John Wayne Was Upset by 'High Plains Drifter,' A Movie Ranked Among the Greatest Westerns

For generations of viewers, John Wayne became the actor who represented what a great Western movie was more than anyone else. That is why it is shocking that he expressed outrage at High Plains Drifter, a movie that has recently been ranked as one of the "greatest Western movies" ever made.

Why John Wayne Was So Outraged by 'High Plains Drifter'

By the year 1973, John Wayne had starred in a seemingly endless list of iconic Western movies, including The Searchers, Rio Bravo, Stagecoach, and True Grit. Given that, it could easily be argued that there were few people at that time who had more expertise in what makes a great Western. As such, it would have been understandable if Clint Eastwood was shocked when Wayne expressed frustrations with one of his most acclaimed movies.

As a 2025 Slashfilm article notes, Eastwood once revealed that Wayne sent him a letter telling him that 1973's High Plains Drifter was a bad representation of the West. "That isn't what the West was all about. That isn't the American people who settled this country." Since Eastwood starred in and directed the movie, that must have been a disappointing letter to get. However, Eastwood went on to detail what he'd realized about Wayne's letter.

"I realized that there's two different generations, and he wouldn't understand what I was doing. High Plains Drifter was meant to be a fable: it wasn't meant to show the hours of pioneering drudgery. It wasn't supposed to be anything about settling the West."

Who Ranked 'High Plains Drifter' as One of the 'Greatest Western Movies' of All Time

In March 2026, Time Out published its ranking of the "greatest Western movies" of all time. That ranking named High Plains Drifter as the 31st best Western ever produced.

The acclaimed movie has been praised by many for pushing the genre's envelope for several reasons. For example, Eastwood's character in High Plains Drifter is morally ambiguous, and it doesn't offer a simple resolution. The movie has also been praised for being genuinely unsettling, as several scenes are imbued with a pervasive sense of dread. Those are some of the reasons why many Western fans would argue the movie deserved its ranking, despite John Wayne's complaints.

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This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 27, 2026 at 12:30 PM.