The 14 best Western movies to watch right now

This movie has everything for everybody — sweeping desert landscapes, dramatic gunfights, train robberies, and a villainous Henry Fonda. Director Serio Leone took learnings from some of his smaller films and decided to write a masterpiece that captivates with a solid story and great characters. You’re sucked in from the very first scene when Charles Bronson’s mysterious Harmonica character faces off against three cowboys across the railroad tracks while playing a tune on his namesake instrument, which creates a thread through the remainder of the film. To get his hands on prime land in Sweetwater, railroad baron Morton hires killers (led by Fonda’s character Frank) to off property owner Brett McBain and his family. But when McBain’s new wife arrives to find them all dead, she inherits the land. Outlaws Cheyenne and Harmonica take it upon themselves to look after her, but it’s soon clear that some ulterior motives against Frank are involved in the do-good task.

Name a better duo than Robert Redford and Paul Newman — we’ll wait. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is hands-down the most entertaining Western of its time, and save for a few scenes, has the type of comedic value that still holds up more than 50 years later. Butch Cassidy (Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Redford) are dripping in style, but their good looks and easygoing swagger don’t detract from the excitement of their hair-raising gunslinging adventures. It was also a feel-good distraction for Americans in 1969, a year when the news was rife with the struggles of the Vietnam War, and the Manson murders. Some films are ultimately about escape, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is still one of those movies that delivers comedic relief when we need it most.