Details and justification at the website.
These are the Westerns that any fan of the genre should know. These are some of the most influential and important Westerns ever made. We don't necessarily claim these are the 30 "best" Westerns. The Covered Wagon (1923), for example, hasn't aged very well, but it helped change attitudes toward Westerns and allowed for serious, feature-length Westerns to follow in its wake.
This list is not ranked and is shown by release year.
| Title | Year | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Covered Wagon, The | 1923 | |
| The Iron Horse | 1924 | |
| Tumbleweeds | 1925 | |
| Stagecoach | 1939 | |
| Ox-Bow Incident, The | 1943 | |
| My Darling Clementine | 1946 | |
| Pursued | 1947 | |
| Red River | 1948 | |
| Gunfighter, The | 1950 | |
| High Noon | 1952 |
 
|
| Rancho Notorious | 1952 | |
| Hondo | 1953 | |
| Shane | 1953 | |
| Johnny Guitar | 1954 | |
| Vera Cruz | 1954 | |
| Man from Laramie, The | 1955 | |
| Searchers, The | 1956 |
|
| Forty Guns | 1957 | |
| The Tall T | 1957 | |
| Man of the West | 1958 | |
| Ride Lonesome | 1959 |
|
| Rio Bravo | 1959 |
|
| Magnificent Seven, The | 1960 |
|
| Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The | 1962 |
|
| Ride the High Country | 1962 | |
| Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The aka Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il | 1966 |
|
| Once Upon a Time in the West aka C'era una volta il West | 1968 |
|
| Wild Bunch, The | 1969 |
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| High Plains Drifter | 1973 | |
| Unforgiven | 1992 |
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