This drama follows a saloon owner and gunslinger turned guitar player who defies the unruly townsfolk led by Emma Small. The film features one of the most epic showdowns in history.
It starred Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Ernest Borgnine, and Scott Brady and was adapted from the Roy Chanslor novel.
True Grit (The Coen Brothers, 2010)
After The Coen Brothers' Oscar-winning sensation “No Country for Old Men,” they feared nothing, not even the Western classic, True Grit from the year 1969.
The successful remake revisits the 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) and the drunken U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), and there the man committed the crime against her father.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones 2005)
Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut is a soulful Western about the terribly inhumane southern border in the 2000s. The film revolves around the crime against an undocumented worker by a border agent and the friend, rancher Pete Perkins who seeks justice.
The film makes an effort to condemn racism and xenophobia, but not in a preachy way. Tommy Lee wouldn't do that.
The Homesman (Tommy Lee Jones, 2014)
Tommy Lee Jones (who also directs) and Hilary Swank give incredible performances in this underrated Western about a woman named Mary Bee Cuddy escaping farm life to move to Iowa. She hires a low-life drifter to assist her and her female companions on the difficult journey.
The film follows the troubled characters on their picturesque but harsh journey across the Nebraska terrain. It's a beautiful film filled with psychological hardships.
Tears of the Black Tiger (Wisit Sasanatieng, 2000)
Our first Thai Western film on this list, "Tears of the Black Tiger" by Thai Chinese director Wisit Sasanatieng is a true triumph of Eastern cinema. It took seven years for the film to be premiered in America, but when it did, Western fans went wild.
Starring Chartchai Ngamsan as Dum, a common man in love with a rich woman named Rumpoey. Their love becomes forbidden when Rumpoey's father wants to marry her off to Police Captain Kumjorn. Dum is then forced to be the outlaw Black Tiger.