10 Most Visually Stunning Westerns Ever Made

The legacy of Sam Peckinpah's oeuvre is arguably as occupied as much with his off-screen issues as it is with his on-screen successes, but there's little denying that his revisionist western peak, released in 1969, remains one of the genre's greatest highs; a frequently ferocious endeavour that drew contemporary acclaim and condemnation for its approach to then-particularly sadistic violence on screen.

Following the exploits of a band of ageing gunslingers around the US-Mexico border in 1913 as they look to pick up one last score, it's almost as memorable now for the images conjured up by genre veteran Ballard, by then well-established for his work with Henry Hathaway, with whom he had made works such as The Sons of Katie Elder and Nevada Smith.

He reunited with Peckinpah here after shooting Ride the High Country and, coupled with the director's fast editing technique, they crafted a number of indelible images that linger in the pantheon of great western shots all these years later. Half-a-century on, The Wild Bunch remains one of the most distinctive pieces of work by either man, and remains a visual treat of bloodied bravura.