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:

Attached is the Excel spreadsheet with the raw data and the full list with scores and weighting.

Best-Western-Movies-of-All-TimeDownload