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#3 – The Revenant

The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, was released in 2015 and was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu who also directed Birdman. It’s based on the 2002 novel by Michael Punke which, itself, is loosely based on the life of legendary mountain man Hugh Glass.

The film was shot on location in Italy, Argentina, and Montana. The cinematography for The Revenant is stunning and earned the film one of its three Academy Awards. All told, The Revenant was nominated for an astounding 276 awards and won 90 of them, including three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, and one Screen Actors Guild Award.

DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a mountain man who, in 1823, suffered a brutal attack by a grizzly bear. Badly injured but still alive, he is abandoned by his companions in the wilderness and left to die. Instead, Glass rallies all of his strength and survival instincts to stay alive and embarks on a wintry trek to track down John Fitzgerald (played brilliantly by Tom Hardy), the man who killed his son and left him to die in the wilderness.

Note: The word “Revenant” comes from the French word for “ghost” and means someone who has come back from the dead.

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By Michael R. Ritt

Mike is an award-winning Western author, living in central Wisconsin, who began his writing career while living and exploring the plains and mountains of Colorado and Montana. He has been married to his redheaded sweetheart, Tami, since 1989. He is a Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award Finalist three years in a row. His debut novel is the winner of the Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award for Western fiction and was a Finalist for two separate Peacemaker Awards. His short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines and are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online retailers, as well as brick-and-mortar bookstores. His first Western novel, The Sons of Philo Gaines, was released in November 2020. It is available everywhere books are sold. Mike is a member of Western Writers of America and Western Fictioneers.

11 thoughts on “The Twelve Best Western Movies of all Time”
  1. Mike,
    It is an interesting list. I have only seen 2 of these. You make them sound pretty good. I am ready to start the popcorn and settle in for a while. 🙂 Thank you for sharing!

    1. Cami, I’m glad you enjoyed the list, and I’m especially glad that I could steer you on to some movies you weren’t familiar with. Pop a lot of popcorn; you’ve got quite a night of great Western movie watching ahead of you.

  2. Interesting list, Michael. It’s notable that only 4 of your choices are from the ‘classic’ western era, which I would define as 1939-1976. You like the post 1976 stuff better than me, and mini-series. And its obvious ROBERT DUVALL is your man!

    1. Thanks for checking out my list, Andrew, and for commenting. You’ve got me figured out. I think Duvall is the quintessential cowboy. His characterization of Gus McCrae is probably the best performance in all of movie history.

  3. 1.Unforgiven
    2.The Good the Bad and the Ugly
    3.The man who shot Liberty Valance
    4.Rio Bravo
    5.The Searchers
    6.red River
    7.Stagecoach
    8.Once Upon a Time in the West
    9.Highnoon
    10.My Darling Clementine
    11.Hell or High Water
    12.No country for Old Men

    1. You have a couple of interesting choices on there. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one that I’ve watched multiple times, as is Rio Bravo. As a modern Western, No Country for Old Men would be a good choice. Maybe I should do another list for modern Westerns. Thanks for your comment.

  4. 1. Once upon a Time in the West
    2. The Searchers
    3. The Magnificent Seven ( 1960)
    4.Open Range
    5. Tombstone
    6. Red River (1948)
    7. The Man from Laramie
    8. Unforgiven
    9. How the West was won
    10. Hang ’em High

  5. 1. Unforgiven
    2. Once Upon a Time in the West
    3.good Bad and the Ugly
    4. For a few Dollars more
    5. Hang em high
    6. Tombstone
    7. Shane
    8. The Searchers
    9. Nevada Smith
    10. Outlaw Josie Wales

    1. These are all good ones, Lynn. I actually thought about expanding my list so I could include a few of these, but once I start doing that, there’ll be no end to it. Thanks for your comment.

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