Best Westerns on Netflix to Watch Right Now

Westerns inspire us all with feelings of great adventure. They take us to a time when the North American continent was still wild and free, and the only thing standing between you and the hangman’s noose was your wit and the trusty six-shooter at your hip. Cowboys and cattle rustlers, gunslingers and bandits, the Wild West had every outlaw from here to Tijuana facing each other down at high noon.

Netflix has an incredible selection of movies in the Western genre. The streamer currently features underrated but classic Western films like Legends of the Fall, as well as their Oscar-winning Netflix Originals like The Power of the Dog. Netflix has a great selection for streaming Westerns, no matter how you came to love the genre. The style has changed over the years, but from Clint Eastwood to Idris Elba, you can count on some hard-traveled cowboy riding into town to save the day; even if sometimes, it’s a cowgirl.

Legends of the Fall

The underrated Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins film Legends of the Fall is a distinct historical epic notable for its study of Western history and its massive scope. Hardly a traditional Western, the movie is nonetheless a broad look at the evolution of Montana through the turn of the 20th century, World War I, Prohibition, and even the dawn of the 1960s. A gorgeous romance story bathed in the warm glow of incredible cinematography and surprising historical accuracy, Legends of the Fall got lost amid all the other epics of the '90s but certainly deserves a critical reevaluation.

The Mule

It's a little embarassing to see Clint Eastwood at such an old age direct himself in movies where he's so macho and cool that women want to have a threesome with him and gangsters and gunslingers fear him, even though he looks like a scarecrow here. Thus, you can watch The Mule in two different ways — sincerely, as a melodramatic and sentimental study of Eastwood shedding his more hard conservative tendencies for a compassionate character study of universal humanity at the border of Mexico; or ironically, as a hilariously cringe portrait of a narcissist who still considers himself to be a hero.

Concrete Cowboy

One of the many Netflix Original Films of recent years that flirt with Western mythologies but transcend them in odd, modern ways, Concrete Cowboy is set among the real-life environment of the urban cowboys in North Philadelphia, people of color of who rode the streets beginning in the 1980s, such as the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club. It's a fascinating setting and subject for a Western film, taking the narrative structure of the genre and transporting it to recent history in a predominantly Black setting. Idris Elba and Jharrel Jerome are phenomenal in this quirky drama about a modern-day cowboy hoping to help a young, rambunctious teen.

In the Valley of Violence

Ti West took a break between his early horror classics and his recent masterpieces X and Pearl to make this very different, fun, but bloody Western. In the Valley of Violence stars the great Ethan Hawke as the classic Western drifter headed toward Mexico with his dog. Along the way, he stumbles across the practically allegorical town of Denton where violence reigns supreme. In the classic tradition of Shane and even the aforementioned Eastwood, Hawke's loner gets involved with the dispute between violent killers and the few individuals devoted to the law. With an excellent supporting cast include John Travolta, Taissa Farmiga, Karen Gillan, Toby Huss, and the iconic Larry Fessenden, In the Valley of Violence is an underrated must-watch.

The Highwaymen

The Highwaymen is a retelling of the infamous story of Bonnie & Clyde, but this time done from a new perspective. Writer John Fusco pitched the film with a desire to tell the true story of Frank Hamer, the Texas Ranger who led the group of lawmen that eventually tracked down and killed Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Fusco did extensive research in Texas, interviewing Hamer’s son. In the film, Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson team up to become legendary Texas Rangers.

The film begins shortly after Bonnie and Clyde escape from prison. Frank Hamer (Costner) is hired to lead the charge to bring them to justice. Hamer gets his friend and former partner Maney Gault (Harrelson) to come out of retirement to help hunt them down. But the press isn’t on their side and the closer they get, the more dangerous their situation becomes.

The Harder They Fall

An action-packed, modern Western adventure with an all-star cast, The Harder They Fall pits Jonathon Majors against Idris Elba in a tale of revenge, rebellion, and freedom. The movie has all the high points of a classic Western flick: the train heist, the prison escape, the quick-draw showdown. Rated highly on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s guaranteed to surprise and delight all you fans of the genre.

This nearly all-Black cast is packed to the brim with star-power. Regina King (Friday) makes an appearance, along with LaKieth Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You), Damon Wayans Jr. (New Girl), and Zazie Beetz (Joker). The Harder They Fall is a nonstop ride after Rufus Buck (Elba) kills the family of a young Nat Love (Majors) and carves a cross into his forehead. Nat Love is set on a path of revenge that takes over his life. And Rufus Buck rules over an outlaw town with brutal authority. When they meet for a second time, what occurs is nothing short of a war for the West.

My Heroes Were Cowboys

A truly delightful documentary that should be watched by anyone who loves Western cinema, My Heroes Were Cowboys follows horse trainer Robin Wiltshire. Set against the backdrop of the gorgeous American West in Wyoming with incredible landscape photography, the film follows Wiltshire's life story; the man was unable to read or speak for his childhood until he began watching Western movies and studying horses. A quiet look at one person's life and how horses, Western movies, and love transformed it from silent suffering to deep passion and joy, this is a beautiful documentary.

The Power of the Dog

A different, postmodern Western, this psychological drama takes place in 1920s Montana. Nominated for 5 Oscars, this movie is largely considered one of the best films of 2021. The Power of the Dog takes an entirely new approach to the Western genre, one you might expect from No Country for Old Men or Brokeback Mountain. But don’t go into this movie expecting anything you’ve seen before. With a surprise ending, The Power of the Dog is a stirring and emotional film that will find ways to shake you every second.

Benedict Cumberbatch inhabits the aggressively masculine Phil Burbank, who owns a cattle ranch with his brother George, played by Jesse Plemons. When George meets Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) and her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), his kind disposition has him in love almost instantly. Phil is hostile to the whole situation but soon finds himself more vulnerable than he ever expected to be.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

This is a bit of an oddity in the world of Westerns. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an anthology of six short films that range in tone from hilarious to profound. At first glance, you might think this is just another silly parody. But when you realize the detail with which the Coen Brothers have constructed this movie, you’ll find that it’s not a film you want to pass up.

Six vignettes make up this anthology, with two of them based on stories by Jack London and Stewart Edward White. The film makes a slight joke of the genre, but at the same time, uses it to display the Coen Brothers’ talent for telling powerful stories. And the trained eye will notice the literary allusions woven throughout these short films. The cast is incredible. Tim Blake Nelson stars as Buster Scruggs himself. And Liam Neeson, James Franco, and legendary troubadour Tom Waits all make appearances.

The Hateful Eight

Underrated at the time, Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight is an underrated masterpiece about the dark legacy of violence, bigotry, tribalism, and hatred at the very root of American history (and the history of any nation, really). The film finds a collection of suspicious individuals trapped together during a blizzard in the old West, where someone is not who they say they are. Part The Thing, part The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Hateful Eight is a violent, stunning 70mm epic, and you can even watch it as a miniseries on Netflix, where an extra 30 minutes or so have been added to the already three-hour-long film.