Some of the most influential Westerns ever made changed the course of cinematic history. The Western genre has long been a staple of American entertainment culture since the inception of narrative movies at the beginning of the 20th century. From classic and spaghetti westerns to revisionist and neo-noir versions of the celebrated genre, the timeless tales of cowboys, outlaws, guns, horses, and everything in between are older than cinema itself.
Icons of the Western genre have emerged throughout the decades, including legendary Western movie stars John Wayne and Clint Eastwood as well as acclaimed directors such as Sergio Leone, John Ford, and Howard Hawks. The Western genre consists of familiar tropes that explore notions of rugged individualism, moral and lawful ambiguity, and the pursuit of honor and justice set against vast and desolate landscapes. Here are the 12 most impactful and revolutionary Westerns that altered the course of American film history.
12 The Great Train Robbery (1903)
The Great Train Robbery is not only the first Western film ever made but is actually the very first narrative cinematic movie ever constructed. The 1903 silent film has only a 12-minute runtime but essentially gave birth to modern visual storytelling as it came to be known today. The Great Train Robbery introduced foundational elements of filmmaking such as parallel editing, on-location shooting, and the implementation of close-up shots that were highly innovative for their time. The short movie is also widely credited as the earliest example of an action sequence in film.
11 Stagecoach (1939)
Stagecoach is a critical movie that revitalized the Western genre when it was starting to decline during the 1930s. Director John Ford helped legitimize the Western genre which was widely considered unserious at the time. The popularity and critical acclaim of Stagecoach paved the way for a number of future Western movies throughout the 1940s by proving they could still garner commercial success. The film also became a breakout role for John Wayne, who would go on to star in over 80 Westerns throughout his illustrious career.
10 High Noon (1952)
High Noon is a revolutionary Western known for its implementation of the modern real-time storytelling technique. The events of High Noon occur simultaneously with the film's runtime, which was an advanced and uncommon narrative approach at the time. This inspired later films of all genres to experiment with time as a component of visual storytelling. High Noon also helped popularize the concept of moral ambiguity in a Western protagonist, updating the traditional good versus evil conflict of previous films of the genre.
9 The Searchers (1956)
The Searchers combined the Western legends John Wayne and John Ford once more and introduced several new visual techniques that updated the Western genre. John Ford's iconic use of deep-focus cinematography, which features both the subject and the background in focus, was groundbreaking in the 1950s. The use of widescreen cinematography to capture the expansive landscapes also did much to revolutionize the Western genre. The Searchers also introduced progressive narrative revisions that questioned the mythical notion of the American cowboy protagonists and shifted the cultural perspective of Native Americans on film.
8 A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)
A Fistful of Dollars is widely considered the film that birthed the spaghetti Western subgenre. Visionary director Sergio Leone essentially created the spaghetti western, which refers to the cheaply-made Western subgenre that was shot by Italian filmmakers somewhere in Europe. The emergence of Clint Eastwood as "the Man with No Name" skyrocketed him into international stardom. Leone introduced much of the intense pacing, whipping camera action sequences, extreme close-ups, and long tension-building shots that came to define the Western genre from then on.
7 The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly became the pinnacle example of the spaghetti Western film genre. Directed by Leone and starring Eastwood as his celebrated rugged anti-hero persona, the film mastered the innovative cinematic and storytelling elements that A Fistful of Dollars introduced. The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly featured a non-linear narrative structure never before seen in the Western genre. It also utilized the fantastic musical elements of Ennio Morricone's iconic score in new ways to heighten the compelling narrative.
6 Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
Once Upon a Time in The West is Leone's Western masterpiece that encomes all of his previous innovations and expertise in the genre. The iconic film pieced together Leone's legendary elements of cinematography, editing, and music to create one of the best Western movies of all time. Remarkably, Leone was able to add additional groundbreaking nuance in Once Upon A Time In The West with symbolic motifs such as a harmonica and the sound of a ticking watch that propelled the Western genre to an arguably all-time high.
5 Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the most prominent revisionist Western films ever made. The film experimented with Western concepts of the individual and blended other genre elements of action, adventure, and comedy, adding another significant update to the Western genre at large. The powerful duo of Robert Redford and Paul Newman also highlighted the significance of on-screen chemistry which has come to define movies to this day. Other stylistic choices such as freeze frames in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid helped modernize the Western genre for years to come.
4 The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Wild Bunch introduced an extreme level of bloodshed and violence that had never before been seen in the Western genre. Director Sam Peckinpah implemented innovative slow-motion, extended montage, and sharp editing techniques to highlight the gruesome gunfights featured throughout the movie. The Wild Bunch, paired with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, effectively ended the Old West era of the Western genre with their shared release in 1969.
3 Unforgiven (1992)
Unforgiven is the first true neo-western film to change the course of the Western genre with its grim yet modern narrative style. Eastwood, who rose to stardom as a stoic cowboy representing justice, appears in Unforgiven as a deviated version of his iconic persona. The overall dark themes the film explores such as body mutilation and the consideration of psychological elements in ways that revolutionized the Western genre. The film's realistic yet contemplative look at violence offers an updated lens to the Western that historically has glorified death and bloodshed.
