Maybe my most favorite of all westerns, Sam Peckinpah’s devastating threnody for gun-fighters, Ride the High Country, starring the incomparable duo of Randolph Scott and Joel MaCrea, both actors were nearing the end of their film careers, just like the noble cowboys they portray in this intensely suspenseful, exquisitely beautiful and deeply heartfelt portrait of the old west, the heart of our classic genre, “the western.” — Jonathan Demme

Ride the High Country is the story of retired US Marshal Steve Judd (Joel McCrea), who is transporting a shipment of gold to a small-town bank through dangerous territory. He recruits an old partner, Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott), to accompany him, but little known to Judd, Westrum has his own plans for the gold.