There are few movie genres as quintessentially American as the western. Like many other genres, the western goes through periods of popularity, where it will emerge after a period of dormancy and become popular again. Even in the age of superhero movies and franchises, the western has proven to be quite popular over the last decade.
A search for westerns produced during the 2010s at the Internet Movie Database shows some very favorable viewer responses, demonstrating that this genre still has a great deal to say about America, its history, and its frontiers.
Brimstone (2016) - 7.1
The most powerful westerns are those that explore the darker aspects of the human condition, which is precisely what Brimstone sets out to do. In keeping with the revisionist take that many westerns of modern vintage take, this movie features some bleak violence and borderline-exploitative sexuality, but it also features some searing performances from its top-tier casts, which includes Guy Pierce, Dakota Fanning, and Kit Harrington. And, with its non-chronological storytelling, it challenges the viewer to think carefully about how they make sense of what’s occurring during the movie.
Bone Tomahawk (2015) 7.1
Among other things, the 2010s marked a period in which many westerns engaged in a bit of genre-bending, and there are several notable examples of horror westerns, including Bone Tomahawk. It’s a powerful and disturbing movie, focusing as it does on a cannibalistic tribe of Native Americans.
In addition to its disturbing story, it also features some exemplary performances, including from Kurt Russell in one of his best roles. It’s the type of western designed to stay with the viewer after the final credits roll.
Rango (2011) - 7.2
Even though many of the best western movies of the 2010s were live-action, one of the best animated movies of the 2010s, both because the animation itself is quite sophisticated but also because it features a very talented voice cast that includes such big names as Johnny Depp, Abigail Breslin, and Alfred Molina.
Hostiles (2017) - 7.2
For most of its history, the western has had a problematic relationship with both the ugly side of American history and with Native Americans. However, a number of movies have sought to revise the assumptions of the genre, and best revisionist westerns. In particular, this movie goes out of its way to portray the particular struggles of Native Americans in the face of white settlement, and the movie’s powerful storyline is ed and helped by the performances of its cast, including Christian Bale.
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018) - 7.3
The Coen Brothers are two of the most respected filmmakers in Hollywood, and throughout the 2010s they showed that they had a keen understanding of the western genre. More than anything else, they have shown that they understand the western’s function as a means of crafting American mythology about itself, and they use this movie to undercut that. And, given that this is a Coen Brothers movie, they also manage to make it darkly and bleakly amusing at the same time.
Deadwood: The Movie (2019) - 7.4
one of the best series to have been produced by HBO, and its quality extends to the movie adaptation, which came out after many years of development delays. And, as with the series, the movie takes an unsentimental look at the American West, painting it in all of its grime and ugliness and violence. The movie saw the reunion of the television series’ cast, and it managed to give long-time fans the closure that they’d been denied during the series’ original run.
True Grit (2010) - 7.6
The Coen Brothers began the decade with yet another entry in the western canon, True Grit, which is actually the second adaptation of the book of the same name (the first starred John Wayne). This adaptation is more faithful to the book, and Jeff Bridges gives a powerful performance in the character of Rooster Cogburn (it’s one of his best roles).
Though it’s a fairly light-hearted movie, in keeping with the Coen Brothers’ aesthetic, it also has a rather elegiac feel to it as well, and it is a swan song to the Wild West itself.
The Hateful Eight (2015) - 7.8
The Coen Brothers weren’t the only auteurs who created westerns during the decade of the 2010s, and Quentin Tarrantino had several outings in the genre, as well. That included The Hateful Eight, which featured a group of strangers trapped during a blizzard. Given that this is a Tarantino movie, it featured quite a lot of bloodshed and violence, but it is also an interrogation of those very aspects of the western (and of America itself), and though it divided critics it has proved remarkably popular with the s of the Internet Movie Database.
The Revenant (2015) - 8
The Revenant is widely regarded as one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s best movies, and with good reason. It is a bleak and violent movie, and his portrayal of a man who endures a bear attack and seeks vengeance on those who left him to die demonstrates that he is an actor who knows how to imbue every moment of his performance with tremendous power. What’s more, it’s a movie that shows the American frontier for what it was: a brutal place that was forged in violence.
Django Unchained (2012) - 8.4
Part of what makes the western so popular is that it is uniquely suited to ask the tough questions about America’s past, and no 2010s western does that with as much force and power as Django Unchained, another Tarantino movie. A major part of what makes the movie such compelling viewing is that it uses the director’s signature style--with its coarse language, brutal violence, and bleak humor--to explore the place of Black Americans in America’s history.
