The 10 Best Western Movies of the 1960s

"When assembling a chronological list of the ten best Westerns of the 1960s, one thing seems abundantly clear: the middle years of the decade are surprisingly barren. The first few years of the 1960s feel massively different stylistically to the outstanding Westerns of 1969; as if the assassination of President Kennedy had fractured America's self-belief which had subsequently damaged its most essential genre.That the Italian Spaghetti Westerns dominate the 1964-1968 years indicates a growing, international desire to emphasise the violence and greed of the USA whilst reimagining the genre with a laconic coolness and idiosyncratic aural and visual trademarks. When Hollywood got back to making its defining Westerns, there was a mournful, elegiac tone to them that had not been seen before, and has set the stage for the genre since. These ten films embody that shift from the traditional to the subversive."