7 Most Rewatchable Modern Westerns, Ranked

Published Oct 10, 2026, 5:15 PM EDT Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic. Long after the Western was proclaimed dead the first time, Hollywood remembered that there was something about the brutality of life on the frontier that lots of people actually liked. Just as punk rock failed to kill the enduring popularity of classic rock, it all came back around. In the 1990s, there was a different vibe, admittedly, in the wake of Silverado, The Three Amigos, and Young Guns offering a more accessible - dare I say, more fun - alternative to the weight of Heaven’s Gate at the tail end of the 1980s. Tombstone, Young Guns II, City Slickers, Maverick, Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, and even Back to the Future Part III then came alone to give the genre a higher conventional entertainment factor. The rewatchability of those movies is uncontested: BTTF’s finale in particular is a near-annual event for most film lovers born in the 1980s. Tombstone might well be the most rewatchable Western of all time, in fact. There’s a blend of charm and brilliant character performances that sits wildly at odds with the typical image of Wild West hardship. Then, at the turn of the millennium, Westerns once again seemed to put on a heavier coat. Crowd-pleasing spectacle became less of a consideration as the urge to make Neo- and Revisionist Westerns made the shadow of John Wayne’s legacy seem unwelcome. You couldn’t get moved for grit and solemn deconstructions, and the payoff meant we got stunning masterpieces like No Country for Old Men and The Road. Profound, acclaimed, and often emotionally exhausting. That might be a recipe for Oscar attention, but it’s not the kind of metric one considers when looking for a comfort rewatch on a Sunday afternoon. Which was, of course, the point. Bone Tomahawk is great, but it’s not exactly something you’re quick to go back to. But among the bleakness, there have been some Westerns released since 2000 that have managed to balance both high quality and rewatchability. 7 The Hateful Eight (2015) For some, Django Unchained could have been in this spot, and it is a great watch, but The Hateful Eight has more of a rewatch factor. It’s so packed with great performances, and so rewarding that the gory whodunit demands multiple watches. It’s also vastly underrated, and has grown remarkably in stature since its release. There’s a huge amount of enjoyment to be had in the cast of rogues, starting with Samuel L Jackson, whose performance here is far better than it was in Django Unchained, and also featuring Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Walton Goggins. Tarantino clearly had a lot of fun with the script, and despite the brutality, it’s painfully obvious the cast were too. Crucially, The Hateful Eight also feels a lot more like a love letter to the genre than Django Unchained and specifically 1960s shows like Bonanza and The Virginian. It’s like an R-rated version of one of their bottle episodes, and once you know the twist and everyone’s real identities, it completely changes the dynamic. 6 The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018) Western comedies pretty much went the way of the Old West at the end of the 1990s, as the comedy landscape in Hollywood shifted dramatically. So to have the Coens’ return to the Western plains be as humor-filled as The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was a brilliant, welcome change. Made up of six vignettes set on the American frontier, the anthology is a joyous blend of comedy and pathos, with the Coens’ signature swagger. It’s also packed with stars, including James Franco and Liam Neeson, but the most memorable section, and performance, in fact, belongs to understated genius Tim Blake Nelson as the titular singing cowboy and unconventional, prodigious gunslinger. Not all the six chapters are as strong, but it’s a great homage to the genre, and there’s enough diversity in the narrative that it feels fresh any time you return to it. A nod must also go to Old Henry, Tim Blake Nelson's other great Western of the period, which is far more considered and a lot more straightforward, but which every Western fan needs to see. 5 The Magnificent Seven (2016) You wouldn’t typically back anyone remaking iconic Westerns, but Antoine Fuqua’s take on John Sturges' legendary remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is far better than it ever seemed to get credit for. His 2016 version of The Magnificent Seven succeeds precisely because it embraces the same energetic spirit of the best 1990s Westerns. Denzel Washington is excellent as the lead of his charismatic, rag-tag band of mercenaries, who are called on to defend a small mining town from Peter Sarsgaard’s delicious villain. Washington’s crew is completed by Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, and Vincent D'Onofrio (who is on magnificent form). There’s no moral hand-wringing or attempts to deconstruct anything, and the climactic shootout is as good as anything in the genre since 2000. 4 Hell or High Water (2016) After breaking through with his exceptional Sicario script, Taylor Sheridan turned to the Western genre that would define much of his career. And in Hell or High Water, he captured the modern frontier beautifully, seamlessly blending a gripping crime story with Western vibes. Director David Mackenzie was obviously also a huge part of the modern masterpiece. The movie is helped massively by the excellent lead performances of Chris Pine and the marvel that is Ben Foster, who carry out a series of bank robberies across West Texas to save their family ranch. They’re chased relentlessly by Jeff Bridges’ wizened Texas Ranger, who is on the edge of retirement. As with all Sheridan scripts, there’s a blend of humor, tension and heart, and it gets better every time. 3 Hostiles (2017) Image by Everett Collection Easily the darkest of these modern Western gems, Scott Cooper’s 2017 drama, Hostiles, is profoundly emotional and so compelling that it demands rewatching. Christian Bale sits at the heart of the story as Joseph Blocker, a battle-worn Army Captain who is forced to lead a party escorting a dying war chief (Wes Studi) back to his own lands. Rosamund Pike plays the traumatized war widow who joins them on their journey and whose husband died at the hands of Native Americans. The opening act is brilliantly tense, and the story descends into brutality very quickly, partly thanks to the introduction of Ben Watson’s villainous deserter, who joins the escort on the way to the gallows. The rest of the cast is incredible, and reads like a who’s who of great character actors, including Jesse Plemons, Bill Camp, Jonathan Majors, Rory Cochrane, Peter Mullan, Scott Wilson, and a very young Timothée Chalamet. And beyond that, it’s one of the most visually stunning Westerns of the modern era. 2 True Grit (2010) A second modern great from the Coen brothers and a second remake, True Grit was always a difficult prospect, even with the collected talent of the directors, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and the breakout Hailee Steinfeld, whose life changed overnight because of how great she was as fierce, vengeful Mattie Ross. The story sees Ross hire Bridges’ Rooster Cogburn (previously played with such iconic force by John Wayne, of course) to find the man (Josh Brolin) who killed her father in Indian Territory. They’re joined by Damon’s pompous Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf, and set out to track the gang the killer has joined, led by Barry Pepper, but also including Domhnall Gleeson and Paul Rae. The original True Grit was great, but the remake is so good that there have been very compelling discussions of it being superior. Even if you don’t agree, the performances are great and it looks gorgeous. 1 3:10 to Yuma (2007) Given the danger of remaking iconic movies, the fact that there are multiple in the top bracket of modern Westerns is impressive. In 2007, James Mangold took on 3:10 to Yuma, another 1960s classic, and helped set the standard for 21st century Westerns. Christian Bale is again exceptional in a very similar role to his Hostiles turn, as Dan Evans, a veteran charged with transporting a notorious outlaw, Ben Wade, played by Russell Crowe, to his trial. Crowe is exceptional too, and the grey morality is very compelling thanks to his charisma, but it is once more Ben Watson who steals scenes as Wade’s unhinged second-in-command who leads his gang to intervene. The dynamic between Bale and Crowe is genuinely the stuff of magic, and the action sequences are stunning. It’s just a great, good-old-fashioned Westerner, and it loses nothing no matter how many times you watch it.