10 Most Ambitious Westerns Movies Ever Made

This 1950 Anthony Mann helmed western is one of the most conceptually ambitious works in the genre, telling the tale of a single rifle as it changes hands from owner to owner.

Winchester '73 follows a coveted 'One of One Thousand' Winchester 1873 rifle as it travels across the frontier, from person to person, and the stories it finds along the way. With the eponymous rifle propelling the narrative forward, the result is a panoramic view of Wild West at its height.

Following an object as opposed to a human character would be an ambitious move for a work in any genre, but the concept works especially well in the Western setting, with the desperation and violence which underwrote the advance West epitomised by the travelling rifle and the bandits, lawmen, gamblers, settlers, and Native Americans in whose possession it ends up along the way.

Upon release, Winchester '73 was considered an instant classic, its screenplay nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for Best Written American Western. The high concept approach ensures that Winchester '73 still seems at heart a fresh experience to contemporary Western fans.