25 best Western films of all time, according to critics

- Director: Nicholas Ray
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 110 minutes

Joan Crawford stars opposite Mercedes McCambridge in this story about a headstrong saloon owner who is wrongly accused of murder. Despite initially receiving negative reviews, "Johnny Guitar" is now positively regarded, and was included in the Chicago Reader's list of 100 best American movies.

- Director: Henry Hathaway
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 128 minutes

John Wayne takes top billing in the story of gruff, one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, who sets off to help avenge a killing, accompanied by a teenage girl played by Kim Darby and a Texas Ranger played by Glen Campbell. Elvis Presley is said to have been considered for the Texas Ranger role, but when his manager Col. Tom Parker wanted Presley to get top billing, the part went to Campbell.

- Director: Robert Stevenson
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 83 minutes

In this first live-action Disney film, the title character is a stray yellow dog who appears and helps protect a Texas ranch family after the Civil War while their father has gone on a cattle drive. It was based on the award-winning book of the same name by Texas writer and journalist Fred Gipson.

- Director: Radu Jude
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 108 minutes

Set in 19th century Romania, an enslaved man has run away from his master's home after having an affair with his wife. A local policeman is hired to find him. The director Radu Jude won the Silver Bear Award for best director at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

- Director: George Stevens
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 201 minutes

This Western epic starred Rock Hudson as a Texas cattle rancher, Elizabeth Taylor as his wife, and James Dean as cowhand Jett Rink. It was Dean's last movie role. The young actor had major roles in only three films before he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1955, before "Giant" was released. George Stevens won an Oscar for best director.

- Director: Kelly Reichardt
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 104 minutes

This Western survival film follows a group of settlers traveling across an Oregon desert. It becomes apparent that their guide has gotten them lost. The ensemble cast includes Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, and Neal Huff.

- Director: Clint Eastwood
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 131 minutes

Clint Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in this highly lauded Western. Eastwood plays William Munny, a retired bandit who takes on one final job in hopes of putting the money toward his failing farm. It won Oscars for best picture, best director, best supporting actor, and best fIlm editing.

- Director: Howard Hawks
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 126 minutes

John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan star in the story of a gunfighter and a sheriff caught up in a battle between rival ranchers over water. Hawks also directed such acclaimed films as "Scarface," "His Girl Friday," "To Have and Have Not," "The Big Sleep," and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." A racist scene of Caan impersonating a Chinese man is often edited out of television rebroadcasts.

- Director: Robert Greene
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 112 minutes

Robert Greene's documentary centers on a town bordering Arizona and Mexico. The community grapples with its past by holding a reenactment of a day that occurred 100 years earlier when more than 1,000 immigrant miners were deported.

- Director: Ang Lee
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 134 minutes

Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, "Brokeback Mountain" follows the complicated romantic relationship between two cowboys over two decades. Stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, and Michelle Williams were all nominated for Academy Awards. The film failed to win the Oscar for Best Picture, leading to discussions on whether that decision was in part due to homophobia.

- Director: Warwick Thornton
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 113 minutes

Set in the Australian outback, "Sweet Country" explores what happens when an Aboriginal farmer kills a white man in self-defense, and is forced to flee for his life. Warwick Thornton directs this Western that features Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, and Hamilton Morris.

- Director: Fred Zinnemann
- Metascore: 89
- Runtime: 85 minutes

Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, faces a dilemma when outlaws threaten to kill him. His wife, played by Grace Kelly, wants him to leave town rather than defend himself. A number of U.S. presidents have listed "High Noon" as one of their favorite films.

- Directors: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross
- Metascore: 89
- Runtime: 92 minutes

German construction workers start a project in the Bulgarian countryside where their differences from the locals quickly become apparent. Valeska Grisebach directed this film, and the entire cast was made up of non-professional actors.

- Director: Clarence Brown
- Metascore: 89
- Runtime: 128 minutes

Gregory Peck plays a Civil War veteran working on a Florida farm with his wife, played by Jane Wyman, and their son, played by Claude Jarman Jr., who adopts an orphaned fawn for companionship. Wyman, who was the first wife of former President Ronald Reagan, went on to star decades later in the prime-time television soap opera "Falcon Crest."

- Director: Sergio Leone
- Metascore: 90
- Runtime: 161 minutes

The epic spaghetti Western stars Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach as rough characters seeking Confederate gold. Italian director Sergio Leone did not speak English, and he had to use an interpreter to communicate with his English-speaking actors. The film is part of a trilogy with "A Fistful of Dollars" in 1964 and "For a Few Dollars More" in 1965.

- Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 122 minutes

Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin star in this Western, which begins when a botched drug deal is interrupted by a hunter. "No Country for Old Men" won the Academy Award for best picture, and Bardem won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar.

- Director: Chloé Zhao
- Metascore: 92
- Runtime: 104 minutes

Chloe Zhao directed this Western drama, which centers on Brady Jandreau, a young man struggling to find his purpose after a brain injury halts his rodeo career. "The Rider" won the Art Cinema Award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

- Director: Howard Hawks
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 141 minutes

A sheriff played by John Wayne teams up with the town drunk, played by Dean Martin; an elderly deputy named Stumpy, played by Walter Brennan; and a young cowboy played by Ricky Nelson to help keep the murderous brother of a wealthy rancher in jail. Director Howard Hawks did not want Nelson in the movie and purposely kept his lines to a minimum, but later conceded that having the young teen idol in the cast added millions of dollars to its box-office draw.

- Director: John Ford
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 96 minutes

The story of passengers on a stagecoach threatened by an Indian attack is the first starring role in a John Ford film by John Wayne, who had worked as an extra, a stuntman, and actor in other low-budget productions. Wayne wore his own cowboy hat, one that he would continue to wear in several Westerns until 1959 when it started falling apart.

- Director: Robert Altman
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 120 minutes

Warren Beatty and Julie Christie play a gambler and a brothel owner who team up as business partners in a remote Western town that comes under threat for its mining riches. Director Robert Altman told the more than 50 extras to decide what local character they wanted to play, such as barber or bartender, choose their costumes, and inhabit that character for the three months of shooting near Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada.

- Director: Henry King
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 85 minutes

Gregory Peck plays Jimmy Ringo, a gunfighter who runs into his estranged wife. Even though trouble seems to follow him everywhere, he hopes to convince her he has reformed, and win her back.

- Director: John Ford
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 119 minutes

John Wayne plays a Confederate Army veteran tracking down Comanche Indians who massacred his family, burned their ranch and kidnapped his young niece. John Ford insisted upon hiring American Indians to play the Comanche roles, although nearly all of the actors in those roles are Navajo, and the language, dress, and dances are Navajo as well.

- Director: John Ford
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 123 minutes

When U.S. Senator Ranse Stoddard returns to the West to attend a funeral, he is forced to rehash his past, including the truth regarding the killing of an infamous outlaw. This black-and-white film was directed by John Ford and stars James Stewart, John Wayne, and Vera Miles.

- Director: Sam Peckinpah
- Metascore: 97
- Runtime: 135 minutes

William Holden and Ernest Borgnine play members of a gang heading to Mexico to do one final heist as the traditional America West is dying around them in the early 20th century. The movie used more than 90,000 rounds of blank ammunition, and Warner Bros. said in publicity material for the film that it was more ammunition than had been used in the Mexican Revolution.

- Director: John Huston
- Metascore: 98
- Runtime: 126 minutes

Two penniless Americans—Fred Dobbs, played by Humphrey Bogart, and Bob Curtin, played by Tim Holt—go on a gold-prospecting trip, joined by an older prospector named Howard. Director John Huston won the Academy Award for best director, and his father Walter Huston, who played Howard, won the Academy Award for best supporting actor. Bogart was not nominated for playing Dobbs, which was considered a snub.