ESSENTIAL WESTERNS

This list is a representative selection, not just favourites. Most essential first, the rest being arranged into year order,

I think this is a genre that would benefit from a hefty dose of the Native Americans’ viewpoint: it was a bloody business. For all the romance attached to them their descendants are hardly at the feast today, in their own land. It’s not always been the most progressive genre, but has travelled the world and colonised the collective subconscious. Like so many, as kids we played cowboys and injuns, and Champion the Wonder Horse was my favourite aged 7. I still imagine those “red indians”...