts at imitation. The duo single-handedly gave birth to the “Buddy Film,” and the enduring influence of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid can be found in movies as diverse as 48 Hours and Shanghai Noon.

Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The West is becoming civilized, and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rocks, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia". Based on the exploits of the historical characters.

9. Dances With Wolves (1990)

We knew, we always knew, even while cheering for the cavalry in countless films, that history is written by the winners of the world’s conflicts, and America’s Native population got a raw deal. With Dances With Wolves, we finally saw the other side of the tale, and how fitting that it was through the eyes of an American soldier. Dances With Wolves became a personal crusade for Kevin Costner, who co-produced, directed, starred, and raised financing overseas after a string of Hollywood studios passed. His passion was rewarded with seven Academy Awards and an awakening of our national conscience.

Lt. John Dunbar is dubbed a hero after he accidentally leads Union troops to a victory during the Civil War. He requests a position on the western frontier, but finds it deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone, but meets a wolf he dubs "Two-socks" and a curious Sioux tribe. Dunbar quickly makes friends with the tribe, and discovers a white woman who was raised by the Sioux tribe. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and they learn from each other and befriend each other.

10. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

It was the movie Clint Eastwood had to make, before the impassive persona he created through the Sergio Leone films and his other signature character, Dirty Harry, became a typecasting trap. In his 1976 book The Filming of the West, movie historian John Tuska predicted that Eastwood’s career likely didn’t have staying power. That same year, The Outlaw Josey Wales introduced a new type of Eastwood character, still quiet, still deadly, but also compassionate and emotionally vulnerable. The title describes how society will judge Josey Wales — an outlaw only by circumstance — but when his quest is complete, he returns to being the farmer Josey Wales in a scene that offers hope for the future.

Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) makes his way west after the Civil War, determined to live a useful and helpful life. He joins up with a group of settlers who need the protection that a man as tough and experienced as he is can provide. Unfortunately, the past has a way of catching up with you, and Josey is a wanted man.

11. Gunsmoke (1955 – 75) - TV Series

Even those who would relegate TV westerns to a status beneath their movie counterparts — and we know we’ll be hearing from you — must acknowledge the greatness of Gunsmoke. The series spanned two of the most defining decades in American pop culture history, from Marilyn Monroe to Farrah Fawcett; from “Rock Around the Clock” to “The Hustle;” from The Searchers to The Godfather. Through it all there was James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon, tall in the saddle and afraid of nothing, except maybe marriage to Miss Kitty.

Marshal Matt Dillon is in charge of Dodge City, a town in the wild west where people often have no respect for the law. He deals on a daily basis with the problems associated with frontier life: cattle rustling, gunfights, brawls, standover tactics, and land fraud. Such situations call for sound judgement and brave actions: of which Marshal Dillon has plenty.

12. Destry Rides Again (1939)

Has there ever been a more unlikely romantic pairing than Jimmy Stewart’s laid-back, milk-drinking lawman Tom Destry and Marlene Dietrich as the bawdy singer with a German accent and the inexplicable name of Frenchy? Destry Rides Again packs memorable songs (Dietrich’s “See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have”) and memorable scenes (a ferocious catfight between Dietrich and Una Merkel) into 94 flawless minutes. The movie would have been longer if certain lines had made it past the censors, such as when Dietrich wins a poker hand and drops the coins down her blouse, prompting a cowboy to quip, “There’s gold in them thar hills.”

Kent, the unscrupulous boss of Bottleneck has Sheriff Keogh killed when he asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game that gives Kent a stranglehold over the local cattle rangers. The mayor, who is in cahoots with Kent appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as the new sheriff assuming that he'll be easy to control. But what the mayor doesn't know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under famous lawman, Tom Destry, and is able to call upon the equally formidable Tom Destry Jr to be his deputy. Featuring a career reviving performance from Marlene Dietrich as bar singer Frenchie, which could well have been the inspiration for Madeline Kahn's "Blazing Saddles" character, Lili Von Schtupp.

13. Rio Bravo (1959)

Knowing Rio Bravo’s connection to High Noon affords insight into an interesting slice of Hollywood history, but it’s hardly a prerequisite to enjoy its rousing mix of action, comedy, romance, and music. Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson join old hands John Wayne and Walter Brennan, and if the casting of Ricky Nelson was a blatant attempt by Howard Hawks to boost the box office with teenage girls, at least the kid contributed a fine duet with Martin on the ballad “My Rifle, My Pony and Me.” And look on the bright side; it could have been Fabian.

Sheriff John T. Chance has his hands full after arresting Joe Burdette for murder. He knows that Burdette's brother Nathan, a powerful rancher, will go to any lengths to get him out of jail. Chance's good friend Pat Wheeler offers to help but within 20 minutes of making the offer is gunned down in the street, shot in the back. That leaves his elderly deputy Stumpy, the town drunk Dude - once a deputy and a pretty good shot when he was sober - and a young hand, Colorado, who used to work for Wheeler. Nathan Burdette meanwhile has a couple of dozen men at his disposal. Chance does his best to prepare all the while romancing a pretty gambler who goes by the name of Feathers.

14. The Gunfighter (1950)

“The fastest man with a gun who ever lived ... was a long, lean Texan named Ringo.” We’ve seen gunfighters as heroes and villains, lawmen and mercenaries. But Jimmie Ringo (Gregory Peck) is the gunfighter as celebrity; trapped by fame, a subject of gossip, scorn, and adulation, Ringo can’t order a drink in a bar without drawing attention. “He don’t look so tough to me,” sneers any number of envious punks. Famous last words.

A reformed Gunfighter Jimmy Ringo (Gregory Peck) is on his way to a sleepy town in the hope of a reunion with his estranged sweetheart (Helen Westcott) and their young son (B.G. Morgan) who he has never seen. On arrival, a chance meeting with some old friends including the town's Marshal (Millard Mitchell) gives the repentant Jimmy some respite. But as always Jimmy's reputation has already cast its shadow, this time in the form of three vengeful cowboys hot on his trail and a local gunslinger hoping to use Jimmy to make a name for himself. With a showdown looming, the town is soon in a frenzy as news of Jimmy's arrival spreads. His movements are restricted to the saloon while a secret meeting with his son can be arranged giving him ideas of a long-term reunion with his family far removed from his wild past.

15. Red River (1948)

Red River appeals to those moviegoers who don’t like westerns, but inevitably discover that, yes, John Wayne can act and, yes, movies about cowboys and cattle drives can be about more than cowboys and cattle drives. Allusions to Mutiny on the Bounty infuse the father-son conflict between Wayne and Montgomery Clift, and their climactic fistfight symbolizes their genuine “old Hollywood vs. young Hollywood” rivalry. The happy ending divided audiences, but the director, Howard Hawks, liked both characters too much to let either perish, and it’s hard to fault his decision.

Fourteen years after starting his cattle ranch in Texas, Tom Dunston is finally ready to drive his 10,000 head of cattle to market. Back then Dunston, his sidekick Nadine Groot and a teen-aged boy, Matt Garth -who was the only survivor of an Indian attack on a wagon train - started off with only two head of cattle. The nearest market however is in Missouri, a 1000 miles away. Dunston is a hard task master demanding a great deal from the men who have signed up for the drive. Matt is a grown man now and fought in the Civil War. He has his own mind as well and he soon runs up against the stubborn Dunston who won't listen to advice from anyone. Soon, the men on the drive are taking sides and Matt ends up in charge with Dunston vowing to kill him.

16. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1967)

Recent scholarship has favored Once Upon a Time in the West as Sergio Leone’s crowning work, but for those who can’t separate the Leone oeuvre from its most famous character, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the ultimate spaghetti western. It has all the signature elements: dusty, desolate vistas; amoral characters such as Tuco (Eli Wallach) who are motivated only by profit; a showdown in a circular arena, suggesting gladiators in a coliseum; an incomparable score whose whistling theme, by Ennio Morricone, is instantly recognizable; and Clint Eastwood as the serape-clad, cheroot-chomping Man with No Name.

During the American Civil War, three men set off to find $200,000.00 in buried gold coins. Tuco and Blondie have known each other for some time, having used the reward on Tuco's head as a way of earning money. They come across a dying man, Bill Carson, who tells them of a treasure in gold coins. By chance, he reveals the name of the cemetery and the name of the grave where the gold is buried. Now rivals, the two men have good reason to keep each other alive. The third man, Angel Eyes, hears of the gold stash from someone he's been hired to kill. All he knows is to look for someone named Bill Carson. The three ultimately meet in a showdown that takes place amid a major battle between Confederate and Union forces.

17. One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

This film never stood a chance back in 1961, when its star and director, Marlon Brando, spent three years fussing over every camera angle and line reading. Word got out that Mr. New York actor was making an artsy western, and One-Eyed Jacks was released to a combination of frosty reviews and public indifference. Today, the back story forgotten, we treasure this deceit-filled saga of two old partners in crime, one revenge-obsessed but still capable of redemption, the other hiding a savage nature behind a sheriff’s badge. For Gen-Xers who know Brando only as the roly-poly guy who kissed Larry King, here’s proof that once upon a time, he was cool off the charts.

Running from the law after a bank robbery in Mexico, Dad Longworth finds an opportunity to take the stolen gold and leave his partner Rio to be captured. Years later, Rio escapes from the prison where he has been since, and hunts down Dad for revenge. Dad is now a respectable sheriff in California and has been living in fear of Rio's return.

18. The Wild Bunch (1969)

The best opening credits sequence ever ends with William Holden growling “If they move ... kill ’em!” followed by the sepia-toned freeze-frame “Directed by Sam Peckinpah.” Kinda says it all. The director’s original 144-minute cut was trimmed almost immediately after the film’s release, but it’s been restored for the video and DVD release. The new scenes deepen the connection between Pike (Holden) and former Bunch member Robert Ryan, now a bounty hunter on Holden’s trail, and after 30 years we finally discover how Pike got that limp.

It's 1913, and the "traditional" American West is dying. Amongst the inhabitants of this dying era are a gang known as "the wild bunch." After a failed railroad office robbery, the gang heads to Mexico to do one last job. Seeing their times and lives drifting away in the 20th century, the gang takes the job and ends up in a brutally violent last stand against their enemies deemed to be corrupt, in a small Mexican town ruled by a ruthless general.

19. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) plays a pitifully meek attorney incapable of killing sadistic outlaw Liberty Valance. But that’s what history has recorded because “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”’ Lee Marvin gives us a wonderful villain for the ages, and John Wayne impersonators picked up a staple for their act in the Duke’s demeaning references to Stewart’s character as “Pilgrim.”

When Senator Ransom Stoddard returns home to Shinbone for the funeral of Tom Doniphon, he recounts to a local newspaper editor the story behind it all. He had come to town many years before, a lawyer by profession. The stage was robbed on its way in by local ruffian Liberty Valance, and Stoddard has nothing left to his name but a few law books. He gets a job in the kitchen at the Ericsons' restaurant, where he meets his future wife Hallie. The territory y weds r is vying for Statehood and Stoddard is selected as a representative over Valance, who continues to terrorize the town. When he destroys the local newspaper office and attacks the editor, Stoddard calls him out, though the conclusion is not quite as straightforward as legend would have it.

20. The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Two western-style shorts were actually created before The Great Train Robbery was produced: in 1898, Thomas Edison filmed the five-minute sequences Cripple Creek Bar-room and Poker at Dawson City. But it was The Great Train Robbery, a reenactment of a heist by the ever-popular Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch only a few years earlier, that signifies the true beginning of the western.

Among the earliest existing films in American cinema - notable as an early film to present a narrative story to tell - it depicts a group of outlaws who hold up a train and rob the passengers. They are then pursued by a Sheriff's posse. Several scenes have color included - all hand tinted.

21. The Shootist (1976)

We remember it sadly, and the truth is that we shouldn’t. Though it’s impossible to disconnect fact from fiction when E.W. Hostetler (Jimmy Stewart) tells John Bernard Books (John Wayne), “You’ve got cancer” (Wayne succumbed to the disease in 1979), no movie star essayed a better final bow. With his performance in The Shootist, the Duke delivered one last valentine to his fans (and costar Lauren Bacall), one last raspberry to his critics, and an elegy to the American West that — to paraphrase Andrew Sarris — represents the survival of certain vestigial virtues in an era of mealy-mouthed relativism.

John Books an aging gunfighter goes to see a doctor he knows for a second opinion after another doctor told him he has a cancer which is terminal. The doctor confirms what the other said. He says Books has a month maybe two left. He takes a room in the boarding house and the son of the woman who runs it recognizes him and tells his mother who he is. She doesn't like his kind but when he tells her of his condition, she empathizes. Her son wants him to teach him how to use a gun. Books tries to tell him that killing is not something he wants to live with. Books, not wanting to go through the agony of dying from cancer, tries to find a quicker way to go.

22. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Henry Fonda never struck us as the bad-ass type, but in Sergio Leone’s operatic follow-up to his Dollars trilogy, Fonda plays one of the most abhorrent hired guns ever. It’s disturbing, like watching Mr. Rogers give a kid a wedgie. Forty minutes of cuts killed the original American release, but the film was finally restored to its full grandeur in 1984.

Story of a young woman, Mrs. McBain, who moves from New Orleans to frontier Utah, on the very edge of the American West. She arrives to find her new husband and family slaughtered, but by whom? The prime suspect, coffee-lover Cheyenne, befriends her and offers to go after the real killer, assassin gang leader Frank, in her honor. He is accompanied by Harmonica, a man already on a quest to get even.

23. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

“So here they are, the dog-faced soldiers, the regulars, the 50-cents-a-day professionals, riding the outposts of the nation.” The middle entry in John Ford’s Cavalry trilogy had his stock company at their most sentimental and featured Oscar-winning photography of Monument Valley in Technicolor. The Duke, whose inherent air of authority worked to his favor when he played older characters, found one of his most indelible roles as retiring officer Nathan Brittles.

After Custer and the 7th Cavalry are wiped out by Indians, everyone expects the worst. Capt. Nathan Brittles is ordered out on patrol but he's also required to take along Abby Allshard, wife of the Fort's commanding officer, and her niece, the pretty Olivia Dandridge, who are being evacuated for their own safety. Brittles is only a few days away from retirement and Olivia has caught the eye of two of the young officers in the Company, Lt. Flint Cohill and 2nd Lt. Ross Pennell. She's taken to wearing a yellow ribbon in her hair, a sign that she has a beau in the Cavalry, but refuses to say for whom she is wearing it.

24. Unforgiven (1992)

Has it really been almost 10 years since this film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Clint Eastwood garnered Best Director honors? In order to bring life to this project, Eastwood traded on his status as the genre’s last bankable star to get a western made in a youth-driven market, then crafted a darkly poetic character study that found more to condemn than to celebrate in our western myth. When anyone over 60 wins an Oscar, the assumption is that it’s a career award. The highest compliment one could pay Eastwood and Unforgiven is that no one even thought to ask.

After escaping death by the skin of her teeth, the horribly disfigured prostitute, Delilah Fitzgerald, and her appalled and equally furious co-workers summon up the courage to seek retribution in 1880s Wyoming's dangerous town of Big Whiskey. With a hefty bounty on the perpetrators' heads, triggered by the tough Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett's insufficient sense of justice, the infamous former outlaw and now destitute Kansas hog farmer, William Munny, embarks on a murderous last mission to find the men behind the hideous crime. Along with his old partner-in-crime, Ned Logan, and the brash but inexperienced young gunman, the "Schofield Kid", Munny enters a perilous world he has renounced many years ago, knowing that he walks right into a deadly trap; however, he still needs to find a way to raise his motherless children. Now, blood demands blood. Who is the hero, and who is the villain?

25. Tombstone (1993)

Most people discovered Tombstone after it went to video. As the “other” Wyatt Earp movie, it was overshadowed by Kevin Costner’s epic biography, but Tombstone’s unpretentious, balls-out gusto reminded us that a great western didn’t have to unfold on the grand scale of Lonesome Dove or Dances With Wolves. Kurt Russell looks remarkably like the real Wyatt, and Val Kilmer’s unforgettable take on Doc Holliday is the best genre performance by an actor in the past 20 years. Strap on the guns again, Val — we’ll be your huckleberry.

After success cleaning up Dodge City, Wyatt Earp moves to Tombstone, Arizona, and wishes to get rich in obscurity. He meets his brothers there, as well as his old friend Doc Holliday. A band of outlaws that call themselves The Cowboys are causing problems in the region with various acts of random violence, and inevitably come into confrontation with Holliday and the Earps, which leads to a shoot-out at the O.K. Corral.

26. The Lone Ranger (1949 – 57) - TV Series

He wore a black mask and a white hat, a confusing combination. But children always knew he was a friend. Few characters in western fiction are as beloved as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, as played by Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. The inspired teaming of a cowboy and an Indian was a paradigm of racial harmony. And to this day, we can’t listen to the “William Tell Overture” without thinking “Hi-ho, Silver!”

After the last surviving Texas ranger is nursed back to health by Potawatomi tribesman Tonto, the two ride together, on Silver and Scout respectively, throughout the West, doing good while they live off a silver mine that provides them with income and bullets.

27. The Virginian (1929)

We’ll smile when we say it — no western novel has been dramatized more than The Virginian. It had been filmed twice before Gary Cooper played the tide role in the first “talking” feature-length western. Subsequent versions appeared in 1946 and 2000, and a - TV Series debuted in 1962 and ran for nine years. But it’s Cooper’s Virginian we remember, for his star-making turn and the mustache-twirling of the villainous Walter Huston.

Molly Wood arrives in a small western town to be the new schoolmarm. The Virginian, foreman on a local ranch, and Steve, his best friend, soon become rivals for her affection. Steve falls in with bad guys led by Trampas, and the Virginian catches him cattle-rustling. As foreman, he must give the order to hang his friend. Trampas gets away, but returns in time for the obligatory climactic shootout in the streets.

28. Winchester ’73 (1950)

What’s amazing about Anthony Mann westerns is how each of his characters are fully developed, from Will Geer’s folksy take on Wyatt Earp to the barkeep on the job at his saloon. Winchester ’73, the story of “the gun that won the West,” follows Jimmy Stewart as he traces the provenance of his stolen rifle through a series of unsavory owners, all of whom are brought down by frontier karma.

In a marksmanship contest, Lin McAdam wins a prized Winchester rifle, which is immediately stolen by the runner-up, Dutch Henry Brown. This "story of a rifle" then follows McAdams' pursuit, and the rifle as it changes hands, until a final showdown and shoot-out on a rocky mountain precipice.

29. Blazing Saddles (1974)

The western was in trouble in the 1970s, so when Blazing Saddles rode into theaters, fans wondered if it signified a genre revival or the last nail in its coffin. Ten years later, it was still the highest-grossing western in history. Mel Brooks’ rude, crude masterpiece contained enough laugh-out-loud moments for 10 movies, from the infamous campfire scene to Madeline Kahn’s show-stopping send-up of Marlene Dietrich.

A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar, a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor. Hedley convinces him to send the town its first sheriff.

30. Fort Apache (1948)

Moviegoers were used to seeing the U.S. Cavalry ride to the rescue, battle trumpets blaring. John Ford wanted to take a more in-depth look at a typical regiment; the day-to-day work of soldiers in remote outposts, their personal lives, and how they cope with the constant threat of attack. Fort Apache inaugurated the landmark Cavalry trilogy with a sobering reminder that sometimes the good guys don’t win.

Deep into the territory of the great Apache chief, Cochise, the demoted Civil War general, Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday, reports for duty as a commanding officer at the remote U.S. cavalry outpost known as Fort Apache, along with his daughter, Philadelphia. There, the arrogant commander will soon lock horns with the realistic and sensible second-in-command, Captain Kirby York, who, as an expert in the local Apaches, disagrees with Thursday who wants to make a name for himself in the Arizona frontier. In the end, is it wise to engage in battle when personal glory is all you seek?

31. Angel and the Badman (1947)

Can a man who lives by the law of the gun walk a more enlightened path? Quirt Evans (John Wayne), on the vengeance trail, must choose between killing the man who murdered his father and settling down with a sweet farm girl played by Gail Russell, the hottest Quaker babe in movies. An underrated entry in the Wayne canon.

Notorious gunman Quirt Evans is wounded and on the run. He arrives at a Quaker farm owned by Thomas Worth and his family where he collapses from exhaustion. Evans asks Thomas and his daughter Penelope to drive him into town in their wagon in order to send an urgent telegram. The telegram contains a land claim and is sent to the land recorder's office. The Quaker family is ignoring the town doctor's advice to rid themselves of the gunfighter and they compassionately tend to the delirious Evans. Penny Worth becomes intrigued by his ravings of past loves.When Evans regains consciousness, Penny explains to him about the Quaker credo of non-violence and way of life. Three weeks later, two desperadoes, Laredo Stevens and Hondo Jeffries, ride into town looking for Evans.Penny's younger brother, Johnny, rushes home to inform Evans of his visitors and Evans prepares to flee. Penny, now smitten with Evans, offers to run off with him. Upon hearing the sound of approaching horses, Evans grabs his revolver and, to his horror, discovers that it has been emptied. His life is in serious danger.

32. City Slickers (1991)

Crowd-pleasing comedy that resonated with middle-aged baby boomers. A trio of Big Apple buddies (Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, and Bruno Kirby) join Jack Palance’s cattle drive, and discover the one secret of life. Palance won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and a calf named Norman became the most beloved bovine since Ferdinand.

Mitch is a middle-aged big-city radio-ads salesman. He and his friends Ed and Phil are having mid-life crises. They decide that the best birthday gift is to go on a two-week holiday in the Wild West, driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There they meet cowboy Curly who not only teaches them how to become real cowboys, but also one or two other things about life in the open air of the west.

33. Dallas (1978 – 91) - TV Series

The corporate cowboys in the television series Dallas rode around in Mercedes-Benz coupes and held their showdowns in glass and steel skyscrapers. Not exactly a traditional Western, but beneath the soap-opera excess, the Ewings were ranchers who fought among themselves but always circled the wagons against an outside threat. OK, Bobby’s season-canceling shower was a cop-out. But J.R. Ewing was the most famous cowboy in America for more than a decade, and when he was shot the whole world wondered whodunit.

Popular evening soap opera-style television drama. The show was set in Dallas, Texas and chronicled the exploits of wealthy Texas oil millionaires. Many of the plots revolved around shady business dealings and dysfunctional family dynamics.

34. The Naked Spur (1953)

Jimmy Stewart plays a ruthless bounty hunter who, when told his captive is innocent, replies, “It’s him they’re payin’ the reward on.” Robert Ryan is superb as the manipulative villain who tries to sever the uneasy alliance between Stewart and the companions who joined him on the trail. Another intense psychological drama from Stewart and Anthony Mann.

Howard Kemp is a bounty hunter who's been after killer Ben Vandergroat for a long time. Along the way, Kemp is forced to take on a couple of partners, an old prospector named Jesse Tate and a dishonorably discharged Union soldier, Roy Anderson. When they learn that Vandergroat has a $5000 reward on his head, greed starts to take the better of them. Vandergroat takes every advantage of the situation sowing doubt between the two men at every opportunity finally convincing one of them to help him escape.

35. The Big Trail (1930)

Director Raoul Walsh cast John Wayne in The Big Trail on the advice of John Ford, who said he “liked the looks of the new kid with a funny walk,” Wayne went from extra to star, which would have been a great discovery story had the film been a hit. But The Big Trail still deserves to be seen, not just for Wayne’s early-career work but for its remarkable wide-screen panoramas and near cinéma vérité action scenes, including a river crossing in a fierce storm that almost drowned the cast.

Breck leads a wagon train of pioneers through Indian attack, storms, deserts, swollen rivers, down cliffs and so on while looking for the murder of a trapper and falling in love with Ruth.

36. Oklahoma! (1955)

As long as the wind still comes sweeping down the plain, we’ll never grow tired of spending time with Curly and Laurie and Ado Annie, and listening to “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” “Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” and the rest of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s splendid Oklahoma! score.

In the Oklahoma territory at the turn of the twentieth century, two young cowboys vie with a violent ranch hand and a traveling peddler for the hearts of the women they love.

37. A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

Henry Fonda, James Coburn, and Charles Bronson passed on the chance to play a nameless drifter in a Western reworking of the Japanese film Yojimbo. Director Sergio Leone settled for TV actor Clint Eastwood, who cashed a $15,000 paycheck for the movie that made him an international star. Eastwood wisely deleted most of his lines from the script to augment the drifter’s mythic persona.

With nothing but profit on his mind, a taciturn American with a lightning-fast right hand rides into San Miguel, a sun-bleached border town where everyone is either rich or dead. As the amoral man with no name discovers that the sleepy town provides the perfect opportunity to make a quick buck, the mysterious stranger soon finds himself caught in the middle of a destructive, long-standing feud. After all, the corrupt Baxters and the murderous Rojos, two feuding families fighting for control, won't let a nameless nobody get a slice of the cake. But the dusty, poncho-clad newcomer has already set his sights on the grand prize--the only way to get it is to play the gangs off against each other in a deadly battle of wits. Of course, no one has pulled such a reckless stunt and lived to tell the tale. How far is a man willing to go for a fistful of dollars?

38. The Wild, Wild West (1965 - 69) - TV Series

A gadget-filled train, a megalomaniacal dwarf, and Robert Conrad in very tight pants. Secret Service Agents James West (Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) were TV’s original dynamic duo in this spoofy, action-packed western. One rerun will expunge any memory of the awful 1995 movie of the same name.

James West and Artemus Gordon are two agents of President Grant who take their splendidly appointed private train through the west to fight evil. Half science fiction and half western, Artemus designs a series of interesting gadgets for James that would make Inspector Gadget proud. A lighthearted adventure series.

39. The Man From Snowy River (1982)

To say that it’s Australia’s contribution to the western isn’t much of a compliment. (There’s not much competition.) But The Man From Snowy River captured the mythic spirit of the West as well as any homegrown product has, perhaps because it was based on a revered Australian legend. We’ve seen horses gallop across a vast expanse a thousand times. Snowy River made those scenes inspiring again. Critics shrugged; audiences fell in love.

Jim Craig has lived his first 18 years in the mountains of Australia on his father's farm. The death of his father forces him to go to the low lands to earn enough money to get the farm back on its feet. Kirk Douglas plays two roles as twin brothers who haven't spoken for years, one of whom was Jim's father's best friend and the other of whom is the father of the girl he wants to marry. A 20 year old feud re-erupts, catching Jim and Jessica in the middle of it as Jim is accused of letting a prize stallion loose.

40. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)

With the exception of its opening sequences, The Ox-Bow Incident was shot almost entirely with painted backdrops and artificially created light and shadow. The closed-in feeling suits this dark story of a lynching of innocents and its repercussions among the town folk.

Two drifters are passing through a Western town, when news comes in that a local farmer has been murdered and his cattle stolen. The townspeople, joined by the drifters, form a posse to catch the perpetrators. They find three men in possession of the cattle, and are determined to see justice done on the spot.

41. The Man From Laramie (1955)

Quintessential Anthony Mann drama starring the director’s favorite obsession-driven cowboy, James Stewart. In their final collaboration, Stewart hunts down the men who sold guns to the Apaches, resulting in the death of his brother. If Shakespeare had written a western tragedy, it might have looked like this.

Mysterious Will Lockhart delivers supplies to storekeeper Barbara Waggoman at Coronado, an isolated town in Apache country. Before long, he's tangled with Dave Waggoman, vicious son of autocratic rancher Alec and cousin of sweet Barbara. But he sticks around town, his presence a catalyst for changes in people's lives, searching for someone he doesn't know...who's been selling rifles to the Apaches.

42. Blood on the Moon (1948)

Moody and very dark, more film noir than horse opera, with Robert Mitchum as a long-haired drifter caught between warring ranchers and homesteaders. Mitchum, a shifty character in any setting, plays moral relativism so well that even when he does the right thing, you still don't trust him.

When a shady-looking stranger rides into town to join his old friend it is assumed he is a hired gun. But as the new man comes to realise the unlawful nature of his buddy's business and the way the homesteaders are being used, the two men draw apart to become sworn enemies.

43. Duel in the Sun (1946)

Gone With the Wind, western-style. Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones steam up the Arizona desert in jaw-dropping Technicolor. Producer David Selznick promises “a picture of a thousand memorable moments.” Audiences dubbed it Lust in the Dust. Melodramatic, over-the-top, and just plain trashy — but in a good way.

When her father is hanged for shooting his wife and her lover, biracial Pearl Chavez goes to live with distant relatives in Texas. Welcomed by Laura Belle and her elder lawyer son Jesse, she meets with hostility from the ranch-owner himself, wheelchair-bound Senator Jackson McCanles, and with lustful interest from demonizing, unruly younger son Lewt. Almost at once, already existing family tensions are exacerbated by her presence and the way she is physically drawn to Lewt.

44. Will Penny (1967)

“It takes a heap takes of time, years to build up a spread. I don’t have them ... years no more.” A noble cowboy at twilight, beautifully photographed by Lucien Ballard and played by Charlton Heston in one of his most understated performances. Too bad moviegoers preferred to watch him fighting dirty apes in another 1968 film.

Will Penny, an aging cowpoke, takes a "line-rider" job on a vast cattle ranch requiring him to keep trespassers and squatters moving until they're off the property. Ironically, he discovers that the mountain cabin reserved for the line rider has been appropriated by Catherine Allen and her young son, Horace, whose guide has deserted them en route to Oregon to join Catherine's husband. Too soft-hearted and ashamed to kick mother and child out just as the bitter Rocky Mountains winter sets in, he agrees to share the cabin until the spring thaw. But it isn't just the snow that slowly thaws; lonely man and woman soon forget their considerable dissimilarities and start developing a deep, if awkward and unstated, love for each another. Beyond this, Horace finds in Will the father he's never known, and Will finds in Horace the son he's never known he's wanted. The trio's little refuge is then invaded by Bible-quoting preacher Quint and his murderous family of "rawhiders", who'd earlier nearly killed Will over an imagined insult, forcing Will to defend his own "family".

45. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

A companion piece to High Noon, with a more charismatic villain. Someone has to watch captured outlaw Glenn Ford until the 3:10 train, but nobody wants the job except a desperate farmer (Van Heflin), who needs the $200 reward to feed his family. A tense psychological drama.

After outlaw leader Ben Wade is captured in a small town, his gang continues to threaten. Small-time rancher Dan Evans is persuaded to take Wade (in secret) to the nearest town with a railway station to await the train to the court in Yuma. Once the two are holed up in the hotel to wait, it becomes apparent the secret is out and a battle of wills starts.

46. Rio Grande (1950)

The final entry in John Ford’s majestic Cavalry trilogy, and the first teaming of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, a match made in movie heaven. Lines of mounted soldiers in Monument Valley never looked more inspiring, but the best moment remains when the regiment serenades O’Hara with “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.”

Rio Grande takes place after the Civil War when the Union turned their attention towards the Apaches. Union officer Kirby Yorke is in charge of an outpost on the Rio Grande in which he is in charge of training of new recruits one of which is his son whom he hasn't seen in 15 years. He whips him into shape to take on the Apaches but not before his mother shows up to take him out of there.The decision to leave is left up to Trooper Yorke who decides to stay and fight. Through it all Kirby and Kathleen though separated for years fall back into love and decide that it's time to give it another try. But Yorke faces his toughest battle when his unorthodox plan to outwit the elusive Apaches leads to possible court-martial. Locked in a bloody Indian war, he must fight to redeem his honor and save the love and lives of his broken family.

47. Bonanza (1959 – 73) - TV Series

For 14 years, the adventures of Ben Cartwright and sons Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe were a Sunday night tradition. Stories dealt more with family than heroes and villains, but they didn’t flinch from such serious topics as drug abuse and racial prejudice. It’s a good thing these four guys had each other (and Hop Sing, of course), because girlfriends on the Ponderosa had an alarmingly short life expectancy.

The Cartwrights' one-thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch is located near Virginia City, Nevada, site of the Comstock Silver Lode, during and after the Civil War. Each of the three sons was born to a different wife of Ben's; none of the mothers are still alive. Adventures are typical Western ones, with lots of personal relationships/problems thrown in as well.

48. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Burt Lancaster plays Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas plays Doc Holliday, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. This is the best of the two stars’ many collaborations, especially with Rhonda Fleming, one of the top western actresses, along for the ride. The climactic gunfight is a knockout.

After a long career as a lawman that made him a legend, Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) decides to quit and join his brothers in Tombstone, Arizona. There, he would see them in a feud with the Clantons, a local clan of thugs and cattle thieves. When the showdown becomes inevitable, the help will come from Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas), a terminally-ill gambler who happens to be another Wild West legend.

49. El Dorado (1966)

Sometimes magic happens by accident. El Dorado seemed an exercise in going through the motions; an unofficial finale to a trilogy of Howard Hawks westerns (Rio Bravo and Rio Lobo came first) all starring John Wayne, in which the stories were more or less interchangeable. But Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan play the familiar material with a wink to each other and to the audience that is irresistible.

Hired gunman Cole Thornton (John Wayne) turns down a job with Bart Jason (Edward Asner) as it would mean having to fight an old sheriff friend (Robert Mitchum). Some months later, he finds out the lawman is on the bottle and a top gunfighter (Christopher George) is heading his way to help Jason. Along with young Mississippi (James Caan), handy with a knife and now armed with a diabolical shotgun, Cole returns to help.

50. High Plains Drifter (1973)

This was Clint Eastwood’s first western as both star and director, and it brought new meaning to the phrase “paint the town red.” Eastwood essays another no-nonsense man of few words, but his scenes with pint-sized costar Billy Curtis offer unexpected comic relief.

A Stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides into in the dusty mining town of Lago, where the townspeople are living in the shadow of a dark secret. After a shoot-out leaves the town's hired-gun protectors dead, the town's leaders petition the Stranger to stay and protect them from three ruthless outlaws who are soon to be released from prison. The three have their sights set on returning to Lago to wreak havoc and take care of some unfinished business. A series of events soon has the townspeople questioning whether siding with the Stranger was a wise idea, as they quickly learn the price that they each must pay for his services. As the outlaws make their way back into Lago, they discover that the town is not exactly as they had left it, and waiting in the shadows is the Stranger, ready to expose the town's secret and serve up his own brand of justice

51. Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)

No one played the reluctant hero better than James Garner, whose easygoing charm fit perfectly in this delightful comedy.

McCullough is "passing through on my way to Australia" when he takes a job in a gold rush town. After a startling display of marksmanship, he immediately arrests the youngest son of the evil landowner (Danby). A battle of hired guns begins as McCullough continues to tame the town and defeat the gunslingers with a combination of skill and wit.

52. Have Gun Will Travel (1957 – 63) - TV Series

At a time in TV history when every other show was a western, viewers still hadn’t met a character like Paladin (Richard Boone), the suave, sophisticated gun-for-hire with the chess knight calling card.

Professional gunfighter Paladin was a West Point graduate who, after the Civil War, settled into San Francisco's Hotel Carlton, where he awaited responses to his business card: over the picture of a chess knight is written "Have Gun, Will Travel.

53. Cowboy (1958)

A Chicago hotel clerk bails a cowboy out of debt, in exchange for a job on his next cattle drive. Terrific East-meets-West discord, personified by Jack Lemmon and Glenn Ford.

Chicago hotel clerk Frank Harris dreams of making his fortune in the cattle business. He gets his chance when, the father of the Mexican woman he loves breaks off their relationship and Frank bankrolls cattleman Tom Reece to be able to join him on a cattle buying trip to Mexico. Soon, though, the tenderfoot finds out the reality of life on the trail as a cowboy is not what he expected.

54. For a Few Dollars More (1965)

Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name meets Lee Van Cleef, Man with No Facial Expression. Violence ensues.

With his reputation preceding him after a white-knuckle duel eighteen months ago, a taciturn American bounty hunter rides into the godforsaken town of Tucumcari. After all, nothing can stop him--this time, the solitary stranger is after El Indio, a psychopathic bandit leader bent on destruction and mayhem. But the sadistic outlaw and his murderous jackals have already set their sights on robbing the impenetrable Bank of El Paso. As a result, the poncho-clad Americano has no choice but to break an unwritten personal rule: join forces with Colonel Douglas Mortimer, a hawk-eyed marksman with a hidden agenda. Now, two seasoned hunters, The Man with No Name and The Man in Black, are after the same prey. And as silent double-crosses and fragile allegiances pave the way for a bloody showdown at high noon, a question arises. Once, the nameless American risked life and limb for a fistful of dollars. Is it worth dicing with death for a few dollars more?

55. Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

Often overlooked among the great MGM musicals, Annie Get Your Gun has an extraordinary Irving Berlin score, brassy Betty Hutton as Annie Oakley, and more dancing cowboys than Gilley’s in its heyday.

A story very loosely based on the love story of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler who meet at a shooting match. Fabulous music although the lead characters have virtually nothing to do with the actual historical figures. Annie joins Frank Butler in Col. Cody's Wild West Show. They tour the world performing before Royalty as well as the public at large.

56. Comes a Horseman (1978)

Superb Gordon Willis photography elevates this post-World War II spin on the old story of independent ranchers under siege from big business.

Ella Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex-suitor, Jacob Ewing. She asks for help from her neighbor, Frank Athearn. As Ella and Frank fight back through stampedes, jealousy, betrayal, and sabotage, they eventually find love.

57. The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

In, The Sons of Katie Elder, John Wayne and Dean Martin reprise their Rio Bravo chemistry as four brothers track down their father’s killer, with no help from local lawmen.

The Elder boys return to Clearwater, Texas for their Mother's funeral. John, the eldest, is a well-known gunfighter and trouble follows him wherever he goes. The boys try to get their ranch back from the town's gunsmith who won it from their father in a card game, after which he was murdered. Troubles come, however, just because they carry the Elder name.

58. Tumbleweeds (1925)

A landmark silent film starring the screen’s first cowboy hero, William S. Hart. The thrilling land rush scene remains a cinematic tour de force.

In 1889 the Cherokee Strip is opened to homesteaders, and Don Carver, one of the self-styled "tumbleweeds" and range boss of the Box K Ranch, finds himself out of a job. He meets and falls in love with Molly Lassiter, who belongs to one of the many families of homesteaders who have gathered in Caldwell, Kansas, for the big land rush. Don decides to sign up for a piece of land and hopes to claim the site of the Box K ranch house, which controls the water for the strip. Molly's evil half-brother, Noll, and Bill Freel, Don's rival for Molly's hand, conspire to have Don arrested as a "sooner" when he tries to round up some stray cattle in the Strip. Don breaks out of the stockade to join the rush, but he finds Noll and Freel already at the ranch house when he arrives. Don evicts them, and troopers arrive and arrest the two as "sooners." Molly finally consents to be Don's wife.

59. Maverick (1957 – 62) - TV Series

Irreverent, non-traditional western with James Garner as the affable Bret Maverick, a gambler who, when trouble beckons, is ever-ready to climb out of a window and run away.

Bret and Bart Maverick (and in later seasons, their English cousin, Beauregarde) are well-dressed gamblers who migrate from town to town always looking for a good game. Poker (five-card draw) is their favorite but they've been known to play such odd card games as Three-toed Sloth on occasion. The show would occasionally feature both or all three Mavericks, but usually would rotate the central character from week to week.

60. True Grit (1969)

The Duke finally walked off with an Oscar as the irascible Marshal Rooster Cogburn. John Wayne called Rooster’s recollections of his life to costar Kim Darby “the best scene I ever did.”

1880 Yell County, Arkansas. With revenge etched on her mind after the murder of her father by a once-trusted, cowardly jackal, plucky Mattie Ross rides to Fort Smith. Now, nothing else matters, and while aching to bring his killer to justice, Mattie enlists the help of the ageing U.S. Marshal Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn: a rugged, one-eyed lawman. And before long, La Boeuf, a young Texas Ranger thirsty for bounty money, joins in. However, as the unlikely trio embarks on a dangerous journey into the heart of Indian Territory, the odds are against them. But rabid vengeance keeps determined Mattie going. Is true grit enough to see justice served?

61. Giant (1956)

Director George Stevens won the Oscar for Giant’s amazing visuals, including the iconic image of James Dean, cowboy hat low over his forehead, reclining behind the wheel of a vintage roadster.

Texan rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict, Jr. visits a Maryland farm to buy a prize horse. While there he meets and falls in love with the owner's daughter Leslie, they are married immediately and return to his ranch. The story of their family and its rivalry with cowboy and (later oil tycoon) Jett Rink unfolds across two generations.

62. The Plainsman (1936)

Cecil B. DeMille’s frontier epic about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane surrounds Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur with 2,500 Sioux and Cheyenne extras. Note the dramatic Star Wars-style credits.

With the end of the North American Civil War, the manufacturers of repeating rifles find a profitable means of making money selling the weapons to the North American Indians, using the front man John Lattimer to sell the rifles to the Cheyenne. While traveling in a stagecoach with Calamity Jane and William "Buffalo Bill" Cody and his young wife Louisa Cody that want to settle down in Hays City managing a hotel, Wild Bill Hickok finds the guide Breezy wounded by arrows and telling that the Indians are attacking a fort using repeating rifles. Hickok meets Gen. George A. Custer that assigns Buffalo Bill to guide a troop with ammunition to help the fort. Meanwhile the Cheyenne kidnap Calamity Jane, forcing Hickok to expose himself to rescue her.

63. Dodge City (1939)

What’s the best barroom brawl in history of western movies? It has to be the donnybrook in Dodge City, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and one condemned saloon.

Dodge City. A wide-open cattle town run by Jeff Surrett. Even going on a children's Sunday outing is not a safe thing to do. What the place needs is a fearless honest Marshal. A guy like Wade Hatton, who helped bring the railroad in. It may not help that he fancies Abbie Irving, who won't have anything to do with him since he had to shoot her brother. But that's the West.

64. Ride the High Country (1962)

Two western icons, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, get back in the saddle for career-capping performances in Sam Peckinpah’s poetic tribute to a disappearing way of life.

Aging ex-marshal Steve Judd is hired by a bank to transport a gold shipment through dangerous territory. He hires an old partner, Gil Westrum, and his young protege Heck to assist him. Steve doesn't know, however, that Gil and Heck plan to steal the gold, with or without Steve's help. On the trail, the three get involved in a young woman's desire to escape first from her father, then from her fiance and his dangerously psychotic brothers.

65. Wagon Train (1957 – 65) - TV Series

Long before The Love Boat ever thought of setting sail, Wagon Train gathered different guest stars each week for an eventful expedition. And unlike wagon master Ward Bond, Captain Stubing never had to worry about Indian attacks.

Stories of the journeys of a wagon train as it leaves post-Civil War Missouri on its way to California through the plains, deserts, and Rocky Mountains. The first treks were led by gruff, but good-at-heart Major Seth Adams, backed up by his competent frontier scout, Flint McCullough. After Adams and McCullough, the wagon train was led by the avuncular Christopher Hale, along with new scouts Duke Shannon and Cooper Smith. Many stories featured the trustworthy Assistant Wagonmaster Bill Hawks, grizzled old cook Charlie Wooster, and a young orphan, Barnaby West

66. Alias Jesse James (1959)

Bob Hope runs into outlaw trouble and is rescued by a historic assemblage of Hollywood cowboys, including Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Gary Cooper, Hugh O’Brian as Wyatt Earp, James Arness as Matt Dillon and Fess Parker as Davy Crockett.

Inept insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth sells a man a $100,000 policy. When his boss learns the man was Jesse James he sends Milford after him with money to buy back the policy. After a masked Jesse robs Milford of the money, Milford's boss heads out with more money. Jesse learns about it and plans to rob him, have Milford dressed as him get killed in the robbery, and then collect the $100,000.

67. The Tin Star (1957)

A sheriff turned disillusioned bounty hunter (Henry Fonda) tutors an inexperienced lawman (Anthony Perkins) in this intense Anthony Mann classic.

Veteran bounty-hunter Morg Hickman rides into a town in danger. The sheriff has been killed, and young inexperienced Ben Owens named a temporary replacement until a permanent can be found. Ben wants to be that permanent replacement, so needs to impress the townspeople with his skill. When he finds that Morg was a sheriff for a long time before he became a bounty-hunter, he asks the older man to teach him. Morg thinks that being a sheriff is a foolish goal, but agrees to instruct Ben in handling people, more important to a sheriff than handling a gun.

68. Rawhide (1959 – 66) - TV Series

America meets Clint Eastwood as cattleman Rowdy Yates and sings along between whip-cracking to the best TV western theme song ever.

The story of a crew of cowhands driving a herd from San Antonio, Texas to Sedalia, Missouri. The cattledrive boss is Gil Favor (Eric Fleming); his right-hand is ramrod Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood). The scout's name is Pete Nolan (Sheb Wooley) and the cook on the drive is Wishbone (Paul Brinegar) . The cook's louse (scullion) is Mushy (James Murdock). Jim Quince (Steve Raines) and Joe Scarlet (Rocky Shahan) are drovers and Jesus "Hey Soos" Patines (Robert Cabal) is the wrangler. Together, this crew endures many adventures.

69. Silverado (1985)

An ambitious attempt to revive the old-school western by writer Lawrence Kasdan, who manages to simultaneously salute and send up every cliché of the genre.

In 1880, four men travel together to the city of Silverado. They come across many dangers before they finally engage the "bad guys" and bring peace and equality back to the city.

70. Cheyenne Autumn (1964)

After portraying Indians as shooting gallery ducks for 25 years, director John Ford switched sides in his final western. Moving, heartfelt, and long overdue, even if the Cheyenne chiefs are played by Ricardo Montalban and Gilbert Roland.

When the government agency fails to deliver even the meager supplies due by treaty to the proud Cheyenne tribe in their barren desert reserve, the starving Indians have taken more abuse than it's worth and break it too by embarking on a 1,500 miles journey back to their ancestral hunting grounds. US Cavalry Capt. Thomas Archer is charged with their retrieval, but during the hunt grows to respect their noble courage, and decides to help them.

71. Three Godfathers (1948)

Three Cowboys Find a Baby: John Ford’s take on the oft-filmed story is sentimental in the right way and gave John Wayne a chance to stretch his familiar screen persona.

Fugitive bank robbers Robert (John Wayne), William (Harry Carey Jr.) and Pedro (Pedro Armendáriz) stand at a desert grave. Caring for the newborn infant of the woman they just buried will ruin any chance of escape. But they won't go back on their promise to her. They won't abandon little Robert William Pedro. Director John Ford's Western retelling of the Biblical Three Wise Men tale remains a scenic and thematic masterpiece. Ford adds color to his feature-film palette, capturing stunning vistas via cinematographer Winton C. Hoch, who would win two of his three Academy Awards for Ford films. Again, populist-minded Ford asserts that even men of dissolute character can follow that inner star of Bethlehem to their own redemption.

72. Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

The passing of the Old West was indelibly captured one unforgettable image when fugitive cowboy Kirk Douglas tries to cross a superhighway on horseback.

In order to free his best friend Paul Bondi from jail, cowboy Jack Burns gets himself imprisoned only to find out that Bondi does not want to escape. Thus Burns breaks out on his own and is afterwards being chased in the mountains by sheriff Johnson with a helicopter and jeeps.

73. Jesse James (1939)

Pure hokum as a biography of the famed outlaw, but grand entertainment starring Tyrone Power as Jesse and Henry Fonda as his brother Frank and featuring some of the most perilous stunt riding ever captured on film.

Railroad authorities forces farmers to give up their land for the railroad for dirt cheap. Some sell off easily while the ones who resist r dealt with force. The railroad agents tries to force a reluctant old woman into selling, until her sons, Jesse and Frank gets involved. Jesse shoots one of the agent in the hand, in self-defense and later arrest warrants are issued for both the brothers. The agents visits the James brothers' house with warrants and ask them to surrender but even after repeated assurance by Rufus Cobb, an editor, that the brothers are not inside the house and only their sick mother is alone present, the railroad agents throws in fire lamps inside the house to smoke everyone out but unfortunately it causes the death of the old woman. Jesse kills the agents in revenge. This begins Frank and Jesse's career as outlaws.

74. Warlock (1959)

The provocative undercurrents in this tale of a hired gunslinger (Henry Fonda) and his faithful companion (Anthony Quinn) will keep the Freudians busy for hours.

In the small frontier mining town of Warlock, rancher Abe McQuown's gang of cowboy cutthroats terrorize the peaceful community, humiliating the town's legitimate deputy Sheriff and running him out of town. Helpless and in need of protection, the townsfolk hire the renowned town tamer Clay Blaisdell, as unofficial Marshal, to bring law and order to the town. Clay arrives with his good friend and backup Tom Morgan. The two men stand up to the ranch gang and quiet the town. Johnny Gannon, a former member of the ranch gang is bothered by the gang's actions, reforms and takes on the deputy Sheriff job while his brother remains part of the gang. The addition of the official lawman to the mix further complicate matters, leading to an inevitable clash of the cowboys, the townsfolk, the gunslingers and the law.

75. The Good Old Boys (1995)

Tommy Lee Jones directs and stars in a tender, humorous TV western with a feature quality cast (Frances McDormand, Sissy Spacek, Matt Damon).

An aging cowboy must choose between his desire to remain free and the responsibilities of maintaining a family.

76. Arizona (1940)

Female leads are a rarity in westerns, so it’s a treat to see the talented Jean Arthur pulling off a rootin’ too tin’, shoot-’em-up with only a modicum of support from William Holden.

Phoebe Titus is a tough, swaggering pioneer woman, but her ways become decidedly more feminine when she falls for California bound Peter Muncie. But Peter won't be distracted from his journey and Phoebe is left alone and plenty busy with villains Jefferson Carteret and Lazarus Ward plotting at every turn to destroy her freighting company. She has not seen the last of Peter, however.

77. McLintock! (1963)

Copyright complications and a variety of other legal cockleburs kept this comedy featuring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara out of circulation for decades. We wondered if McLintock! was as good as we remembered, and then it debuted on video. Yes, it was.

George Washington McLintock, "GW" to friends and foes alike, is a cattle baron and the richest man in the territory. He anxiously awaits the return of his daughter Becky who has been away at school for the last two years. He's also surprised to see that his wife Katherine has also returned. She had left him some years before without really explaining what he had done, but she does make the point of saying that she's returned to take their daughter back to the State Capitol with her. GW is highly respected by everyone around him, including the farmers who are pouring into the territories with free grants of land and the Indians who are under threat of being relocated to another reservation. Between his wife, his headstrong daughter, the crooked land agent and the thieving government Indian agent, GW tries to keep the peace and do what is best for everyone.

78. Cat Ballou (1965)

Jane Fonda plays the title role, a schoolteacher turned bandit, but Lee Marvin steals the film in an Oscar-winning dual role, capped by the funniest rendition of “Happy Birthday” in movie history.

Cat(herine) Ballou's family farm is being threatened by the railroad. She sends for Kid Shelleen, finding him to be the drunkest gunfighter in the west. When her father is killed by the railroad magnate's gunman, she vows to fight on. Shelleen manages to ride sideways in several scenes, while minstrels sing the ballad of Cat Ballou in between scenes.

79. McCloud (1971 – 77) - TV Series

Dennis Weaver portrayed New Mexico Marshal Sam McCloud, who drew snickers from the hard-boiled Manhattan police detectives for his sheepskin coat and cowboy hat, until he beat them to the bad guys every time.

Sam McCloud is a marshal from Taos, New Mexico, who takes a temporary assignment in the New York City Police Department. His keen sense of detail and detecting subtle clues, learned from his experience, enable him to nab unsuspecting criminals despite his unbelieving boss.

80. The Grey Fox (1982)

Stuntman turned actor Richard Farnsworth waited 40 years for a lead role, and then became an overnight sensation as an aging train robber.

Old West highwayman Bill Miner, known to Pinkertons as "The Gentleman Bandit," is released in 1901 after 33 years in prison, a genial and charming old man. He goes to Washington to live and work with his sister's family. But the world has changed much while he has been away, and he just can't adjust. So he goes to Canada and returns to the only thing familiar to him -- robbery (with stagecoaches changed to trains).

81. The Alamo (1960)

Republic ... we like the sound of that word. John Wayne plays Davy Crockett in a historically honest depiction of the famous siege. Spurned in its time, the film now gets better with every viewing.

In 1836, General Santa Anna and the Mexican Army is sweeping across Texas. To be able to stop him, General Sam Houston needs time to get his main force into shape. To buy that time he orders Colonel William Travis to defend a small mission on the Mexicans' route at all costs. Travis' small troop is swelled by groups accompanying Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, but as the situation becomes ever more desperate Travis makes it clear there will be no shame if they leave while they can.

82. Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

The moral of this story is never pick up a hitchhiking nun. The odd-couple teaming of Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine really clicks.

Set in Mexico, nun Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) is rescued from three cowboys by Hogan (Clint Eastwood), who is on his way to do some reconnaissance for a future mission to capture a French fort. The French are chasing Sara, but not for the reasons she tells Hogan, so he decides to help her in return for information about the fort defenses. Inevitably, the two become good friends, but Sara has a secret.

83. Union Pacific (1939)

Typically bold Cecil B. DeMille blend of history and fiction, with Barbara Stanwyck in one of her best tough-girl roles.

One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?

84. Hombre (1967)

Elmore Leonard’s story of a white man raised by Apaches pulls no punches in its condemnation of frontier racism.

John 'Hombre' Russell is a white man raised by the Apaches on an Indian reservation and later by a white man in town. As an adult he prefers to live on the reservation. He is informed that he has inherited a lodging-house in the town. He goes to the town and decides to trade the place for a herd of horses in Bisbee. The only stagecoach is one being hired for a special trip paid by Favor and his wife Audra. As there are several seats, others join the stagecoach making seven very different passengers in all. During the journey they are robbed. With the leadership of John Russell they escape with a little water and the money that the bandits want. They are pursued by the bandits. As they try to evade the bandits the coach occupants reveal their true nature in a life threatening situation.

85. The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955 – 61) - TV Series

Unique among TV westerns in that the continuing story followed the historical life of Wyatt Earp (Hugh O’Brian) to Tombstone, where the saga of the OK Corral unfolded in a five-part series climax.

Marshal Earp keeps the law, first in Kansas and later in Arizona, using his over-sized pistols and a variety of sidekicks. Most of the saga is based loosely on fact, with historical badguys and good guys, ending up with the famous shootout at the O.K. corral.

86. A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)

Breezy comedy with a terrific twist ending, with Henry Fonda and Joanne Woodward as a farm couple who risk their life savings in a high-stakes poker game.

A naive couple and a child arrive to the town on the way to San Antonio, Texas to buy a farm there. There is a poker game between the richest men in the region. The man cannot resist it and though he is a very bad poker player, enters the game betting all the money of his family. In the climax of the game he suffers a heart-attack. His wife then takes his place in the table. That's the only way of recovering their savings. But there is a little problem. Can anybody explain to her how to play poker?

87. Barbarosa (1982)

A laid-back outlaw (Willie Nelson) befriends a farm boy on the lam (Gary Busey) in this amiable, well-photographed character study.

Karl Westover, an inexperienced farm boy, runs away after unintentionally killing a neighbor, whose family pursues him for vengeance. He meets Barbarosa, a gunman of near-mythical proportions, who is himself in danger from his father-in-law Don Braulio, a wealthy Mexican rancher. Don Braulio wants Barbarosa dead for marrying his daughter against the father's will. Barbarosa reluctantly takes the clumsy Karl on as a partner, as both of them look to survive the forces lining up against them.

88. Trail of Robin Hood (1950)

A holiday classic. Roy Rogers saves Jack Holt’s Christmas tree business with help from an all-star posse of western heroes, including Rex Allen, Allan “Rocky” Lane, and Ray “Crash” Corrigan.

J. C. Aldridge is out to corner the Christman tree market and has bought out all of his competitors except retired movie star Jack Holt. Unknown to Aldridge his foreman has his men sabotaging Holt's operation so he will be able to sell trees at at a high price and then flee with the money double-crossing his boss. When there is a murder Aldridge arrives to investigate and, unknown to his men, takes a job as a tree cutter. Meanwhile, Roy is fighting to help Holt get his trees to market.

89. Man Without A Star (1955)

Ranch hand Kirk Douglas matches wills with a savvy cattle baroness (Jeanne Crain) while trying to keep the fences away from his corner of the frontier.

Dempsey Rae, a cowboy with no clear aim in life, winds up working on a spread with a hard lady owner just arrived from the East. She needs a tough new top hand and uses all her means of persuasion to get Rae to take the job. But he doesn't like the way the other settlers are getting treated and starts to side with them, despite their introduction of the barbed wire he loathes.

90. The Big Country (1958)

Lots of westerns have “Big” in their title. Why this one isn’t more celebrated is a “big” mystery, though it gains new converts with every airing on Turner Movie Classics.

Retired, wealthy sea Captain James McKay arrives in the vast expanse of the West to marry fiancée Pat Terrill. McKay is a man whose values and approach to life are a mystery to the ranchers and ranch foreman Steve Leech takes an immediate dislike to him. Pat is spoiled, selfish and controlled by her wealthy father, Major Henry Terrill. The Major is involved in a ruthless land war, over watering rights for cattle, with a rough hewn clan led by Rufus Hannassey. The land in question is owned by Julie Maragon and both Terrill and Hannassey want it.

91. Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)

Best of the many film biographies of the famed Apache leader, with a star-making performance from Wes Studi as Geronimo.

The Apache Indians have reluctantly agreed to settle on a US Government approved reservation. Not all the Apaches are able to adapt to the life of corn farmers. One in particular, Geronimo, is restless. Pushed over the edge by broken promises and necessary actions by the government, Geronimo and thirty or so other warriors form an attack team which humiliates the government by evading capture, while reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.

92. The Cisco Kid (1950 – 56) - TV Series

“Hey, Pancho!” “Oh, Ceeesco!” If you didn’t grow up enjoying this exchange every Saturday morning, our profoundest sympathies. Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo played the famed Mexican heroes.

The Cisco Kid and his English-mangling sidekick Pancho travel the old west in the grand tradition of the Lone Ranger, righting wrongs and fighting injustice wherever they find it.

93. How the West Was Won (1962)

Gargantuan screen epic chronicling three generations of a pioneer family. Long but engrossing, with a dozen top stars and one of Alfred Newman’s best scores.

Setting off on a journey to the west in the 1830s, the Prescott family run into a man named Linus who helps them fight off a pack of thieves. Linus then marries daughter Eve Prescott (Carroll Baker), and 30 years later goes off with their son to fight in the Civil War, with bloody results. Eve's sister Lily heads farther west and has adventures with a professional gambler, stretching all the way to 1880s San Francisco.

94. High Chaparral (1967 – 71) - TV Series

Romeo and Juliet on a ranch, with America and Mexico as the contentious families. The marriage of “Big John” Cannon (Leif Erickson) and his Mexican bride, Victoria (Linda Cristal), inaugurated five years of sophisticated stones.

The Cannon family runs the High Chaparral Ranch in the Arizona Territory in 1870s. Big John wants to establish his cattle empire despite Indian hostility. He's aided by brother Buck and son Billy Blue. When Blue's mother was killed (in the first episode) John united his family with the powerful Montoyas by marrying their daughter Victoria (whose brother Manolito now lives with them as well).

95. Cimarron (1931)

The first western to win the Oscar for Best Picture stars Richard Dix and Irene Dunne as Easterners heading west. Dated, but a vital step in the maturation of the genre.

When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, though, he begins to feel confined again and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.

96. Junior Bonner (1972)

“Bloody Sam” Peckinpah proves he could make a good PG movie with this thoughtful look at rodeo life, with Steve McQueen as an aging bull rider.

A week with Junior Bonner, a rodeo pro on the wrong side of 40, broke, bruised, and headed into Prescott, his home town, for the annual 4th of July Frontier Days. His dad, Ace, is a dissolute dreamer fixed on finding gold in Australia; his mom is resigned to Ace's roving; his brother Curly is tearing up the countryside to make a million in real estate. Junior just wants to stay on a bucking Brahma for eight seconds, hang out with Ace, find a way to spend time with a beautiful woman whose eyes catch his, and earn enough to get to next week's rodeo. As the old West and its code give way to progress, Junior is lonesome, laconic, and on the road - just where he wants to be.

97. The Big Valley (1965 – 69) - TV Series

Barbara Stanwyck had a knack for working well in a frontier setting, and she found her best western role not in movie theaters but in this popular television series that blended good drama with plenty of action.

Victoria Barkley heads her adult brood on the Barkley Ranch in California's San Joaquin Valley, near Stockton, in the 1870s. Heath is the illegitimate son of Victoria's husband, Tom (who is dead at the time of the series). Bank robbers, horse thieves, revolutionaries, and land grabbers keep the Barkleys hopping.

98. The Phantom Empire (1935)

See! Gene Autry battle torch-wielding robots! Thrill! To the singer’s adventures in the kingdom of Murania! Laugh! At how much fun going to the movies used to be, when serials like this off-the-wall sci-fi western played before the feature.

When the ancient continent of Mu sank beneath the ocean, some of its inhabitant survived in caverns beneath the sea. Cowboy singer Gene Autry stumbles upon the civilization, now buried beneath his own Radio Ranch. The Muranians have developed technology and weaponry such as television and ray guns. Their rich supply of radium draws unscrupulous speculators from the surface. The peaceful civilization of the Muranians is corrupted by the greed from above, and it becomes Autry's task to prevent all-out war, ideally without disrupting his regular radio show.

99. Hang ’Em High (1968)

Clint Eastwood’s first film after the Dollars trilogy has him playing an innocent rancher condemned for murder. Lively attempt at cooking Leone’s spaghetti recipe stateside.

A band of vigilantes catch Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) and, incorrectly believing him guilty of cattle rustling and murder, hang him, and leave him for dead. But he doesn't die. He returns to his former profession of lawman to hunt down his lynchers and bring them to justice.

100. The Unforgiven (1960)

Audrey Hepburn in a western is reason enough to watch this one, but this John Huston film also features fine performances from Burt Lancaster and legendary starlet Lillian Gish.

In post-Civil War Texas, the Zachary and Rawlins families are intrinsically tied together. Ben Zachary, the head of the family following the death of his father, Will Zachary, in Ben being the oldest son, and patriarch Zeb Rawlins are partners in a cattle ranching operation. Zeb's unassuming son Charlie Rawlins would like to court Ben's younger sister, adopted Rachel Zachary - something that doesn't quite sit well with Ben in he believing Charlie not worthy of Rachel - while Zeb's daughter Georgia Rawlins would be happy with any of the Zachary brothers, although she has her sights set on middle son Cash Zachary. Their world is upset with the arrival of an older man brandishing a saber. It is not the saber which is concerning, but rather the story that he is spreading: that Rachel is of Indian heritage, most specifically Kiowa. Regardless of the truth, which matriarch Mattilda Zachary knows, this story places a strain on the community who don't want a "dirty Injun" in their midst, threatens all the relationships between the Zacharys and Rawlins, and causes a division within the Zachary family, as the Zacharys try to protect themselves and their property against those who don't want Rachel there, including the Kiowa who want Rachel, one of their own, back.

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Most recent revision July 12, 2025 08:38:40 AM

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