iCM Favorite Western Movies (2021)
by connorangelodenney | created - 08 Jul 2021 | updated - 08 Jul 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. My Darling Clementine (1946)
Passed | 97 min | Drama, Romance, Western
After their cattle are stolen and their brother murdered, the Earp brothers have a score to settle with the Clanton family.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Cathy Downs
Votes: 25,753
2. Rio Bravo (1959)
Passed | 141 min | Western
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson
Votes: 68,053 | Gross: $12.54M
3. Red River (1948)
Passed | 133 min | Drama, Western
Dunson leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, to its destination in Missouri. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted son.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson | Stars: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan
Votes: 34,371
4. Fort Apache (1948)
Passed | 128 min | Drama, Western
At Fort Apache, an honorable and veteran war captain finds conflict when his regime is placed under the command of a young, glory hungry lieutenant colonel with no respect for the local Indian tribe.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Pedro Armendáriz
Votes: 19,687
5. Day of the Outlaw (1959)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Western
Blaise Starrett is a rancher at odds with homesteaders when outlaws hold up the small town. The outlaws are held in check only by their notorious leader, but he is diagnosed with a fatal wound and the town is a powder keg waiting to blow.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal
Votes: 4,423
6. The Searchers (1956)
Passed | 119 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
An American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond
Votes: 96,275
7. The Lusty Men (1952)
Passed | 113 min | Action, Drama, Sport
Retired rodeo champion Jeff McCloud agrees to mentor novice rodeo contestant Wes Merritt against the wishes of Merritt's wife who fears the dangers of this rough sport.
Directors: Nicholas Ray, Robert Parrish | Stars: Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Arthur Hunnicutt
Votes: 3,655
8. The Wind (1928)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A frail young woman from the East moves in with her cousin in the West, where she causes tension within the family and is slowly driven mad.
Director: Victor Sjöström | Stars: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming
Votes: 7,159
9. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Approved | 123 min | Drama, Western
A senator returns to a Western town for the funeral of an old friend and tells the story of his origins.
Director: John Ford | Stars: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin
Votes: 82,282
10. Sweetgrass (2009)
Unrated | 101 min | Documentary, Adventure, Western
In the summer of 2003, a group of shepherds took a herd of sheep one final time through the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, in the extreme north-west of the United States. It was a journey ... See full summary »
Directors: Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Votes: 1,106 | Gross: $0.21M
11. The Naked Spur (1953)
Passed | 91 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker
Votes: 12,659
12. Secrets (1933)
Passed | 90 min | Drama, Romance, Western
A New England society girl braves the West to help her husband build his fortune.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Mary Pickford, Leslie Howard, C. Aubrey Smith, Blanche Friderici
Votes: 702 | Gross: $0.70M
13. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
R | 120 min | Drama, Western
A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town, and their enterprise thrives until a large corporation arrives on the scene.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, William Devane
Votes: 27,640 | Gross: $8.20M
14. Winchester '73 (1950)
Passed | 92 min | Action, Drama, Western
A cowboy's obsession with a stolen rifle leads to a bullet-ridden odyssey through the American West.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally
Votes: 21,974
15. Unforgiven (1992)
R | 130 min | Drama, Western
Retired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner Ned Logan and a young man, The "Schofield Kid."
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris
Votes: 436,119 | Gross: $101.16M
16. Meek's Cutoff (2010)
PG | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.
Director: Kelly Reichardt | Stars: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano, Will Patton
Votes: 15,220 | Gross: $0.98M
17. Johnny Guitar (1954)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, Western
After helping a wounded gang member, a strong-willed female saloon owner is wrongly suspected of murder and bank robbery by a lynch mob.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady
Votes: 19,741
18. Shane (1953)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama, Western
A weary gunfighter in 1880s Wyoming begins to envision a quieter life after befriending a homestead family with a young son who idolizes him, but a smoldering range war forces him to act.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde
Votes: 44,136 | Gross: $20.00M
19. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Passed | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Two down-on-their-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 132,411 | Gross: $5.01M
20. Go West (1925)
Not Rated | 69 min | Comedy, Western
With little luck at keeping a job in the city a New Yorker tries work in the country and eventually finds his way leading a herd of cattle to the West Coast.
Director: Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Howard Truesdale, Kathleen Myers, Ray Thompson
Votes: 4,997
21. No Country for Old Men (2007)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson
Votes: 1,060,051 | Gross: $74.28M
22. Rancho Notorious (1952)
Approved | 89 min | Western
After the murder of his fiancée, a Wyoming ranch hand sets out to find her killer.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer, Gloria Henry
Votes: 5,528
23. 3 Bad Men (1926)
Unrated | 122 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Three outlaws come to the aid of a young girl after her father is killed.
Director: John Ford | Stars: George O'Brien, Olive Borden, Lou Tellegen, Tom Santschi
Votes: 1,502
24. Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)
PG | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Western
A cynical Buffalo Bill hires Sitting Bull to exploit him and add his credibility to the distorted view of history presented in his Wild West Show.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Paul Newman, Joel Grey, Kevin McCarthy, Harvey Keitel
Votes: 5,291
25. Heaven's Gate (1980)
R | 219 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
During the Johnson County War in 1890 Wyoming, a sheriff born into wealth does his best to protect immigrant farmers from rich cattle interests.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston
Votes: 17,147 | Gross: $3.48M
26. The Westerner (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, Western
Judge Roy Bean, a self-appointed hanging judge in Vinegarroon, Texas, befriends saddle tramp Cole Harden, who opposes Bean's policy against homesteaders.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Fred Stone
Votes: 6,797
27. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger
Votes: 24,252
28. The Violent Men (1955)
Approved | 96 min | Western
A bitter land dispute causes a Civil War veteran to take extreme action.
Director: Rudolph Maté | Stars: Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Dianne Foster
Votes: 3,339
29. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
TV-G | 11 min | Short, Action, Adventure
A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.
Director: Edwin S. Porter | Stars: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, A.C. Abadie, George Barnes, Justus D. Barnes
Votes: 20,989
30. The Shooting (1966)
G | 82 min | Drama, Western
A mysterious woman persuades two cowboys to help her in a revenge scheme.
Director: Monte Hellman | Stars: Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson, Will Hutchins, Warren Oates
Votes: 6,427
31. Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
Approved | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Western
Respected Black cavalry Sergeant Brax Rutledge stands court-martial for raping and killing a white woman and murdering her father, his superior officer.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Jeffrey Hunter, Woody Strode, Constance Towers, Billie Burke
Votes: 5,364
32. Station West (1948)
Approved | 97 min | Western
After two U.S. cavalrymen transporting a gold shipment get killed, U.S. Army Intelligence investigator John Haven goes undercover to a mining and logging town to find the killers.
Director: Sidney Lanfield | Stars: Dick Powell, Jane Greer, Agnes Moorehead, Tom Powers
Votes: 1,516
33. Bacurau (2019)
Not Rated | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After the death of her grandmother, Teresa comes home to her matriarchal village in a near-future Brazil to find a succession of sinister events that mobilizes all of its residents.
Directors: Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho | Stars: Bárbara Colen, Thomas Aquino, Silvero Pereira, Thardelly Lima
Votes: 30,689
34. Cimarron (1931)
Passed | 123 min | Drama, Western
A newspaper editor settles in an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife at the end of the nineteenth century.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor, Nance O'Neil
Votes: 6,926
35. The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)
Approved | 91 min | Western
A lonely socialite masquerades as a maid and meets an unpretentious, plain-spoken cowboy who is unaware of her true identity.
Directors: H.C. Potter, Stuart Heisler, William Wyler | Stars: Gary Cooper, Merle Oberon, Patsy Kelly, Walter Brennan
Votes: 1,821
36. Stagecoach (1939)
Passed | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine
Votes: 53,758
37. Blood on the Moon (1948)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Western
Unemployed cowhand Jim Garry is hired by his dishonest friend Tate Riling as muscle in a dispute between homesteaders and cattleman John Lufton.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan
Votes: 3,492
38. I Shot Jesse James (1949)
Passed | 81 min | Western
Bob Ford murders his best friend Jesse James in order to obtain a pardon that will free him to marry his girlfriend but is plagued by guilt and self-disgust.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Preston Foster, Barbara Britton, John Ireland, Reed Hadley
Votes: 2,502
39. Wagon Master (1950)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, Western
Two young drifters guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter cutthroats, Indians, geography, and moral challenges on the journey.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey Jr., Ward Bond
Votes: 5,526
40. The Big Sky (1952)
Approved | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
The success of the journey focuses on keeping the Indian girl alive as well as themselves to complete trade with the Blackfeet.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt, Arthur Hunnicutt
Votes: 4,747
41. Man of the West (1958)
Not Rated | 100 min | Western
A reformed outlaw becomes stranded after an aborted train robbery with two other passengers and is forced to rejoin his old outlaw band.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Julie London, Lee J. Cobb, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 9,162
42. Ride in the Whirlwind (1966)
G | 82 min | Drama, Western
Three cowboys, mistaken for members of an outlaw gang, are relentlessly pursued by a posse.
Director: Monte Hellman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Cameron Mitchell, Millie Perkins, Katherine Squire
Votes: 4,396
43. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
PG-13 | 166 min | Western
A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Votes: 349,062 | Gross: $5.32M
44. Seyyit Han: Bride of the Earth (1968)
Not Rated | 81 min | Drama
Seyyit Han is a man with many foes. One day he falls in love with Mürsit's sister, Keje. Mürsit is fine with them marrying, only on one condition: Seyyit Han has to get rid of his enemies ... See full summary »
Director: Yilmaz Güney | Stars: Yilmaz Güney, Nebahat Çehre, Hayati Hamzaoglu, Nihat Ziyalan
Votes: 614
45. True Grit (1969)
G | 128 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn teenager track down her father's murderer in Indian Territory.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: John Wayne, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Jeremy Slate
Votes: 51,433 | Gross: $31.13M
46. The Shootist (1976)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Romance, Western
A dying gunfighter spends his last days looking for a way to die with a minimum of pain and a maximum of dignity.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart
Votes: 26,823
47. Last Night at the Alamo (1983)
Unrated | 81 min | Comedy, Drama
Cowboy, and assorted blue collar buddies, inneffectually try to save a true Texas Honky Tonk from closing for good.
Director: Eagle Pennell | Stars: Sonny Carl Davis, Lou Perryman, Steven Mattila, Tina-Bess Hubbard
Votes: 389
48. True Grit (2010)
PG-13 | 110 min | Drama, Western
A stubborn teenager enlists the help of a tough U.S. Marshal to track down her father's murderer.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin
Votes: 357,475 | Gross: $171.24M
49. Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama, Horror, Western
In the dying days of the old west, an elderly sheriff and his posse set out to rescue their town's doctor from cannibalistic cave dwellers.
Director: S. Craig Zahler | Stars: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins
Votes: 117,958
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