The greatest Westerns
The Western genre is one of the most exciting not only because of the complex characters that don't always fit into the 'good' or 'bad' categories but also the colourful and stunningly shot landscapes that offer a time capsule experience.
The 'Dollars' trilogy
Sergio Leone's iconic three-part Western saga, led by Clint Eastwood, is a storytelling marvel that boasts complex characters (Eli Wallach's Tuco, for one), clever twists, and memorable music from the great Ennio Morricone.
Once Upon a Time in the West
Compared to the 'Dollars' trilogy, Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in the West' is a relatively more complicated beast that bears all of the master filmmaker's signatures but also upped the emotional quotient.
3:10 to Yuma
The original and superior 1957 version, starring Glen Ford and Van Heflin, is an example of a Western where the battle of wits is prioritised over the battle of bullets, with Ford not playing a typical baddie.
Bad Day at Black Rock
Director John Sturges made a tension-packed masterpiece where an old one-armed man walks into a small town alone and takes on a bunch of racist, dangerous men who may have murdered his friend.
The Big Country
William Wyler's gorgeous-looking epic is populated with men who flaunt different views about masculinity. Gregory Peck plays an ego-less man who challenges the conventional, outdated notion of a 'real man'.
My Darling Clementine
John Ford's take on the legendary Wyatt Earp, played by Henry Fonda, is an exemplary Western shot in eye-catching monochrome photography. Fonda is one of the more interesting interpretations of the famous real-life lawman.
The Tin Star
Another excellent Henry Fonda role in one of director Anthony Mann's masterful Westerns, in which Fonda is an outsider who becomes a mentor figure to a young Sheriff-to-be, played by Anthony Perkins ("Psycho").
Johnny Guitar
Here's another film that challenges the idea of the Western protagonist. It doesn't always have to be a man, as proved by the great Joan Crawford, playing a headstrong woman playing by her own rules.