The bestWestern moviesare often considered the classic Hollywood films from the 1930s through the 1970s.The Western genre is one of Hollywood’s oldest, dating back to the silent era, sitting alongside the gangster genre and horror movies as Hollywood’s earliest successful film genres. In fact, one of the first successful silent era films was a Western, with theBritish shortKidnapping by Indiansarriving in 1899and Hollywood makingThe Great Rain Robberyin 1903. By the time of the talkies, names likeJohn Ford and John Wayne helped make Westernsextremely popular in the 1930s.
By the 1960s, Italy had mastered the subgenre of spaghetti Westerns, and the Western movie seemed unstoppable, with John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Gary Cooper leading the way. However,after the early ’70s, Western movies experienced a downturnin popularity, which lasted until the 1990s, when modern-day Westerns made the genre slightly popular again. Ironically, the film responsiblewas directed by Clint Eastwood, one of the main stars of classic Hollywood Westerns and someone with a great love for the genre. While still a niche genre, Westerns remain popular to this day.
The Harder They Fall
Cast
After Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) is released from prison, Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) brings his gang back together to defeat his enemy. Starring alongside Majors and Elba in The Harder They Fall are Zazie Beetz, Edi Gathegi, R.J. Cyler, Regina King, and LaKeith Stanfield. The Western was released in select theaters on Jul 29, 2025, and released on Netflix on July 22, 2025.
One thing that often defined classic Westerns was the lack of diversity. The heroes were almost always white cowboys, and the villains were from different Native American tribes. In 2021,a modern-day Western set out to change that by presenting a Black principal cast, one that was based on real cowboys, lawmen, and outlaws in the 19th century.The Harder They Fallstars Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Delroy Lindo, Lakeith Stanfield, Regina King, and more in an all-star Western that ended up being a Netflix exclusive.
Majors is Nat Love, a man whose parents were murdered by an outlaw named Rufus Buck (Elba) when he was a child. As an adult, U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves (Lindo) offers him a chance at revenge when Buck is pardoned and begins his evil ways again. Critics loved the film, with itsRotten Tomatoesscore at 88% fresh. The National Board of Review awarded it the Best Cast Award, and the NAACP Awards named it the Outstanding Motion Picture.
The Power of the Dog
The Power of the Dog is a Western drama film adapted from the novel by Thomas Savage. When a widow and her son move into a ranch, she captures the attention of a kindly gentleman named George, much to the chagrin of his brother, Phil. After they marry, Phil’s temper begins to flare, and he begins to torment the two – but his behavior may spell disaster when his new nephew’s darker side comes to light.
In 2021, a Western movie was the top film at the Oscars, thanks to director Jane Campion, the first woman to ever receive two Best Director nominations at the Academy Awards. While nominated forThe Pianoin 1993,she finally won the award for her Western film,The Power of the Dog. The Netflix original Western was nominated for 12 Oscars, though only Campion won the award for Best Director. Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee were nominated for acting honors but all lost.
The film is a meditative look at cruelty and vengeance in the solitary West.
The Power of the Doghas Plemons play a rancher who meets and marries a young widow, played by Dunst, becoming a stepfather to her son, played by Smit-McPhee. Cumberbatch plays Plemons' rancher brother, who is cruel to everyone, especially his brother’s new wife and stepson. The film is a meditative look at cruelty and vengeance in the solitary West and a drama that shows how bad men cause even the purest people to make difficult decisions in the name of self-preservation.
Tombstone
Tombstone chronicles legendary marshal Wyatt Earp and his brothers as they seek fortune in a prosperous mining town. Forced to confront a gang threatening the community, Earp joins forces with the infamous Doc Holliday, highlighting a tense battle between lawmen and outlaws in the American West.
Two movies about Wyatt Earp came out in the 1990s. One of these starred Kevin Costner as the lawman and focused on his life story. However, the mostsuccessful of the two Western films was one with Kurt Russell as Earp, and it was a more entertaining and spectacular look at the Wild West.Tombstonedoesn’t bother with Earp’s life story and instead follows him and his brothers when they arrive in Tombstone, leading to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Val Kilmer stole the show as Doc Holliday.
While Russell was great as Wyatt Earp, Val Kilmer stole the show as Doc Holliday, although the film was an all-star affair with several familiar faces in the cast. While not a classical Western, thanks to its more Hollywood mainstream feel, it remains a beloved part of the genre, one of the highest-grossing modern-day Westerns, and a cult classic thanks to the castand the endlessTombstonequotesthat live on to this day.
The Proposition
The Proposition is a 2005 Australian Western film directed by John Hillcoat and written by Nick Cave. Set in the 1880s Outback, it stars Guy Pearce as an outlaw who is given a brutal ultimatum by a British lawman, played by Ray Winstone. Emily Watson and John Hurt also have significant roles. The film explores themes of justice, loyalty, and the harsh realities of frontier life.
WhenGuy Pearce was discussing his favorite films, he mentioned that his favorite starring role came in the 2005 Australian WesternThe Proposition. John Hillcoat (The Road) directed the movie, which was based on a script by musical star Nick Cave. Guy Pearce stars as Charlie Burns,a bushranger who is arrested by a lawman who asks Charlie to kill his older brother, Arthur, or he will execute his younger brother, Mikey, who was also arrested.
This is a dark and disturbing Western that fits in well with some of the later classic Westerns from the 1960s and early 1970s. While it is an Australian Western, it holds the same themes and genre trappings of American Westerns and shows how a sense of family and revenge can drive a man to brutal lengths. The film also received praise for its accurate portrayal of indigenous Australian culture, something that classic Westerns were often criticized for ignoring.
Bone Tomahawk
Bone Tomahawk is a Western film that follows Sheriff Franklin Hunt, who gathers together a group of fighters to save three kidnapped victims from a clan of cannibals. After the town’s doctor is kidnapped along with two others, forcing the sheriff to partner with the town’s Native American professor and find the tribe before it’s too late.
Bone Tomahawkis a unique modern Western because it blurs the lines between two genres.The film is a Western horror movie with Kurt Russellstarring as a small-town sheriff who has to lead a posse to save three people abducted by a tribe of cannibal cave dwellers. The entire synopsis sounds likeThe Hills Have Eyesmixed with a Western, which is the idea this boils down to.
This might be a bit extreme for classic Western fans since the entire plot with the cave people is gruesome and bloody and errs more on the side of horror movies than the Western. However, this movie also has much in common with classic John Wayne Westerns, with the lawman Franklin Hunt setting out to find and save abducted townspeople. The difference is that these are real villains and not the forced depiction of Native American tribes, updating the plot for the new generation.
3:10 to Yuma
A struggling rancher volunteers to escort a notorious outlaw to the train that will take him to prison. As the journey unfolds, both men engage in a psychological battle of wills, testing their morals and resolve while facing relentless danger from the outlaw’s gang and the harsh frontier.
In 2007,Hollywood remade the classic Western movie3:10 to Yuma. The original, which came out in 1957, starred Van Heflin as Dan Evans, a struggling rancher who agrees to a job transporting the head of a gang of outlaws named Ben Wade (Glenn Ford) to a train set for the Yuma Penitentiary. The remake has the same story, with Christian Bale as the rancher and Russell Crowe as the leader of the outlaw gang.
However, there were some major differences, including a more tragic ending for the 2007 remake and a slight difference in the themes. Despite the changes, critics praised the film with an 89% Rotten Tomatoes score. Some critics said the remake improved the original’s story thanks to the performances by Bale and Crowe and James Mangold’s direction. The film received two Oscar nominations. It should also be noted that it co-starred Peter Fonda, the son of one of the most iconic classic stars of the Western genre, Henry Fonda.
Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained follows Jamie Foxx’s Django, a Black slave who is freed before becoming a bounty hunter. After meeting German dentist-turned-bounty-hunter Dr. King Schultz, Django sets off to free his wife from the cruel and charismatic plantation owner Calvin Candie. Christophe Waltz stars alongside Foxx, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington rounding out the cast of Tarantino’s revisionist Spaghetti Western.
Quentin Tarantino made two Westerns in his career, and the first remains one of the best modern Westerns since 2000. In 2012, Tarantino directed therevisionist spaghetti WesternDjango Unchained. The film starsJamie Foxx as a recently freed enslaved man named Django, who agrees to help a bounty hunter named Schultz (Christoph Waltz) find his targets in exchange for help in freeing his wife from a plantation owner named Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).
As with most of Tarantino’s movies, this one contains a lot of violence, but it also has a great story, some incredible set pieces, and better dialogue than almost any Western that came before or after.Django Unchainedreceived five Oscar nominations and won two (Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Waltz). Tarantino directed a second Western a few years later withThe Hateful Eight, butDjangoremains his Western masterpiece.
True Grit
An adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name, True Grit tells the story of 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), who enlists the help of morally-questionable lawman Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) in order to avenge the death of her father by apprehending the criminal Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). They are joined by a cocksure Texas Ranger named Labeouf (Matt Damon), who insists upon collecting the bounty on Chaney’s head. The three travel across the Arkansas plains in pursuit of Chaney, risking life and limb against outlaws and wild animals in pursuit of justice.
The Coen Brothers have made a few Western movies in their career, withTrue Gritbeingtheir attempt to remake a classic John Wayne Western. The originalTrue Gritsaw Wayne star as Rooster Cogburn, an aging U.S. Marshal whom a young girl hires to track down and capture the man who killed her dad. In the Coen Brothers remake, Jeff Bridges plays Rooster, Hailee Steinfeld plays the young girl, Josh Brolin is the killer, and Matt Damon is a Texas Ranger who comes along to help.
What makes the two films different is that the Coen Brothers chose to remain more faithful to Charles Portis’s source novel than the John Wayne version. To do so, they told the story from young Mattie’s point of view rather than from Rooster’s. Their goal worked, as the film was a huge success, earning 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, but not winning any of them.
No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men is a western crime-thriller based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy and directed by the Cohen Brothers. Following three protagonists, the film centers around a large $2,000,000+ cache of dirty money lost near the Rio Grande. With a veteran who finds it, a hitman who will stop at nothing to get it, and a sheriff trying to investigate the crimes connected to it, all roads lead to death and mayhem as they find themselves in each other’s crosshairs.
The best Coen Brothers Western movie isNo Country for Old Men.Released in 2007, the film is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name and features a modern look at a man named Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who finds the aftermath of a bad drug deal, where everyone is dead. He finds a bag of money and takes it, which puts him in the crosshairs of an assassin namedAnton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who is hired to retrieve the moneyand kill everyone in his path.
The movie is another dark modern-day Western, with Anton as the embodiment of Death, with comparisons made to the classic Ingmar Bergman film,The Seventh Seal, and that Chigurh is there to deliver death to those who he feels deserve it. The Coen Brothers achieved their greatest success, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, while Bardem won Best Supporting Actor.
Unforgiven
Unforgiven follows retired gunslinger Will Munny as he is drawn back into his former life for a final mission, seeking justice with his old partner and a young outlaw called The Schofield Kid.
Unsurprisingly, the Western movie that revitalized a dead genre is also one of the best modern-day Westerns in existence. Clint Eastwood, who starred in some of Hollywood’s most beloved classic Westerns, directedUnforgivenas a modern-day revisionist Western. In the film, Eastwood plays Will Munny, a retired outlaw who now lives on his hog farm after the death of his beloved wife. However, whenthe sheriff, Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman)flogs Will’s old friend Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to death, the outlaw comes out of retirement for revenge.
Unforgivenalmost plays as an anti-Western movie. Will Munny wants to stay retired and live in peace, and while Little Bill is a good lawman, he is also stuck in his ways and as corrupt as he can be, especially when dealing with suspects, guilty or not. Unlike classic Western movies, this film refuses to create good guys and bad guys, and its moral shades of gray became the template for themodern-day Westernfor the decades to come.
