Summary

• Many films set in the American West go beyond traditional Western genres to explore themes of individualism and isolation.
• The vast landscape of the West is often portrayed as a blank canvas that artists are drawn to, challenging traditional Western ideals.
• Films set in the West use the setting to introduce newer themes and topics, showcasing the changing attitudes and values associated with the region.

Although Westerns dominate the landscape of films set in the American West, there are plenty of films outside the genre that use the setting just as well. The cowboy is not the only resident of the West, and many films use its sweeping visuals to introduce newer themes and topics. There is an inherent sense of individualism that comes from many movies set in the West as if the vast landscape leads directly to a feeling of isolation.

Much of the American mythology that has been perpetuated about the West in cinema, comes from the ideology of the settlers who came to the continent hundreds of years ago and are not shared by the people indigenous to the land. However, it's not surprising that so many artists are drawn to the environment, as its expanse is reminiscent of a blank canvas. In the last several decades, filmmakers have come to challenge the ideals held by the traditional Western genre of film and make the West into something new.

10 My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Directed by: GUS VAN SANT

In Van Sant's loose adaptation of Henry IV by Shakespeare, two young men, Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanu Reeves), travel from Oregon to Idaho. They are searching for answers to questions about who they are, and where they fit in within a world they find cruel and confusing. Few places suit a journey of hard-won self-discovery than the West. My Own Private Idaho is a tragic odyssey but confronts the flaws in the ideal of individualism that is so popular in American mythology.

9 Blood Simple (1984)

Directed by: JOEL AND ETHAN COEN

A standout film for both the Coen brothers and the star, s McDormand, who plays Abby, Blood Simple was the directors' first feature film. The movie is a crime-driven thriller set in Texas that utilizes the expansive open plains to its advantage. Additionally, taking elements of other genres, Blood Simple is considered a noir masterpiece.

The fear that creeps in while waiting for a figure to appear in the empty, rural spaces cannot be overstated. With such an unforgiving landscape, it's not difficult to see how the characters in the film become hardened enough to commit the acts of violence that they do. Each location the characters inhabit seems remote and far away from one another. As though, in order to commit their crimes, they must travel great distances.

8 Nebraska (2013)

Directed by: ALEXANDER PAYNE

Protagonist Woody (Bruce Dern) is the embodiment of the way cinema has portrayed men of the West. He is an alcoholic and rarely has a kind word for anyone. When he and his son, David (Will Forte), travel from Montana to Nebraska to collect a prize Woody has won, they experience the full spectrum of people in the area. Though the film starts in the formula of a traditional road film, Woody raises the stakes by deciding to make the journey on foot. It's through his choice to take the slow route, and experience the land that the audience becomes a part of the trek along with him.

7 Bones And All (2022)

Directed by: LUCA GUADAGNINO

Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet teamed up again for Bones and All, after the success of their first film together, Call Me By Your Name (2017). The creative team is ed by Taylor Russell in this love story between two cannibals. A chilling premise to say the least, but an effective metaphor for the trials and tribulations of falling in love for the first time. The real meaning of Bones and All is not about cannibalism, but growing up.

The young lovers travel from one end of the U.S. to the other, spending a substantial amount of time in the Middle and West, making the open landscape a vital part of their search for freedom. Bones and All asks itself and its characters to interrogate the importance of remembrance and making a mark on a place and time. For Russell and Chalamet, like many before them who traversed the West, they want it to be known they existed, and that they were there.

6 Almost Famous (2000)

Directed by: CAMERON CROWE

Told through the lens of teenager Will (Patrick Fugit) who wants desperately to be a rock and roll journalist, is the story of an up-and-coming rock band and the fans who follow them. One such fan is Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), who would do anything to feel loved and be close to the music. Will starts his journey in San Diego, and eventually s the band on the road, seeing the world for the first time.

One of the most important performances of the film is given by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays Lester, a seasoned journalist who serves as a mentor to Will on the sidelines. Lester is a key reminder that, despite the glamour and irresponsibility of life on the road, a life like that takes its toll. He is a grounding force in the film and shows what can happen when a person stops romanticizing a version of fame in America that doesn't exist.

5 Badlands (1973)

Directed by: TERRENCE MALICK

Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek) carve a bloody line from the Midwest to the Badlands of South Dakota in this real-life-inspired crime drama by Terrence Malick. With a romance between two troubled kids, Badlands is a clear inspiration for later films, like Bones and All, but Badlands doesn't ask the audience to use the violence of these people completely as a metaphor. Holly is much younger than Kit, and it's his penchant for cruelty that sets them both on a path of destruction.

Though the rural setting informs the atmosphere of the film, there is no sense that it is nature that unmasks a violent force in the young people, it comes from them all on their own. The country is ambivalent towards the actions of the young killers, merely providing an arena for them to play out their desires and confusions. Unhappy with the nature of their world as it stands, Kit and Holly paint a new world with little rhyme or reason.

4 The Long Goodbye (1973)

Directed by: ROBERT ALTMAN

Philip Marlowe is a famous character known for his skills as a detective, and for being played by Humphrey Bogart in films like The Big Sleep (1946). However, a new Philip Marlowe comes on the scene in The Long Goodbye when Elliott Gould takes over as the iconic crime solver. Primarily set in Los Angeles, the film is deeply informed by the political and social changes of the 1970s.

Gould's take on the character is not the suave and infallible Marlowe of adaptations past. He is young, at times foolish, and has a much lighter attitude towards the schemes he gets embroiled with than other Marlowes. He, like the West, is changing. A modern L.A. with equal parts glamour and grime is shown becoming just as important to the idea of the West as the open plains of Montana. It's a new kind of frontier and the people that occupy it have different values and lifestyles.

3 Mulholland Drive (2001)

Directed by: DAVID LYNCH

Mulholland Drive has an ethereal quality that many of David Lynch's projects are famous for. Though it's set in Los Angeles, the city feels like a fantasy version of itself, and it's soon hinted that it might be just that. Starring Naomi Watts as Betty/Diane, a woman enamored with the promise of L.A. but ultimately broken by it.

Mulholland Drive takes care to let the audience answer for themselves what the true meaning of the film is. It's difficult to explain the ending of Mulholland Drive because Lynch intended for the conclusion to be fluid. Though open to interpretation, Mulholland Drive begins to show changing attitudes toward L.A. and the West as less a land of opportunity, and more of unfulfilled dreams.

2 To Live and Die In L.A. (1985)

Directed by: WILLIAM FRIEDKIN

In one of Willem Dafoe's best performances, he plays the criminal Rick Masters, who goes up against an increasingly corrupt Secret Service Agent in L.A. The Agent is Richard Chance (William Petersen), who is set on a path of revenge against Masters when Masters kills Chance's former partner. Masters' life in the dark and artistic criminal underworld is juxtaposed by Chance's seemingly above-board lifestyle that is marred by his corruption.

Though Masters is seen committing more outright cruelty, Chance's justification of his abuse of power, that he is working for the greater good, calls into question who the real villain of the film is. The characters are two sides of the same coin, and this is mirrored in the portrayal of the different sides of L.A. What neighborhood a person lives in determines their wealth, status, safety, and much more within the city.

1 Inherent Vice (2014)

Directed by: PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON

Based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon, Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Inherent Vice delivers all the psychedelic elements of the book. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Larry "Doc" Sportello, a California stoner who must investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend and her new flame. He embarks on an adventure that introduces him to many characters, who each want him to find someone or something.

The plot meanders similarly to Doc as he tries to make sense of the world, confusing enough as it is, through a haze of drugs. The film does not shoulder the weight of paying tribute to similar crime comedies set in the 1970s in California. It knows it's part of a long history, but also that it's something unique. California is the setting because it makes the film fun and more interesting. If there's a comment about the West somewhere in the film, it's that it doesn't hold the power it once did.