The Only 10 Westerns Worth Watching, According to Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino is not only famous for his great films, but also for the way he loves to talk about great films by other directors: he regularly shares a selection of his favorite projects and also reveals the sources of his inspiration.

In this list you will find the best films of the Western genre according to the master, whose traces can easily be found in Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight.

1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966

In the midst of the Civil War, three outlaws learn of a missing treasure. To find it, they'll unite and betray each other, because in the Wild West, it's every man for himself. The movie tells the backstory of the movies A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More and completes the famous Dollars Trilogy of Sergio Leone.

Spaghetti Westerns are one of Tarantino's main aesthetic passions, and Leone is one of his most revered auteurs. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the Italian's most famous work, which Quentin regularly praises in interviews and never removes from his list of favorites.

2. Rio Bravo, 1959

Howard Hawks' western, which tells the story of the confrontation between law enforcement and a gang that wants to free an ally, was made in response to Fred Zinnemann's triumphant High Noon, dedicated to the struggle of a loner. Both films have long since become undeniable classics.

Among the fans of Rio Bravo is Tarantino, who always puts this Western in second place on his lists.

3. The Wild Bunch, 1969

The end of the 60s was a turning point for American cinema: the amount of violence and sex scenes increased. The Wild Bunch is a key movie of that time, a kind of farewell to the old school Westerns. A group of notorious criminals is pursued by a former gang member turned lawman. His mission is to find a corrupt Mexican general and bring him to justice.

In addition to Italian Spaghetti Westerns, Tarantino also prefers revisionist American examples of the genre, such as films by Sam Peckinpah, among which Quentin highlights one of the director's best works, The Wild Bunch.

4. McCabe & Mrs. Miller, 1971

The story is about John McCabe, a gambler who opens a brothel in a small town with the help of Constance Miller, an English traveler and drug addict.

The beautiful landscapes, the hypnotic atmosphere and the author's refusal to play by the rules of the genre make this movie one of the best Westerns of the 70s, as Tarantino himself admitted.

5. Django, 1966

Django is a former soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between American soldiers and Mexican bandits. The action of Sergio Corbucci’s movie takes place several years after the end of the Civil War.

At one time there was a lot of controversy about Django because of the amount of violence, but today the film is considered a true cult classic. Tarantino praised Django for how accurately it conveyed the mood of society, and Franco Nero, the actor who played Django, has a cameo in Tarantino’s Django Unchained as Amerigo Vessepi.

6. The Hellbenders, 1967

After the success of Django, Sergio Corbucci made a dark, revisionist road movie about the journey of a Confederate family with a coffin full of stolen money, with which they dream of raising an army and taking back the South.

For all his love of Corbucci's filmography, besides Django, Tarantino singles out The Hellbenders – for the fact that it is essentially a movie without any positive characters at all, each of whom, as Quentin himself said, is "f---ed-up."

7. Winchester 73, 1950

Colonist Lin McAdam is determined to track down and catch his father's killer, while also finding the unique rifle that was stolen from him, the Winchester 73. In his search, he encounters a variety of desperate characters, including a psychotic highwayman, an amoral smuggler, and a fierce young Indian chief.

Tarantino has admitted that Anthony Mann is one of his favorite Western directors of all time, and Winchester 73 is his favorite film by this talented master.

8. Navajo Joe, 1966

Navajo Joe is the only survivor of the bloody massacre of the settlement by Duncan's gang. Joe's wife was among those killed. He vows to avenge the death of his beloved and enters into battle with Duncan and his men.

Navajo Joe is another Sergio Corbucci film that received a special mention from Tarantino. The director calls it one of the greatest revenge films in history, noting the dark and violent atmosphere Corbucci created in the film.

9. Ulzana's Raid, 1972

From the Indian reservation, the war chief of the Apaches, Ulzana, has set out on a raid with his seven brave men and his son. Their goal is to kill – for to kill a man is to take away his strength. A detachment of cavalrymen, led by a young lieutenant, is sent after them from the fort. They are accompanied by the scout McIntosh and the Indian Ke-Ni-Tay.

Tarantino calls Ulzana's Raid one of the best films by director Robert Aldrich and the best Western of the 70s in general. In Quentin's opinion, what makes this movie great is its blending of two genres – the Western and the war movie – that Aldrich mastered equally.

10. The Lone Ranger, 2013

Wild West, 1869. Bandits kill the brother of lawyer John Reid. He decides to become a masked vigilante, and the eccentric Indian Tonto helps him on his adventures.

The Lone Ranger first appeared as a radio play in 1933 and was later reborn as a TV series. However, its popularity waned over time. The creator of Pirates of the Caribbean Gore Verbinski undertook to revive the dead franchise, but the producers' plans did not come to fruition – the movie failed at the box office.

However, the commercial failure did not bother Tarantino, who praised this modern Western and especially noted the final scene with the train, which finally convinced Quentin that the movie was an undeserved failure.