Western movies have been around for over a century, but the genre is being reinvented lately by films that are expanding on the Old West tropes.
- Modern Westerns have reinvented the genre by doing away with harmful stereotypes and incorporating other genres like sci-fi and comedy.
- Movies like Cowboys & Aliens and Rango have combined the Old West with elements like aliens and anthropomorphic animals, adding a unique twist to the genre.
- Films like No Country for Old Men and Django Unchained have modernized the Western genre by incorporating crime and revenge storylines, creating compelling and gritty narratives.
Westerns have been around for over a century, yet many movies over the last few decades have reinvented the genre. The Great Train Robbery, released in 1903, is considered the start of the Western film genre. Since then, hundreds of different Westerns have graced the screen and many, like Unforgiven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Cimarron, have won major awards.
Modern Westerns have done away with the more problematic tropes of their predecessors, such as the harmful stereotypes of Native Americans and the romanticization of certain brutalities of the time in which they were set. Westerns have also started to be combined with other genres. There are horror-Westerns, Western-comedies, and sci-fi Westerns, each with very popular examples. These kinds of Westerns have been reinventing the genre in recent years.
10, Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
A sci-fi Western that set out to be original
Sci-fi Westerns were hardly new at the time — the sci-fi Western TV series The Wild Wild West premiered back in 1965 — but Cowboys & Aliens took it up a notch. The film stars Daniel Craig as an amnesiac outlaw who attempts to save a town from an alien attack. The inclusion of advanced weaponry and aliens in a 19th-century frontier town adds a level of humor. Cowboys & Aliens attempted something unusual by combining the Old West with alien abductions.
9, Blazing Saddles (1974)
A Western comedy directed by Mel Brooks
Blazing Saddles is a Western parody that utilizes multiple tropes, from the gunslinger to the righteous lawman to the money-chasing villain. It’s one of Mel Brooks’s most well-known films. It does make references to certain truths of the Old West, with the railroad being built by Black, Chinese, and Irish workers who aren’t being treated well and who want to be accepted into the town of Rock Ridge. Brooks’s parody films use comedy to expose what is often hidden in the more serious works his films are based on.
8, Rango (2011)
An animated Western full of anthropomorphic animals
Rango is one of the more adventurous Westerns, as its main character is a chameleon who wants to be an actor. When his terrarium ends up in the middle of the Mojave Desert, the chameleon takes on the identity of “Rango” in the town of Dirt. Despite its child-friendly atmosphere, Rango is still just as riveting and suspenseful as any classic Western. With villains like Rattlesnake Jake and Bad Bill, and the conflict with a corrupt mayor, Rango stakes its claim as an unforgettable take on the Western.
7, The Hateful Eight (2015)
A Tarantino Western mystery that takes place during a blizzard
Eight strangers get stranded in a blizzard together in Quentin Tarantino’s Western thriller The Hateful Eight. Each character is hiding something, and some have been holding grudges. As the film progresses, the situation gets more and more dire for the characters when someone poisons the coffee in the haberdashery. Placing eight shady strangers in a haberdashery during a blizzard is not a common plot for a Western. Most Westerns take place in small towns or the wide frontier. Containing the backstabbing and the shootouts to a store is a unique spin on the genre.
6, 3:10 To Yuma (2007)
A remake of the 1957 film
This remake of the 1957 classic of the same name is again based on the 1953 short story by Elmore Leonard. Christian Bale stars as a rancher in desperate need of money. He agrees to transport an outlaw (Russell Crowe) to the 3:10 train out to Yuma Territorial Prison. Like many Westerns, 3:10 to Yuma
5, The Quick And The Dead (1995)
The Lady gets revenge
The Quick and the Dead revolves around one of the classic Western tropes: the duel. Sharon Stone plays the Lady, who enters a dueling competition in the town of Redemption. She hopes to kill the outlaw who runs Redemption, John Herod, as he killed her father. In older Westerns, few women are central characters, and even fewer would enter a dueling competition. Giving the vengeance trope to the Lady over other characters like Cort or the Kid made The Quick and the Dead a good example of a more modern Western.
4, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018)
A Western anthology film riddled with dark comedy and drama
Directed by the Coen brothers, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an anthology film that traverses the lives of various characters in the West. The film is a journey, from the death of the titular Buster Scruggs to a prospector looking for gold to the unusual stagecoach ride of five strangers. Each short story has a brand of dark comedy to it, and many of them end unhappily for the characters in them. The unique approach to the Western applied in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs makes it a worthy watch.
3, No Country For Old Men (2007)
A crime thriller Western based on a Cormac McCarthy novel
Based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name, No Country for Old Men deals with missing money, hitmen, and bounty hunters in Texas in the 1980s. With big stars like Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson, and Tommy Lee Jones, the film has won many awards, including an Academy Award for Best Picture. Even though it’s a Western not set in the Old West, there’s no doubt that No Country for Old Men fits the genre. The gripping plot and modern twist on the Western put No Country for Old Men on the map among other great Westerns.
2, Django Unchained (2012)
A revenge story full of action and hope
Another Quentin Tarantino western. Django Unchained follows the newly freed slave Django, who teams up with Dr. King Schultz in order to rescue his wife, Broomhilda. The film is full of the usual Tarantino action scenes with over-the-top stunts and unrelenting violence. Django and Dr. Schultz don’t hold back as they kill numerous slave owners and overseers while on their mission. The cast is full of excellent actors, with Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz playing the two leads. Seeing such horrible characters, like Calvin Candie and “Big Daddy” Bennett being defeated by Django and Dr. Schultz is gratifying in ways that some older Westerns never managed.
1, Tombstone (1993)
A tale of the showdown at the OK Corral
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are among the most prominent figures from the Old West. Tombstone loosely follows their lives in the 1880s, along with Earp’s brothers. The four lawmen seek a quiet life in Tombstone, Arizona, but are forced to reckon with an outlaw gang called the Cowboys who stir up trouble. The film covers the gunfight at the OK Corral and the Earp Vendetta Ride, as well as other run-ins with the Cowboys. Tombstone never won any awards, but it was a critical success. The portrayal of Earp and Holliday’s friendship in Tombstone gave depth to the legendary figures and made them more accessible to a modern audience.