10 Action-Packed Westerns That Won’t Bore You At All

Westerns are an American classic, filled with gunslinging cowboys, righteous sheriffs, and clever outlaws going toe to toe. The Western genre often has action films filled with blood-soaked violence and rogue heroes navigating the Wild West. The harsh and deadly American frontier serves as the perfect backdrop for a classic battle between good versus evil and law versus lawlessness. The conflict between the gun-toting characters promises an action-filled adventure that keeps viewers invested and engaged with the movie.

There is no shortage of incredible Westerns, ranging from high-octane heist movies to touching tales of friendship and camaraderie. There is a vast variety of sub-genres in Western films, meaning that there is an incredible action-filled Western movie for everyone. The best Western films can perfectly blend intense gunfights and shootouts with the classic Wild West brand of revenge and justice.

10

Back To The Future Part III (1990)

Directed By Robert Zemeckis

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Back to the Future Part III, the third and final installment of the Back to the Future franchise, follows Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), better known as Doc, and their misadventures in the Wild West. The science fiction Western picks up from Back To The Future Part II’s ending after Doc disappears in his iconic DeLorean and is revealed to be trapped in the past in 1885.

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Back to the Future Part III

pg-13

Sci-Fi

Comedy

10/10

Release Date

May 25, 1990

Runtime

118minutes

Cast

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  • Headshot of Michael J. Fox

    Michael J. Fox

  • Headshot Of Christopher Lloyd In The Santa Barbara International Film Festival's 15th Annual Kirk Douglas Award

    Christopher Lloyd

The final entry in Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s timeless trilogy, Back to the Future Part III wraps up Marty McFly and Doc Brown’s adventures through time when Marty travels to 1885’s Wild West to save his mentor, meeting Biff Tannen’s ancestor “Mad Dog” and almost changing the course of history once again along the way.

Director

Robert Zemeckis

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While Back to the Future Part III is primarily a science fiction movie, it flawlessly blends the Wild West setting with the time travel hijinks that the Back to the Future franchise is famous for. Marty and Doc struggle to return to 1985 while dealing with surviving the Wild West. Back to the Future Part III is an action-filled adventure with duels, improper use of trains, and a bear chase.

9

The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Directed By Joel & Ethan Coen

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The Coen brothers’ film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs might be best known for the iconic meme of James Franco casually asking “First time?” while at the gallows with a noose around his neck, fans of Westerns know the film for its thrilling portrayal of life and death in the Wild West explored through six stories. With six different stories unfolding, each with compelling leads and intriguing plots, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a thrilling and unique Western.

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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

R

Western

ScreenRant logo

6/10

12

7.8/10

Release Date

November 9, 2018

Runtime

133 Minutes

Cast

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  • Headhsot of Tim Blake Nelson

    Tim Blake Nelson

    Buster Scruggs

  • Headshot Of Willie Watson

    Willie Watson

    The Kid

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a Western anthology film by the Coen Brothers that comprises six distinct stories. Each vignette explores themes of the American frontier, blending humor and tragedy. With a richly detailed setting, the film delves into various aspects of frontier life, showcasing a range of characters from singing cowboys to intrepid prospectors. The distinctive narrative style and evocative cinematography create a compelling portrait of the Old West.

Director

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ six stories is a delightful mix of action-heavy stories, from Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs, a singing yet deadly cowboy with a quick draw to James Franco as a cowboy on the run from the law after his failed attempt to rob a bank. The Western film is a tragic yet humorous exploration of life in the Wild West, and the six short and engaging stories make The Ballad of Buster Scruggs a must-watch Western.

8

High Noon (1952)

Directed By Fred Zinnemann

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High Noon is a Western classic starring Gary Cooper as a marshal in a small town as a gang of killers threatens his town. Marshal Will Kane (Cooper) is ready to retire and move to another town with his new wife, Amy Fowler Kane (Gracy Kelly) and live a peaceful and happy life.

The entire movie builds towards the final battle between Cooper and Miller, and the ensuing shootout is a thrilling and satisfactory end to the film.

However, things take a dark turn after Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a deadly and dangerous criminal arrested by Kane is released from prison. High Noon is a classic Western film, with a heroic upholder of the law as the main character who is conflicted by his duty to his town and his desire to live a peaceful life with his wife.

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High Noon

PG

Drama

Western

7.3/10

Release Date

June 30, 1952

Runtime

85 Minutes

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Gary Cooper

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Thomas Mitchell

High Noon is a classic western directed by Fred Zinnemann and stars Gary Cooper as Marshal Will Kane, who must face a gang of outlaws alone after townsfolk abandon him. The film is notable for its real-time narrative as Kane prepares for a duel with the outlaws set to arrive by noon. Grace Kelly co-stars as Kane’s pacifist bride, adding emotional depth to the story.

Director

Fred Zinnemann

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The hero’s tale sees Kane take on Miller and his entire gang on his own without the support of the townspeople he protects. The entire movie builds towards the final battle between Cooper and Miller, and the ensuing shootout is a thrilling and satisfactory end to the film.

7

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)

Directed By George Roy Hill

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is an iconic Western film loosely based on the outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, best known as Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), and his partner in crime Harry Longabaugh, best known as the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford).

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After the two outlaws commit a series of train robberies, they are forced to go on the run from lawmen and avoid being caught for their numerous crimes. The dynamic between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid propels the movie, and Newman and Redford’s impeccable chemistry makes their relationship entertaining to watch and compelling.

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

PG

Western

Adventure

9.7/10

Release Date

September 24, 1969

Runtime

111 Minutes

Cast

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  • Paul Newman

    Paul Newman

    Butch Cassidy

  • Headshot Of Robert Redford In The North America Rights Only

    Robert Redford

    Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid follows the exploits of two notorious outlaws as they navigate the challenges of a changing American West. Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, the film combines elements of adventure and buddy comedy, capturing their attempts to evade capture while maintaining camaraderie. Directed by George Roy Hill, it explores themes of friendship and survival against the backdrop of early 20th-century societal shifts.

Director

George Roy Hill

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is an action-packed film with multiple train robberies, bank robberies, and deadly gunfights. The strong bromance between the leads along with their entertaining and action-filled adventures makes Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid a timeless classic that audiences never tire of.

6

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Directed By Sam Peckinpah

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While most Western films feature a young, dashing group of men as they embark on adventures, The Wild Bunch revolves around a group of aging outlaws in a gang that struggle to adjust to the changing world. The highly rated Western movie doesn’t shy away from the violence of the Old West, and the film features violent action and fight scenes. In the ruthlessly violent Western, the group of outlaws led by Pike Bishop (William Holden) clashes with bounty hunters in a bloody and deadly shootout, and Pike escapes the survivors.

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The Wild Bunch

R

Action

Adventure

Drama

7/10

Release Date

June 19, 1969

Runtime

135 Minutes

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    William Holden

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Ernest Borgnine

The Wild Bunch is a Western drama film by director Sam Peckinpah, released in 1969. A group of aging outlaws decides to take on one last heist before retiring from their lives of crime. However, Pike Bishop, the head of the gang, discovers that they’ve been betrayed by a former partner, forcing them into a final standoff.

Director

Sam Peckinpah

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The violence and action scenes in The Wild Bunch are chilling, brutal, and devastating. In the first shootout in the movie, countless innocent bystanders are viciously murdered as Pike uses a parade as a human shield during his escape. The bloody and violent action film is a revolutionary Western, filled with betrayal, robberies, murder, and shootouts.

5

No Country For Old Men (2007)

Directed By Joel & Ethan Coen

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The Western crime thriller No Country for Old Men revolves around the chaos caused by $2 million dollars lost in a drug deal gone wrong near the Rio Grande. No Country for Old Men follows the three lead characters, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), the man who stumbles upon the missing cash, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), the ruthless hitman who won’t stop at any cost in his mission to recover the money, and Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), the sheriff investigating the crimes and overwhelmed by the violence.

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No Country for Old Men

R

Thriller

Drama

Crime

ScreenRant logo

9/10

12

8.3/10

Release Date

November 21, 2007

Runtime

122 minutes

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Kelly Macdonald

    Kelly Macdonald

  • Headshot Of Woody Harrelson IN The Oceana’s 5th annual Rock Under the Stars event

    Woody Harrelson

No Country for Old Men is a western crime-thriller based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy and directed by the Cohen Brothers. Following three protagonists, the film centers around a large $2,000,000+ cache of dirty money lost near the Rio Grande. With a veteran who finds it, a hitman who will stop at nothing to get it, and a sheriff trying to investigate the crimes connected to it, all roads lead to death and mayhem as they find themselves in each other’s crosshairs. 

Director

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

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No Country for Old Men is filled with twists and turns as the three main characters lead a cat-and-mouse chase and fight for their survival. The Western is a brutal and violent action movie filled with horrific murders and greed. No Country for Old Men isn’t violent for the sake of being violent, and each tragic and brutal death makes the story more compelling.

4

Tombstone (1993)

Directed By George P. Cosmatos & Kevin Jarre

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Tombstone is a Western film revolving around the famous lawmen Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) and Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), and their showdown against the outlaws Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) and William Brocius, also known as Curly Bill (Powers Boothe). The outlaw gang known as the Cowboys, led by Curly Bill and his second-in-command Ringo, massacres police officers gathered for an officer’s wedding, drawing Wyatt Earp out of retirement. Tombstone focuses on the battle between Earp and his men and the Cowboys.

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Tombstone

R

Western

Biography

Drama

ScreenRant logo

8/10

252

9.5/10

Release Date

December 25, 1993

Runtime

130 minutes

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Bill Paxton

    Bill Paxton

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Charlton Heston

Tombstone is a Western film loosely based on true events. When a group of outlaws known as the Cowboys ride into a town and slay several police officers for revenge for the death of two of their gang members, word of their misdeeds reaches the ears of a retired lawman. Gathering a group together, the new vigilantes will defend the town and aim to end the terror of the Cowboys.

Director

George P. Cosmatos, Kevin Jarre

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Tombstone is a violence-filled action Western that dramatizes the events of the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the Earp Vendetta Ride after the ambush on Virgil (Sam Elliot) and Morgan Earp (Bill Paxton). The blood-soaked action scenes in Tombstone range from the classic Western duel to all-out massacres and deadly shootouts in the name of revenge. However, Tombstone’s ending is surprisingly hopeful, making it the perfect Western to rewatch.

3

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Directed By S. Craig Zahler

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Bone Tomahawk is one of the darkest, most brutal, and shockingly gruesome films in the history of the Western genre. The genre-bending Western horror film revolves around a small-town sheriff, Franklin Hunt, played by Kurt Russel, and his dangerous mission to rescue missing people.

Bone Tomahawk isn’t a traditional Western, as the genre-bending film takes a sudden and ghastly turn to horror.

The search party takes a disturbingly dark and violent turn after Sheriff Hunt and his posse realize that a group of cannibals is behind the abductions. Bone Tomahawk’s gruesome death scene is chilling and elevated by the fact that the action and violence prior to Deputy Nick’s (Evan Jonigkeit) death aren’t brutal or as violent.

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Bone Tomahawk

Not Rated

Western

Adventure

Documentary

Horror

Thriller

29

8.6/10

Release Date

October 23, 2015

Runtime

132 minutes

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Patrick Wilson

    Patrick Wilson

  • Headshot Of Kurt Russell In The Los Angeles Photo Call Of Apple TV+'s 'Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters'

    Kurt Russell

Bone Tomahawk is a Western film that follows Sheriff Franklin Hunt, who gathers together a group of fighters to save three kidnapped victims from a clan of cannibals. After the town’s doctor is kidnapped along with two others, forcing the sheriff to partner with the town’s Native American professor and find the tribe before it’s too late.

Director

S. Craig Zahler

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Bone Tomahawk isn’t a traditional Western, as the genre-bending film takes a sudden and ghastly turn to horror. While the film has a slow start, the battle scenes between Sheriff Hunt and his posse against the cannibals are compelling high-stakes scenes that make the Western unforgettable.

2

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)

Directed By Sergio Leone

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a spaghetti Western that has one of the most famous shootout scenes in history. Known as one of the greatest Westerns of all time, the Western follows a gunslinging bounty hunter, bandit, and mercenary as they fight for a cache of Confederate gold.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has an incredible cast with Blondie, also known as the Man with No Name, being played by Clint Eastwood, Tuco Ramirez, played by Eli Wallach, and Angel Eyes, played by Lee Van Cleef. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is filled with money-making schemes, betrayal, and shootouts.

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Western

9/10

Release Date

December 29, 1967

Runtime

161 minutes

Cast

  • Headshot Of Clint Eastwood In The AFI Fest 2011

    Clint Eastwood

  • Headshot Of Eli Wallach

    Eli Wallach

In the United States, a mysterious gunfighter tries to work together with a bandit and a bounty hunter to find a hidden treasure. The men are forced to forge a difficult alliance as each knows only part of the location. The big problem is that none of them has any intention of sharing the wealth once they’ve found it.

Director

Sergio Leone

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The three leads constantly team up and outsmart and betray each other in their search for gold, leading to an action-filled treasure-hunting adventure. The iconic Mexican stand-off between the three main characters is one of the best climax scenes in movie history.

1

Django Unchained (2012)

Directed By Quentin Tarantino

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Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is a subversive revisionist Western film following the titular Django Freeman (Jamie Foxx), a freed slave who teams up with a German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), and embarks on a mission to free his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington).

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4

The award-winning film Django Unchained is a violent action film filled with gunslingers and revenge plots. The beautifully choreographed fight scenes and the visually striking action sequences cement Django Unchained’s status as one of the best action Western films.

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Django Unchained

R

Adventure

Drama

Western

Comedy

ScreenRant logo

7/10

17

8.8/10

Release Date

December 25, 2012

Runtime

165 Minutes

Cast

See All

  • Headshot Of Leonardo DiCaprio In The 35th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Night

    Leonardo DiCaprio

  • Headshot Of Jonah Hill

    Jonah Hill

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained follows Jamie Foxx’s Django, a Black slave who is freed before becoming a bounty hunter. After meeting German dentist-turned-bounty-hunter Dr. King Schultz, Django sets off to free his wife from the cruel and charismatic plantation owner Calvin Candie. Christophe Waltz stars alongside Foxx, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington rounding out the cast of Tarantino’s revisionist Spaghetti Western. 

Director

Quentin Tarantino

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The action-heavy Western Django Unchained has spectacular gunfights, all of them intense, brutal, and satisfying to witness. Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a ruthless plantation owner and a formidable villain with a chilling presence on screen. Candie’s inevitable downfall and death is a well-earned and satisfying action sequence, filled with violence, death, and blood.