Summary

• The 1970s marked the end of traditional westerns and the rise of the anti-western, questioning the genre's whitewashing of U.S. history.
• Movies like The Cowboys, Jeremiah Johnson, and High Plains Drifter paved the way for revisionist westerns in the '70s.
• Films like El Topo, The Shootist, and Blazing Saddles brought fresh, innovative perspectives to the western genre in the 1970s.

With delightfully dark classics like El Topo and McCabe & Mrs. Miller, the 1970s marked the end of the western genre’s heyday and the dawn of the anti-western. The western genre has been a staple of American cinema since the invention of filmmaking. One of the first narrative films ever made – Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 silent movie The Great Train Robbery – was a western. Seminal masterpieces like Stagecoach and Destry Rides Again established the cinematic language of the western genre in the 1930s, and westerns remained popular and prevalent throughout the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s.

But in the 1970s, the genre’s reign over multiplexes began to end. The Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War had caused disillusioned Americans to question their institutions, and many moviegoers became savvy to the western genre’s tactical whitewashing of the darker chapters of U.S. history. The western genre would never quite reclaim its blockbuster status, but the demythologization of the western tropes and conventions led to the creation of the revisionist western, or “anti-western.” This movement paved the way for some of the greatest westerns ever made throughout the ‘70s.

10 The Cowboys

Directed by Mark Rydell, 1972’s The Cowboys stars John Wayne as aging rancher Wil Andersen, who’s forced to hire a bunch of inexperienced kids as cowhands to help him with a cattle drive. The boys barely know how to drive cattle under the best of circumstances, but they face plenty of dangers along the way and they’re being chased by a nefarious gang of rustlers. The movie was criticized for its use of violence as a coming-of-age ritual, but that’s all part of its portrayal of a harsh, deadly frontier.

Wayne’s impeccable performance in The Cowboys brings the same grizzled, end-of-the-road roughneck vibes as True Grit. But The Cowboys is a much more optimistic film, as it sees Wayne’s protagonist imparting his wisdom onto the next generation. The Cowboys is a pitch-perfect adventure movie with lovable characters.

9 Jeremiah Johnson

Sydney Pollack turned the life of Mexican War veteran and legendary mountain man Jeremiah Johnson into a contemplative western movie, aptly titled Jeremiah Johnson, in 1972. Robert Redford plays the title role opposite Will Geer as his mentor, “Bear Claw” Chris Lapp. Jeremiah Johnson isn’t as action-packed as the average western movie – and it requires a lot of patience from the audience – but that quieter approach paves the way for a thoughtful, meditative character study.

Jeremiah Johnson doesn’t shy away from the brutality of the Old West, but it replaces the genre’s usual shootouts and saloon brawls with a poignant celebration of the human spirit. It’s all about its characters’ desperate quest for freedom, which is both timeless and universally resonant. It also benefits from stunning cinematography by Duke Callaghan, razor-sharp editing by Thomas Stanford, and, of course, Pollack’s typically fantastic direction.

8 High Plains Drifter

Clint Eastwood blended elements of supernatural horror into a familiar western framework in his 1973 thriller High Plains Drifter. Similar to A Fistful of Dollars, Eastwood plays a mysterious stranger who rides into a town full of corruption and doles out his own unique brand of justice. But unlike A Fistful of Dollars, his character isn’t just a man seeking justice – there’s something paranormal going on. It’s unclear if he’s a ghost or an angel of vengeance or even the Devil himself.

By the early ‘70s, there wasn’t much room for innovation in the western genre. There had been western comedies, neo-westerns in a contemporary setting, westerns where the heroes were cowards, westerns where the heroes were full-blown villains – it seemed as though everything that could be done in a western had already been done. But High Plains Drifter’s horror western storyline managed to put a fresh spin on the well-worn genre formula.

7 Ulzana's Raid

Robert Aldrich’s 1972 revisionist western Ulzana’s Raid is both a spot-on homage to the classical westerns of John Ford and a subversive New Hollywood western deconstructing all the tropes and trademarks the genre is known for. Set in Arizona in the 1880s, Ulzana’s Raid revolves around a ruthless raid by Chiricahua Apaches against European settlers. As Ulzana continues his rampage of terror, an inexperienced young lieutenant is sent after him.

The genius of Ulzana’s Raid is that it uses its western narrative as an allegory for the then-ongoing Vietnam War. It’s all about a band of U.S. troops going after an elusive and unbeatable enemy, which could be seen as symbolic of the United States’ controversial involvement in the conflict in Vietnam. Like all the best Hollywood movies of the ‘70s, Ulzana’s Raid reflects a fractured America.

6 Duck, You Sucker!

After seemingly concluding his western career with Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968, Sergio Leone returned to the genre one last time to helm Duck, You Sucker! in 1971. Duck, You Sucker! – also known as A Fistful of Dynamite and Once Upon a Time... the Revolution – isn’t as iconic as Leone’s spaghetti westerns from the ‘60s, like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. But it is a certifiable underrated gem.

Set during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, Duck, You Sucker! stars Rod Steiger as Mexican outlaw Juan Miranda and James Coburn as Fenian revolutionary John Mallory. After the two meet by chance, they unwittingly become heroes of the Revolution. Duck, You Sucker! is easily Leone’s most underappreciated film; it’s an action-packed epic with a surprising emotional punch.

5 El Topo

The term “acid western” was coined to describe Alejandro Jodorowsky’s revolutionary approach to the genre in El Topo. El Topo combines the allegorical ambitions of traditional westerns like The Searchers with the excessive, surreal violence of spaghetti westerns and the psychedelic experimentation of the counterculture of the 1960s. Jodorowsky didn’t just direct El Topo; he also wrote the screenplay, composed the score, and starred in the title role, so it’s a singular cinematic vision.

El Topo loosely tells the father-son story of gunslinger El Topo and his son Hijo, who grows disillusioned with his father’s violent lifestyle. It has a shapeless, episodic structure, prioritizing its themes and ideas over solid narrative beats. Jodorowsky channels Eastern philosophy and Judeo-Christian symbolism through a western genre framework. El Topo is one of the weirdest – and most profound – movies ever made.

4 The Shootist

John Wayne capped off his legendary acting career with his stellar lead performance in Don Siegel’s 1976 western The Shootist. This marked Wayne’s final film appearance before his death in 1979, and it was the perfect swansong for one of Hollywood’s most renowned leading men. Based on Glendon Swarthout’s 1975 novel of the same name, The Shootist revolves around an aging gunslinger looking for the perfect way to die; he wants to feel minimal pain and enjoy maximal dignity in his final moments.

It’s poetic that this ended up being Wayne’s final western, because it sees his typical western hero at the very end of his road, ready to finally hang up his hat and call it a day. A dying Wayne gives a moving and authentic performance as a dying gunfighter. This performance elevates The Shootist from a standard, formulaic western to a bona fide classic.

3 The Outlaw Josey Wales

Three years after High Plains Drifter, Eastwood directed himself in another relentlessly brutal revisionist western: 1976’s The Outlaw Josey Wales. Set during the Civil War, the movie tells the epic tale of Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer who s a Confederate guerrilla army to exact revenge when his family is massacred by a Union militia. Wales earns a reputation as a fearsome gunfighter, and even after all his fellow fighters have surrendered to the Union, he continues to seek vengeance.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is an anti-war masterpiece that decries the fact that humanity’s greatest creativity and innovation happen during wartime. It decries the fact that even though no one enjoys war, warfare continues to ravage the world in an endless cycle. Like Eastwood’s later masterpiece Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales explores a more grounded, humanistic take on the Man with No Name archetype.

2 Blazing Saddles

Mel Brooks satirized the western genre’s whitewashing of American history in his groundbreaking 1974 parody Blazing Saddles. The movie revolves around a corrupt white politician who wants to tear through a quaint little town to build a railroad. He hires a Black sheriff in an attempt to sabotage the town, but the sheriff turns out to be so good at his job that he saves the town and brings the crooked politician and his cronies to justice. This is both a great western hero’s journey and a spot-on satire of the absurdity of racism.

Not only is Blazing Saddles a hilarious spoof of westerns; it’s also just a terrific western. Sheriff Bart is an easy hero to root for and his story touches on all the hallmarks of a classic western. Blazing Saddles is a comedy masterpiece that’s just as funny half a century later.

1 McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Robert Altman upended the skewed mythologization of the western genre with his seminal 1971 anti-western McCabe & Mrs. Miller. The film stars Warren Beatty as a mysterious gambler named John McCabe and Julie Christie as a British madam named Constance Miller, who team up to establish a makeshift brothel in an unincorporated boomtown. McCabe spreads rumors around town that he’s a notorious gunslinger, but when bounty hunters come after him, he reveals his true cowardly colors.

Along with the earlier revisionist western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which tackled the same themes with a more comedic angle, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a landmark entry in the western canon. It subverted everything that audiences had come to expect from the genre. Its hero isn’t a role model, its action sequences are brutal rather than exciting, and its ending is decidedly bleak.