List of Western films - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

See also: Category: Western Films

This is a list of notable Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

films and TV series ordered by year and decade of release. For a long-running TV series, the year is its first in production.

The movie industry began with the work of Louis Le Prince

Louis Le Prince

Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince was an inventor who is considered by many film historians as the true father of motion pictures, who shot the first moving pictures on paper film using a single lens camera....

in 1888

1888 in film

-Events:* Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge who proposes a scheme for sound film .* Etienne-Jules Marey starts work on his chronophotographe with 90 mm wide roll paper film....

. Until 1903

1903 in film

The year 1903 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Thomas Edison demolishes "America's First Movie Studio", the Black Maria.* The three elder Warner Bros...

, films had been one-reelers, usually lasting 10 to 12 minutes, reflecting the amount of film that could be wound onto a standard reel for projection, hence the term. Edwin S. Porter

Edwin S. Porter

Edwin Stanton Porter was an American early film pioneer, most famous as a director with Thomas Edison's company...

was a former projectionist and exhibitor who had taken charge of motion-picture production at Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...

’s company in 1901

1901 in film

The year 1901 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Edwin S. Porter is put in charge of Thomas Edison's motion-picture production company.* Thomas Edison closes "America's First Movie Studio", the Black Maria.-Films released in 1901:...

. He fully realised the potential of motion pictures as an entertainment medium and began making longer films that told a story. As with the films of Georges Méliès

Georges Méliès

Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...

, these required multiple shots that could be edited into a narrative sequence.

The most famous work of early movies, The Great Train Robbery
The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)
The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American action Western film by Edwin S. Porter. Twelve minutes long, it is considered a milestone in film making, expanding on Porter's previous work Life of an American Fireman. The film used a number of innovative techniques including cross cutting, double...

is credited with establishing the movies as a commercial entertainment medium. It was notable for rapid shifts of location, including action on a moving train. Although there had previously been short films that referenced the Wild West or paid homage to it, The Great Train Robbery marked the birth of the genre.

Many movies and television programs and series were filmed at movie ranches primarily in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

, often within the 35-mile limit to avoid union travel stipends. Some were owned by the studios, but others were independent.

In the 1960s, Spaghetti Western

Spaghetti Western

Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...

s grew in popularity. These films were produced by Italians and Spaniards and shot in their countries with big American stars like Clint Eastwood or Henry Fonda. Films such as those of Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...

's Dollars Trilogy
Dollars Trilogy
The "Dollars Trilogy" , also known as the "Man with No Name Trilogy", refers to the three Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dollars , For a Few Dollars More , and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly .A Fistful of Dollars is an unofficial remake of...

spawned numerous films of the same ilk and often similar titles, particularly from the mid- to late-1960s and early 1970s.

Period lists

See also