LISTS: WESTERN EPICS
In honor of "Horizon: An American Saga - Ch. 1", we countdown the top Westerns with epic scale and sweeping production. Jump on your steed! Let's ride!
by Nate Lemann
We are looking at Western Epics that have grand scale and ambition, whether in production, story, or themes. We'll be excluding films that operate more as dramas (e.g. "Shane"), thrillers (e.g. "High Noon" or "The Man With No Name" trilogy), or comedies (e.g. "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"). We also consider neo-Westerns, whether contemporary, fantasy, or sci-fi films; they can qualify as long as they carry on the Western pacing, archetypes, or story structures.
20. HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA - CH. 1 (2024) - DIR. KEVIN COSTNER
Costner's big bet is the definition of an epic, telling the stories of multiple people on the frontier during the Civil War and examining the harsh cost to "Manifest Destiny", with both brutal violence and sweeping filmmaking in the style of the Old Hollywood epics.
19. HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962) - DIR. JOHN FORD, HENRY HATHAWAY, GEORGE MARSHALL, & RICHARD THORPE
The film that inspired Costner’s latest is a true time-sprawling epic, telling the story of a pioneer family over many decades, from the 1830s through to the building of the railroads. Every star in Hollywood showed up for this and was such a large undertaking that the film had four directors.
18. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990) - DIR. KEVIN COSTNER
Costner’s original Western epic gets dunked on for winning the Best Picture over “Goodfellas”, and while that may be a questionable decision, it’s still hard to deny how accomplished Coster’s work behind the camera is. Telling the story of a solider who makes an unlikely alliance with the local Sioux tribe at his new posting, finding again his will to live. It’s a crowdpleaser for a reason.
17. RIO GRANDE (1950) - DIR. JOHN FORD
This yearning tale of a father and son reconnecting to help defend a group of settlers against an onslaught of Apache warriors is both a grand undertaking and emotionally rich tale of reconnection and redemption.
16. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (2023) - DIR. MARTIN SCORSESE
Martin Scorsese doesn't do small films and this 2023 Best Picture nominee is an examination of one of this country's greatest sins: the robbing and barbaric extermination of its native peoples. This tale is set in a more contemporary time period as opposed to your average Western but it deeply ponders the evil perpetrated against an innocent peoples with no justification other than horrific greed. Robert De Niro has not been better in quite some time as the devil himself in this. Lily Gladstone will blow you away, outshining the great Leonardo DiCaprio as her dumb, evil spouse.
15. DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012) - DIR. QUENTIN TARANTINO
Tarantino's wild ride of a neo-Western is full of amazing performances: Jaime Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a never-better Samuel L. Jackson. The visuals and style are in a league of their own, and yet at its core, this is a grand and epic love story about two slaves who find a way to raise down the white man's world to reunite and be free.
14. HOSTILES (2017) - DIR. SCOTT COOPER
I almost walked out after the first five minutes of this film, which depicts the most brutal Native American raid ever put to film. That's how disturbed and assured Cooper's direction is in this. Aside from some really grand cinematography of this beautiful country, Christian Bale and Wes Studi lead this harrowing tale of a regiment of soldiers escorting a dying Native Chief (Studi) to his ancestral burial grounds. As they learn to trust each other, they come to learn who the real hostiles are in this Old West.
13. THE HARDER THEY FALL (2021) - DIR. JEYMES SAMUEL
Samuel has some of the most confident direction you'll see on this list. He reclaims the Western genre and remixes it with style, flair, and just a staggering amount charisma, telling a collision course revenge epic that shines a light on the African American legends history so willfully ignores from this time.
12. HELL OR HIGH WATER (2016) - DIR. DAVID MACKENZIE
This neo-Western may not seem like an epic saga, telling the story of two brothers in modern West Texas going on a bank robbing spree while being chased down by an old Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges). However, this film explores very complex and nuanced themes of wealth and poverty, digging into the hereditary nature of both and what lengths does it take to reverse your family's fortune.
11. 3:10 TO YUMA (2007) - DIR. JAMES MANGOLD
While the first version of this tale was more of a thriller, Mangold's 2007 remake takes on a more scaled-up production and scope, building a tale about two men with very different motivations, finding common ground and maybe, just maybe, a little redemption. Its ending will stick with you for a long, long time.
10. LOGAN (2017) - DIR. JAMES MANGOLD
Mangold again returns to the well and, yes, this is a Western, movie snobs. Jackman and Mangold re-team on this superhero adventure, really reaching new heights to tell a story of a "gunslinger"-type character confronting mortality and what legacy will he leave behind for the next generation: a sad-sack who can't even save himself or a the hero we all know he is deep down?
9. TOMBSTONE (1993) - DIR. GEORGE P. COSMATOS
In what was a supposedly chaotic production, Kurt Russell willed this movie into existence and tells the great story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday's storied friendship and their epic showdown at the O.K. Coral, the greatest shootout in Western history. Astonishing performances from a very, very stacked cast is capped off with Val Kilmer's woefully under-appreciated turn as Holiday, a trickster-gentleman-outlaw-gunslinger-card man.
8. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) - DIR. JOHN HUSTON
This Mexico-set film is more Adventure film than Western but still makes this list as it tells the story of prospectors who strike gold but soon find themselves besieged by bandits and the elements, as also the beautiful seductress of greed rears her ever watchful glare upon these men.
7. WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (2017) - DIR. MATT REEVES
What Matt Reeves accomplished with the "Apes" films needs to be studied. He is the great remixer of genre, with "Dawn" being a Shakespearian tragedy set during an apocalypse and this film telling a revenge saga in the vein of "The Searchers" (a reference film Reeves even sites). Caesar chases down a ruthless, mad colonel who visited great pain upon his house, but in the process, learns he's slowly losing his soul, becoming the very monster the humans have become.
6. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) - DIR. JOHN STURGES
This tale of seven gunmen banding together to protect a small town from the wrath of a band of outlaws is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's famed "Seven Samurai" but becoming iconic in its own way, being one of the signature action Western films of all time.
5. THE SEARCHERS (1956) - DIR. JOHN FORD
This is likeliest the best John Wayne has ever been ("True Grit" is a good debate) as this story tells of the years-long quest to free an Apache-captured girl, but as the journey goes on, motivations begin to blur and we are not sure what justice would even look like anymore.
4. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007) - DIR. ANDREW DOMINIK
This quite long tale is about the corrosive elements of fame, greed, and obsession. Pitt is like a ghost in this two-hand character study as the famed outlaw who was more mercurial and haunted than legends tell. Casey Affleck is great as the snively and pathetic Robert Ford, a man so devoid of charm that he feels the need to take drastic action to achieve anything close to the fame of his idol.
3. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) - DIR. SERGIO LEONE
Leone's best film outside of "The Man with No Name" trilogy is a sweeping saga that is at once a tale about fighting the powers that be but also fighting "progress" to preserve a peaceful way of life. Can they ever win against that spirit of growth and evolution?
2. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) - DIR. THE COEN BROTHERS
This neo-Western thriller enters the next stratosphere in its philosophical rumination on a world that appears to be losing all sense of honor and decency. In its stead now stands the specter of arbitrary chaos, Anton Chigurh, nihilism incarnate. Tommy Lee Jones final scenes in this film will stick with you for the longest time; a truly haunting moral ending.
1. UNFORGIVEN (1992) - DIR. CLINT EASTWOOD
Eastwood's 1992 masterpiece may seem likely a fairly generic revenge story on paper, but it is in fact the great reckoning with the Western genre. It's the story of an old gunslinger by the name of William Money, coaxed out of retirement to deliver vengeance for a badly beaten prostitute but its themes soar far beyond that: Eastwood examines what a life as a gunslinger invites and how fickle key Western themes of justice and myth-making really turn out to be. Western's greatest star (outside of John Wayne) crafted the perfect deconstruction of everything he built and, in turn, made one of the greatest films ever made. Also, Gene Hackman has never been better as Lil' Bill.
Our full list can be found here on Letterboxd.
Think we missed anything from our list? Let us know in the comments.
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