For this month’s Undefended lists, FilmFisher’s writers picked their favorite westerns of all time – though of course there was some creative interpretation of what exactly constitutes a western.

Robert Brown

1. High Noon (1952, dir. Fred Zinnemann)
2. The Magnificent Seven (1960, dir. John Sturges)
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, dir. John Ford)
4. The Shootist (1976, dir. Don Siegel)
5. True Grit (2010, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)

P.S. No list of favorite Westerns would be complete without mentioning the 1991 Winnie the Pooh episode, “The Good, the Bad and the Tigger.”

William Connor Devlin

1. The Thing (1982, dir. John Carpenter)
2. Lone Star (1996, dir. John Sayles)
3. Rango (2011, dir. Gore Verbinski)
4. Near Dark (1987, dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
5. Bacurau (2019, dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles)

Javen Bear

1. Hell or High Water (2016, dir. David Mackenzie)
2. Unforgiven (1992, dir. Clint Eastwood)
3. The Magnificent Seven (1960, dir. John Sturges)
4. Django Unchained (2012, dir. Quentin Tarantino)
5. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)

Timothy Lawrence

1. My Darling Clementine (1946, dir. John Ford)
2. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, dir. Sergio Leone)
3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, dir. Robert Altman)
4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, dir. Andrew Dominik)
5. The Lone Ranger (2013, dir. Gore Verbinski)

And, two off-the-wall “western in spirit” honorable mentions: Fargo, Year 2 (2015, created by Noah Hawley) and Toy Story 4 (2019, dir. Josh Cooley).

Jackson De Vight

1. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
2. Gran Torino (2008, dir. Clint Eastwood)
3. The Mandalorian, Season 1 (2019, created by Jon Favreau)
4. Sicario (2015, dir. Denis Villeneuve)
5. Wind River (2017, dir. Taylor Sheridan)

Travis Kyker

1. Keoma (1976, dir. Enzo Castellari)
2. Heaven’s Gate (1980, dir. Michael Cimino)
3. Rango (2011, dir. Gore Verbinski)
4. The Great Silence (1968, dir. Sergio Corbucci)
5. Day of the Outlaw (1959, dir. André De Toth)

Remy Wilkins

I admit to being a Philistine when it comes to Westerns…

1. There Will Be Blood (2007, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Rango (2011, dir. Gore Verbinski)
3. True Grit (2010, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
4. Three Amigos (1986, dir. John Landis)
5. Dead Man (1995, dir. Jim Jarmusch)

James Valmassoi

1. The Searchers (1956, dir. John Ford)
2. For a Few Dollars More (1965, dir. Sergio Leone)
3. Stagecoach (1939, dir. John Ford)
4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, dir. Sergio Leone)
5. Tampopo (1985, dir. Juzo Itami)

Tom Upjohn

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, dir. George Roy Hill)
2. No Country For Old Men (2007, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
3. Hud (1963, dir. Martin Ritt)
4. Hell or High Water (2016, dir. David Mackenzie)
5. Firefly (2005, dir. Joss Whedon)

A.C. Gleason

1. High Noon (1952, dir. Fred Zinnemann)
2. My Darling Clementine (1946, dir. John Ford)
3. The Naked Spur (1953, dir. Anthony Mann)
4. El Dorado (1966, dir. Howard Hawks) or Rio Bravo (1959, dir. Howard Hawks)
5. Dollars trilogy (1964-1966, dir. Sergio Leone)
6. Bone Tomahawk (2015, dir. S. Craig Zahler)
7. Anything written by Taylor Sheridan so far, but specifically Wind River (2017, written and directed by) and Sicario (2015, dir. Denis Villeneuve)