15 Best Western Movie Quotes, Ranked (2024)

When it comes to a good many Western movies, maybe it's the breathtaking landscapes and exciting shootouts that stand out first, but like just about any genre, characters and what they say matter. Some Westerns prioritize escapism and spectacle, but even those tend to have interesting things to say about the Old West, and interesting characters who themselves also have interesting things to say, leading to some of the most famous Western movie quotes.

What follows is an attempt to celebrate that side of the genre; not so much what the legendary gunslingers shoot, but how they speak in the quieter moments of their respective films. Certain exchanges of dialogue below are serious, while some quotes are funny, but all are memorable for one reason or another. Also, in the interest of keeping things varied, there’s a (hopefully understandable) limit of one quote per movie.

15 "No, sir. This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Maxwell Scott, 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' (1962)

Undoubtedly up there as one of the best Westerns of the 1960s, you're not going to believe that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is about a man shooting another man named Liberty Valance. Well, it’s more about recollecting that kind of act and thereby providing a more honest look at an Old West situation, adding some moral complexity to what might usually be a straightforward situation in other Westerns.

It all wraps up toward the end, with a line regarding the legend being printed over the truth. It speaks volumes about the Western genre as a whole, with figures from back then having a near-mythical quality nowadays (and indeed in the 1960s, too), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is ultimately an effective exploration of that, and of how the passage of time can somewhat change things for better or worse.

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14 "Ah, as long as there's no find, the noble brotherhood will last but when the piles of gold begin to grow... that's when the trouble starts."

Howard, 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' (1948)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a top-tier Humphrey Bogart movie, and something that sort of qualifies as a Western, even if it’s also definable as a grim adventure film. It follows three men who form an uneasy alliance to go and find gold they believe they’ll find in Mexico. Though, as the above quote suggests, the whole plan is sound enough on paper, but it ends up being much harder in practice.

A perhaps inevitable amount of greed among the men complicates the central story of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, as do other complications along the way throughout the whole dark journey. The idea that when the “piles of gold begin to grow” is “when the trouble starts” does prove to be an accurate observation, and a pretty good summary of the film’s principal conflict.

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13 "Yeah, Warren, that's the problem with old men. You can kick 'em down the stairs and say it's an accident but you can't just shoot 'em."

John Ruth, 'The Hateful Eight' (2015)

When it comes to watching a Quentin Tarantino film, you can pretty much be guaranteed you'll witness some great performances with actors delivering (generally) well-written dialogue. The Hateful Eight is no exception, playing out like something of a stage play that gives everyone ample chances to shine. Everyone’s contained in one location, there’s plenty of suspicion, and many characters flat-out dislike each other.

Things really kick off and get wild after the first of the hateful eight gets dusted, summed up by Kurt Russell’s character, who talks about how murdering someone requires a little more deceit than outright killing them. It’s a great line, summing up perhaps the most memorable scene in the movie, which sees Samuel L. Jackson’s character telling an alarming story in order to get Bruce Dern’s character to pull a gun on him.

The Hateful Eight

R

Western

Crime

Mystery

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Release Date

December 25, 2015

Director

Quentin Tarantino

Cast

Demián Bichir , Michael Madsen , James Parks , Dana Michelle Gourrier , Lee Horsley , Gene Jones

Runtime

182 minutes

12 "Can't figure it out: do you want to be like me or do you want to BE me?"

Jesse James, 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' (2007)

Comparable to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, given both titles explain a great deal before you’ve even watched the movie. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford looks back on the death of a real-life Old West legend (Jesse James), though it focuses more on the less well-known man who took his life (Robert Ford).

It can be seen as something of an Amadeus-like story, but set in the West, revolving around jealousy, legacy, and betrayal. It's dark stuff, in other words. And it’s all summed up extremely well with an exchange of dialogue the two titular characters have, capped off with James asking Ford: “Do you want to be like me or do you want to be me?”

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

R

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Release Date

September 7, 2007

Director

Andrew Dominik

Cast

Brad Pitt , Mary-Louise Parker , Brooklynn Proulx , Dustin Bollinger , Casey Affleck , Sam Rockwell

Runtime

160

Main Genre

Biography

11 "Well, I guess you can't break out of prison and into society in the same week."

Ringo Kid, 'Stagecoach' (1939)

Even if the idea of watching a Western from the 1930s doesn’t sound appealing, you probably owe it to yourself to watch a film as iconic as Stagecoach. It largely established John Wayne as a leading man, and has an engaging premise that sees a group of people on board a titular stagecoach, all dealing with a perilous journey while coming to terms with how different they all are.

It’s a character-focused Western, grouping some unlikely people together and ensuring they all have the same destination. This means Stagecoach is largely centered on characters and character interactions, leading to inevitably strong dialogue. Of course, Wayne, playing the Ringo Kid (AKA Henry) gets some of the best lines, including his rather stark and keenly observant quip that “you can't break out of prison and into society in the same week.”

Stagecoach

Not Rated

Western

Adventure

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Release Date

March 3, 1939

Director

John Ford

Cast

Claire Trevor , John Wayne , George Bancroft , Andy Devine , Thomas Mitchell , John Carradine , Donald Meek , Berton Churchill , Louise Platt , Tim Holt , Tom Tyler , Chief John Big Tree , Yakima Canutt , Francis Ford , William Hopper , Chris-Pin Martin , Paul McVey , Jack Pennick , Harry Tenbrook , Whitehorse

Runtime

96 Minutes

10 "So we'll find 'em in the end, I promise you. We'll find 'em. Just as sure as the turnin' of the Earth."

Ethan Edwards, 'The Searchers' (1956)

The Searchers was one of many Westerns directed by John Ford that frequent collaborator John Wayne also starred in, and might well be the greatest the pair ever made. It initially works as a somewhat old-fashioned Western with an expected story about rescuing a young woman and clashing with Comanches, but it goes into some dark territory thematically, and has some refreshingly subversive moments.

Wayne's character is determined throughout to complete the mission at hand, but eventually, it’s shown to consume him and perhaps even be all he has left in his life as he grows old and jaded. To that end, the declaration that “We'll find 'em. Just as sure as the turnin' of the Earth” sounds, on one hand, heroic, but starts to be recontextualized as the film goes on, and things get a little darker.

The Searchers

Western

Adventure

Drama

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Release Date

May 26, 1956

Director

John Ford

Cast

John Wayne , Jeffrey Hunter , Vera Miles , Ward Bond , Natalie Wood

Runtime

119 minutes

9 "That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned."

Will Munny, 'Unforgiven' (1992)

While The Searchers was dark and emotionally intense for its time, Westerns changed a great deal over the next several decades, ultimately paving the way for something as bold and effectively deconstructive as Unforgiven. It’s a movie where director Clint Eastwood plays an incredibly troubled/flawed protagonist, and clashes with someone far more evil - and played by a super slimy Gene Hackman - a corrupt sheriff.

Eastwood’s Will Munny and Hackman’s Little Bill clash at the film’s end, the former seeking justice that the latter refused to enact in his position as a lawman. Little Bill calls Munny out as a killer of women and children, and Munny doesn’t dispute this, owning up to his past, all the while Little Bill never has. It’s probably not enough to redeem himself fully, from what can be inferred about Munny’s past, but maybe it’s something. It also encapsulates Unforgiven’s approach to exploring justice - or the lack thereof - during a rather grim and morally murky time in U.S. history.

Unforgiven

R

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Release Date

August 7, 1992

Director

Clint Eastwood

Cast

Clint Eastwood , Gene Hackman , Morgan Freeman , Richard Harris , Jaimz Woolvett , Saul Rubinek , Frances Fisher

Runtime

130 minutes

Main Genre

Western

8 "You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons."

Jim (The Waco Kid), 'Blazing Saddles' (1974)

Mel Brooks might well be the king of the parody genre, and in 1974 alone, he directed two of the very best of all time: Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. Both also starred Gene Wilder, giving two very different yet equally iconic performances in each, starring as Jim the Waco Kid in the latter, serving as something of an ally/sidekick to the protagonist, Sheriff Bart.

Bart’s a Black man who’s been made sheriff in a very intolerant small town, with the Waco Kid being seemingly the only person - at least at first - who isn’t prejudicial. Wilder’s delivery of the line regarding the townspeople being simple folk - or, in other words, “morons” - is legendary, but far from the only great line in Blazing Saddles. Talking purely one-liners, it’s also home to the likes of “Excuse me while I whip this out,” and the immortal “Mongo only pawn in game of life.”

Blazing Saddles

R

Comedy

Western

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Release Date

February 7, 1974

Director

Mel Brooks

Cast

Cleavon Little , gene wilder , Slim Pickens , Harvey Korman , Madeline Kahn , Mel Brooks

Runtime

93 minutes

7 "You tell 'em I'm coming, and Hell's coming with me, you hear? Hell's coming with me!"

Wyatt Earp, 'Tombstone' (1993)

Tombstone admittedly has a more direct approach to the Western genre than Unforgiven, which was released one year earlier, and it feels a little broad and old-fashioned, but not in a bad way. It’s a big, sweeping film that does end up feeling like a heroes versus villains tale. Nuance is not the name of the game here, but that’s okay when Tombstone succeeds in being great entertainment while making its characters very memorable.

Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday often steals the show, though it’s Kurt Russell who gets to play the film’s central character, the marshal Wyatt Earp, defined by his heroism and unwavering determination to take on various troublemakers in the titular town. It’s to Russell’s credit that he’s able to sell some lines of dialogue that might sound silly in the hands of lesser actor, such as his whole declaration that ends with “Hell's coming with me.”

Tombstone

R

Drama

History

Western

Biography

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Release Date

December 25, 1993

Director

George P. Cosmatos , Kevin Jarre

Cast

Kurt Russell , Val Kilmer , Sam Elliott , Bill Paxton , Powers Boothe , Michael Biehn

Runtime

130 minutes

6 "If you're honest, you're poor your whole life and in the end, you wind up dying all alone on some dirty street. For what? For nothing. For a tin star."

Martin Howe, 'High Noon' (1952)

Ahead of the curve as far as thematically rich and heavily revisionist Westerns were concerned, High Noon feels at odds with some of the more morally simpler Western films of its time. As such, it’s aged extremely well, also helped by having brisk pacing and a story that takes place in what feels close to real-time, centering on a sheriff’s attempts to get help from the people of his town, once he learns a criminal he previously imprisoned is out for revenge, and arriving in town at noon.

High Noon is very much Gary Cooper’s film, in many ways, with this being a definitive lead role for the actor, but the supporting cast is filled with plenty of other greats, including Lon Chaney Jr., who plays the town’s former marshal. His character’s too old to assist in the inevitable showdown, but he imparts some wisdom upon the younger sheriff, driving home the grounded and brutally honest ideas the film explores throughout.

High Noon

PG

Drama

Western

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Release Date

June 9, 1952

Director

Fred Zinnemann

Cast

Gary Cooper , Thomas Mitchell , Lloyd Bridges , Katy Jurado , Grace Kelly , Otto Kruger

Runtime

85

5 "I like the way you die, boy."

Django, 'Django Unchained' (2012)

As is to be expected from a Quentin Tarantino movie, Django Unchained has a good deal of graphic violence (some of it horrific, and some of it bloody fun, depending on the context of the scene), and it’s also tremendously well-written. It’s a story about the titular Django enacting vengeance on monstrous people and saving the one he loves, and is packed with one great line after another that it’s hard to single out just one.

One of Django’s targets is a slaver known as Big John, a man who’d previously tormented and brutalized Django and his wife, with him saying, “I like the way you beg, boy,” to Django in a flashback. So Django, once freed, manages to get cathartic revenge on Big John and the other Brittle brothers, capping off Big John’s violent demise with an “I like the way you die, boy.”

Django Unchained

R

Adventure

Drama

Western

Comedy

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Release Date

December 25, 2012

Director

Quentin Tarantino

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio , Jonah Hill , Samuel L. Jackson , Jamie Foxx , Kerry Washington , Christoph Waltz

Runtime

165 Minutes

4 "You brought two too many."

Harmonica, 'Once Upon a Time in the West' (1968)

While Once Upon a Time in the West isn’t a comedy, it has some surprisingly great one-liners sprinkled throughout that put a good many comedies to shame. It’s not too quip-happy, either, saving such one-liners for the perfect moments. For instance, Henry Fonda’s Frank remains a menacing villain, even though he also drops a line like: “How can you trust a man that wears both a belt and suspenders? Man can't even trust his own pants.”

That’s the runner-up for greatest zinger in Once Upon a Time in the West, with Charles Bronson’s stoic, cool, and mysterious character, Harmonica, getting the single best line (and he makes his words count, considering he barely ever speaks in the film). It comes near the end of the film’s memorable opening sequence, with a minor villain implying Harmoncia’s about to be gunned down, as he and his other two men rode to the meeting place with three horses. He claims they’re shy one horse, after Harmonica asks if they brought one for him, to which Harmonica shakes his head and replies, “You brought two too many.” Then he successfully guns them all down. That’s how you start a Western!

Once Upon a Time in the West

PG-13

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Release Date

July 4, 1969

Director

Sergio Leone

Cast

Henry Fonda , Charles Bronson , Claudia Cardinale , Jason Robards , Gabriele Ferzetti

Runtime

166 Minutes

Main Genre

Western

3 "You think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?"

Sundance Kid, 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1969)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid benefits from having an all-time great screenplay by William Goldman, who managed to do a similar thing as was done in Once Upon a Time in the West; making things really funny in parts, without the film becoming a full-on comedy. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid achieves this by being a buddy movie set during Old West times, following the two titular characters as they try to flee to Bolivia after making too many enemies with their various train robberies.

During one of these robberies, they find the safe they’re trying to get into has been improved, so Butch sticks an excessive amount of dynamite on the outside, causing a massive explosion. The comedic timing of the sequence is amazing, all capped off with Sundance sarcastically asking Butch if he thinks he used enough dynamite.

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2 "If they move, kill 'em!"

Pike Bishop, 'The Wild Bunch' (1969)

Another landmark Western from 1969, alongside Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch comes out swinging with a gargantuan shootout/set piece that really sets the stage, and is only topped by the even bloodier shootout seen near the film’s end. It also establishes its take-no-prisoners approach with a mission statement, of sorts, spoken by William Holden’s character while his gang performs a robbery and takes hostages, saying: “If they move, kill 'em!”

The Wild Bunch then goes on to deconstruct the Western genre as a whole, proving bloodier and more intense than any other large-scale Western that had come before it. It’s a film that still has staying power and a certain impact when watched today, more than half a century on from release, and stays true to that line in the opening scene… many, many people are killed throughout The Wild Bunch’s runtime.

The Wild Bunch

R

Action

Adventure

Drama

Where to Watch

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Release Date

June 19, 1969

Director

Sam Peckinpah

Cast

William Holden , Ernest Borgnine , Robert Ryan , Edmond O'Brien

1 "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."

Tuco, 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' (1966)

After the solid A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, and the even better follow-up in 1965, For a Few Dollars More, Sergio Leone concluded his Dollars Trilogy by helming perhaps the greatest epic Western of all time: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It’s a movie about three men engaged in a race to find buried treasure somewhere out in the desert, sometimes having to work together while none seem interested in ever sharing the wealth.

The main characters in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly play a huge role in making the film so engaging, with Tuco – the Ugly – played by Eli Wallach being the standout. He quite literally shoots down a villainous character’s attempt to monologue at him, with the man gloating about how he’s finally tracked Tuco down and is ready to kill him… but then Tuco suddenly shoots him with a previously concealed gun and drops the iconic line about shooting, and not talking. It’s not the only comedic moment of note in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but it might well be one of the funniest parts of any Western ever made.

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