All 5 Kurt Russell Western Movies, Ranked (2025)

Kurt Russell

All 5 Kurt Russell Western Movies, Ranked (1)

By Jeremy Urquhart

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All 5 Kurt Russell Western Movies, Ranked (2)

Kurt Russell has the kind of gruffness that makes him seem born to play Western roles (he’s shown he can grow some mean facial hair, too, which also helps a bunch). Yet it’s surprising to look back on his decades-spanning filmography and see that he’s only been in a handful of theatrically-released Westerns, not including TV work like The Quest, which also had a TV film called The Quest: The Longest Drive. That one’s technically a film, but not a theatrical one, plus it was also definable as a two-part episode of the show.

So, any TV work aside, Russell’s been in five films that can be considered Westerns, also not counting any films where he plays a character who acts a bit like they're in a Western (like, arguably, Snake Plissken in Escape from New York). Those five Westerns are ranked below, starting with some much older obscurities and ending with several classic (or modern classic) Westerns; those that Kurt Russell’s best known for being in.

5 'The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band' (1968)

Director: Michael O’Herlihy

All 5 Kurt Russell Western Movies, Ranked (3)

Though his days as a child actor aren’t talked about nearly so often now (this is going back about 60 years, after all), Kurt Russell’s earliest films were ones he appeared in when he was super young. These early acting roles led to him signing a 10-year contract with Disney in 1966, when he was 15, and even if the movies this led to aren’t his best known nowadays, they did ultimately help to establish Russell as a credible actor.

One of these Disney movies was the rather ridiculously titled The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, which is only sort of a Western. It’s more of a musical, complete with Sherman Brothers songs, taking place at the tail end of the Old West and with a story that largely revolves around politics of the time; specifically, the 1888 Democratic National Convention. It’s fairly middling stuff, and not particularly well-remembered for a reason. But, if you had any desire to see a sort of Western/musical film with Kurt Russell being part of a family band… well, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band has your back.

Rent on Apple TV

4 'Guns of Diablo' (1964)

Director: Boris Sagal

All 5 Kurt Russell Western Movies, Ranked (4)

Things get a little more Western-esque with Guns of Diablo, but this one is probably even more obscure than The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, to the point where it’s seemingly impossible to find a high-quality version. This is a little surprising, considering that not only does it have value for being an early (and pre-Disney) Kurt Russell, but it’s also got Charles Bronson in a starring role, and he was also cool in an effortless and borderline timeless way, especially in Westerns.

Narratively, Guns of Diablo is fairly simple stuff, with Bronson’s character and Russell’s forming an unlikely team as they go hunting for gold. Also, Bronson’s character has a whole conflict regarding his ex-lover and her new partner, but that’s all a bit melodramatic and less Western-y. Guns of Diablo technically began on TV, as the final episode of a series called The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, but it was expanded and then released theatrically, so it counts here. It’s hardly a classic of its year (or any year, really), but there’s a certain novelty to seeing these two unlikely stars – Russell and Bronson – both appear in the same film.

Watch on Tubi

3 'Bone Tomahawk' (2015)

Director: S. Craig Zahler

Here’s where things start getting good… so long as you have a high tolerance for horror and bloodshed. A strong stomach’s needed and then some for Bone Tomahawk, which has a well-earned reputation for being not just one of the most violent Westerns of all time, but perhaps the most violent Western of all time. Perhaps that’s to be expected, when horror and Western genres collide, and the antagonists ultimately end up being a vicious gang of cannibals that have kidnapped several townspeople.

Kurt Russell plays a sheriff who leads a group of men on the unsettling and eventually nightmarish rescue mission at hand, with things steadily building in intensity as things go on. Bone Tomahawk begins more gruesomely than most Westerns, but the final act takes things to a whole other level entirely. Still, for those who are able to handle it, the film as a whole is unforgettable and undoubtedly impactful, and perhaps even up there among the very best Western movies of the 2010s.

Bone Tomahawk

Not Rated

Western

Adventure

Documentary

Horror

Thriller

Release Date
October 23, 2015

Director
S. Craig Zahler
Cast
Patrick Wilson, Kurt Russell, Sean Young, Lili Simmons, Matthew Fox, Zahn McClarnon

Runtime
132 minutes

Watch on Netflix

2 'The Hateful Eight' (2015)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

All 5 Kurt Russell Western Movies, Ranked (5)

Another violent Western from 2015 was The Hateful Eight, and what do you know: Kurt Russell played a significant role in this one, too. It wasn’t the actor’s first time working with Quentin Tarantino, as Russell had also starred in Death Proof, a lesser Tarantino film with some shaky pacing, but undeniably home to a handful of great sequences. The Hateful Eight is perhaps a little more consistent, if potentially too dark at times, even with the “Hateful” part of the title implying a certain level of bitterness. But the writing is strong, and the acting really sells the film, too.

It's the kind of thing that needs good writing and acting, too, given most of The Hateful Eight is confined to one small cabin, the titular characters stuck there while a blizzard rages outside. Those after old-fashioned morals and adventuring won’t find much of that here, but anyone after a Western take on a bottle episode will likely find this one tense, unpredictable, and appropriately surprising at times. It’s not perfect, but the great parts of The Hateful Eight make it worth watching, and it is perhaps Russell’s best Western of 2015 (though Bone Tomahawk is real close, it’s got to be said).

The Hateful Eight

R

Mystery

Thriller

Drama

Release Date
December 25, 2015
Director
Quentin Tarantino
Cast
Zoe Bell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Channing Tatum, Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, James Parks

Runtime
188 Minutes

Watch on Netflix

1 'Tombstone' (1993)

Director: George P. Cosmatos

All 5 Kurt Russell Western Movies, Ranked (6)

It’s a slight stretch to compare Bone Tomahawk and The Hateful Eight, admittedly, but much easier to compare both Kevin Costner’s Wyatt Earp and Tombstone, given both have Wyatt Earp as their protagonists and cover some similar events. Wyatt Earp (the movie) was released in 1994, though, and genuinely wasn’t nearly as good as Tombstone, which was released the previous year, and has held up better as time’s gone on. It was always a good Western, but there’s something about it that endures, and its fanbase is strong enough that calling any other Kurt Russell Western the actor’s best could well make you a target.

It's a tremendously well-cast, memorably written, and entertainingly made Western, wisely reducing the scope of Earp’s story (unlike Costner’s film) to focus mostly on the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Russell is excellent within an amazing ensemble cast that also includes the likes of Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, and even Charlton Heston, to name a few. Tombstone is also the sort of Western you could show to people who don’t usually like Westerns, and they’d still likely find things to enjoy. It’s just a good time all around, not to mention clean, crowd-pleasing, and well-paced. It’s great stuff.

Tombstone

R

Western

Biography

Drama

Release Date
December 25, 1993

Director
George P. Cosmatos, Kevin Jarre
Cast
Bill Paxton, Charlton Heston, Sam Elliott, Powers Boothe, Val Kilmer, Kurt Russell, Michael Biehn, Jason Priestley

Runtime
130 minutes

Watch on Hulu

NEXT: Every Jeff Bridges Western Movie, Ranked

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