Famous Wild West Movies Ranked From Most To Least Accurate
From the early John Wayne classics to Sergio Leone’s so-called spaghetti westerns, wild west movies have brought to life the heroes, villains, and anti-heroes of the American frontier. But just how accurate are your favorite flicks? Which movie makers have faithfully represented the Wild, Wild West in all its glory, and which could have paid a little more attention in history class? Here are 20 famous Westerns, ranked in order of most to least accurate.
20. The Big Trail (1930)
The Big Trail is notable for being the first leading role of arguably the Western genre’s most famous son, John Wayne. The Duke plays a fur trapper called Breck Coleman, who works to safeguard pioneers traveling along the dangerous Oregon Trail, falling in love with a frontier woman on the way. But how accurate is the Raoul Walsh-directed movie compared to real life?
20,000 human extras
The answer is pretty painstakingly precise. Director Walsh demanded it in his attempts to accurately detail the American pioneers’ trek from the Mississippi to the Pacific Northwest. The trail was followed with shooting at 15 specific locations, from the Grand Canyon to the Grand Teton Pass, to Zion and Yellowstone National Parks. Around 1,800 cattle and 1,400 horses were used along with 20,000 extras.
19. Tombstone (1993)
The modern classic Tombstone follows the attempts of Wyatt Earp and his siblings to quit the gunslinger life and begin a business in the titular Arizona town. Of course, it doesn’t go to plan, and the brothers Earp have to fend off a merciless Cowboy gang and reestablish a semblance of order there. So, how close to the real story is it?
Wyatt Earp’s cousin
Well, what you might have assumed were Hollywood embellishments — like Bill Brosius failing to shoot Wyatt Earp from point-blank range — actually occurred in real life. Plus, the famous OK Corral shootout closely matches how courtroom proceedings said it’d turned out. Finally, remember Billy Claiborne? Well, he was portrayed by none other than Wyatt Earp’s actual fifth cousin. Cool!
