It's the late 19th century and in the West the railways are coming. Ruthless outlaw Ben Wade and his equally immoral gang feed off the wealth the lines bring, but after he's captured Wade is forced to confront his worst enemy, his conscience. As they travel across the deserts of Arizona towards the train that will deliver him to ultimate justice, a grudging respect develops between Wade and escort Dan, a dirt poor farmer who knows the values of right and wrong, but with Ben's men in hot pursuit find out more...

Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are two taciturn, driven, traveling gunslingers brought in to free the small New Mexico town of Appaloosa from the ruthless grip of murderous rancher Randall Bragg and his gang. The three men have no concept of compromise and a deadly battle of wits ensues between them, with, of course, a lady offering an alternative life style of domestication and emasculation. 'Appaloosa' is a beautifully shot and brooding western, a dark, brutal, moral allegory. find out more...

The first and best of the Italian "Mexi-Westerns", on a par with Leone's and with a haunting soundtrack. An American mercenary teams up with a bandit on the fringes of the revolutionaries in order to assinate their leader. A violent political film from the same pen as The Battle Of Algiers. find out more...

An authentically bloody chronicle of the last Apache leader as recorded in the memoirs of one of the cavalrymen who hunted him down. The film covers his fight to preserve the lands of his people and the growing admiration and understanding of his white adversaries. It's all enough to make the red earth of the Moab desert curdle with blood and shame. Fine play from Patric, Duvall, Studi and Hackman in this great biopic. find out more...

'High Noon' works on many levels; the second-to-none screenplay, the subtle direction, the clock, Gary Cooper's Oscar-winning performance... It's about a small town sheriff who must basically stand alone to defend the people from a wild gang of outlaws, who have just been let out of jail and will arrive on the noon train. Although he does not have to, and the town does not deserve saving, Cooper decides that he will do the job that he was hired to do. A classic amongst Westerns, it strips the ge find out more...

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Set during the 1920s in West Virginia, Matewan is a small mining town whose workers have responded with a strike to the coal company's announcement of a wage cut. The bosses reply to this act of defiance but bringing black and Italian workers to take over their jobs. A lone stranger (a Union organiser) arrives in town to unite the locals against the tooled-up heavies and, as the tension escalates, a violent end to the standoff seems inevitable. Sayles' powerful gripping movie never compromises i find out more...

Leone's superb all-encompassing epic portraying the death of the mythical 'Wild West'. A superb cast, the collaborations of Bertolucci and Argento, and Morricone's brilliantly atmospheric score all add to the incredible style and weight of Leone's creation. A true cinematic masterpiece! A candidate for greatest movie ever made, if you haven't... then you must. find out more...

California, 1860, and former gold digger Daniel Dillon is now a wealthy man who owns Kingdom Come, a thriving prospecting town in the icy mountain wilderness of post-Gold Rush northern California, but to expand his burgeoning empire Dillon needs the Central Pacific Railroad to pass by and he has invited their chief surveyor. This coincides with the arrival of his wife and daughter, whom Daniel has not seen for twenty years, and as he attempts to seek some redemption for his dark past, the empire find out more...

One of the finest of the genre, this classic western follows two men whose initial contempt for each other's methods, one a hard man rancher, the other a naively honest lawyer, develops into respect when faced with the the town's local hoodlum. Tense, absorbing and not without wit. Superb. find out more...