Since the days of classic John Wayne movies like Stagecoach and The Searchers, Hollywood has built up its Western
classics as some of the most entertaining in cinema. With the rise of beloved Western stars like Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood, audiences have a lot to thank the genre for. When it comes to the staples of Western cinema, some stories are indelibly carved into the foundations of modern fiction, with their formulas, messages, and archetypes in constant use.
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At its height, the Western genre combined action and adventure to great effect, serving as one of the biggest box office draws of the first half of the twentieth century. Thanks to the talent it attracted, some of the most influential stories in the history of film trace their origins to the tropes and themes mastered in the Wild West. From treasured superhero hits to beloved animated films, Hollywood keeps finding new ways to bring the best Western stories into modern cinema.
5
Three Godfathers (1916)
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Directed By Edward LeSaint
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The Three Godfathers
NR
Western
Release Date
June 18, 1916
Runtime
60 minutes
Cast
-
Harry Carey
Bob Sangster
-
Stella LeSaint
Ruby Merrill
-
George Berrell
Tim Gibbons
-
Joe Rickson
Rusty Conners
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Like many Westerns, Three Godfathers started as a novel, penned by Peter B. Kyne. Taking its cues directly from the Biblical narrative of the Three Wise Men and the Nativity, it tells the story of a trio of outlaws who, after riding out into the desert, discover a newborn infant. This served as the basis for one of Hollywood’s earliest Westerns in the 1913 film The Sheriff’s Baby. By 1950, the story had been adapted in some form several times, sometimes named Hell’s Heroes.
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In 2002, Fox immortalized Three Godfathers in Ice Age, which traded outlaws for prehistoric animals to tell the same tale. It’s hard to avoid movies that borrow the premise of Kyne’s story in one way or another, from action flicks to neo-Westerns like Logan, all centered around flawed heroes often sacrificing themselves for a child. Even in shows like The Last of Us and The Mandalorian, the basic premise of redemption through the salvation of a child is ever-present, showing how parenthood makes a person better.
4
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Directed By John Sturges
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The Magnificent Seven
Approved
Western
Action
Adventure
Drama
Release Date
October 12, 1960
Runtime
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128 Minutes
Cast
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-
Yul Brynner
-
Steve McQueen
-
Charles Bronson
-
Eli Wallach
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|
IMDb Rating |
7.7 |
|
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
89% |
In the 1960s, Hollywood started borrowing and, in some cases, stealing the stories of popular Japanese movies, noting the similarities between the Samurai and the legend of Western gunfighters. One of the earliest examples of this was The Magnificent Seven, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), which assembled some of the most bankable stars of its era, from Steve McQueen to Charles Bronson. Its success spawned several sequels, turning it into one of the few franchises in the genre.
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If the slew of direct sequels to the 1960 movie weren’t enough, virtually every ensemble Western since has borrowed from the John Sturges epic. Whether it’s Silverado, The Wild Bunch, or The Ridiculous Six, the film’s influence is impossible to remove from team-up adventures. In 2016, the movie was given a direct remake, this time casting stars like Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt in leading roles. For audiences who want a Magnificent Seven-like Western, there’s a wealth of choices.
3
True Grit (1969)
Directed By Henry Hathaway
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True Grit
G
Adventure
Drama
Western
9/10
Release Date
June 11, 1969
Runtime
128 minutes
Cast
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-
John Wayne
-
Glen Campbell
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Revenge has been a timeless staple of the Western genre since the earliest days of Hollywood, but no story mastered it quite like the adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel True Grit. Centered around the vendetta of a young girl against the man who killed her father, the story is a genre deconstruction, character study, and adventure all in one. Naturally, the task fell to Western movie legend John Wayne to play its trigger-happy hero, Rooster Cogburn. Ever since, Hollywood has been trying to match the film’s best elements, from the aged hero proving he’s still got it to the iconic valley charge.
|
IMDb Rating |
7.4 |
|
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
87% |
As the film that won Wayne his only Oscar, True Grit quickly became synonymous with the Western revenge subgenre, and countless movies have paid homage to it. In fact, DC Studios’ upcoming Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is based on a comic that can best be described as a cosmic take on Portis’ novel. With vengeance having become an integral part of the Old West, it’s hard to find a revenge team-up movie, Western or not, that isn’t a subtle copy of this classic.
2
High Noon (1952)
Directed By Fred Zinnemann
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High Noon
PG
Drama
Western
7.3/10
Release Date
June 30, 1952
Runtime
85 Minutes
Cast
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-
Gary Cooper
-
Thomas Mitchell
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IMDb Rating |
7.9 |
|
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
95% |
The Western genre has also been used for social commentary since the earliest revisionist pieces, a movement that 1952’s High Noon helped bring into the mainstream. These were among the first stories that started to challenge the black-and-white morality of classic Westerns, instead giving the audience more flawed and nuanced characters. The film focuses on an outgoing lawman who is compelled by duty to stand against a newly-released outlaw.
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High Noon was such a good story that, despite protests against its message, John Wayne set out to remake it within only a few years in Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo. Ever since, the trope of a defiant lawman awaiting the arrival of bad guys has inspired films like High Plains Drifter, The Last Stand, and Outland, not to mention several remakes and sequels. Even Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry uses parallel themes of the heroic but frustrated cop standing up to bad guys simply because no one else would — throwing away his badge just like Will Kane.
1
Shane (1953)
Directed By George Stevens
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Shane
Approved
Western
Drama
10/10
Release Date
August 14, 1953
Runtime
118 Minutes
Cast
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-
Alan Ladd
-
Jean Arthur
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For modern audiences, the cliché of the retired gunfighter coming back for one last ride is as Western as cowboy hats and revolvers. Before 1953’s Shane, however, that wasn’t the case, and the genre would instead focus on heroic lawmen, war veterans, and ranchers. That all changed with Alan Ladd’s performance as a retired gunfighter who is forced out of retirement to protect a family of homesteaders.
|
IMDb Rating |
7.6 |
|
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
97% |
Without Shane, it’s almost impossible to envision films like Pale Rider, Logan, and Unforgiven. Despite the Western genre losing box office dominance, the archetype created by the ’53 hit can be found across the spectrum. One could easily argue that the mere trope of the mysterious drifter with a dangerous past paved the way for other films, like A Fistful of Dollars, laying the foundation for the Spaghetti Western.
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