5 Amazing Western Revenge Movies You Can Watch For Free

Published Nov 14, 2026, 7:15 PM EST

Nicholas Raymond is an author and journalist based out of Alabama, where he proudly roots for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. A graduate of the University of Montevallo, he has a degree in mass communication with a concentration in journalism.

For those who enjoy watching hardened gunslingers shooting their way to revenge, there are plenty of worthwhile options that can be streamed for free. Tubi, a streaming service known for not requiring a paid subscription to watch its content, hosts a vast library of Western movies.

Vengeance is one of the most popular themes of Western films. It's the driving force of so many stories in the genre. Because of how common it can be, a long list of these Westerns proved to be rather forgettable, somewhat standard entries into the genre. Others, however, stood out from the crowd to join the ranks of the greatest Westerns of all time, a distinction earned by the likes of Unforgiven, Hang 'Em High, The Searchers, and For a Few Dollars More.

A few movies that belong in that same category can currently be streamed for free, thanks to Tubi. Beyond that, the streaming service also offers a number of lesser-known - but incredibly entertaining - Western movies that cast the spotlight on bitter gunslingers with a score to settle.

5 Open Range

Released in 2003, Open Range stars Western icons Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall as aging ranchers who resist when a gang of thugs led by an unscrupulous cattle baron tries to bully them off the land in the Montana territory. Open Range starts out as a story of resistance against a powerful force in a Western town, but when the villains of the film ultimately take a step too far, it evolves into a brutal tale of revenge.

The mysterious past of Kevin Costner's character comes into play here, with his skills as a gunfighter being key to their efforts to fight back. Their determination to not only hold their own ground, but also get revenge for their fallen culminates in a strikingly gruesome grand finale. Unlike many of the Westerns of the previous era, Open Range pulls no punches when it comes to showing its characters dying in grisly fashion. But the violence is never gratitious; Open Range successfully presents itself as a dark but appropriately realistic take on life in the American Wild West.

With its gritty take on the Western formula and outstanding performances from its two lead actors, Open Range has a well-deserved reputation as one of the greatest Westerns of the 21st century thus far.

4 The Forgotten Pistolero

The Forgotten Pistolero is an underrated 1969 Spaghetti Western that places Leonard Mann in the role of Sebastian, a man who grew up with no knowledge of his true history. After getting dragged into a conflict with a pair of scheming criminals and their cronies, Sebastian learns the tragic details of his past, and the identies of those responsible. Teaming up with his friend, Rafael, Sebastian goes on a mission of revenge to get justice for his father and save his sister.

A big part of what makes The Forgotten Pistolero's revenge tale so interesting is the target of his crusade; Sebastian's own mother is one of the two main villains of the movie, setting up an emotional confrontation at the end of the story where the hero gets a chance to make her and her former lover pay for their crimes. If the plot sounds familiar, that's because The Forgotten Pistolero is essentially a loose adaptation of the Greek myth of Orestes, though done in the format of a Spaghetti Western. It's an unorthodox combination, but the concept makes for a compelling revenge film.

3 Valdez Is Coming

In 1971, Western heavyweight Burt Lancaster starred in Valdez is Coming. Lancaster plays a lawman named Valdez, who was deceived into killing someone in the movie's opening act. Shortly afterward, the man who perpetrated the deception used the power he holds in the town to have Valdez painfully humiliated and dragged out into the desert.

Unbeknownst to the villain, Burt Lancaster's Valdez is a seasoned sharpshooter, a background that is crucial to his plan of retaliation. Unwilling to forget what was done to him, Valdez meticulously hunts down his enemy's henchmen, one by one. Valdez's relentless killing spree continues until it builds into a dramatic showdown with his prime target.

Similar in some ways to Unforgiven, Valdez is Coming is a movie where the villains unwittingly invite disaster upon themselves by an old gunslinger they once deemed as a non-threat. Fear consumes them as Lancaster's character easily asserts control over the situation. He's on his own, but it's clearly the villains who have their backs against the wall.

For those who enjoy the one-man army aspect of both Western movies and modern-day revenge thrillers like John Wick, Valdez is Coming is a must-watch. And despite being in his late 50s at this point in his career, Burt Lancaster is still as imposing as ever, demonstrating his worth as one of the Western genre's best leading actors across its entire history in Hollywood.

2 Gun The Man Down

Two years into the legendary run of the celebrated Western TV series Gunsmoke, the show's star - James Arness - played the lead role in Gun the Man Down, a significantly darker film set in the same genre. Rather than keeping the peace and maintaining law in order, Arness plays an outlaw with a serious grudge on his mind, and one whose vicious methods go a bit beyond the norm.

Gun the Man Down delivers a gritty take on the Western revenge trope that is likely to please fans of movies like Hang 'Em High and High Plains Drifter. In the movie, Arness' character is a criminal whose cohorts betrayed him and essentially left him holding the bag. But rather than simply exact revenge on them following his release from prison, he decides to drag out the process by terrorizing them emotionally, adding an interesting, psychological horror element to the Western.

1 Ride Lonesome

In 1959's Ride Lonesome, Randolph Scott plays a bounty hunter named Ben Brigade, who captures a criminal (James Best) and sets out to deliver him to justice. But his efforts actually hide an ulterior motive; his real goal is to force out of hiding his prisoner's parter-in-crime, who is responsible for the death of Brigade's wife years earlier.

Ride Lonesome boasts a surprising amount of star power; in addition to having Randolph Scott in the lead role, the 1959 Western also includes bad guy roles for two of the Western genre's best villain actors in Lee Van Cleef and James Coburn, and naturally, neither disappoints. The sinister nature of Van Cleef's character only make Randolph Scott's hero even easier to root for.

Ride Lonesome is easily one of Randolph Scott's best Westerns, and that's saying a lot when taking into consideration that he was one of the most prolific and most popular actors associated with in the genre during the 1940s and 1950s.