The Revisionist Western was created to reinvent the Western genre entirely. These narratives work to subvert the themes and characters found in Classic Westerns. In Classic Westerns, audiences are provided with a polished and romanticized version of the Old West whose inhabitants exist entirely within one end of the moral spectrum or the other. Revisionist Westerns serve to de-mythologize this period of American history and show it for what it truly was: ruthless, lawless badlands filled with a wide variety of characters (most of whom were morally gray, at best). In these stories, protagonists there are mostly anti-heroes who fight for their own interpretations of justice, and they choose to follow whichever laws they please while ignoring those that hold them back. Other protagonists may begin with good moral standing, but the brutality of the setting, their conflicts, and their adversaries may work to change them for the worse.
Johnny Guitar
Saloon owner Vienna battles the local townspeople headed by Emma, the local sexually repressed, lynch-happy female rancher out to frame her for a string of robberies. Johnny Logan is a guitar-strumming drifter with a dark past who was once in love with Vienna and has been offered a job in her saloon. Nicholas Ray's epic western is considered one of the most original westerns of all time. The women are far tougher than the men and some saw a bizarre allegory for the McCarthy era Red Scare.
Bad Day at Black Rock
A one-handed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.
Comanche Station
Jefferson Cody is a former ranch foreman kidnapped by Comanche tribesmen, along with an heiress, Nancy. Cody negotiates a trade for the heiress, and the Comanches let them go. But it turns out that there is a large reward for returning Nancy, and a pack of outlaws would be happy to claim it.
One-Eyed Jacks
Rio, a bank robber, is bent on revenge against his one-time partner in crime.
Lonely are the Brave
After landing himself in jail trying to break out his friend, Jack Burns finds himself alone and on the run from the law. Leading the manhunt is Sheriff Morey Johnson, who must bring Burns to justice despite his own sympathy for the fugitive.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Director John Ford brings us to the lawless frontier village of Shinbone, a town plagued by a larger-than-life nemesis, Liberty Valance. James Stewart plays the bungling but charming big-city lawyer determined to rid Shinbone of Valance, and he finds that he has an unlikely ally -- in the form of a rugged local rancher (John Wayne). The two men also share the same love interest (Vera Miles). But when the final showdown becomes inevitable, one of the two will attempt to get the gunman...but the other one will wind up getting the girl.
Ride the High Country
Two old friends have taken drastically different paths growing up. One is a small-town sheriff; the other has become a burglar, bent on stealing the gold the other is shipping cross-country.
Hang 'Em High
Jed Cooper is mistaken for a criminal and is unjustly hung by the ruthless Captain Wilson and his nine-man gang, who leave him for dead. Cooper escapes the lynching and sets out on a deadly rampage of revenge against his persecutors.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Sundance Kid is the frontier's fastest gun. His partner, Butch Cassidy is always dreaming up new ways to get rich fast. If only they could blow open a baggage car without also blowing up the money-filled safe inside. So Butch and Sundance pack their guns, put on new duds, and, with Sundance's girlfriend, head down to Bolivia.
The Wild Bunch
Outlaws on the U.S.-Mexican border face the march of progress, the Mexican army and a gang of bounty hunters led by a former member as they plan to rob a U.S. Army train.
Little Big Man
Jack Crabb is 121 years old. And he's done it all. He's been a full-fledged Cheyenne, an Indian fighter, a snake oil merchant, master gunman, drinking buddy of wild Bill Hickok, colleague of Buffalo Bill, and is the only survivor of Custer's Last Stand. Crabb is either the Old West's most neglected hero or the biggest liar ever to cross the Mississippi. Little Big Man is Jack Crabb's story.
Man in the Wilderness
Nothing will stop him now. Not the winter's bitter cold. Not the knife-like stabs of hunger. Brutally wounded mountain man Zachary Bass, left for dead by his fur trapping partners, somehow pushes on. And he's driven by one of the most relentless powers in all nature: revenge. Harris recaptures the ferocity and heroism of his A Man Called Horse. Bass makes a 600-mile journey of vengeance across the 1820s American Northwest, facing every obstacle with a savagery greater than the untamed wilds.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a turn-of-the-century Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. Shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to help McCabe run his business and the whorehouse thrives. McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. His decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.
The Culpepper Cattle Co.
An aspiring 16-year-old cowboy persuades a rancher to let him join his cattle drive, and the young boy soon learns the hard realities of being a cattle driver.
Ulzana's Raid
A scout assigned to aid the cavalry in tracking down a band of renegade Indians, attempts to teach an idealistic lieutenant that the only way to fight brutality is with a stronger force.
High Plains Drifter
This time, The Stranger mysteriously appears out of the heat waves of the desert and rides into the lawless, sin-ridden town of Lago. After making a name for himself with a string of blazing gun battles, The Stranger is hired by the townspeople to provide protection from three ruthless gunmen just out of jail.
Pat Garrett & BIlly the Kid
An aging Pat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons, his sole purpose being to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
A peaceful farmer turns Confederate renegade to avenge the deaths of his wife and child at the hands of bandits-turned-Union sympathizers.
Unforgiven
The town of Big Whisky people try to lead a quiet life. Sheriff 'Little Bill' keeps heavy-handed order. Then a couple of cowboys cut up a whore. Unsatisfied with Bill's justice, the prostitutes put a bounty on the cowboys. The bounty attracts a young gun billing himself as 'The Schofield Kid, ' and aging killer William Munny. Munny is a widower trying to raise his two young children. Farm life is hard and Munny is no good at it. He calls on his old partner Ned, saddles his nag, and rides off to kill one more time.
Unforgiven
After success cleaning up Dodge City, Wyatt Earp moves to Tombstone, Arizona, and wishes to get rich in obscurity. He meets his brothers there, as well as his old friend Doc Holliday. A band of outlaws that call themselves The Cowboys are causing problems in the region with various acts of random violence, and inevitably come into confrontation with Holliday and the Earps, which leads to a shoot-out at the OK Corral.
The Quick and the Dead
This reinvention of the American Western is a wild, sexy shoot-out studded with action, suspense and offbeat humor.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Everyone in 1880s America knows Jesse James. He's the nation's most notorious criminal and is being hunted by the law in 10 states. He's also the land's greatest hero, lauded as a Robin Hood by the public. No one knows of Robert Ford, at least not yet. But the ambitious 19-year-old aims to change that. He befriends Jesse and rides with his gang. And if that doesn't bring Ford fame, he will have to find a deadlier way. Friendship becomes rivalry and the quest for fame becomes obsession.
3:10 to Yuma
Arizona in the late 1800s. Infamous outlaw Ben Wade and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers have plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans, struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch, volunteers to deliver him alive to the train that will take the killer to trial. On the trail, Evans and Wade, each from very different worlds, begin to earn each other's respect. But with Wade's outfit on their trail, and dangers at every turn, the mission soon becomes a violent, impossible journey toward each man's destiny.
Meek's Cutoff
A wagon train of three families has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a shortcut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants face the scourges of hunger, thirst, and their own lack of faith in each other's instincts for survival. When they encounter a Native American, they must choose between following their guide or an 'enemy.'
Django Unchained
Django, a former slave turned hired gun, heads back to the plantation to free his wife, Broomhilda, from the tyrannical plantation owner Calvin Candie, with the help of a German bounty hunter, Dr. King Shultz.
Slow West
A sixteen-year-old boy heads west on a journey across nineteenth century frontier America in search of the woman he loves. He encounters a mysterious traveler named Silas, who protects him from the savage elements and outlaws in a lawless land. But is Silas really watching out for him, or is he tied to the band of thieves tracking their every step?
The Sisters Brothers
In 1850s Oregon, a gold prospector is chased by the infamous duo of assassins, the Sisters brothers.
Never Grow Old
After a vicious outlaw takes over a peaceful frontier town, an undertaker must choose between profits and survival in this gritty western.
The Power of the Dog
After a sensitive widow and her enigmatic, fiercely loving son move in with her gentle new husband, a tense battle of wills plays out between them and his brutish brother, whose frightening volatility conceals a secret torment, and whose capacity for tenderness, once reawakened, may offer him redemption or destruction.
