10 Most Intense Gunfights In Westerns

Clint Eastwood is no stranger to the western, having starred in numerous spaghetti western films over his career. It only makes sense then that when he took up the director's chair that he would make his own. That came in the form of 1992's Unforgiven. In it Eastwood plays an aging outlaw who, before he settles into the farm life, sets out to kill one last time. Cliched to be sure, but it doesn't change the fact that the film is a masterpiece.

Being directed by Eastwood, the Man With No Name himself, expectations were high for some truly great showdowns. And boy did Unforgiven deliver! Less about spectacle and more about characters, the fights are quick, low scale, but far more engaging and intense than anything seen in, say, The Magnificent Seven remake.

The most memorable comes when Eastwood walks into a crowded saloon and points his double-barrelled shotgun at the owner and Gene Hackman's sheriff. Without context, it looks like Eastwood is the villain and Hackman the hero, until the gun is pointed at Hackman and his villainy slowly comes out. It's a masterful way of pumping the audience up for what is to come.

When the gun clicks, Eastwood proves that he is still the quickest draw in the west. Nobody can appear to hit him as he takes down the bad guys with swift justice. When the scene is done you will finally let out that breath you didn't realise you were holding. It's little wonder that the film took home four Oscars.