Highest-Rated Movies about 'Wild West', Sort by Popularity

For a Few Dollars More (1965), Ride in the Whirlwind (1965), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), The Hired Hand (1971), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Western Union (1941), The Wild Bunch (1969) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Wild West movies.

#3. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Storyline: Jill McBain travels to the wild frontier; Utah - where she and her new husband planned to settle down. Upon arrival, she finds him and his children dead. There's a lot of land, and potential, but there's those who want to take it - at any cost. Even if it means killing a man and his kids.

Plot Keywords: gunslinger, mercenary, tycoon, wife, thrilling, brutal, gutsy ...

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#5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Storyline: When Senator Ransom Stoddard returns home to Shinbone for the funeral of Tom Doniphon, he recounts to a local newspaper editor the story behind it all. He had come to town many years before, a lawyer by profession. The stage was robbed on its way in by the local ruffian, Liberty Valance, and Stoddard has nothing to his name left save a few law books. He gets a job in the kitchen at the Ericson's restaurant and there meets his future wife, Hallie. The territory is vying for Statehood and Stoddard is selected as a representative over Valance, who continues terrorizing the town. When he destroys the local newspaper office and attacks the editor, Stoddard calls him out, though the conclusion is not quite as straightforward as legend would have it.

Plot Keywords: senator, outlaw, lawyer, rancher, gritty, engaging, brooding ...

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#6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Storyline: Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized, and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rocks, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia". Based on the exploits of the historical characters.

Plot Keywords: outlaw, gunslinger, teacher, amusing, wild, thrilling, gutsy ...

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#8. The Wild Bunch (1969)

Storyline: It's 1913, and the "traditional" American West is dying. Amongst the inhabitants of this dying era are a gang known as "the wild bunch." After a failed railroad office robbery, the gang heads to Mexico to do one last job. Seeing their times and lives drifting away in the 20th century, the gang takes the job and ends up in a brutally violent last stand against their enemies deemed to be corrupt, in a small Mexican town ruled by a ruthless general.

Plot Keywords: outlaw, gunslinger, traitor, bounty hunter, brutal, fiery, gutsy ...

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#9. The Searchers (1956)

Storyline: After a long three-year absence, the battle-scarred Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, Ethan Edwards, turns up on the remote and dusty Texan homestead of his brother, Aaron. In high hopes of finding peace, instead, the taciturn former soldier will embark on a treacherous five-year odyssey of retribution, when the ruthless Chief Scar's murderous Comanche raiding party massacre his family, burn the ranch to the ground and abduct his nine-year-old niece, Debbie. Driven by hatred of Indians, Ethan and his young companion, Martin Pawley, ride through the unforgiving desert to track down their lost Debbie; however, is the woman they lost and the prisoner in Scar's teepee still the same woman the searchers seek?

Plot Keywords: gunslinger, uncle, niece, brother, native american, powerful, engaging ...

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#10. My Darling Clementine (1946)

Storyline: Wyatt Earp and his brothers Morgan and Virgil ride into Tombstone and leave brother James in charge of their cattle herd. On their return they find their cattle stolen and James dead. Wyatt takes on the job of town marshal, making his brothers deputies, and vows to stay in Tombstone until James' killers are found. He soon runs into the brooding, coughing, hard-drinking Doc Holliday as well as the sullen and vicious Clanton clan. Wyatt discovers the owner of a trinket stolen from James' dead body and the stage is set for the Earps' long-awaited revenge.

Plot Keywords: sheriff, cowboy, barber, schoolteacher, gambler, love interest, charming ...

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#12. Purgatory (1999)

Storyline: After outlaw Blackjack Britton (Eric Roberts) and his gang hold up a bank, they escape through a dust storm and wind up in the sleepy town of Refuge. Finding its inhabitants and sheriff (Sam Shepard) unusually passive and genteel, Blackjack and his bunch begin to take advantage, causing all manner of trouble. The gang can't fathom the town's lack of fight until they learn that Refuge is actually a purgatory for famous dead gunfighters who must resist the violence that marked their lives.

Plot Keywords: wild bill hickok, jesse james, billy the kid, doc holliday, outlaw, sheriff, gritty ...

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#13. Blazing Saddles (1974)

Storyline: The Ultimate Western Spoof. A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar (Harvey Korman), a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor (Mel Brooks). Hedley convinces him to send the town the first Black sheriff (Cleavon Little) in the west. Bart is a sophisticated urbanite who will have some difficulty winning over the townspeople.

Plot Keywords: sheriff, gunslinger, attorney, cowboy, friend, outlandish, madcap ...

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#14. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Storyline: Set in winter in the Old West. Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a young Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. The shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to use her experience to help McCabe run his business, while sharing in the profits. The whorehouse thrives and McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. He refuses, and his decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.

Plot Keywords: gambler, prostitute, businessman, bounty hunter, profound, moving, dreamy ...

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#15. Destry Rides Again (1939)

Storyline: Kent, the unscrupulous boss of Bottleneck has Sheriff Keogh killed when he asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game that gives Kent a stranglehold over the local cattle rangers. The mayor, who is in cahoots with Kent appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as the new sheriff assuming that he'll be easy to control. But what the mayor doesn't know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under famous lawman, Tom Destry, and is able to call upon the equally formidable Tom Destry Jr to be his deputy. Featuring a career reviving performance from Marlene Dietrich as bar singer Frenchie, which could well have been the inspiration for Madeline Kahn's "Blazing Saddles" character, Lili Von Schtupp.—Mark Thompson <mrt@oasis.icl.co.uk>

Plot Keywords: sheriff, boss, drunk, singer, amusing, lighthearted, small town ...

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