American Film Institute
Western
Top Ten Western Movies Presented by AFI
Top Ten Western Movies Presented by AFI

#1 The Searchers
Martha Edwards opens the door of her cabin to the arid Texas landscape outside just as her brother-in-law, Ethan Edwards, approaches on horseback.

#2 High Noon
At 10:30 on a quiet morning in 1870, three outlaws ride into the western town of Hadleyville just as its marshal, Will Kane, is being married.

#3 Shane
A lone horseman arrives in a western town and helps bring an end to a violent feud between the homesteaders and cattle barons of the area.

#4 Unforgiven
Two retired sharp-shooters and a would-be gunslinger team up to claim a $1,000 reward for killing two cowboys who brutally disfigured a prostitute.

#5 Red River
In 1851, Thomas Dunson and his friend, Groot Nadine, leave St. Louis and join a wagon train headed for California.

#6 The Wild Bunch
An aging band of outlaws makes one last score and heads to Mexico with a band of bounty hunters on their heels. They leave a trail of bloody mayhem.

#7 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Dismayed by the extreme measures to prevent robberies taken by a small-town western bank, notorious bank robber Butch Cassidy wanders over to a saloon to meet his partner, The Sundance Kid, who is in the middle of a card game.

#8 McCabe and Mrs. Miller
An itinerant gambler and a madame become business partners in this off-beat western set in a small mining town in the Pacific Northwest.

#9 Stagecoach
In 1855, the Overland stage from Tonto to Lordsburg leaves town with eight people on board. In the front, sit Buck the driver and Marshal Curley Wilcox, who is riding shotgun to protect the stage from hostile Indians and from the Plummer brothers, a vicious band of outlaws.

#10 Cat Ballou
A young woman returning to her Wyoming town finds her father murdered because he refused to sell his ranch.

AFI's 10 TOP 10
Counting down the 10 greatest films from 10 classic American film genres, including animation, fantasy, science fiction, gangster, western, sports, romantic comedy, courtroom drama, mystery and epic films.