The cinematic experience is like nothing else, and there’s a reason that movies are able to create a powerful feeling that continually has audiences returning for more. Lovers of the film industry can indulge in both gigantic franchises and more intimate independent features. A consistent barometer for success is the numbers movies bring in at the box office, but there’s still room for plenty of genres that tell different kinds of stories.
Westerns have become a bit of a lost art and a type of movie that’s associated with the past, but it’s far from dead. There are creative filmmakers that know how to get the most out of this classic genre, and there are some incredible modern westerns out there for those who know where to look.
10 Django Unchained Filters Spaghetti Western Tropes Through Blaxploitation
Quentin Tarantino has been an influential filmmaker ever since his debut picture, Reservoir Dogs, but it’s impressive to watch the director push himself to tackle bigger spectacles. Tarantino has taught himself how to become a master of the action genre and his spaghetti western and blaxploitation mashup, Django Unchained, is a love letter to it.
Tarantino creates an unlikely modern western hero with Jaime Foxx’s Django, who beautifully plays off of Christoph Waltz in the revenge picture. Tarantino services the staples of the genre, but channels seething rage and racial oppression to give his movie extra bite.
9 The Revenant Doesn’t Flinch When It Comes To DiCaprio’s Assault Against The Elements
Leonardo DiCaprio is one of this generation's biggest actors, and he's delivered dozens of memorable performances. However, DiCaprio finally won his Academy Award for his work as deserted trapper, Hugh Glass, in Alejandro González Iñárritu's brutal western, The Revenant.
The film is an ode to the harshness of the wilderness as well as the power of the human spirit. It's easy to reduce The Revenant to its grueling battle between DiCaprio and a bear, but the movie is greater than the sum of its parts and a testament to the power of visceral, raw filmmaking.
8 Bone Tomahawk Proves That Westerns And Horror Films Can Have A Lot Of Overlap
One thing that defines the western genre is how it highlights the lawlessness of the past and how a simple grudge can trigger a seismic shift in a community. S. Craig Zahler is an increasingly fearless filmmaker, and Bone Tomahawk is a gutting western and horror hybrid that helped put the director on the map.
Bone Tomahawk looks at a simple rescue mission when vicious cave people take some men hostage. Bone Tomahawk has a stacked cast that stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, and Richard Jenkins, but the film's real highlight is its exhausting violence.
7 The Good, The Bad, And The Weird Is A Frenetic Tribute To What Makes Westerns Great
Modern westerns are able to have a real advantage over the formative films that helped establish the genre simply because they have decades of cinema influences to pull from. There's a fine line between indulgent and passionate, but South Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon's The Good, The Bad, and the Weird is the perfect mix of chaos that feels both familiar and wholly original.
The western's plot is an homage to the Sergio Leone classic as three diverse gunslingers vie for a lucrative reward, but what follows is anything but predictable.
6 The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs Explores The Western Genre From Multiple Angles
The Coen Bros. are two of the most exciting writers and directors in the current industry. The two have tackled a number of genres over the course of their illustrious careers, which has resulted in some iconic western contributions. True Grit is a more conventional western story, but The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a more diverse vehicle that tries to offer something for everyone. Originally produced as a television series, Buster Scruggs presents six wildly unique stories that are all set against western backdrops.
5 3:10 To Yuma Boils The Western Down To Its Basics And Pushes Pure Star Power
James Mangold has directed some diverse movies, but sensibilities of the western genre are entrenched in all of his work, whether it's his methodical superhero film, Logan, or whatever he might do with the next entry in the Indiana Jones series.
3:10 to Yuma is a formative modern western that pairs together Christian Bale and Russell Crowe as opposing forces that are forced into an unlikely partnership when they both come under attack. 3:10 to Yuma is pure action and Bale and Crowe are magnetic together.
4 No Country For Old Men Creates One Of Western’s Greatest Antagonists
Nearly every single Coen Bros. movie brings something new to cinema, but audiences were truly not ready for 2007's No Country for Old Men. The Coens effortlessly bring one of Cormac McCarthy’s most nihilistic commentaries on America to life.
At the core of No Country for Old Men is a story about greed, fate, and the type of people who have been pushed into the shadows by the world. Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones' thoughtful performances ring true, but it's Javier Bardem's career-making work as the murderous Anton Chigurh that becomes No Country For Old Men's centerpiece.
3 The Proposition Chronicles A Devastating Arrangement That Depicts The West At Its Worst
Some westerns are content to showcase altruistic cowboys and exciting shootouts where a hero gets to restore order to a community, but a much more realistic depiction of old fashioned western settings are depressing environments where violence rules supreme. The Proposition is a brutal meditation on violence and loyalty that comes from Australian filmmaker John Hillcoat.
Guy Pearce stars as an outlaw who gets captured along with his younger brother, only to get pushed into a psychologically daunting ultimatum where Pearce's Charlie Burns must hunt down his older brother otherwise his younger brother will be executed.
2 There Will Be Blood Is A Grueling Descent Into Obsession And Ego
P.T. Anderson is a modern cinema master who fearlessly tells stories often dominated by massive egos and delusions of grandeur. A turning point in Anderson’s career is There Will Be Blood, at atmospheric drama about a conniving oil baron who can never get enough.
Anderson’s patient, visual storytelling accentuates the barbaric nature of the time period, but Daniel Day-Lewis truly channels everything into the film’s flawed, manic protagonist, Daniel Plainview. On top of the impeccable acting, Johnny Greenwood’s haunting score pushes the period piece to an even higher level of perfection. Its ending is still hard to top.
1 The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is an eternally tense character study and a master class in tension that ramps up over the course of its three-hour runtime. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck deliver some of the best performances of their careers as the title characters, both of whom get sucked into their own black holes of desperation.
Ford's transformation and betrayal towards Jesse James is incredibly moving, even though the audience knows that it's coming. Affleck plays Ford as if he's lost in purgatory and it's haunting work that elevates the genre.