A Definitive Ranking Of The Top Western Films Of All Time

In this world, there are two kinds of people, my friend: those who love John Wayne, and those who love Clint Eastwood. And whichever person you are, you probably love either Wayne’s traditionalist Westerns or Eastwood’s revisionist takes on the cowboy genre. But in a six-gun shootout, which Western is considered the best of all time? Well, pardner, you’re about to find out.


To make our definitive ranking, we compiled the Rotten Tomatoes scores, the Metacritic scores, and the IMDb scores for the world’s top-rated Westerns. We then figured out the average score for each flick and ranked them accordingly. Any ties are split by the Rotten Tomatoes score. But enough talking: let’s mount up.

40. Open Range

Year: 2003

Director: Kevin Costner

Stars: Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Diego Luna

No. of Oscars: 0

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79

Metacritic Score: 67

IMDb Score: 7.4

Our Ranking: 73.3

39. The Harder They Fall

Year: 2021

Director: Jeymes Samuel

Stars: Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, RJ Cyler

No. of Oscars: 0

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88

Metacritic Score: 68

IMDb Score: 6.6

Our Ranking: 73.7

38. Shanghai Noon

Year: 2000

Director: Tom Dey

Stars: Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu

No. of Oscars: 0

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80

Metacritic Score: 77

IMDb Score: 6.6

Our Ranking: 74.3

37. The Good, the Bad, the Weird (Joheun-nom, Nabbeun-nom, Isanghan-nom)

Year: 2008

Director: Jee-woon Kim

Stars: Kang-ho Song, Lee Byung-hun, Jung Woo-sung

No. of Oscars: 0

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82

Metacritic Score: 69

IMDb Score: 7.2

Our Ranking: 74.3