Perhaps no other film genre has fallen so in and out of style over the years as the Western, with reports of its inevitable demise harkening back all the way to the mid-20th century during its brief twilight and steady decline at the close of the studio era to its subsequent resurgences and revivals.
Though wholly indebted to American iconography, sensibilities and cultural heritage, few movie genres if any at all have proven to be as universally appealing, timeless and varied as the Western. John Ford, Sergio Leone, Anthony Mann, Sergio Corbucci, and Howard Hawks are a few of the names that instantly spring to mind when considering the annals of the Western. But for the purposes of this list, we’ve rounded up two fistfuls of some the most approachable and unabashedly fun titles the genre has to offer — from star-studded Hollywood tentpoles to dirty-cheap spaghetti westerns and even one off-kilter South Korean spoof — that you will never grow tired of. Saddle up and scroll down below to see our picks.
1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Let’s face it: Director George Roy Hill gets so much mileage from its high-wattage star duo (Robert Redford and Paul Newman) alone in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” that he didn’t really need to reinvent the wheel for his film to play like gangbusters at the 1969 box office and eventually seal its place in history as grade-A cinematic comfort food — not to mention a highly-rewatchable masterpiece that has played on cable TV for the past half century as much as any classic American movie on rotation.
The appeal of having two proper heavyweight screen titans in Paul Newman and Robert Redford chew up the scenery and lay it all on the line together as a pair of suave, down-and-out renegade outlaws looking to start a new life in South America while being pursued by a local posse is quite simple when you get down to it. But rewatch the whole thing from start to finish and you’ll be surprised at how well the rest of the film holds up. And contrary to its reputation nowadays as a feel-good cowboy-buddy romp might suggest, the uninitiated might be caught off guard by the depth of wistfulness and aching melancholy that sneaks up on you by its conclusion.
2. The Professionals (1966)
One of the finest quartets of certified Hollywood tough guys ever assembled in Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode linked up and rode high in this overlooked but essential addition to the dudes-rock movie canon, a film directed by Richard Brooks that glides on sheer superstar presence but is somehow still waiting to obtain the cult status it so rightfully deserves.
Its tale of a ragtag group of four seasoned, no-nonsense bounty hunters hired on and sent south the border by a seedy Texas tycoon to rescue his kidnapped trophy wife (an impossibly beautiful Claudia Cardinale) from an infamous Mexican bandit (Jack Palance), only to be double and triple-crossed by their employer is as viscerally exciting as it sounds on paper and should particularly appeal to men-on-a-mission film junkies who’ve seen “The Magnificent Seven”, “The Wild Bunch”, and “The Dirty Dozen” too many times to count. And if you’re down for another full serving of Burt Lancaster cowboy heroics, “Vera Cruz”, “Ulzana’s Raid” and “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” are three overlooked gems worth tracking down.
3. The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Hot on the heels of his rip-roaring Evil Dead trilogy, B-horror maestro Sam Raimi decided to switch gears, saddle up, and take a real swing for the fences with this delightfully inventive, tongue-in-cheek western spoof. The great Gene Hackman brings gruff gravitas to the role of ruthless outlaw-turned-sheriff John Herod, who rules his frontier town with an iron fist and attracts a bunch of mean hired guns by hosting a quick-draw shootout contest.
As obviously entertaining as it is to see Unforgiven-era Hackman go head-to-head with a murderer’s row of perennial Hollywood A-listers including Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe, Keith Davis, and baby-faced teen heartthrob-era Leonardo DiCaprio, the real hook here is watching Raimi at full mast behind the camera letting all his quirks and visual trademarks run rampant. It’s his goofball tone and devil-may-care style that imbues “The Quick and the Dead” with evergreen rewatchability despite its stripped-down narrative and assortment of stock characters. Seriously, just wait until you see those split-diopter shots!
4. Rio Bravo (1959)
Toplined by John Wayne’s commanding lead performance and potently flanked by a starry supporting cast, which includes the likes of Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson and the always-reliable genre vet Walter Brenan, Howard Hawks’ “Rio Bravo” is one of the handful of landmark Westerns often touted as old-fashioned and traditional that also manages to pull off double duties as a self-interrogating, subversive and easy-going hangout romp.
Simmering tensions begin to boil over in the small Texas town of Rio Bravo after a local tough guy and his gang of gunslingers threaten the peace and look to forcibly break into the sheriff’s headquarters to free his murderous brother out of prison. It’s all up to Wayne’s tough-as-nails lawman and his motley crew of misfits to hold them off and restore law and order by any means necessary.
It’s a juicy set-up that Hawks would return to less than a decade later in “El Dorado” capped off by an unforgettable climax, but it’s the priceless bantering and camaraderie shared between the characters before all hell breaks loose that truly solidify Rio Bravo’s place among the very highest stratum of American Westerns. They really don’t make ’em like they used to.
5. A Fistful of Dynamite (1971)
In all honesty, there are simply too many incredible westerns to Sergio Leone’s credit that could realistically occupy a slot on the present list without anyone batting an eye. Card-carrying cinephiles will agree that “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” and “Once Upon a Time in the West” both stand a cut above the rest and are widely recognized as the director’s most ambitious and timeless contributions to the genre overall. But subsequent viewings of his lesser-known late-career triumph reveal another landmark masterpiece ripe for reappraisal that happens to hold up almost just as well.
Taking scope, fun, and sheer gusto into account, we’re going with “A Fistful of Dynamite”as one of the most rewarding and flat-out enjoyable Leone joints to sit through and revisit every once in a while. Leone wanted Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach to play the odd pair of bandits who fall in with a band of Zapata revolutionaries in the midst of the 1913 Mexican Revolution. The former turned the role down and the studio talked the director down out of the latter and suggested Rod Steiger instead (note: he knocks it out of the park). This movie tends to get overshadowed by the better-known westerns in his filmography, but Leone’s final word on the genre meant he went out on a high note.