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Westerns Turning 50 in 2025

By Darlene Cah

Fifty is the new 30 as far as we’re concerned! Because these Westerns are as fresh and exciting as they were when they first hit the big screen in 1975.

Posse

Bad guys galore! Howard Nightingale is a corrupt Texas marshal with his eyes on a U.S. senate seat. To garner favorability among the voters, he leads an elite posse to capture notorious outlaw Jack Strawhorn. With the mission accomplished, and Nightingale the hero of the day, his political future is ensured—but the conniving Strawhorn has an ace up his sleeve, and he pulls a shocking stunt that could derail all of Nightingale’s political ambitions. Now, it’s a fight to the finish for both men! Stars Kirk Douglas as Howard Nightingale and Bruce Dern as Jack Strawhorn.

(To U.S. Marshal Nightingale)

“Honest men stay honest only as long as it pays. That’s why I’m a thief and you’re a liar.” – Jack Strawhorn

 

Bite the Bullet

In 1908, a Western newspaper sponsors a grueling cross-country horse race through 700 miles of desert and rugged terrain. The riders are challenged to beat Jack Parker’s champion thoroughbred racehorse—and Parker will do anything to win. Among the 15 riders vying for the $2,000 purse are former Rough Riders and best buddies, Sam Clayton and Luke Matthews. Will their friendship endure the competition? Miss Jones, a woman with a shady past, saddles up. What is she galloping away from—or toward? Also competing are Carbo, a young upstart; Mister an aged, ailing cowboy; Sir Harry Norfolk, a Brit who’s in it for the sport; and a Mexican Vaquero with a massive toothache! Who has the grit and the horsepower to cross the finish line? Stars Gene Hackman as Clayton, James Coburn as Matthews, Candice Bergen as Miss Jones.

Fun Fact:

Candice Bergen rode her own Arabian horse, Herschel.

 

Rooster Cogburn

One-eyed ex-U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn was fired for his excessive drinking and short temper. But now he’s hired to find the outlaws who stole a shipment of nitroglycerin from the U.S. Army. When he tracks the gang to a remote mission town, he finds the bad guys fled, and the preacher, and several Indians dead. The reverend’s spinster daughter, Eula and her teenage student, Wolf, bent on avenging their fathers’ murders, insist on joining Cogburn on his hunt. Cogburn refuses, but Eula gets her way, and to his surprise, she’s an expert sharpshooter. But is this unlikely trio a match for a brutal gang with a wagonload of volatile explosives? Stars John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn and Katharine Hepburn as Eula Goodnight.

Fun Fact

John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn were both born in May 1907, Hepburn being two weeks older. This was their only movie together.

 

Breakheart Pass

When news of a diphtheria epidemic at a remote mountain fort gets out, a special express train is sent with medical supplies and military reinforcements. Among the passengers are Nevada Governor Richard Fairchild and his fiancée Marica Scoville, the fort commander’s daughter. But all is not as it seems on this train. At a whistle stop, U.S. Marshal Pearce boards, escorting an outlaw who is really undercover U.S. Secret Service Agent, John Deakin. As the train hurtles through the snowy Rockies, one-by-one, people are killed. Deakin sets about to catch the murderer, but is he prepared for what awaits him at Breakheart Pass? Stars Charles Bronson as John Deakin, Ben Johnson as Marshal Pearce, Jill Ireland as Marica Scoville.

 

“When a man is a killer, arsonist, a cheat and a coward, it’s hardly surprising if he turns out to be a liar as well.” –John Deakin

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