7. Unforgiven
Ok, fine. I know that three Clint Eastwood movies in a row may seem like favouritism and, well, it almost definitely is. The image of his snarling face chewing away on a cigar as he stares over the barren plains of "The West" is endemically representative of the entire genre, so you can't blame me too much for triple decking Clint. Eastwood's behind the director's chair yet again here and plays the role of lead character William Munney - an old man who's left his previous life of crime, drinking and gun slinging behind him. Times are hard and when a young, cocksure bounty hunter arrives at his door informing him of a bounty he'd like to work with him on, Munney decides to leave the farmstead for a while to get some money together to help support his young children. Unforgiven works to not only dissect the inherently jingoistic ideologies of the Western genre, but to flip them on their head entirely. This revisionist approach to the genre matched against a set of superb performances from the likes of Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris resulted in Unforgiven having Oscars thrown at it left right and centre, rightly so too.