10 Most Ambitious Westerns Movies Ever Made

Sam Peckinpah's tale was horrendously re-edited by the studios, only to be released in its original form later and at that point reconsidered by critics as one of the era's best westerns and one of Empire's best 500 films of all time.

Almost all of Peckinpah's westerns could have been included in this list, but Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid stands above the rest, even if it was more famous upon release for Bob Dylan's 'Knocking On Heaven's Door' having been written for the score rather than any of the cinematic merits it had.

Peckinpah intended the film to mark his definitive statement on the genre, with a cyclical narrative structure and an elegiac revision of the classic story of Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) being gunned down by sherif Pat Garrett (James Coburn). Marking country star Kristofferson's debut performance (Kris will crop up again later, having gravitated towards another ambitious western later in his career) which garnered a BAFTA nomination for best newcomer, as well as an excellent turn from Coburn as a reluctant Pat Garrett, the film approaches the classic and somewhat stereotypical tale of a lawman fighting off against outlaws with a unique balance melancholy and un-sentimentality.

Hacked to pieces by an angry studio, the consequence of a fraught relationship between the filmmaker and seemingly everyone on the studio side, the film's excellence was only properly appreciated upon the rediscovery of Peckinpah's preview cut.