Yes, You Should Watch a Western (Dammit)! Part III: The Neo-Western
Perhaps we have to have to nearly forget our myths to appreciate them again. To some small degree, I think tragedy brought back the Western genre. Collectively, the US (and the world at large) had living after 9/11 on its consciousness. Soon after, a resurgence of Westerns in the shape of period dramas or Neo Westerns– spiritual Westerns in 21st-century garb—were released. Both of these flavors took on contemporary tones and subjects. And both continued to show just how entrenched the Western has been molded into our personal and cultural psyches. Much like the ‘60s and ‘70s Era films, these films gave me a way to explore and study the genre’s conventions while discovering contemporary films and filmmakers.
Although not the big-ticket sellers as they once used to be, the Westerns of the new millennium offered some critically acclaimed and compelling films. As always, I tried my best to highlight some interesting ones, but there are more than enough that I think are worthy of viewing.
Wind River (2017): This is a cross-genre film: a Mystery/Crime Drama/ Western/ set in a Wyoming Indian Reservation (perhaps making this a North Western). It was a real treat to discover, as I missed over-looked it when it first came out. A local U. S. wildlife agent and an FBI agent team up to solve the murder of a young indigenous woman. The wildlife agent has experience with locals while the Federal agent- the outsider- has jurisdiction. Both find they want justice and form a partnership. The territory is unforgiving and isolating, no cavalry will come to save the day as the pair seek out the killers, making their quest a lonely one. This film also does well to showcase the modern state of Native Americans living on reservations and the issues they face, one being the high rate of missing and murdered women.
Hell or High Water (2016): Far out in West Texas, two penniless brothers begin to hit small banks in a money laundering scheme in order to buy back their family’s farmland. A Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges) close to retirement investigates the series of robberies and waits to see if they slip up. Themes of poverty, hardship, and lost time are central in the plot. It’s a straight forward film but a great addition to the genre and very enjoyable.
No Country for Old Men (2007): Moss ( Josh Brolin) finds the aftermath of a massacre, a stash of drugs, and a briefcase holding two million dollars. Meanwhile, a unique hitman is tasked to find the money, and a weary sheriff investigates the surrounding calamity. Dipping into noir genre, the story strips away even the notion of any frontier justice as characters are put through episodes that pose the question whether there is any such natural order (any justice or karmic fate) to things at all.
Hostiles (2017): A celebrated U.S. Calvary captain is ordered to escort a notorious Cheyenne chief back to his homelands in Montana. The conflict? The captain (Christian Bale) and the Chief have spent the last twenty years killing each other’s men. Bale’s character is in essence, an ancestor of John Wayne’s character from The Searchers; a man spirited by hatred and haunted by violence. The mission becomes complicated as the escort party makes their way to Montana, and several episodes test the two men.
And a few Special Mentions…
As time goes by, genres of art begin to have sub-genres, and cross-genres. The Western is no different. Here are a few selections that show how the “Cowboy picture” continues to expand and evolve
Firefly/Serenity (2002, 2005): The epitome of a Space Western. You could even pitch the film as Stagecoach in outer space. This short-lived series and film developed a huge cult following. The overarching story puts the series in a time that mirrors the Reconstruction Era and Post-Civil War U.S. Settlers push further and further out in space to find lively hoods and cultivate communities or to find freedom from a highly corporatized and shady authoritarian central government. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) is a former soldier, battle-hardened and disheartened, now seeks just to find a life people can’t take from him. The show/movie is up there as one of my favorites. It’s only flaw: the TV series sometimes leaned a little too heavily on the Old West aesthetics and characteristics for as a show set some 400 plus years in the future.
Logan (2017): I can’t help but feel like the filmmakers cheated. They must have wanted to make a Western but knew the superhero genre (and everyone’s favorite mutant) was the thing that was going to sell. The film could have easily been stripped of its sci-fi and superhero elements to reveal a very clean-cut Western genre story. At one point, Patrick Stewart’s Professor X even blatantly alludes to Shane and Hugh Jackman’s Logan has a scene where he decries the romantic heroism that people have painted his past (like the US had done with the Wild West). All in all, it’s a great cross-genre entry and a gripping Neo-Western tale. Logan embodies the archetype of the aged and weary gunfighter, and the story primarily takes place in desolate unforgiving landscapes. His best days behind him, and unfit for a new era, Logan is tasked with taking a mysterious young girl to safety.
Other Worthy Picks: Django Unchained, Sicario, The Proposition, Cold Mountain, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, The Three Burials of Melequiades Estrada, Open Range, Slow West
Next, I want to look at how Westerns have grown past its genre and continue to transform into myth in a brief epilogue.
