Summary

• Western movies prioritize entertainment over historical accuracy, leading to unrealistic portrayals of cowboys, outlaws, and Native Americans.
• Despite historical inaccuracies, iconic Western films like The Searchers and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are still considered amazing movies.
• Filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino intentionally subvert historical accuracy in Westerns, as seen in Django Unchained.

There are lots of amazing Western movies that have swept audiences away with their powerful portrayals of cowboys, bandits, and outlaws, that, when looked at from a historical perspective, are totally inaccurate. As a genre, the Western has usually been more focused on delivering fast-paced entertainment than a completely accurate representation of life in the Wild West. In the process, the depiction of bounty hunters, Native Americans, weaponry, and women can often suffer from a realism problem.

While acclaimed classic Western filmmakers like John Ford have been applauded for iconic Western movies, such as Stagecoach and The Searchers, these films have also brought up issues for historians who questioned the validity of everything that was represented on screen. The Western genre’s tendency towards fabrication has continued right up to the modern day, with contemporary directors' works, such as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, also having received criticism for their historical accuracy. Despite these historical inaccuracies, this did not stop these Westerns from still being amazing movies.

10 The Searchers (1956)

The Searchers’ representation of Native Americans was not accurate

John Ford’s The Searchers was a classic Western movie everyone should watch at least once. Starring John Wayne as a Civil War veteran in search of his lost niece, The Searchers addressed the harshness shown by White settlers towards Native Americans in a way rarely seen on screen. While The Searchers can be read as a condemnation of white prejudices, its depiction of Native Americans was also problematic and inaccurate. Ford even itted so in a 1964 interview where he stated there was “merit to the charge that the Indian hasn't been portrayed accurately or fairly” (via Studlar & Bernstein.)

9 The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly depicted weaponry

While The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was rightfully a classic of the Spaghetti Western genre, it has also been criticized for its historical accuracy by a Civil War weapons expert. In a video from Insider, Civil War expert Garry Adelman took issues with the movie’s use of weaponry, including a Gatling Gun and mortar guns, which he said were not used during the time the film was set. “The fact is that this is so wrong that it's hard to attribute to any one battle in this campaign,” Adelman said of a clip he rated 2/10 for accuracy.

8 Cat Ballou (1965)

Cat Ballou valued comedy over historical accuracy

The 1965 Western comedy starring Jane Fonda and Lee Mavin Cat Ballou was a spoof adventure that parodied the entire Western genre. As an over-the-top send-up on classic Western tropes, Cat Ballou valued comedy over historical accuracy and focused more on creating the aesthetic of an imagined version of the Old West versus the historical representation of cowboys and outlaws. While Cat Ballou was not very concerned with historical accuracy, it remained a hilarious slice of juvenile mayhem that won Marvin an Academy Award for his dual role as Kid Shelleen and Tim Strawn.

7 Dances With Wolves (1990)

Dances with Wolves’ made efforts to be historically accurate but some aspects were falsified

Kevin Costner’s epic Dances with Wolves revitalized the Western genre when it was released in 1990 and even won the Academy Award for Best Picture. As a sprawling adventure of a Union lieutenant traversing the American frontier, it was an incredible success, but as an accurate historical depiction of that time it was questionable. The characters and narrative of Dances with Wolves were not based on a true story and instead rooted in historical events. While efforts were made to accurately represent its Civil War setting, aspects such as the Comanche Nation being replaced with the Lakota Nation were falsified.

6 Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was loosely inspired by the real outlaw duo

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid told a fictionalized version of the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker and his partner Harry Longabaugh. A truly important film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came right at the beginning of the New Hollywood movement and focused more on capturing the spirit of the outlaw duo versus accurately portraying their real lives. While the real outlaws did rob banks, trains, and horses, as part of the criminal group the Wild Bunch, the excesses of their endeavors were exaggerated for cinematic effect.

5 Stagecoach (1939)

Stage presented a simplistic and inaccurate depiction of Native Americans

John Ford’s Stagecoach helped revolutionize and redefine the Western genre and would cement John Wayne’s reputation as Hollywood’s most successful leading man. Telling the story of a group of people traveling on a stagecoach who were disrupted by a threat against the military leader Geronimo and a group of Apache warriors. Like many Westerns of this era, Stagecoach can now be criticized for its problematic depiction of Native Americans, which showcased them as simple savages and was not sensitive to their deep and varied culture.

4 The Magnificent Seven (1960)

The Magnificent Seven was not based on history and instead a Western remake of a Japanese samurai film

The Magnificent Seven was one of the most popular Westerns ever made, but its origins do not lie in history and instead come from the Japanese samurai movie Seven Samurai. Both films tell the story of a group of seven skilled men teaming up to protect a village from bandits, and while these kinds of dangers were around in the Wild West, the actual story of The Magnificent Seven was a complete fabrication. Despite this, the film was a major success and led to the development of an entire The Magnificent Seven franchise.

3 Unforgiven (1992)

Unforgiven played into the myth of women as helpless in the Wild West

The Best Picture winner Unforgiven was director Clint Eastwood’s definitive statement on the Western genre and delved deep into themes of the glorification of violence and the nature of aging, courage, and heroism. While Unforgiven was a powerful portrayal of the difficult times of the Wild West, and it did feature more strong women than most Westerns before it, it also played into the myth of women in the Old West either being helpless or prostitutes. This type of representation of women in Westerns ignored the real stories of powerful Western women such as Calamity Jane.

2 The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Wild Bunch depicted weaponry not commonly seen in the Wild West

While Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch was a revisionist Western that helped showcase that the genre still had some life in it, it also fell for one of the most common historical blunders in movies. Unfortunately, the weaponry seen in The Wild Bunch was not historically accurate and shocking violence and mayhem depicted on screen would not have been possible in the Old West (via GunMag Warehouse.) The Wild Bunch showcased lawmen wielding Colt M1911 pistols, a cowboy armed with a Winchester Model 1892, and an outlaw packing a Springfield M1903A3, none of which were common in the Wild West.

1 Django Unchained (2012)

Django Unchained was chock-full of historical inaccuracies

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained was not a movie that concerned itself with historical accuracy and instead intentionally subverted many of the genre’s tropes. The most obvious subversion was Jamie Foxx as Django, who, as a black man in search of revenge, went against the white savior narrative seen in so many earlier Western films. The weaponry of Django Unchained was also historically inaccurate and Django used dynamite a decade before it was even invented. There was also no evidence to suggest that the bare-knuckle Mandingo death matches seen in Django Unchained ever happened in the Wild West (via HuffPost.)

Sources: Studlar & Bernstein, Insider, GunMag Warehouse, HuffPost