Ticket 2 Ride

The production of new Western films is either left up to streaming service originals, financing from arts grants and government incentives, or the occasional big studio, mega-production. Honestly, big budgets aren’t as important as quality scripts. Scripts attract talent, which attracts financing.

Director James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Wolverine) nails it when he calls the Western a versatile setting for any kind of storytelling, to see the issues, whatever they are, independent from our own frame of reference and look at them with a different perspective. “Westerners are fanciful, they can be anything you want them to represent to create a fantasy where you can explore any human issue.”

The following is not a “best list,” rather a group of Westerns I assembled of both big and small films, although several of these films would make a best list. The term “Western” is applied broadly here, not all of these films are set in the 1800s, some are Modern Westerns or neo-Westerns, films that project the spirit and moral conflict of Western genre films.

I always screen the films I review or list to get a fresh perspective, and to see if I’ve changed my mind if I’ve seen the film before. It’s fun to watch four or five films in a day, including special features if they are included. I want to know everything I can about these films, including a look at credits, sample of reviews and any pertinent production information.

Three of the films below are remakes of classic films. I’m not big on remakes, and though I’d seen all of these films before, I really wondered if my opinions had changed.

Let’s get started…

News of the World (2020) – Tom Hanks has been everything else, why not as a former soldier in a Western? Adapted and directed by Paul Greengrass (Borne films, Captain Phillips). Didn’t stand a chance at the box office, this is a slow, often gentile, but gritty film of a newspaper reader (Capt. Kidd) escorting a young girl across post-Civil War Texas, where conflict still simmers.

The Independent called this a fine traditional Western, but went on to say the film aspired to, but had failed, to achieve more. The film makes obvious comparisons to today’s society, which I found clever, but the reviewer found the effort clumsy and too obvious. News of the World shifts from a classic Western to one with social commentary. I flagged The independent review because it’s tricky when a film changes lanes, but I believe it works. It’s an interesting story about a man who travels the territory telling people, and providing commentary, about events going on outside of their small bubble.

News of the World is dark and foreboding, because the country was unstable and many counties were ruled like fiefdoms. The Civil War might have been over, but the conflict largely remained.

There is a lot to like about this film. At the center is an emotionally wounded man who avoids the trauma of healing. It’s the bravery of a young girl, who has no family or society, to show Capt. Kidd that you can survive the worst. Tom Hanks; he a pretty good actor.

Wind River (2017) – A modern Western about a wildlife official and FBI agent on a Native American reservation in the deep winter. Snowmobiles instead of horses, and a lot of spiritual existentialism. Think Longmire. Jeremy Renner in another strong role, in a film by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, Sicario, To Hell and Back).

Native American women are raped, go missing and are murdered at an alarming rate in our society. That’s a fact. A young woman’s body is discovered in the snow. Was she murdered or did she just die of exposure? This is a very sad film. It’s well done, but that seems to only magnify the plight of Native American youth.

No Country For Old Men (2007) – Another neo-Western, this one from the Coen Brothers from a novel by Cormac McCarthy. Two million dollars is found in a West Texas dreg-deal shootout and the owners want it back, leaving a trail of bodies along the way. Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson and Josh Brolin star in this dry and violent thriller.

I have seen this film before and I remember not liking it. Watching it again helped me to appreciate the story and the acting. The violence was still difficult to watch because it’s so cold. The Coen Brothers have constructed a good film, which reminded me of Don Siegel’s Point Blank (1967).

The Revenant (2015) – Leonardo DiCaprio and Thomas Hardy star in director Alejandro Iñárritu’s epic tale of frontiersman Hugh Glass’s fight for survival in 1820’s American wilderness. Pursued by the Arikara tribe, mauled by a protective bear, attempted murder by a rival fur trapper, and left for dead, Glass is truly on his own.

The Revenant is dark and violent, it’s intense and the dialogue is difficult to understand. Being on the frontier was a brutal way to live and the film takes you directly into that experience. Emmanuel Lubezki was the cinematographer and gave the film an amazing look of subdued colors, a foreboding landscape, and the camerawork amplifies the danger.

The Revenant won many major awards and grossed half a billion dollars, so I guess it was a success. DiCaprio was presented with the Best Actor Oscar for his performance, as was Lubezki for the photography. I’m not a big fan of films from this time period. Just a personal thing.

The Power of the Dog (2021) – Montana 1925, two wealthy ranching brothers, polar ends opposite, face a major change in their relationship when one of them marries a widow and brings her son to the household. An emotional and psychological story of power within a family. Directed by Jane Campion, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Campion was presented with a Best Director Oscar for the film. Cumberbatch delivers a remarkable personal in male toxicity and narcissism, that masks deeper issues. All of the performances are very good, even if the characters are a bit strange.

There is very little action in the film. The sport is Cumberbatch’s verbal harassment of the other characters, especially the young man. The setting could be anywhere, being a Western is somewhat immaterial to the film’s core, although the landscape is quite beautiful.

The World to Come (2020) – Directed by Norwegian Mona Fastvold, starring Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Christopher Abbott and Casey Affleck. In 1856 upstate New York, the wives of two nearby farm families develop an intense romantic connection. Each is unhappy in their marriage, and turn to each other in friendship and then share deeper feelings.

Competently made, but a film of limited appeal. The subject matter is compelling, but lacks the power to keep a viewer’s interest for two hours. It’s slow and too narrow in character development, unfortunately it was easy to lose interest in the story. Another criticism is how these much these actors look as if they are instead filming a daytime soap: stylist hair and makeup, contemporary attitudes, perfect diction and finishing school manners.

Hostiles (2017) – The film opens in 1892. The first 10 minutes are very horrific. Christian Bale, Wes Studi and Rosamund Pike star in Scott Cooper’s brutal and deeply emotional film about the escort of a dying Cheyenne chief, Yellow Hawk from captivity to his ancestral place for his final time. Bale is the cavalry captain ordered to escort the chief. Studi is Yellow Hawk, and they are longtime enemies. The film does not shy away from the deep issues on both sides. The film has a lot of issues to unpack.

Hostiles does suffer from being slow and overly talky at times. While that can spell trouble for an action film, Cooper nonetheless directs the film in an old school style of filmmaking, letting scenes develop and allowing the audience to absorb the emotion and dramatic subtext. Instead of forcing a point with music and editing, viewers get to be viewers. Along the way, the widow of a family of settlers, the only survivor of a raid, joins the escort detail. It’s an eventful journey as one might guess. The ending is a surprise, but makes good sense. The evolution of these characters is pleasing.

Hell and High Water (2016) – Two brothers rob several locations of a bank about to foreclose on the family ranch. Written by Taylor Sheridan, starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster. Bridges plays a soon-to-retire Texas Ranger assigned to the case.

Sly, wry, gritty and sometimes quite sad. Low-key, a script that keeps the film moving, but the gift are the characters and the witty, realistic dialogue. This is the kind of laidback, quirky film that Paul Newman would make with George Roy Hill or Sam Peckinpah. The dry humor is offset by the sudden violence, which immediately changes the film’s tone. A film like this sucks you in because of the offbeat characters and the reason these two robbers are pulling the bank jobs. You almost cheer for these guys and their mission. Then a jolt of reality.

Bone Tomahawk (2015) – Kurt Russell stars, with an interesting supporting cast. Written and directed by S. Craig Zahler. This film is a blend of a classic Western, murder mystery, along with a horror film, with a lot of grisly, graphic violence, and cave dwelling cannibals. How’s that for a Saturday matinee? This film is not for the faint at heart. Produced on a minuscule budget, Zahler does a superior job in his directorial debut. I tried to like the film, but I couldn’t.

Russell makes any film better just by showing up. Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette, Katherine Morris and Sid Haig round out the cast.

Django Unchained (2012) – Quentin Tarantino writes and directs this homage to the Spaghetti Western and the many Django films. It’s only fair for the original Django, Franco Nero, to have a small role in the film. Jaime Foxx and Christop Waltz are superb, while Don Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Walton Goggins are creepy and menacing. Tarantino is clever in his casting and gets the performances he seeks.

Django is a slave, who is purchased and set free to help a German bounty hunter collect three wanted men. The secondary plot involves Django finding, and freeing, his wife. Along the way, the body count is quite high, and viewers are reminded just how savage and inhuman slavery was.

One cannot take these films seriously, the violence and carnage is over the top. Expect Tarantino to mix in some disturbing humor and you have the template for his films. They are long, talky, skip back and forth in time, and between plots. He is good director, but a better writer than director. As a rule, his films are 10-15 minutes too long. There’s a lot to like about this film, but the ending is a bit much.

The Hateful Eight (2015) – Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern are the hateful eight. Supposedly strangers who meet during a snowstorm at a stagecoach stopover. Nothing is how it seems, writer/director Quentin Tarantino makes sure of that.

The film has the usual Tarantino film qualities: a long setup, dubious characters, an unresolved backstory, unexpected character deaths, wry humor, and lots of shooting. More than a Western, this is an Agatha Christie meets Sam Peckinpah. I admit, the violence bothered me less with the second viewing. The violence is brutal, but becomes cartoonish, a Tarantino trait. I would rate this film higher than Django Unchained.

The Magnificent Seven (2016) – Remaking a classic usually fails, but it can succeed as a decent, although different film. That’s the case here. Antoine Fuqua directs his frequent collaborator Denzel Washington, with a cast that includes Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Vincent D’Onofrio and Peter Sarsgaard. A small group of hired mercenaries attempt to free a town from a corrupt and murderous mine owner.

This is a big budget, good looking film. It’s also an optimistic film, like the original. A David v. Goliath story. Of course it is a violent film, so was the 1960 original. The cast is exceptional, with the exception of Peter Sarsgaard, who is the evil mining company owner. Sarsgaard overplays the part or it’s terribly written. That cliched character aside, the acting is solid, especially Chris Pratt.

There are some holes in the script, and sadly Denzel Washington is not given much to do. The other characters and the action combine to make this a very good, but not great film.

3:10 to Yuma (2007) – Directed by James Mangold, this is a remake of the 1957 film of the same name. The original film starred Van Heflin, Glenn Ford and was directed by Delmer Daves (Destination Tokyo, Dark Passage). A farmer witnesses a gang hold up a stage, and because of his financial crisis, accepts the suicidal mission to get the outlaw leader to the train for Yuma prison. They just have to avoid the outlaw gang.

The 2007 version followed the basic story of the original, but deviates in some key areas. The farmer’s backstory is a little more in-depth, the fracture between the farmer and his older son is more pronounced, the journey to the railway town is explored in greater detail, and the ending is seems a bit contrived.

Heflin played the farmer and Ford the outlaw, a cold-blooded killer. Here, Bale is the farmer in the remake and Crowe the outlaw. Bale and Crowe are exceptionally good actors and do a decent job with their characters. However, Heflin brings out the sense of fear and being way out of his league. Ford has an evil that that projects 20 feet high. I heard Mangold talk about how the farmer and the outlaw aren’t far apart as characters. I couldn’t disagree more. That might be what he was after in the remake, but in the original, they are nothing alike, and that works better in this story.

True Grit (2010) – Although the original 1969 film is considered a classic, it was never one of my favorites. The film has more realism than the average John Wayne Western and gave him an opportunity to strut his acting.

Jeff Bridges is Rooster Cogburn, Hailee Stenfeld is Mattie, Matt Damon is La Boeuf, Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney. Bridges and Brolin are particularly good, but the entire cast seem molded to the characters. The Coen Brothers adapted the novel and directed, and deliver a film that is likely better than the original. In their films, the Coen Brothers provide a canvas for actors to do their best work, which may be why bigger names take ensemble parts. This is a very character-driven story.

One word about Bridges, he has grown into these older, disheveled, cantankerous, foul-mouthed characters. He revels in these character roles, perhaps more so than his leading man roles of the 1970s and 1980s.

The Harder They Fall (2021) – A revenge Western, financed by Netflix. If the film had been made 50 years ago, it would been a Blaxsploitation Western along side Fred Williamson and Jim Brown’s films. Co-written and directed by Jeymes Samuel, it features a Black featured cast.

This is really just a pretend Western, it doesn’t try very hard to be authentic or stick to any believable morality. That’s too bad, the premise has potential, but it tries too hard to be stylish and hip. The effort goes into the wrong things. Some might compare this film to a Quentin Tarantino Western, with the dry humor, modern songs and contemporary hipness. Tarantino is a better writer, developer of characters, and is a more seasoned filmmaker.

Still, the film has merit and a very talented cast: Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, Lakeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Danielle Deadwyler, Edi Gathegi, and Deon Cole. It appears this film performed well on Netflix, with above average reviews. There’s a better film somewhere inside.