The 10 best minority-led Western movies

The Western genre has long had a place in the heart of Americans, and, with the expansion of Hollywood, has gained a global audience. While many of these films fall along similar themes — those of taming a wild frontier and bringing so-called justice to troubled lands — they are also known for propagating white savior myths, while also downplaying the atrocities that were committed by mostly white outlaws and vigilantes, who were more than happy to commit acts of barbaric violence under the guise of cleaning up an area. However, in spite of all the cultural diarrhea that flows from the genre, some films have managed to subvert the worst of Westerns by putting minorities at the center of the story. If you want to check out some Westerns that have something genuinely interesting to say, then read ahead to see the 10 best minority-led Western movies!

10. They Die by Dawn

A tontine-type situation is the central tension in this film about four outlaws who are all the subject of some very juicy bounties. The quartet organizes a shootout, with the understanding that the last remaining person will be able to collect the cash rewards and earn their freedom. However, things soon go completely haywire, and plenty of violence ensues. There are a couple of real-life non-white Western figures depicted in this film (like the infamous Nat Love, played here by Michael Kenneth Williams of The Wire), but mostly it’s a fiction that is driven by its action sequences rather than plot, which is a bit bare. However, it’s still a fun watch.

9. Thomasine and Bushrod

This 1974 flick puts the two titular Black bounty hunters at the heart of the story, and many at the time considered it a Black version of Bonnie and Clyde. Thomasine and Bushrod are former lovers who reconnect and go on a crime spree with the help of some friends, before it all ends in an exciting but tragic shootout. Although it is a bit of a predictable watch, the performances are great, and the action sequences are surprisingly tense and watchable, given the time it was made.

8. Burn My Heart at Wounded Knee

One of the most irritating ideas that the Western has propagated is that the American West was a wild, uninhabited, and dangerous land that was tamed by white settlers, when anybody who has done the tiniest bit of research will know that American Indians had been living happily on that very land for centuries, and most trails West that were allegedly made by European settlers were already created by the locals. This television film was one of the first to actually put the Native story at the heart of a narrative about Western expansion, laying bare the truly disgusting and barbaric treatment of indigenous folks by white Americans. Burn My Heart at Wounded Knee is a must-watch for anybody who thinks the degradation of American Indians was a natural consequence of so-called progress, showing that the only “backwards people” were white settlers who generally had the “empathy” of violent animals.

7. The Harder They Fall

Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, and Jonathan Majors are three of the huge names that lead this 2021 mostly-Black Western, produced by Netflix. All of the characters are based on real-life people of color who played prominent roles in public life during the era of expansion, whether they were cowboys, sheriffs, or outlaws. The film is a tale of revenge, redemption, and robbery, and is full of the sort of classic shoot-em-up violence that makes the Western genre so popular, but also has a twist ending that reminds you the characters, as sordid and violent as they may be, were real people.

6. El Mariachi

This 1992 film turned Mexican director Robert Rodriguez into a household name and is the first in what would become his much-celebrated Mexico Trilogy. The movie, which is in Spanish, was filmed almost exclusively with amateur actors from around the Mexico-U.S. border, and was only meant to be a direct-to-video release in Rodriguez’s native land, but execs thought it was such a great watch that it was given an international release. The film follows El Mariachi, a musician who’s mistaken for a notorious gangster who carries his weapons around in a guitar case. El Mariachi managed to gross over a million dollars at the box office despite its shoestring budget, and it’s easy to see why.

5. Shanghai Noon

Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, and Lucy Liu star in this Western comedy about a Chinese Imperial Guard member who is sent to America to rescue a kidnapped princess, meeting and eventually befriending an outlaw on the way. The unlikely pair of friends eventually manage to help the princess find freedom, with a lot of hilarity along the way. A critical and commercial success, Shanghai Noon has plenty of rewatch appeal as well as some killer lines, but at its heart is simply a great story with a brilliant script, all held together by great performances from its three big-name leads.

4. Django Unchained

Foot fetishist and n-word obsessive Quentin Tarantino once actually made half-decent films instead of self-indulgent fantasies, and Django Unchained is probably his last flick that’s worth the time spent to watch it (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood could have done with about 1/3 being left on the cutting room floor). The film is an homage to the spaghetti Westerns that made the genre famous (named so as they were often made in Italy), and stars Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington. It follows the story of an enslaved man (Foxx) who is trained by a German bounty hunter so he can find his wife and win back her freedom. Although it’s rightly gained criticism for the way it turns the horrors of slavery into something so stylized, Tarantino has made it clear he wasn’t focusing on historical accuracy, and all in all, it’s entertaining enough that if you’re able to skim over that uncomfortable truth, you’ll have a blast watching it.

3. Buck and the Preacher

Sidney Poitier directed and starred in this iconic 1972 Western, which was the first film of its kind to put black and brown people at the center of the genre. Set just after the Civil War, the movie follows a group of former enslaved people being led West by an ex-soldier, and chronicles the way they work with and occasionally run up against native groups while trying to secure safe passage, all while a collection of savage white men, backed by former slave owners, attempt to stop the newly freed men and women from making the journey. There were some mixed reviews when the film came out, but with the benefit of hindsight, Buck and the Preacher is now widely regarded as an excellent example of the genre.

2. The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson

Savage white expansion into territories that had already been settled by indigenous folks isn’t just an American tale. In Australia, there were similarly barbaric actions by European settlers, with what most would call a genocide happening to the aboriginal people who had inhabited the land for centuries. That’s why this film, set in Australia in the 19th century, gets on this list. The movie is written and directed by its indigenous star Leah Purcell, who puts in a spellbinding performance as a heavily pregnant woman left to defend her remote homestead from wild animals and even wilder people.

1. Blazing Saddles

This legendary Mel Brooks flick is basically the gold standard for satire and still delights nearly half a century after it was released. The movie follows the story of Bart (Cleavon Little), a Black man who’s made the sheriff of a small town in an elaborate scheme by a local powerbroker to mine the wealth of the area. However, aided by a drunk gunslinger named Waco (Gene Wilder), he wins the townspeople over and gets rid of the bad guy. To call this movie a laugh-a-minute is an understatement, and it’s both a brilliant comment on the inanity of racism and a great watch.