12 Best John Wayne Movies List

1.) The Searchers (1956)

An American Civil War veteran embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches.

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2.) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns for the funeral of an old friend and tells the truth about his deed.

3.) Rio Bravo (1959)

A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.

Cast: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson
Director: Howard Hawks

4.) The Longest Day (1962)

The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.

Cast: John Wayne, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda
Director: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton

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5.) True Grit (1959)

A drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn teenager track down her father's murderer in Indian territory.

Cast: John Wayne, Kim Darby
Director: Henry Hathaway

6.) Stagecoach (1939) 

A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.

Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor
Director: John Ford

7.) The Quiet Man (1952)

A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love.

Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara
Director: John Ford

8.) Red River (1948)

Dunson leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, to its destination in Missouri. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted son.

Cast: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru
Director: Howard Hawks

9.) El Dorado (1967)

Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Hara. Together with an old Indian fighter and a gambler, they help a rancher and his family fight a rival rancher that is trying to steal their water.

Cast: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan
Director: Howard Hawks

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10.) The Shootist (1976)

A dying gunfighter spends his last days looking for a way to die with a minimum of pain and a maximum of dignity.

Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart
Director: Don Siegel

11.) How The West Was Won (1962)

A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century - including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.

Cast: John Wayne, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda
Director: John Ford

12.) Fort Apache (1948)

At Fort Apache, an honorable and veteran war captain finds conflict when his regime is placed under the command of a young, glory hungry lieutenant colonel with no respect for the local Indian tribe.

Cast: John Wayne, Heny Fonda, Shirley Temple
Director: John Ford