Overview
Cinema’s poet of the West, John Ford had countless westerns under his belt before reteaming with regular star John Wayne for this disturbing story of racism, obsession and revenge. Intending to kill his kidnapped niece (Natalie Wood) when he finds her, assuming her defiled by her Comanche kidnappers, morally conflicted Ethan Edwards is the role that convinced many that Wayne could act.
Ranked joint 14th in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll
Related

Sweet Country Sweet Country
Period drama 2017 113 mins Director: Warwick Thornton
Australian director Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) brings a vital Indigenous perspective and great cinematic vision to this powerful, revisionist Western, with Sam Neill and Bryan Brown.

Brimstone Brimstone
Western 2017 148 mins Director: Martin Koolhoven
Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Kit Harington star in a brutal revenge tale about a mute midwife in the old American west.

Slow West Slow West
Western 2015 84 mins Director: John Maclean
A teenage boy treks through a harsh American west accompanied by a bounty hunter of dubious morality, in this indie western that’s dripped with blood and drenched in style.

The Keeping Room The Keeping Room
Western 2016 95 mins
On the American frontier a young woman is forced to go to any means to defend her kin from the ravages of the barbaric outside world.

Straight to Hell Straight to Hell
Comedy 1987 86 mins Director: Alex Cox
Alex Cox’s anarchic homage to the spaghetti western.

Orlando Orlando
Fantasy 1993 93 mins Director: Sally Potter
Tilda Swinton stars in Sally Potter's dazzling interpretation of Virginia Woolf's novel.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
War 1943 164 mins Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Powell and Pressburger’s masterpiece follows the rise and fall of a career soldier, from dashing and brave young officer in the Boer War to a pompous and old-fashioned Colonel by the time of World War Two.

North by Northwest North by Northwest
Thriller 1959 136 mins Director: Alfred Hitchcock
In Hitchcock’s iconic thriller, Cary Grant plays a man forced on the run across the US.

2001: A Space Odyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey
Science Fiction 1968 149 mins Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick took science fiction cinema in a grandly intelligent new direction with this epic story of man’s quest for knowledge.

Barry Lyndon Barry Lyndon
Period drama 1975 185 mins Director: Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick charts the rise and fall of an 18th-century charlatan as an acerbic study of self-destruction amid social ritual.

Parasite Parasite
Drama 2019 132 mins
Bong Joon Ho's Oscar®-winning box-office sensation is a darkly comic, twisty rollercoaster ride.

Slow Slow
Romance 2023 108 mins Director: Marija Kavtaradze
Sundance award-winning love story about the evolving connection between a dancer and sign-language interpreter, when the man reveals he’s asexual.

To a Land Unknown To a Land Unknown
Thriller 2025 106 mins Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel’s feature debut combines a buddy drama and tense thriller to powerful and topical effect.

Chicken Town Chicken Town
Comedy 2025 90 mins Director: Richard Bracewell
Two old schoolfriends join forces with an elderly neighbour to fence a shed full of weed, in this sprightly, easy-going British comedy.

Bogancloch Bogancloch
Documentary 2025 86 mins Director: Ben Rivers
The life and environment of a solitary man is gently observed in Ben Rivers' intimate, experimental documentary.

When Autumn Falls When Autumn Falls
Drama 2024 104 mins Director: François Ozon
The ever-inventive François Ozon offers a bittersweet tale with a twist or two, about age, youth, the past and the art of breaking the rules.

Gholam Gholam
Drama 2017 95 mins Director: Mitra Tabrizian
An Iranian exile in London, who is haunted by his past, gets involved in the conflicts of a total stranger and has to see it through until the end, in this mesmerising slow-burn thriller.