13 Essential Female-Led Westerns

“Annie Get Your Gun” (1950)
It’s gaudy, garish, and will always come affixed with historical footnotes (Judy Garland was fired from the lead role after months of shooting had already occurred, precipitating her departure from MGM and marking the beginning of her professional and personal decline), but Betty Hutton is a game, rootin’ tootin’ replacement, and Irving Berlin’s songs are shown off to their fullest in this lavish adaptation of the Broadway hit. Director George Sidney, along with musical impresario Busby Berkeley, is at the helm of this highly fictionalized life story of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, and he keeps things moving swiftly enough to breeze past the story’s awkward passages —the bit where Annie is inducted into the Sioux tribe, for example— leaving us to focus on her soppy romance/rivalry with Howard Keel‘s strapping baritone. Hutton is super-peppy, as was the style of the day, and it can feel a little grating, but underneath the goshdurnit stage accents and slapstick moments is a gentle investigation of just how much of herself a woman should give up in order to get her man, topped off with some inarguably great songs.

“The Belle Starr Story” (1968)
More evocative in direct translation from its Italian title (“Il Mio Corpo Per Un Poker”/”My Body For A Hand Of Poker”), especially considering its story bears no relation to that of the historical outlaw Starr, this trashy spaghetti western/melodrama is remarkable for being the only one ever directed by a woman. Lina Wertmuller, who would later become the first woman ever nominated for an directing Oscar (for “Seven Beauties“), crafts a silly but highly enjoyable western melodrama in which the gorgeous Elsa Martinelli plays the high-rolling, cigar-chomping, straight-shooting Belle, who falls into a tempestuous relationship with George Eastman‘s caddish Larry Blackie. Full of anachronisms (Martinelli’s ’60s eye-make) and cronky details that make little sense (her painted-on freckles), there’s still a tremendous verve to the filmmaking as the story rollicks through backroom poker games, wide open vistas, bank robberies, plush saloons and daring rescue missions. That it uses the standard-issue background of abuse and rape to “explain” Belle’s mannish dress and initial frigidity is a drag, but mostly it’s so OTT Italian in its “I love you! I hate you!” excesses that it’s a lot of fun.

“The Quick and the Dead” (1995)
Perhaps we’re stretching the term “essential” a little bit here, but Sam Raimi‘s Sharon Stone-starring western is probably, Lord help us, the first title that occurs to many of us when we hear the term “female-led Western.” Of course, that might not be for the best of reasons: “The Quick and the Dead” was something of a punchline at the time of release, and if the passage of 20 years has given us some fondness for it, it’s mainly for nostalgia and camp value. Stone feels horribly miscast in a role that asks her to emulate a Sergio Leone hero, right down to gimlet-eyes-beneath-hat-brim shots — indeed Raimi’s emulation of Leone here is so total that the film almost feels like a pastiche. That said, the premise — a gunslinging contest — gives room for plenty of outside color like two pre-superstardom performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe and a deep bench of supporting talent including Keith David, Lance Henrikson and especially Gene Hackman who somehow feels like the only one to quite get into the rhythm of this experiment in gender-reversing homage. It’s never actually good, but it is also never dull.