Best Western Movies – Methodology
I searched far and wide for lists of best western movies of all time. Criteria included the movies being ranked, not just listed, and covering all time, not just a decade. The lists were generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).
I was able to find 38 lists. I took the 38 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every film. The total number was over 2,200 including all the repeats. I experimented with different formulas, trying to balance the value of being ranked high on any list and being included on the most lists. I ended up averaging the rankings each movie got (there were 298 that were on at least 2 lists) and dividing that average by the number of lists that movie was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists.
The movies that were on the most lists (out of 38) were:
- Unforgiven (1992) – 35
- The Searchers (1956) – 32
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) – 32
- High Noon (1952) – 31
- Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) – 31
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) – 31
- The Wild Bunch (1969) – 30
- Shane (1953) – 29
- Stagecoach (1939) – 28
- The Magnificent Seven (1960) – 28
Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were last updated:
- Mental Floss – 27 Sep 2022
- Horsey Hooves – 25 Sep 2022
- MUBI – 25 Sep 2022
- PinkVilla – 23 Sep 2022
- Bored Panda – 26 Aug 2022
- MovieWeb (all time) – 7 Aug 2022
- Entertainment Weekly – 30 Jun 2022
- Independent (UK) – 28 Jun 2022
- CinemaBlend – 17 Jun 2022
- MovieWeb (since 2010) – 21 May 2022
- Looper – 10 May 2022
- Daquan TV – 9 May 2022
- Gwinnett Daily Post – 24 Apr 2022
- Stacker.com – 22 Apr 2022
- Reel Rundown – 29 Mar 2022
- Vulture – 24 Mar 2022
- Collider – 23 Mar 2022
- TimeOut London – 1 Mar 2022
- ScreenRant – 31 Jan 2022
- Empire – 3 Sep 2021
- Cowboys & Indians Magazine – 29 Jun 2021
- Ranker.com – 3 Jun 2021
- Buffalo Bill Center of the West – 3 May 2021
- Free Range American – 10 Nov 2020
- FilmsRanked – 4 Nov 2020
- Esquire – 1 Sep 2020
- Slant Magazine – 30 Mar 2020
- The Cinemaholic – 18 Aug 2019
- Ultimate Movie Rankings – 17 May 2018
- Rotten Tomatoes – 17 Nov 2017
- MensXP – 1 Apr 2017
- Business Insider – 23 Sep 2016
- Paste Magazine – 20 Jun 2016
- One Country – 25 Aug 2015
- Taste of Cinema – 11 May 2014
- The Guardian – 8 Nov 2013
- IMDB (editors of Cowboy Magazine) – 15 Feb 2012
- Most Wanted Western Movies – 23 Jan 2011
- The Numbers – (date unknown)
- American Film Institute (AFI) – (date unknown)
Attached is the Excel spreadsheet with the raw data and the full list with scores and weighting.