Some movies are perfectly happy with being definable as Westerns, and featuring all the sorts of tropes and genres one would expect to find therein. Such movies will typically revolve around stories of justice, honor, and individualism, all set within the period of the Old West. But not every Western movie has to keep itself within just that genre and nothing else, and the same can be said for war movies. Some of those are straightforward, while other war films get a bit genre-bending.
The following titles are unique, given they blend conventions of the Western genre with some conventions of war films, too, or at the very least have a more Western-focused storyline play out against the backdrop of a real-life war.What’s now thought of asthe Wild West beganaround thetime the American Civil War ended, so there’s inevitably some overlap (and other Westerns are informed by other wars sometimes, too). All that’s to say that these genre mash-ups often prove interesting, and some of the most notable are ranked below, starting with the decent and ending with the greatest.
10’Raintree County' (1957)
Director: Edward Dmytryk
With its runtime of 3+ hours and a romance-heavy storyline set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, there is a feeling thatRaintree Countyis trying to hit the same notes that made anepic likeGone with the Windsuccessful. Narratively and pacing-wise, it does suffer a little, but the cast here - includingElizabeth Taylor,Montgomery Clift, andEva Marie Saint- is good, and the production value for such a large and ambitious film can be admired.
Raintree Countybegins its lengthy runtime feeling like something of a Western melodrama, though spans enough years for the Civil War to become a key part of the plot, mostly in the second half.It probably utilizes the war genre more than the Western, but at its core, it’s still easiest to callRaintree Countya romantic melodrama, and one that fans of old-school Hollywood epics may get a kick out of (others might find themselves a little restless as this lengthy film lumbers on).
9’They Died with Their Boots On' (1941)
Director: Raoul Walsh
One of thenumerous moviesErrol FlynnandOlivia de Havillandstarred in together, the rather dramatically titledThey Died with Their Boots Onis a blend of war, Western, and romantic drama. It may have beenawar-themed movie released during World War II, but its focus was on a conflict that had played out some decades before: the American Civil War, with the emphasis being on General George Armstrong Custer’s experiences during this time.
Custer is a historical figure (and a controversial one at that) with ties to both the Old West and heavy involvement in the Civil War, so a movie about his life is going to fit pretty naturally into both broad genres of war movie and Western.They Died with Their Boots On, for the standards of 1940s historical dramas, does feel pretty compelling and well-made overall, and naturally benefits from the star power of Flynn and de Havilland, as well as the chemistry they had together.
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8’Hondo' (1953)
Director: John Farrow
As far as Westerns starringJohn Waynego (and there are admittedly many of them),Hondois probably one of the more underrated. Wayne stars as a lone man named Hondo Lane, though he’s inevitably experienced with living a rough life out in the West. Things change for him when he stumbles across a woman and her son who find themselves living in particularly dangerous territory, as he decides to watch over and protect them.
This all occurs after a treaty is broken andfighting within the Apache Warsresumes in the area the woman and her son live near. This decades-long conflict is recognized as a war: one fought between the U.S. Army of the time and various Apache tribes, mostly over things like land and resources.Hondokeeps things small-scale when dealing with the war elements,being more of a character-focused Western where the plot is informed by a wider war(and is probably a better film for having such an approach).
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7’Two Mules for Sister Sara' (1970)
Director: Don Siegel
Two Mules for Sister Sarais one of themore overlooked Clint Eastwood Westerns, made a few years after the famedDollars Trilogybut also released just before Eastwood started directing many of his films himself. He stars here alongsideShirley MacLaine, playing the titular Sister Sara, with Eastwood’s character agreeing to escort her across dangerous terrain. Before long, the two find themselves mixed up in a much larger conflict fought between French troops and Mexican revolutionaries.
Things unfold after the American Civil War here, but the remainder of the 1800s continued to be defined by warfare and ongoing battles, it seems. There’s an element of comedy to the two main characters getting swept up into the war they find themselves in, though it’s also a film that can take itself more seriously - and prove spectacular - when it needs to. Overall,Two Mules for Sister Sarais certainly interesting, and bounces around between genres in a fairly novel way.
6’The Alamo' (1960)
Director: John Wayne
John Wayne may havehad countless starring rolesthroughout his career in the film industry, though he only ever directed three movies. The first and most well-known of these isThe Alamo, which is an ambitious and large-scale film with a runtime that comes fairly close to the three-hour mark. This naturally gives it time to cover many bases and hop between genres, withThe Alamoultimately being an epic, a war movie, and a Western.
The Alamoretells a true story in a broad and unabashedly cinematic fashion, focusing on how a small group of soldiers fought against a much larger force duringthe Texas Revolution (1835-1836). It’s got a distinctly Western feel, perhaps helped by having Wayne star and direct, though the conflict at the core of the story is one that can be categorized as a war-focused one, given this revolution was fought between forces on the side ofthe short-lived Republic of Texasand soldiers for the(also short-lived) Centralist Republic of Mexico.
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5’Fort Apache' (1948)
Director: John Ford
Time and again,John Fordand John Wayne collaboratedon various movies (many of them Westerns), and the results were almost always worth watching.Fort Apacheis one of their best efforts, and it’s a film further boosted by the fact that it also starsHenry Fonda. Narratively, it deals with characters who are in the military and conflict during the Apache Wars in the years following the Civil War.
Fonda’s perhaps the most complex character here, and if he’s not an outright villain, then he’s certainly a tortured and perhaps even tragic protagonist. He plays a Lieutenant Colonel determined to make a name for himself in the military, even if that involves endangering both the lives of others and his own. Wayne also gives a good performance here as someone who’s more a voice of reason, with Ford’s expert filmmaking skillsallowingFort Apacheto function as both an intense war movie and a gripping Western.
4’How the West Was Won' (1962)
Directors: John Ford, George Marshall, and Henry Hathaway
It mightnot quite reach a runtime of three hours, but the ambitiousHow the West Was Wondoes come very close. It’s a movie that follows a family’s life throughout much of the 19th century, beginning around the 1830s and ending at about the time the year 1900 rolls around.As such, it covers a lot of ground, depicts plenty of historical events, and has so many different scenes and charactersthat the film ultimately needed three directors (sharing five distinct chapters of the film) to get everything done.
Befitting its runtime and scope,How the West Was Wonalso has a staggeringly large cast, and features big names likeJames Stewart, Henry Fonda,Karl Malden,Gregory Peck,Eli Wallach,Debbie Reynolds, and John Wayne, to name just a few. It finds time to cover the years of the Civil War, even if the focus is generally on being a Western. It might be too long and unwieldy for some, but you kind of have to (at least begrudgingly) admire the ambition ofHow the West Was Won.
How the West Was Won
3’The White Sun of the Desert' (1969)
Director: Vladimir Motyl
Awell-regarded yet somewhat obscure Russian-language film,The White Sun of the Desertis sometimesreferred to as an “Eastern,“given it takes Western tropes and puts a decidedly Soviet spin on them. Yet not only isThe White Sun of the Deserta unique Western, but it’s also a wild blend of countless other genres, functioning as something like anaction/adventure/comedy/drama/war/Western/romance film, all at once.
It takes place in a sometimes surreal - yet always visually striking - desert setting, and has a complex, sometimes funny, and sometimes tragic plot about a soldier getting pulled into various conflicts by the unusual people he meets during his travels. It’s a difficult movie to put into words, but for managing to do so much in such a short runtime (it’s less than 90 minutes long, all up),The White Sun of the Desertis certainly an interesting and singular trip of a film worth taking for adventurous movie buffs.
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2’Duck, You Sucker' (1971)
Director: Sergio Leone
Though it’s not as famous assome otherSergio Leonefilms,Duck, You Suckeris nevertheless a great movie, and one that sees its famed director continue to push boundaries within the confines of the Western genre he thrived within. Sometimes titledA Fistful of DynamiteorOnce Upon a Time in the Revolution, this film follows the unlikely bond between a Mexican bandit and an Irish explosives expert, and their exploits within the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s.
It begins as more of a scrappy and offbeat Spaghetti Western, though the war elements become more pronounced as the story gets more intense and emotional. Leone uses the grand scale ofDuck, You Suckerto drive home the brutality of conflict and warfare, shedding light on one particularly bloody struggle that occurred at a time in historywhen the Old West era, as people of the time knew it,was certainly coming to an end.
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Okay, sure,The Good, the Bad, and the Uglyis a Western epic, first and foremost. It’s one of thebest-known and most acclaimed films of the 1960s, and tells a simple yet gripping story about three shady characters all pursuing a buried fortune in the desert. Complicating things is the fact that these three men happen to be doing this while the American Civil War wages around them, and the closer they get to their goal, the more they find themselves getting involved (usually reluctantly) in this broader conflict.
Thanks to its ambition and lengthy runtime,The Good, the Bad, and the Uglymanages to bemore than “just” a Western, also serving as an adventure film, a buddy comedy at times, and more of a war movie as it reaches its violent final act. The greedy main characters are all ambivalent towards the war around them, the devastation of which only becomes apparent near the end. Some of the film’s most memorable (and explosive, quite literally) sequences all deal with the American Civil War, ensuring this 1966 classic is something of a Western and war movie hybrid.
