25 Underrated Westerns That Are Better Than the Classics

You've got your Unforgiven, your Once Upon a Time in the West, your The Good, the Bad and the Obvious. And don't get me wrong—those are classics for a reason. But there's a whole other side to the genre that barely gets talked about. Movies that slipped through the cracks. Got buried by the studio. Or just came out at the wrong time and never found their audience.

And here's the thing—some of them are just as good. Some are better.

That's what this list is. Twenty-five Westerns you probably haven't seen. Or maybe you have, and no one else ever brings them up, so you feel like you're going crazy. These aren't dusty curiosities or ironic throwbacks. These are serious films. Ambitious. Strange. Gorgeous. Sometimes mean. Sometimes sad. Always worth it.

Some of them were ahead of their time. Some were ignored because they didn't fit the mold. Some had stars, great scripts, legendary directors—and still got lost. But every one of these has something special. A performance that hits hard. A shootout you'll never forget. A vibe that lingers way longer than it should. You watch them and wonder how nobody talks about them.

So if you thought you'd run out of Westerns worth watching, you haven't. These are the ones that Hollywood forgot… but you won't.