By ,
Published April 11, 2016
Ahead of the widely-anticipated release of Rockstar Games' open-world Western video game Red Dead Redemption, IGN compiled a list of the 25 best Westerns of all time.
IGN's criteria for what made the grade: the films' popularity and longevity with audiences, their impact on the genre, their basic coolness quotient, and their quotability.
Extracts:
#08 Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
Loosely based on the exploits of the two most famous members of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a revisionist western of the very highest order -- a fast-paced action comedy that revels in the romance of the time.
#07 The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
The picture is full of iconic moments, culminating in the classic three-way, five-minute-long face-off in a graveyard where Ennio Morricone's score essentially becomes a fourth character. To quote the Ugly, "If you miss, you had better miss very well!"
#02 Unforgiven
Filled with amazing actors playing great characters (Gene Hackman's mean sheriff Little Bill, Richard Harris' arrogant English Bob, Morgan Freeman's even-keeled Ned Logan, and so on), beautiful cinematography, and an indelible and gentle score, Unforgiven was in many ways The End of the Western. But it also was, as subsequent forays into the genre like Deadwood and The Assassination of Jesse James illustrate, a new beginning.
Full List:
#01 Once Upon a Time In The West
#02 Unforgiven
#03 High Noon
#04 Shane
#05 The Wild Bunch
#06 The Searchers
#07 The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
#08 Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
#09 The Magnificent Seven
#10 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
#11 Rio Bravo
#12 The Outlaw Josey Wales
#13 My Darling Clementine
#14 Tombstone
#15 The Professionals
#16 3:10 To Yuma
#17 McCabe and Mrs. Miller
#18 The Naked Spur
#19 Will Penny
#20 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
#21 a Fistful of Dollars
#22 The Gunfighter
#23 Silverado
#24 Little Big Man
#25 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/ign-reveals-its-top-25-westerns-of-all-time