Entertainment
The Best '80s Western Movies
List Rules
Vote up your favorite Western films that were released in the 1980s.
On this list of the best ‘80s western movies, you’ll find a comprehensive collection of classic westerns, genre-bending mash-ups, and hilarious comedies, all set against a backdrop of dusty saloons, long horse rides, and lone guns.
One of the best and most interesting ‘80s western films is Near Dark, acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow’s second feature film. A tale of a midwestern man and his involvement with a family of American vampires, Near Dark was part of a batch of darker vampire films released in the late ‘80s. Although it fared poorly at the box office, the film has since gone on to achieve cult status among critics and film fans alike.
Also on this list, you’ll find Three Amigos! One of the most iconic comedy-westerns of all time, Three Amigos! stars Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short as the titular amigos. The film parodies both Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, as well as its American remake The Magnificent Seven. Did your favorite ‘80s western make the cut? Vote up the best 1980s western films below, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comment section.
list ordered by
- Residents of a small Texas town embark on cattle drive to Montana.
- When property owner Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart) starts using a band of hooligans to terrorize a group of small-town gold miners into giving up their territory, an enigmatic man named "Preacher" ...more
- Rambling man Emmett (Scott Glenn) assembles a group of misfit cowboys (Kevin Costner), (Kevin Kline, Danny Glover). After helping a group of settlers track down a pack of thieves, Emmett and his men ...more
- During a bank robbery by the legendary James-Younger Gang, Ed Miller (Dennis Quaid) impulsively kills a man, much to the displeasure of leader Jesse James (James Keach), who insists that the gang ...more
- John Tunstall (Terence Stamp), a distinguished British gentleman, employs downtrodden youths to tend his herd on the New Mexican frontier. When Tunstall is gunned down by the crooked Lawrence G. ...more
- A renowned gunslinger with a storied past, Tom Horn (Steve McQueen) opts for a reclusive life until he starts working for rancher John Coble (Richard Farnsworth). Though Horn begins seeing pretty ...more
- Following the Battle of Antietam, Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) is offered command of the United States' first all-African-American regiment, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. ...more
- In this film based on a true story, Bill Miner (Richard Farnsworth) is a fearless stagecoach robber in the days of the Wild West. After he is arrested and jailed for more than 30 years, he re-emerges ...more
- Harvard graduate James Averill (Kris Kristofferson) is the sheriff of prosperous Jackson County, Wyo., when a battle erupts between the area's poverty-stricken immigrants and its wealthy cattle ...more
- Mac Traven (Tom Selleck) is a Civil War veteran who fought for the North, while his brother, Dal (Sam Elliott), was allied with the South. In spite of this considerable point of contention, the ...more
- In pre-Civil War Texas, naïve Karl Westover (Gary Busey) accidentally kills his brother-in-law, and heads to Mexico to escape the consequences. Along the way, he encounters Barbarosa (Willie Nelson), ...more
- The Quick and the Dead is a 1987 television movie, based on the 1973 novel by Louis L'Amour, directed by Robert Day and starring Sam Elliott, Tom Conti, Kate Capshaw, Kenny Morrison and Matt Clark.
- Gone to Texas is a 1986 biography drama history war western film written by Frank Q. Dobbs and John Binder and directed by Peter Levin.
- A 1985 miniseries about the Civil War.
- Stagecoach is a 1986 made-for-TV film. It is a remake of the classic 1939 film Stagecoach and stars Kris Kristofferson as the Ringo Kid, the part originally played by John Wayne. Willie Nelson ...more
- The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James is a 1986 tv film directed by William A. Graham.
- Where the Hell's That Gold? is a Western film starring Willie Nelson and Jack Elam.
- The Mountain Men is a 1980 adventure/Western film starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith.
- Outlaw John Henry Lee (Willie Nelson) and his gang are bank robbers tearing through Texas. When their next heist is on a train, Lee's freedom comes to an end when Capt. Owen Hayes (Richard Widmark) ...more
- Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, also known as Billy the Kid, is a 1989 American western film about famed gunman Billy the Kid. One of many depicting the events surrounding the outlaw during his ...more
- Barry Bostwick is top-billed in the made-for-TV western Down the Long Hills, but the largest role in the film goes to Thomas Wilson Brown, playing Bostwick's teenaged son. Travelling westward by ...more
- Three cowboy movie stars from the silent era -- Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase), Lucky Day (Steve Martin) and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short) -- are fired when one of their movies bombs. In what seems to ...more
- Red Headed Stranger is a 1986 American western drama film written and directed by William D. Wittliff. The film stars Willie Nelson and Morgan Fairchild. It is based on Nelson's album Red Headed ...more
- A gunslinger rescues his fiancee from the white slavers who abducted her.
