Western movies date back to the earliest days of cinema and include some of the greatest films of all time, although there are several releases that, if you’re a newcomer to the genre, you should hold off on watching. This does not mean these Western movies were bad; it’s just that they may be alienating to those without a firm handle on the tropes, clichés, and history. While classic Westerns explored simple stories of good sheriffs versus bad outlaws, as the genre developed, it began tackling increasingly complex and morally ambiguous themes.

Some of the best Westerns ever were not aimed at those just getting into the genre, as all-time great directors like Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone made films that acted as the culmination of their lives work and would not be nearly as effective without first watching their back catalog. Others were alienating due to their extended runtimes, genre-melding style, or controversial nature. Western movies consist of several sub-genres, and many of these releases only reveal their power after you’ve taken the time to immerse yourself in the vast landscape of Wild West cinema.

8

High Plains Drifter (1973)

Directed by Clint Eastwood

While it’s true that High Plains Drifter was one of Clint Eastwood’s most fascinating Westerns, both as a star and director, it must be admitted that it’s not an ideal starting point for those unfamiliar with the genre. As a brutal, eerie, and morally ambiguous character, Eastwood as The Stranger pushed his The Man with No Name persona even further to highlight the nihilism and existential nature of a lone gunslinger with a shadowy past. As such, if you were only familiar with stereotypical noble heroes of classic Westerns, The Stranger will be a difficult character to make sense of.

With a grim atmosphere and supernatural undertones, the spirit of revenge haunts this unusual narrative as a mysterious stranger rolls into town to dish out justice among the corrupt community. As a morality tale with a tinge of horror, High Plains Drifter will challenge those who have only been accustomed to classic, straightforward adventures seen in Westerns of bygone eras. The 1970s saw a transformation and revitalization of the Western, as darker themes and more complex antiheroes began to emerge.

7

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man (1995)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Director Jim Jarmusch has been playing with notions of Americana his entire career, yet never was he more cryptic or alienating than he was with ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man. This psychedelic story starring Johnny Depp belonged to the acid Western subgenre, a style of filmmaking that combined the metaphorical ambitions of all-time great releases like The Searchers and Shane with a countercultural outlook influenced by drug use, psychedelia, and poetic, almost-abstract concepts. While this made for thoughtful viewing, if you’re just discovering the appeal of Western movies, it may be too much to take.

From Neil Young’s haunting and sparse guitar-based score to the otherworldly presence of a Native American spirit guide, ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man was a hard film to pigeonhole as it saw Depp traversing a strange black-and-white Western landscape that may be the afterlife. Depp’s character was named William Blake, and the film was chock-full of literary allusions to the English poet of the same name. Although ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man was a deeply thoughtful and engaging film, it would be a terrible starting point for somebody who has yet to see the classics and can put it into context with wider Western movie traditions.

6

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Directed by S. Craig Zahler

While classic Westerns tended to follow certain genre conventions, as the years have gone on, different styles of filmmaking have begun to encroach on stories of the Wild West. For this reason, if you’re new to Westerns you should avoid Bone Tomahawk until you’re ready to see how extreme violence and brutal horror transform a story of a small town sheriff on a rescue mission into something entirely different. As a Western-horror hybrid, Bone Tomahawk was filled with deeply unsettling scenes as it delved into the abject terror of cannibalism.

While Bone Tomahawk may look like a traditional Western on the surface, the film’s descent into bleak and uncomfortable territory may shock and alienate viewers who were not prepared for it. With graphic gore, his encounter with a disturbing tribe of cannibals meant Kurt Russell as Sheriff Franklin Hunt found himself embroiled in a story that was part Western adventure and part survival horror. If you’re just getting into Westerns, this genre-bending experience may be difficult to reconcile.

5

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Directed by Robert Altman

With McCabe & Mrs. Miller, director Robert Altman actively subverted the traditional Western, and for this reason, you should steer clear of it until you’ve become more accustomed to the tropes and clichés of the genre as a whole. While this was truly one of the most underrated releases of the 1970s, it was more of an “anti-Western” that took a far different approach than the standard set-up of clear-cut heroes-versus-villains. Instead, McCabe & Mrs. Miller depicts a bleak, realistic world where capitalism trumps courage and morality.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller didn’t feature a typical Western gunslinger and instead starred Warren Beatty as a mysterious gambler using his cunning smarts to quickly gain a prominent position in a small town. With a slow, almost dreamlike pacing and a central conflict that had more to do with real estate and negotiation than Wild West shootouts, Altman deconstructed the myth of the Old West to highlight a world that runs on monetary desires. As a movie that intentionally defies Western traditions, you’ll appreciate McCabe & Mrs. Miller more if you save it for later.

4

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Directed by Sergio Leone

Once Upon a Time in the West was one of the greatest Westerns ever, but it’s definitely not a good starting point for someone new to the genre. As the culmination of director Sergio Leone’s acclaimed work in the spaghetti Western genre, the best place to start with these kinds of Westerns would be the filmmaker’s earlier works with Clint Eastwood on the Dollars Trilogy. These films consisted of the classic A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Only after watching Eastwood play The Man with No Name in those three movies should you endeavor to tackle Once Upon a Time in the West. After having already perfected his action-packed style, Leone decided to take his time with this movie, which clocks in at 171 minutes in its original Italian version. With limited dialogue, countless callbacks to classic Westerns, and a complex plot that unfolds slowly, Once Upon a Time in the West felt like Leone’s grand goodbye to the genre and will only be properly appreciated by those who already love and understand the history of Westerns.

3

El Topo (1970)

Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky

As a bizarre and surreal acid Western, El Topo was certainly not a film made for viewers who were only just beginning to get into the genre. Through strange and surreal sequences, bizarre characters, heavy doses of Judeo-Christian symbolism, and Eastern philosophy, El Topo took you on a quest for enlightenment that may feel nonsensical if you’ve only seen a few Western movies before. With a dreamlike logic and no clear-cut narrative, newcomers will likely get lost in El Topo’s highly abstract and symbolic cinematic world.

Directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, El Topo was defined by graphic violence, disturbing Sєxual content, and, at times, grotesque imagery. While these over-the-top sequences were designed to shock viewers as part of a midnight movie experience, those without a handle on Western movie tropes will have no context for what the film was attempting to subvert. As a highly influential cult film, the surreal, spiritual, and unsettling nature of El Topo would be far more impactful to those who already have a firm grasp on the vast legacy of Western movie traditions.

2

Heaven’s Gate (1980)

Directed by Michael Cimino

If you’re a Western movie newcomer, Heaven’s Gate is a film you should put down at the bottom of your watchlist and hold off on seeing until you’ve got a handle on the genre. As director Michael Cimino’s highly anticipated follow-up to his Best Picture-winning war movie The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate was a highly ambitious box office bomb that was widely misunderstood by audiences and critics at the time. With the original workprint cut of the movie clocking in at 325 minutes, Heaven’s Gate was less an action-packed Western and more an exhaustive endurance test.

With a deliberately slow pace, Heaven’s Gate was a politically charged epic that explored class struggle, immigration, and corruption in 1870 America. While the famously troubled production and box office failure of Heaven’s Gate has overshadowed much of its legacy, it was also a visually stunning film that challenged even seasoned Western viewers. However, this was also a deeply rewarding movie, and after making your way through the classics and gaining an understanding of where Cimino was coming from, you should tackle Heaven’s Gate with an open mind.

1

Unforgiven (1992)

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood put a lifetime of experience in Western cinema into his Best Picture-winning movie, Unforgiven. For this reason, watching this film without first gaining context for Eastwood’s career and the legacy of the many bandits, gunslingers, and outlaws he’s portrayed would be unforgivable. As the story of a notorious retired outlaw, Unforgiven consciously broke down the tropes of traditional Westerns and highlighted the ugly reality of the ruthless violence enacted in countless classic cowboy films.

Without having first watched movies like Shane, The Searchers, or The Wild Bunch, you won’t have any context for what Unforgiven was actually attempting to deconstruct. A newcomer will still see a bleak story of revenge, but they will lack the context that Eastwood was purposely concocting an anti-myth that showcased the brutal reality behind stories of Western heroes. Unforgiven was about the death of the Western and acted as Eastwood’s solemn reflection on his contribution to it. Without an understanding of this, most of the subtext of Unforgiven will go over your head.