10 Worst Western Movies Of All Time, Ranked

Here at /Film, we're huge Western fans, both in television and film and in all the wild forms the enduring genre takes. Across the entire history of the genre on the silver screen, we've ranked the best Western movies of all time. But of course, not every Western is going to be on par with "Unforgiven" or "Rio Bravo." With that in mind, we're taking a look at the worst movies in the genre to get a wide release in theaters or premium streaming services.

Some of the movies that we're highlighting here are misguided modern Hollywood attempts to revive the genre with bloated budgets, often ignoring what makes Westerns so special in the first place. Other entries are cheap flicks that were pumped out into theaters or streaming services without an apparent care for quality at all. Either way, these are the movies to avoid when looking for your next Western watch. 

Here are the 10 worst Western movies of all time ranked, each something of an embarrassment to the genre.

One of the most expensive Westerns of all time is also one of the genre's worst, with 1999's "Wild Wild West" carrying a $170 million production budget. Ostensibly an adaptation of the beloved 1960s television series "The Wild Wild West," the movie stars Will Smith and Kevin Kline as federal operatives Jim West and Artemus Gordon. Despite their clear differences, the two learn to work together to take on vengeful mad scientist Arliss Lovelace (Kenneth Branagh), who wants to conquer and divide the United States. This culminates in West and Gordon taking on Lovelace from his massive mechanically steampunk spider, which he uses to attack President Ulysses S. Grant (also Kline).

Look, there are some millennials who grew up with "Wild Wild West" that think the movie is a fun, mindlessly entertaining popcorn flick. Nostalgia is all fine and good, but the film itself is an unpleasant and, at times, incoherent watch epitomizing the bloated cloying of '90s summer blockbuster excess. Director Barry Sonnenfield claims that "Wild Wild West" went wrong because of a lack of on-screen chemistry between Smith and Kline. But the issues with the movie go beyond that, as a loud, dumb, and grating experience that completely eschews all the charm of its source material.

"The White Buffalo" is another one of those movies that has its defenders, albeit more reluctantly than "Wild Wild West." The 1977 movie stars Charles Bronson as famed frontiersman Wild Bill Hickock, who begins receiving ominous dreams of confronting a white buffalo. Hickok teams up with Lakota warrior Crazy Horse (Will Sampson), who is spurred by his own personal thirst for revenge to slay the mythical beast. This leads to a grueling hunt across the Wild West, with the two unlikely partners earning each other's begrudging respect along the way.

"The White Buffalo" is a bizarre Charles Bronson Western and that unique strangeness is likely why it's earned its small contingent of fans. But odd premises are not a substitute for quality, with the movie feeling like a misguided cross between a revisionist Western and the monster movie thrills of "Jaws." This unusual concept is undermined by shoddy craftsmanship all around, including lame dialogue, a poorly made beast, and clumsy cinematography and editing. Certainly one of the wackiest movies in Bronson's extensive career, "The White Buffalo" squanders its Wild West monster movie setup and veteran star.

In the early days of his acting career, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in a 1970s Western flop, "The Villain." In the 1979 movie, Schwarzenegger plays the musclebound Handsome Stranger, escorting Charming Jones (Ann-Margret) across the Wild West. With Jones carrying a large sum of money, they are pursued by the dimwitted outlaw Cactus Jack Slade (Kirk Douglas), who tries to lure them into various deadly traps. This leads to Looney Tunes-level slapstick antics as these tricks and traps often literally backfire in Cactus Jack's face.

While the movie's cartoonish influences are unmistakably visible, the problem with "The Villain" is that it's also painfully unfunny. To be fair, there are plenty of other issues with the movie, from Schwarzenegger's unrefined acting chops to the problematic depiction of Native Americans. On paper, a slapstick, stunt-driven Western comedy subverting classic tropes seemed like an inventive take on the genre. Instead, "The Villain" awkwardly stumbles from set piece to set piece, with its parade of gags more grating than even mildly amusing.

Repeating many of the same mistakes as "Wild Wild West" over a decade later, including ignoring the source material, 2013's "The Lone Ranger" was another big-budget Western failure. This retelling of the classic pulp hero has Armie Hammer star as John Reid, a Texas Ranger who vows revenge on the outlaws that murdered his brother. Joined by the Native American tracker Tonto (Johnny Depp), John creates the masked alter ego of the Lone Ranger as he defends vulnerable communities along the frontier. The duo uncover a conspiracy involving the men who massacred Tonto's tribe and killed John's brother, fueling their crusade for Wild West justice.

"The Lone Ranger" is very much Disney's attempt to replicate its past success with "Pirates of the Caribbean," right down to reuniting director Gore Verbinski with star Johnny Depp. But the half-hearted supernatural flourishes don't work this time, the story can't find anything particularly interesting to do with its overlong runtime, and its action sequences come across as largely soulless. A big part of this comes from widespread miscasting, including both of its leads, and a bloated production budget that didn't know what to do with its price tag. Easily the worst Gore Verbinski movie to date, "The Lone Ranger" is a tonally uneven and overlong mess.

After Burt Reynolds left "Gunsmoke" in 1965 to pursue a movie career, he initially followed in the footsteps of fellow television Western star turned movie actor Clint Eastwood. As Eastwood wound down his time making spaghetti Westerns in Europe, Reynolds took his own chance with Italian filmmakers to give his foray into feature films a boost. This led to Reynolds teaming up with director Sergio Corbucci for 1966's "Navajo Joe," with Reynolds starring as the titular protagonist. After his village is murdered by the outlaw Duncan (Aldo Sanbrell), Joe sets out for revenge and also to return a local town's stolen money.

While there are plenty of schlocky spaghetti Westerns, there's just something notorious about "Navajo Joe" and its insipid plot and presentation. Part of that is Reynolds running around in bronzer and a bad wig to play an indigenous man, somehow more egregious than him playing a Native American in "Gunsmoke." Corbucci is clearly a great filmmaker, directing the original "Django" and "The Great Silence," but none of those qualities are evident here. In taking career cues from Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds accidentally starred in his worst Western with "Navajo Joe."

Prolific character actor John Carradine is perhaps best known to modern audiences as the actor who played Dracula in the last wave of Universal monster movies. Over 20 years after Carradine helped close out this run of monster movies with "House of Dracula," he played the vampire count again in "Billy the Kid Versus Dracula." With the 1966 movie taking the undead villain to the Wild West, Dracula targets Betty Bentley (Melinda Plowman) as his next intended victim. Betty's fiancé Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney) suspects something paranormal is afoot and rescues her from the vampire in a showdown at an abandoned silver mine.

"Billy the Kid Versus Dracula" is as cheap as '60s movie-making gets, with shoddy sets, poor cinematography, and cheesy acting that can't even say that it's so bad it's good. Outside of getting big names on the marquee, there is nothing that distinguishes Billy and Dracula as their respective characters compared to a generic gunslinger and vampire. Even just running for 74 minutes, the entire thing feels like it's spinning its wheels between its ludicrous premise and the final showdown. Completely forgettable and unable to escape its cheap production values, "Billy the Kid Versus Dracula" is best left in a DVD bargain bin.

DC Comics has its own Wild West antihero with Jonah Hex, a traveling gunslinger whose been around since 1972. The comic book character got a live-action movie adaptation in 2010 with "Jonah Hex," starring Josh Brolin as the eponymous bounty hunter. The movie follows Hex as he seeks revenge on Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich), his old Civil War commander who later massacred Hex's family. Along the way, Hex foils Turnbull's plot to use an experimental weapon to destroy Washington, D.C.

"Jonah Hex" is a strange hodge-podge of ideas in an attempt to bring its normally straight-laced gunslinger character to the big screen. It's a Western action film with supernatural flourishes and dark humor that gives Hex in a plot that feels superficially inspired by "Wild Wild West." The problem is, none of it works, with the jokes falling flat, the action uninspiring, and the actors clearly aware that they're in a flop. "Jonah Hex" is another confused attempt to make Westerns appealing to modern audiences but, even compared to other contemporary examples, it's barely watchable.

"Texas Rangers" was the one of two Western movies released in 2001 highlighting young, attractive casts in stylish action, the other being "American Outlaws." Directed by "Halloween H20" helmer Steve Miner, "Texas Rangers" has Leander McNelly (Dylan McDermott) recruit a group of lawmen to defend post-Civil War Texas. This places the Rangers against a gang led by John King Fisher (Alfred Molina), who previously murdered the family of new recruit Lincoln Rogers Dunnison (James Van Der Beek). In between keeping the peace, Lincoln and fellow Ranger George Durham (Ashton Kutcher) compete for the affections of Caroline Dukes (Rachael Leigh Cook).

"Texas Rangers" makes "American Outlaws" feel like "Rio Bravo" by direct comparison, and the latter Colin Farrell-led film was particularly skewered by Roger Ebert. The movie is turgidly staged and paced, moving forward in fits and unsure of what to do with its young cast. Any attempt to make the gunslinging action come off as stylish and engaging falls apart and the rapport between the actors is virtually nonexistent. The late James Van Der Beek certainly deserved better, because "Texas Rangers" is an unwatchable dreck that does justice for no one involved.

Likely to avoid direct comparison with his father and the genre that made him a star, Scott Eastwood didn't star in a Western movie until 2015's "Diablo." Eastwood plays a man named Jackson who pursues a gang that attacks his home and makes off with his wife (Camilla Belle) in the beginning of the film. As Jackson heads out after them, he encounters mysterious figures throughout his journey, including the enigmatic Ezra (Walton Goggins). This makes Jackson's journey reveal the truth about his past and his own self-identity as he closes in on his targets.

To its credit, Scott Eastwood's overlooked Western is filled with twists and turns, but that's not enough to get audiences invested in the story or characters. The movie tries to come off as ethereal as Jackson's journey continues, but its big reveals feel more meandering and forced than intriguing and earned. Even running for only 90 minutes, the movie is a chore to get through, with its twists becoming more nonsensical as the story progresses. "Diablo" invests so much in attempting to surprise audiences with its twists that it doesn't take the time to ponder if they're any good in the first place.

For over the past decade, Adam Sandler has set up shop making original movies for Netflix of varying levels of quality. The first movie in this creative partnership, 2015's "The Ridiculous 6," is still far and away the worst of the bunch to date. In addition to producing and co-writing the movie, Sandler stars as Tommy Dunson Stockburn, a man also known as White Knife by the tribe who raised him. The movie has Tommy team up with his long-lost half-brothers to find a hidden stash of money to rescue his father. This puts the group against a roving band of outlaws while they discover the truth about their father.

Upon its debut, Netflix claimed "The Ridiculous 6" was its most-watched movie ever, as it is wont to do, though that's no accounting for good taste. The movie is filled with outdated and offensive racial jokes as a major source for much of its attempt at humor. On top of the parade of mind-numbingly unfunny jokes, the plot is clumsily thrown together and stumbles along before its obligatory finale. The closest thing that Netflix has produced to an IQ test or a barometer of cinematic taste, "The Ridiculous 6" should be purged from every server it streams from.