The 100 Greatest Westerns of All Time : including five you've never heard of

[Cusser]

I thought Johnny Guitar was absolutely terrible.  And so were those two actresses !!!

[dave jenkins]

I'm sure I've said it before, but I can't help feeling that Johnny Guitar is a Western for people who don't like Westerns.

[stanton]

I like it. Stylish film, and I can see why people love it.

And Crawford and McCambridge are excellent.

[drinkanddestroy]

Yea I would seriously question the ones in yellow and leave out the modern ones in red and I'll mark in blue what I haven't seen.


1. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
2. The Searchers (1956)
3. Red River (1948)
4. High Noon (1952)
5. Shane (1953)
6. Unforgiven (1992)
7. Johnny Guitar (1954)
8. The Wild Bunch (1969)
9. Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)
10. Greed (1924)
11. Stagecoach (1939)
12. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
13. No Country For Old Men (2007)
14. They Died With Their Boots On (1941)
15. Will Penny (1968)
16. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)
17. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
18. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
19. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
20. Monte Walsh (1970)
21. Broken Arrow (1950)
22. My Darling Clementine (1946)
23. Lonely Are The Brave (1962)
24. Rancho Notorious (1952)
25. John Ford Cavalry Trilogy: Fort Apache (1948), She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950)
26. The Gunfighter (1950)
27. Rio Bravo (1959)
28. Winchester '73 (1950)
29. Hondo (1953)
30. The Man From Laramie (1955)
31. Ulzana's Raid (1972)
32. Blood On The Moon (1948)
33. Major Dundee (1965)
34. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
35. The Naked Spur (1953)
36. Sergio Leone Dollars Trilogy: A Fist Full Of Dollars (1964), For A Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966)
37. Bend Of The River (1952)
38. Tumbleweeds (1925)
39. Hombre (1967)
40. Hud (1963)
41. Don't Fence Me In (1945)
42. Dodge City (1939)
43. The Big Sky (1952)
44. Ride The High Country (1962)
45. Open Range (2003)
46. The Westerner (1940)
47. Last Of The Mohicans
48. The Shootist (1976)
49. Destry Rides Again (1939)
50. The Professionals (1966)
51. Tall In The Saddle (1944)
52. Ride Lonesome (1959)
53. The Plainsman (1936)
54. Cat Ballou (1965)
55. The Tall T (1957)
56. Jesse James (1939)
57. Little Big Man (1970)
58. Riders Of The Purple Sage (1941)
59. The Alamo (1960)
60. The Far Country (1955)
61. Three Godfathers (1948)
62. Appaloosa (2008)
63. Forty Guns (1957)
64. 3:10 To Yuma (1957)
65. Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957)
66. Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
67. Little Big Horn (1951)
68. Seven Men From Now (1956)
69. Santa Fe Trail (1940)
70. The Paleface (1948)
71. Angel And The Badman (1947)
72. Duel In The Sun (1946)
73. How The West Was Won (1962)
74. The Big Trail (1930)
75. Paint Your Wagon (1969)
76. Tombstone (1993)
77. Hearts Of The West (1975)
78. Hang 'em High (1968)
79. Ten Wanted Men (1955)
80. The Virginian (1946)
81. Lone Star (1996)
82. Run Of The Arrow (1957)
83. The Vanishing American (1925)
84. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
85. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
86. Cowboy (1958)
87. Barbarosa (1982)
88. One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
89. Bad Company (1972)
90. Ramrod (1947)
91. The Long Riders (1980)
92. The Missing (2003)
93. Four Faces West (1948)
94. The Ballad Of Little Joe (1993)
95. The Covered Wagon (1923)
96. No Name On The Bullet (1959)
97. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
98. Western Union (1941)
99. Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
100. The Kentuckian (1955)

I REALLY liked The Shootist, and Jesse James. Hang 'em High was good as well

[cigar joe]

They are not bad by any means, but I would add quite a few not on the list Before I'd add those so they may or may not make it. 

[stanton]

Some of the choices are pretty strange, but only in the lower ranks. The worst is Paint Your Wagon (ha ha ha) and Sgt. Rutledge is Ford's weakest western.

And some important films are missing of course.

Man of the West is strangely missing, winner in the Criterion forum's western lists project. And of course Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Well, you can't have them all.

[Cusser]

"Lists" are just that.  My brother sent some link to a YouTube with "100 best quotes from films", and none from spaghetti westerns.  There's a whole topic on this site about memorable lines just from GBU, none on that list.  GBU probably has MORE memorable lines than ANY other film, ever. 

[dave jenkins]

GBU probably has MORE memorable lines than ANY other film, ever. 

Possibly. The other contender would probably be Casablanca. GBU has one marked advantage, though: the title itself is quotable, and in fact, is probably used more often than any single line from the film.

[Groggy]

Duel In The Sun (which is such a beautiful looking movie that it has to make a top 100 imo)

Because it's irredeemably awful.

[drinkanddestroy]

re: memorable and often-quoted lines: I'd have to say THE GODFATHER trilogy may have even more, but of course to compare it fairly, we'd have to break it down film by film... this sounds like a good idea for a thread; to list all the memorable lines and see which film has the most

[cigar joe]

 

[drinkanddestroy]

i am travelling these days with little internet access other than on my phone, which is not the easiest way to use this site. but if nobody has created such a thread by the time i get to a computer, i will do so. (the topic will not be 'the most memorable lines from movies; rather, 'THE MOVIES WITH THE MOST MEMORABLE LINES')

[drinkanddestroy]

regarding this list of 100 Greatest Westerns: I would put 'Broken Arrow' much lower (perhaps remove it completely); put 'Rio Bravo' much higher; and i would separate the FORD CAVALRY TRILOGY into separate films; eg. 'Fort Apache' is a great film, while 'Rio Grande' is merely decent.... also, i must confess to not having seen many of the films on this list, having only become a fan of Westerns less than 3 years ago...)

[drinkanddestroy]

i would also add 'THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES' to this list (its a really good sequel to 'Jesse James'), with Henry Fonda, i believe from 1940.

[SeanSeanSean]

What no Duck you sucker? ...or did I miss it?