Programming a western film festival means we spend a good part of the year staring at landscapes, and every so often one of them looks like the drive home. For more than a century, Colorado has stood in for the whole American frontier. A surprising number of the greatest movies filmed in Colorado are westerns you already know by heart, shot in canyons, on narrow-gauge rail lines, and across plains you can stand in yourself by the end of an afternoon. Consider this our field guide to where the genre put down roots in our state, and why that geography still means something to us up here in Greeley.
Movies Filmed in Colorado — At a Glance
What: Classic and modern westerns shot across Colorado, from the San Juan Mountains in the southwest to the eastern plains.
Marquee titles: True Grit (1969), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), How the West Was Won (1962), The Hateful Eight (2015), The Lone Ranger (2013).
Where to watch westerns today: The Go West Film Fest in downtown Greeley, Colorado.
When: November 9–14, 2026. Cost: Free admission, always.
Get involved: Volunteer with us or support the festival.
The San Juans Did the Heavy Lifting
If you drew a circle around Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Ridgway, Telluride, and Montrose, you would be drawing a circle around most of the western canon. The San Juan Mountains have a particular quality that filmmakers have chased since the studio era: jagged, snow-streaked peaks that read as dangerous, and valleys wide enough to move a herd or a posse through in a single wide shot. The country is beautiful, but it is not soft. That is exactly the register a good western wants.
Three of the biggest westerns ever made leaned on this one corner of the state. How the West Was Won, the 1962 epic with John Wayne and Gregory Peck, spread its cameras across Silverton, Durango, and Montrose. Seven years later, two of the most beloved westerns in the genre were shot within a short drive of each other, in the same season, using the same mountains. Southwest Colorado had a very good year in 1969.
Where was True Grit filmed in Colorado?
True Grit (1969) was filmed in and around Ouray and Ridgway, with a little help from Gunnison. The courtroom where Mattie Ross first lays eyes on Rooster Cogburn is the real Ouray County Courthouse. The showdown where Cogburn takes the reins in his teeth and charges Ned Pepper's gang was staged at Deb's Meadow, near the summit of Owl Creek Pass, and it is still one of the most quoted images in any western. John Wayne won his only Academy Award for that role, in a valley you can drive to. The town of Ridgway thought enough of the whole business to build the True Grit Cafe in the film's honor, and it is still serving.
The Train Robbery Ran on Real Track
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) put Colorado railroad on screen in a way that has kept tourists coming for half a century. The train robbery scenes were shot on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a working steam line you can still ride today through the Animas River gorge. Telluride's New Sheridan Bar stood in for a saloon, and the country north of Durango filled in the rest. When people say a movie holds up, this is part of what they mean: the locations were never sets, so they never dated.
What modern westerns were filmed in Colorado?
The genre never left the state. Quentin Tarantino shot most of The Hateful Eight (2015) on the Schmid Ranch, on Wilson Mesa about ten miles west of Telluride, and the snowbound San Juans do half the acting in that picture. Two years earlier, Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer brought the 2013 remake of The Lone Ranger to Creede and Alamosa, and the old mining town made enough of an impression on Depp that he lingered in it off camera. Different eras, different budgets, same instinct: when a director wants the West to look like the West, they come to Colorado.
The Plains Get Their Close-Up
Mountains get the postcards, but the western is just as much a story of grass and horizon, and that is our country. The 1978 miniseries Centennial, adapted from James Michener's sprawling novel, was filmed on the Pawnee National Grassland and around the little community of Orchard near Fort Morgan, roughly an hour's drive from where we set up our marquee every November. Down in the southeast corner, Terrence Malick made his 1973 debut Badlands around Rocky Ford, La Junta, and Las Animas, with interiors shot at a historic mansion in Pueblo. The plains east of Greeley are the same windswept, buttes-and-sky landscape that pulled those cameras out here in the first place. We think about that a lot.
Why This Matters at Our Marquee
We did not start a western film festival in Greeley by accident. The land in these movies is the land outside the theater door. When you watch a classic western at the Kress Cinema & Lounge and then walk out onto 8th Avenue, the same low light is sitting on the same kind of plains that framed Centennial. Our festival posters, painted each year by Colorado western artist Cody Kuehl, come from that same soil. We are not trying to show everything the genre has ever done. We are trying to show the West honestly, in the place it was filmed. If that idea appeals to you, our essays and reviews dig deeper into the films and the people who made them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most famous movie filmed in Colorado?
True Grit (1969) is the strongest claim. It was shot around Ouray and Ridgway and won John Wayne his only Academy Award. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, filmed the same year on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, runs a close second.
Where was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid filmed?
In southwest Colorado. The train robbery scenes were shot on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Telluride's New Sheridan Bar served as a saloon, and additional scenes were filmed in the country near Durango.
Was The Hateful Eight filmed in Colorado?
Yes. Quentin Tarantino filmed most of The Hateful Eight (2015) on the Schmid Ranch on Wilson Mesa, about ten miles west of Telluride, using the surrounding San Juan Mountains.
What western was filmed near Greeley?
The 1978 miniseries Centennial, based on James Michener's novel, was filmed on the Pawnee National Grassland and near Fort Morgan in northeastern Colorado, roughly an hour from Greeley.
Can I watch western movies in Colorado today?
Yes. The Go West Film Fest screens classic and contemporary westerns for free every November in downtown Greeley, Colorado.
Where does the Go West Film Fest show its films?
At the Kress Cinema & Lounge (817 8th Ave) and the LINC Library Innovation Center (501 8th Ave), both within a short walk of each other on 8th Avenue in Greeley. Seating is first come, first served.
The West you love on screen was filmed a few hours from our marquee. Come watch it where it was made. We will save you a seat.