Horse code: 25 underrated Westerns

Gunfights, cattle ranching, and all things Western: does it get any better? This John Ford movie may not have the acclaim of Stagecoach or the appeal of Searchers, but Gollee does it deliver the genre goods. John Wayne plays a saddle rancher who takes his cattle North, where a bunch of dudes are waiting to pounce. Lucky for him, they are no match for his Winchester rifle. 

Most people call this a "feminist Western," but can we just call it a "great Western" without all the pandering? Joan Crawford wouldn't call herself a feminist in this movie--she'd call herself a woman who can run a saloon and run rings around the men who work there. She's just another cowboy who can shoot her shot. 

The modern cowboy doesn't shoot guns or play cards. They work on farms, ride horses and perform in rodeos. In Chloe Zhoe's movie, the standoff comes between a rodeo star and his damaged brain. 

Get out those forks: it's time to dive into a giant bowl of spaghetti Western! In Sergio Corbuchi's masterpiece, we get a giant serving of spaghetti served with a side of cheese and blood-red marinara sauce. As a bounty hunter takes on a group of bandits in a snowstorm, you won't believe just how delicious this movie is. 

No list of Westerns is complete without including Sam Elliot's mustache. Well, here we are. The actor does some of his best work as Virgil Earp, while Kurt Russell plays his more famous brother Wyatt. 

You just ain't making a Western movie list without Sergio Leone, partner. The first in his No Name Trilogy, A Fistful of Dollars doesn't get the credit of some other Leone movies, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have the same qualities. Clint Eastwood is still the coolest guy in town and Ennio Morricone is the coolest composer in the West. 

Barbara Stanwyck rides the high country (and everyone in it) in this B-movie Western. As the ranch boss, Stanwyck flirts with everyone she meets, even the lawman who falls head-over-boots in love with her. It's your typical Samuel Fuller romance, with all sorts of complications along the way. 

No other movie on this list better illustrates the violent cycle of frontier life. The film sees Jimmy Stewart win a rifle at the fair, only to have it taken from him in a mugging. Now it's up to him to win it back fair and square--this time with real bullets. 

Ride the High Country is one of those He's-Still-Got-It movies in which a couple of old farts show the kids who's boss. It's usually a staple of sports movies--or movies like Top Gun: Maverick--but in this case, it's the staple of Sam Peckinpah's second feature. As the two hitmen set out for one last job, you may find yourself rootin' for these guys to show their hand. 

Yes, it's a Western. And no, we will not take any Rango slander on this website. This animated movie is fun, original, and a good time for adults and children alike.

No, not the Quentin Tarantino film. We're talking about the original from Sergio Corbuchi. This Django saves the town with a wink, a smirk, and a machine gun that lays waste to over 100 men. 

Director Kevin Costner is behind this lyrical Western, which many see as his apology for Dances with Wolves. It's certainly a lot better than that film and has some of the more visceral shootouts on our list. 

The movie was written by Sam Peckinpah and was supposed to be directed by Stanley Kubrick, so it's no surprise that Marlon Brando's directorial debut turned out so well. The story of a sheriff and the criminal he's after isn't exactly new, but it's made with a spark that makes it feel fresh. 

One of the more recent additions to this list, Meek's Cutoff, makes its own unique mark on the genre. Set in a desert with nothing but space across the horizon, this movie shows us the genre from a woman's perspective--those wagons, saloons, and bloodbaths are no longer a source of pleasure. While some may find that dull, we find it a nice departure from the usual path.  

McCabe and Mrs. Miller is not your average shoot-em-up. On the contrary, it's a slow-paced, lyrically photographed movie that trades gunshots for gorgeous scenery shots. Robert Altman tells the story of a man who sets up a brothel in the middle of nowhere with the help of one of its employees, who may or may not take a liking to him. The two make this movie sing, while Altman makes it breathe with his knack for building atmosphere. 

What's a 1950s samurai movie doing on our list? Good question. It turns out that Kurosawa's movie is just as much a Western as any, with a town under siege and a group of mercenaries hired to protect them. It's a plot that Sturges would use as the inspiration for The Magnificent Seven, and others would use the inspiration for shootouts.

While most Westerns feature heroes and themes of justice, Dead Man features none of those things. Its story of a criminal on the run is closer to Andrei Tarkovsky than John Ford, David Lynch than Sergio Leone. That is because it's directed by Jim Jarmusch, who would never make a movie that can be defined as "conventional." 

William Hellman took good ol' fashion American ideals and took them to court. In this underrated gem, he sees three men accused of a crime they may not have committed, making the audience question everything we know about the characters on screen. The Ox-Bow Incident is a great Western, a great drama, a great mystery, and a nightmare for lawyers. 

The O.G. Western. This movie has a train robbery, a shootout, and a twist ending. What more could you want from a Western?

The Western genre isn't dead. It's just hibernating. Occasionally, a movie like Hostiles comes along to remind you that it's still alive. In this movie, Scott Cooper gives the genre a new look about an officer realizing he's a racist, which is not something you would see in a classic Western.

Watch enough Westerns and you would think African Americans didn't exist in the Old West. That's not the case, of course, and Sydney Portier's directorial debut about Black migrants fleeing brutality proves just as much. It's not the best movie on our list, but it is informative. 

On the other end of the spectrum, The Sisters Brothers takes our history books and draws doodles in them. The outline is still there, but the movie has added all sorts of colors and scenes that never really happened. Why? Cause it's so much fun, that's why! Watching these two brothers muck up the West is an absolute hoot. 

Speaking of revisionism, The Harder They Fall takes the plot of classic Westerns and changes everyone's skin color. Since there's no need to tie any of this to history, there's no need to make any of this realistic. This movie feels like a bunch of people turning the Old West into their sandbox, with imagination serving as their finest toy. 

Howard Hawkes. John Wayne. Robert Mitchum. An update on Rio Bravo. Do I really need to say more? 

Excuse me, did you just say Star Wars? Yes, yes, we did. While the science fiction trappings make you think "science fiction," the movie is really a space Western with lightsabers instead of guns, and Jedis instead of sheriffs. It's not an underrated movie, but it's an underrated Western. This is about as perfect as the genre gets.