Sam Peckinpah Westerns

The master director's reputation is well deserved. Which of his movies deserves top billing?

rank title points votes your vote

1 The Wild Bunch
Peckinpah's most notorious movie pushes onscreen violence to its outer limits with a hearty helping of blood and gore. 27 31

2 Ride the High Country
This gem's elegiac atmosphere is complemented by the brilliant casting of Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. 14 22

3 Major Dundee
Charlton Heston is phenomenal in this ambitious work, as an imperious Union officer on the hunt for Apaches. 11 25

4 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
This rough-cut Western boasts great performances by Kris Kristofferson and James Coburn. 7 23

5 Junior Bonner
The director leaves out the gore for this character study, which stars Steve McQueen as an alienated rodeo rider. 4 20

6 The Ballad of Cable Hogue
The comic Western stars Jason Robards as a merry rapscallion bent on transforming a patch of barren desert. -3 21

7 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Warren Oates channels the director in a gruesome fable about the burdens of a decapitated head rotting in a sack. -5 23

8 Noon Wine
Jason Robards has rarely been better than in this tragic, made-for-TV Peckinpah tale set on a Texas farm. -5 17

Sam Peckinpah Westerns

The master director's reputation is well deserved. Which of his movies deserves top billing?

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