Van Heflin

Van Heflin

Watch Western Movies – Free Online Westerns Featuring Academy Award Winners

From the birth of motion pictures up until the 1970s, Westerns were the most prevalent theme in cinema. In spite of this fact, Western themed movies have won only three Academy Awards for Best Picture. But classic Western movies feature many noteworthy performances by actors, directors and screenwriters.

The Western movie Cimarron won the Best Picture award in 1931 but has been called one of the worst films to win the award.  Dances With Wolves, Kevin Costner’s epic that featured reverse stereotyping, won Best Picture in 1990, and The Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood’s anti-Western, won the Best Picture award in 1992.

Given the huge number of westerns made over the years, the tiny number of awards won by films in this genre (exactly one Academy Award for Best Picture prior to 1990), have led many to speculate about a bias in the Academy against Westerns. But the list of Westerns nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture is quite a bit more representative of the genre; Western movies received a total of 32 nominations during the 20th century. The list includes classics like Shane, High Noon, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, the Wild Bunch, The Alamo, and Stagecoach. But many great Westerns, like Red River, Rio Bravo and The Searchers, widely recognized as some of the best westerns ever made, were completely ignored.

Given the poor performance of Westerns in the academy awards, we have a bigger selection of noteworthy films if we look for Western films featuring performances by Academy Award winners. The following Western films have fallen into the public domain and can be watched or downloaded for free online:

Fighting Caravans (1931) - Gary Cooper, five time Academy Award nominee and two time winner for Best Actor (once for the Western High Noon), stars in this big budget Western, about a California bound wagon train. The movie also features Lili Damita, the French born wife of actor Errol Flynn.

 The Outlaw (1941) – Jules Furthman (one academy award nomination for Best Screenplay – Mutiny on the Bounty) wrote the screenplay and the great film director Howard Hawks was an uncredited co-writer and director on this Howard Hughes film about Billy the Kid. Howard Hawks received one academy award nomination for Best Director (Sergeant York and one the Lifetime Achievement Award)

American Empire (1942) - Richard Dix was nominated as best actor for his role in Cimarron. He stars beside Van Heflin (won the Academy award for Best Supporting actor – 1943), Montgomery Clift (4 Academy Award nominations, no wins) and Ronald Reagan (0 nominations) in this excellent film that tells the story of two Civil War veterans who build a cattle empire.

The Sundowners (1950) – Robert Preston (One nomination Best Supporting Actor) and Chill Wills (one nomination Best Supporting Actor) star in this Western about two brothers.

High Lonesome (1950) – Produced and shot back to back with The Sundowners, this movie stars Chill Wills (see above)

Only the Valiant (1951) – This exciting Western about a group of misfits sent to defend a cavalry outpost against Indian attack stars Gregory Peck, Five time Academy Award nominee and one time winner for Best Actor (To Kill a Mockingbird – 1962). The screenplay was co-written by Harry Brown (two nominations for Best Screenplay, 1 win for A place in the Sun - 1951). Brown also wrote the screen play for Ocean’s Eleven (written in 1960).

Vengeance Valley (1952) stars Burt Lancaster (4 nominations for Best Actor, one win in 1960 for the movie Elmer Gantry). Based on a novel by Luke Short, it recounts the story of two brother's feud over an inheritance and a woman.

The Big Trees (1952) – Stars Kirk Douglas (3 Academy Award nominations).

The Kentucky Rifle (1956) stars Chill Wills (see The Sundowners above).

Bonanza – Silent Thunder  - Directed by Robert Altman (nominated 7 times for the Academy award for Best Director – Mash, Nashville, The Player, Gosford Park - and 2 times for Best Picture, Altman only received the Lifetime achievement award in 2006). Although Altman is known for his films, he also directed many TV shows, including this episode of Bonanza

McClintock (1963) – John Wayne (4 nominations, one award for Best Actor – True Grit, 1969) stars in this Western comedy about a cattle baron, which also features Chill Wills (one nomination for best Supporting Actor also alongside Wayne, in “The Alamo”) and Maureen O’Hara

The American West of John Ford (1971) – A documentary on the career of the great Director, whose majority of work was in the Western film genres. Ford won four academy awards, but never for a Western.  John Wayne (1 Best Actor award), Peter Fonda (2 nominations) and James Stewart (5 nominations, 1 best actor award) narrate this documentary.

This quick list of a dozen Western films with Academy Award winning performances is just a compilation of those that have fallen into the public domain, and as a result can be watched for free on the internet. Have fun watching these classic films, I’ll see you around at the hitchin’ post.

About the Author

Zack Peale is a fan of classic movies and is especially interested in Classic Western movies and television.

Westernmania - Watch Classic Western films and TV shows online for free

 

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