The Western genre has given cinema some of its greatest films, from The Searchers and A Fistful of Dollars to Dances With Wolves and Django Unchained. Since the ’70s, movies like Soldier Blue and High Plains Drifter have shown the dark side of the genre brilliantly, highlighting just how violent and dangerous the frontier was. The last twenty-five years have given audiences some of the best takes on the West ever made, and most have embraced the darkness.
The success of films like Unforgiven has shown that the Western finds its strength when it doesn’t pull its punches, allowing for an honest look at the setting. With names like Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson helping to redefine the modern Western, audiences have been spoiled for choice from great films. The genre might not be the powerhouse it once was, but some movies show that the darker side of the Wild West is still king.
Seraphim Falls Is a Surreal Revenge Western
Seraphim Falls begins with the hunt for a man named Gideon, who’s being pursued across the West by the ruthless Carver. Having served on opposite sides of the Civil War, the men have been left mortal enemies even in peacetime as Carver looks to settle a personal score. As they travel from snowy mountains to unforgiving deserts, their efforts to kill and survive push them to their limits.
From the moment Seraphim Falls opens, the audience understands they’re in for a unique and violent story, one that slowly delves into a surreal, supernatural version of the West. Once things get going, the film pushes the audience and its characters to question the cost of revenge, leaving behind a pile of bodies to send its message.
There Will Be Blood Is a Perfect Character Study
There Will Be Blood tells the story of Daniel Plainview, an oil pioneer in early 20th-century America who makes the find of a lifetime beneath the small town of Little Boston. However, as he begins to build his small oil empire, he faces a series of challenges, from a young preacher looking for riches to his son being left deaf after an accident. At every turn, his inner darkness rears its head, revealing a great entrepreneur to be a person driven by ruthless competition, hate for other people and greed.
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While there is violence in There Will Be Blood, its true darkness stems from the moral decline of Daniel Plainview. From start to finish, the audience is forced to watch him destroy every relationship he has and transform from abrasive pioneer to hateful alcoholic with no redeeming qualities left. This fantastic Western movie is a great allegory for the American oil boom and the corrupting influence of wealth and power, but it’s a rough watch all the same.
The Missing Borrows From John Wayne’s The Searchers
The Missing begins when a man named Samuel Jones seeks out his estranged daughter, Magdalena, in the hopes of building a relationship with her. After she turns him away, she reluctantly seeks him out for help in tracking a band of Apache raiders who abducted women and girls from her town, and are planning to sell them into slavery. Relying on her father’s skills as a frontiersman, they embark on a rescue mission across the West.
Created to serve as a darker modern take on The Searchers, The Missing is by far one of the most brutal Westerns ever made. While the story does try to give viewers some hope through its father-daughter relationship, the overall experience leaves viewers with a bleak impression of the West. A human trafficking story dressed up as a cowboy film, it’s all too relevant today and keeps the audience fearing for its victims from start to finish.
The Hateful Eight Embraces ’70s Revisionist Westerns
The Hateful Eight follows the arrival of a group of strangers to Minnie’s Habberdashery, a small cabin in the midst of a blizzard. There, they encounter other drifters, comprising a group of eight that includes, among others, a bounty hunter and his prisoner, a former Confederate on his way to become town sheriff, and a Black Union officer turned bounty hunter. With their differences driving tension, the eight strangers settle in for the night, but are driven to paranoia when several die after someone poisons the coffee.
The Hateful Eight was Tarantino’s blend of the paranoia of John Carpenter’s The Thing and the mysterious characters who populated TV’s Bonanza. Playing on the paranoia and tension between its characters, the film brings all the gratuitous violence and hatred of a ’70s Western into the 21st century. Between watching antiheroes cough up blood as they die and harrowing monologues, the film is one of Tarantino’s strongest scripts and a love letter to the revisionist Western.
3:10 to Yuma Has a Devastating Ending
3:10 to Yuma begins with the capture of a violent outlaw named Ben Wade, who authorities plan to take to the town of Contention to load him on the train bound for Yuma prison. Seeing an opportunity to save his farm, a struggling rancher named Dan Evans joins the posse, unknowingly being followed by his son. In order to reach Contention, they’ll have to take on Wade’s ruthless gang of killers. Throughout the ordeal, Evans gradually earns the respect of the cynical Wade through his courage and grit.
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The second adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s iconic Western story, 3:10 to Yuma finds its strength in its characters and their fates. On one hand, they’re shown a flawed hero in Evans, a Union veteran living on the edge of financial ruin and failing his family. On the other hand, a villain defined by cynicism that’s left him with nothing in his life but violence. Together, they give the audience a fantastic story, but the end is sure to break their heart.
The Revenant Is a Grim Revenge Story
The Revenant begins when Hugh Glass, a guide for a hunting party, is mauled by a bear and left in the care of his son, Hawk, and a man named Fitzgerald. When Fitzgerald tries to kill the wounded Glass, he murders Hawk to try to do so, only to have to leave the hunter for dead. Grieving the loss of his son, Glass slowly begins to recover and sets out on a mission to find Fitzgerald and kill him to avenge his murdered son.
The closest thing the 21st century has to its own Jeremiah Johnson, The Revenant is an epic tale of survival, revenge, and endurance. Inspired by the true story behind Hugh Glass’ quest for revenge, the film shows the audience just how unforgiving the Old West was before settlement. At its core, it’s about a man who loses everything, being kept alive solely by his thirst for vengeance.
Hostiles Shows the True Brutality of the Old West
Hostiles takes place in the waning days of the Old West, focusing on U.S. Army cavalry officer Captain Joseph Blocker. A veteran of the American-Indian Wars, dealing with depression and self-loathing, his life is turned upside down when he’s tasked with escorting a dying chief, Yellow Hawk, to his ancestral lands. Traveling hundreds of miles north, Blocker is gradually forced to set aside his prejudice against the Cheyenne in order to survive the perils that stand between them and their destination.
This anti-Western stands out as one of the greatest depictions of life in the Old West that’s ever been filmed, exploring the violence and lawlessness that defined the frontier. However, it’s in the relationship between Blocker and Yellow Hawk that the movie finds its strength and depth, deconstructing racism and prejudice masterfully. The film is sure to leave the audience feeling both hopeful and defeated as it pulls no punches in its treatment of the characters.
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford Is a Masterpiece
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford focuses on a Western outlaw, Bob Ford, as he joins the gang of notorious legend Jesse James. An admirer of James, he accompanies the man across the frontier, but gradually strains his relationship with him as he realizes the man doesn’t live up to the myth. Seeing a shot at fame, he prepares to do the unthinkable.
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It isn’t so much that The Assassination of Jesse James is an ultra-violent take on the West. This story’s darkness actually comes from its treatment of its characters, deconstructing the rose-tinted vision audiences have of them. Once it gets into the aftermath of its titular event, it serves as an exploration of depression and trauma as the brothers Ford cope with their actions.
No Country for Old Men Is the Ultimate Fatalist Crime Film
No Country for Old Men follows Llewelyn Moss, a Texas hunter who is chased by an assassin, Anton Chigurh, after discovering a bag full of cash at the scene of a gang shootout. Desperate to stay one step ahead of Chigurh, Moss moves from town to town, slowly coming to terms with the fact he’ll have to face off against the man pursuing him.
No Country for Old Men soon became the face of fatalist crime stories and the new wave of neo-Western films and shows, paving the way for the likes of Justified. The movie is defined by its exploration of fate, crafting a world where good people are victims of circumstance, and what people deserve rarely overlaps with what happens to them.
Bone Tomahawk Holds Nothing Back
Bone Tomahawk begins when a drifter wanders into the frontier town of Bright Hope after disturbing sacred Native American burial grounds. The lost tribe in question hunts him down, taking several of the townspeople with them. Realizing what’s happened, the sheriff cobbles together a small posse to ride out and rescue them from the fate that awaits them from their cannibal captors.
From its unparalleled use of violence and gore to its dark character moments, the film pushed Western audiences to their limits at every turn. S. Craig Zahler has made several great movies, but Bone Tomahawk stands out as the greatest blend of Wild West and horror of its day, and is by far the darkest Western of the 21st century.
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