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The Western genre is a group of films set in a very particular place and time-specifically, the American West in the last half of the nineteenth century. These films include the typical "cowboys and Indians" films, with their horses, gunfights, saloons and dusty little towns. The genre also includes more modern Westerns. In these, the culture of the Old West is considered in more realistic and nuanced ways, and films set in the contemporary West but written in the spirit of classic Westerns.

Westerns were popular in the silent-film era, but they fell out of favor in the 1930s, when they were seen as low-brow entertainment. By the end of the 1930s, however, some new Westerns-most notably the work of director John Ford-were produced and promoted by the big studios and were able to bring the genre back to mainstream popularity. Ford's work made the dramatic landscape of the West a familiar sight for movie-goers, and the new Western made stars out of actors such as John Wayne.

The Western declined again in the 1960s, but a series of low-budget Western produced in Europe helped to bring about a modest revival of the genre in the late 60s and 1970s. These films, dubbed "Spaghetti Westerns" because of their Italian directors, were violent and gritty, and they are most well-known for giving a significant boost to the careers of actors such as Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson.

Modern Westerns have engaged in a fair amount of genre-mixing. Contemporary Westerns like the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men melds the Western spirit with a crime thriller, and Cowboys and Aliens combines science fiction with a Western-style plot, a tradition dating back to 1973's Westworld. Joss Whedon's Serenity goes a step further, transplanting a very Western-esque story into outer space.

    The Claim
    The Yearling
    The Ballad of Little Jo
    The Legend of the Lone Ranger
    Keoma
    The Deadly Companions
    The Sheepman
    Nevada Smith
    Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
    She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
    Strange Way of Life
    Casa de mi Padre
    City Slickers
    Bad Girls
    Wild Wild West
    Buck and the Preacher
    The Lone Ranger
    Monte Walsh
    Seraphim Falls
    Trinity Is STILL My Name!
    Gunsmoke
    Dakota
    Rio Lobo
    Man in the Wilderness
    Death Hunt
    The Searchers
    Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
    Bite the Bullet
    Bad Day at Black Rock
    The Cheyenne Social Club
    Cimarron
    Whispering Smith
    The Shadow Riders
    Fort Apache
    Shanghai Noon
    The Shepherd of the Hills
    Into the Badlands
    The Mountain Men
    The Quick and the Dead
    Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier
    Riders of the Purple Sage
    The Command
    Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
    The Rounders
    Jones Plantation
    Geronimo: An American Legend
    Ride with the Devil
    Joe Kidd
    The Last Son
    The Big Sky
    Calamity Jane
    Young Guns II
    The Sons of Katie Elder
    How the West Was Won
    Ride Beyond Vengeance
    The Donner Party
    The Cherokee Kid
    Jubal
    The Great Locomotive Chase
    Butcher's Crossing
    The Undefeated
    The Missing
    Rooster Cogburn
    Justin Morgan Had a Horse
    The Hi-Lo Country
    The Ballad of Cable Hogue
    The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
    Hud
    Concrete Cowboy
    All the Pretty Horses
    The Valley of Gwangi
    The Jack Bull
    Last Stand at Saber River
    Journey to Shiloh
    Bandidas
    Into the West
    Walker
    Hannie Caulder
    The Tall T
    American Western
    The Stalking Moon
    Bandolero!
    Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
    Escape From Fort Bravo
    My Little Chickadee
    The Frisco Kid
    J.W. Coop
    Dirty Dingus Magee
    Savage Sam
    The World to Come
    The Outpost
    Westward Ho the Wagons!
    The Five
    The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
    Santa Fe
    The John Wayne Story, The Later Years
    Canyon Passage
    The Spoilers
    The Tin Star
    Slow West