The 16 best Western movies to watch right now

This movie has everything for everybody — sweeping desert landscapes, dramatic gunfights, train robberies, and a villainous Henry Fonda. Director Serio Leone took learnings from some of his smaller films and decided to write a masterpiece that captivates with a solid story and great characters. You’re sucked in from the very first scene when Charles Bronson’s mysterious Harmonica character faces off against three cowboys across the railroad tracks while playing a tune on his namesake instrument, which creates a thread through the remainder of the film. To get his hands on prime land in Sweetwater, railroad baron Morton hires killers (led by Fonda’s character Frank) to off property owner Brett McBain and his family. But when McBain’s new wife arrives to find them all dead, she inherits the land. Outlaws Cheyenne and Harmonica take it upon themselves to look after her, but it’s soon clear that some ulterior motives against Frank are involved in the do-good task.

If you look at this list, there’s a big gap between Butch Cassidy and Unforgiven. And that’s not a mistake, as the American West experienced somewhat of a drought in the 70s and 80s. But then Unforgiven came along and reinvigorated the genre. Clint Eastwood returned to the Wild West as the star and director of the film, which he dedicated to Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, who he considered mentors who helped catapult his career. Unforgiven is a classic story for modern times, a tale that, like many other Westerns, obscures the oftentimes thin line between justice and revenge. It was a seamless transition for Eastwood to dive head first back into the genre, and it paid off when he picked up Oscars for best picture and best director that year.