There are very few icons of the Western genre whose popularity has led to a timeless appreciation of their work. John Wayne certainly fits this bill, embodying grit and charm as the perfect Western protagonist. The actor starred in over 80 Westerns, starting with his first starring role in The Big Trail (1930), and became the genre’s essential leading man in 1939 with the release of Stagecoach.
While not all of John Wayne’s Westerns were created equal, these are 10/10 masterpieces that best exemplify his career as one of the greatest stars the genre ever saw.
‘Fort Apache’ (1948)
In the first of John Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy, Wayne plays Captain Kirby York, a seasoned officer serving under the arrogant new commander, Lt. Col. Owen Thursday (Henry Fonda). Thursday, who holds a deep contempt for the Apache people, finds York’s more pragmatic approach to confronting the tribe to be a weakness and eventually leads them into a Custer-like showdown. York must decide how he wants to be remembered as the brutality ramps up.
As the first film in the influential revisionist Western trilogy, Fort Apache helped re-invent the myth of cowboys versus the indigenous people that had become the genre’s norm. Fonda’s against-type casting also helped cement Wayne’s range in the genre, giving him a more thorough and diplomatic character than in previous films, and setting up the archetype he would come to define over his career.
‘The Shootist’ (1976)
The Shootist is very much a love letter to the actor’s legacy, as due to Wayne’s struggles with cancer, it was his final project. Here, Wayne plays J.B. Books, an aging gunfighter who arrives in 1901 Carson City and learns of his terminal illness, mirroring his real-life diagnosis. He rents a room from a widow and her son to arrange one final confrontation.
The film opens with an unforgettable montage that encapsulates Wayne’s earlier films while establishing Books’ backstory. The Shootist becomes an emotional and poignant meditation on the death of the Old West, and also serves as a send-off for the veteran actor. It’s undoubtedly impossible to separate the actor from the character, which adds a degree of tragedy. However, it’s a fond send-off, and Wayne goes out on his own terms as a character who is noble to his values.
‘True Grit’ (1969)
True Grit is the film that would finally win John Wayne the Best Actor Oscar after 40 years. Here, Wayne plays Rooster Cogburn, a rough and tumble, one-eyed U.S. Marshal whom 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) hires to track down her father’s killer (Jeff Corey). Joined by Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Glen Campbell), the three end up riding into hostile territory and toward a deadly showdown.
Based on the novel by Charles Portis, True Grit was a gleeful parody of the polished heroes that Wayne had played before. The actor totally leaned into it. The result is a movie that balances comedy, adventure, and genuine emotion so nicely that it’s a stand-out entry in Wayne’s expansive filmography. The “Fill your hand” line before the four-on-one charge remains one of the most iconic in the genre.
‘Rio Bravo’ (1959)
Howard Hanks made Rio Bravo in response to High Noon, as both Wayne and the director hated seeing a sheriff beg villagers for help. In this film, Wayne’s character fights against all the odds. As an honorable Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne) arrests a man for murder in a small Texas border town, knowing that it will result in the wrath of the man’s wealthy brother. He has six days to hold the man, but with support and the walls closing in, he plans to stand up for the law, no matter how dangerous it is.
Rio Bravo was highly influential on the modern landscape of Westerns and beyond, and John Carpenter’s 1976 film Assault on Precinct 13 is essentially a remake in a different setting. The movie leans into themes of competence, loyalty, and earning your way back from rock bottom, with an exceptional cast. Wayne’s support comes from flawed characters played by Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, Ricky Nelson, and Angie Dickinson, and their interactions are just as compelling as the action.
‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ (1962)
Expressing the importance of storytelling and how it can change history and one man’s legacy, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance follows Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart), who returns to his hometown for to the funeral of a Rancher, Tom Doniphon (Wayne). When approached by the press, he tells the story of how Doniphon was famous for killing the outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) years earlier.
John Ford’s most self-critical Western, the movie made a bold statement by sticking to a grim black-and-white palette despite color being readily available at the time. More than just a Western, the film tells a story about American myth-making that functions as a self-confession from Ford about his entire career. The famous line “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend” is one of the best in cinema, and continues to be meaningful and relevant. While this is a more silent and somber role for Wayne, his devastating turn as a man forgotten by history for the greater good is vastly underrated.
‘Red River’ (1948)
Howard Hawks’s epic cattle-drive saga Red River follows a father, Thomas Dunson (Wayne), and his adoptive son, Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift), who launch an unprecedented 1,000-mile drive along (what would become) the Chisholm Trail. Over the course of the exhausting journey, Dunson grows increasingly cold and paranoid as the elements take their toll. This prompts Matt to mutiny and leads the herd to safety along safer trails, setting up an inevitable father-son reckoning.
Red River has influenced movies ranging from Lonesome Dove to There Will Be Blood, with the concept of the patriarch destroyed by his own ambition becoming integral in so many great stories told within the genre. The movie gave Wayne his first genuinely dark role, with layers of menace and obsession played out as the actor ages two decades on screen. While all of Wayne’s performances are phenomenal, this might be his greatest accomplishment.
‘Stagecoach’ (1939)
How can you not give a nod to the film that would put John Wayne on the map? In Stagecoach, John Wayne plays the Ringo Kid, a fugitive who has escaped prison and learns en route that the Plummer gang murdered his father and brother. He joins the stagecoach passengers en route to Lordsburg to avenge their deaths and confront the killers. However, with Geronimo’s Apaches on the warpath, the stagecoach crosses their paths and forces Kid and the other passengers into a fight for survival.
Every decade has a defining action sequence, and the final chase in Stagecoach is an absolute show-stopper. The movie introduced a new style of action, with Yakima Canutt’s stunt work and fantastic cinematography bringing the Western genre to the forefront of the film industry. This movie established how iconic and skilled an actor Wayne was and made him an immediate star.
‘The Searchers’ (1956)
The Searchers doesn’t just earn the title of one of the greatest Westerns ever made, but one of the best to grace the screen. The story follows Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards (Wayne), who returns to his brother’s Texas homestead only to be confronted by a Comanche raiding party that massacres his family and kidnaps his young niece. Along with his part-Cherokee nephew Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), Edwards begins a five-year search, slowly hating the person he’s trying to save because of the plight he is in.
The Searchers would see Ford’s most morally complex work refusing to resolve its protagonist’s racism and bitterness into easy redemption. Ethan Edwards is the performance of Wayne’s career, as he embodies a broken man traumatized by the Civil War who is racist and mean-spirited. The movie is as perfect as they come, and the film’s influence can be seen in everything from Taxi Driver to Star Wars.
John Wayne — the man, the myth, the legend — was integral in shaping not just the Western genre but the entire landscape of cinema. All these films are 10/10 masterpieces worth revisiting, but they are not the only phenomenal titles in his filmography. So, let us know what your favorite John Wayne Western is.
- Birthdate
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May 26, 1907
- Birthplace
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Winterset, Iowa, USA
- Deathdate
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June 11, 1979
- Birthname
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Marion Robert Morrison
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
