Top Modern Westerns

Films To Watch Now

1. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005): Tommy Lee Jones pulled double duty on this critically acclaimed neo-western drama, making his directorial debut while offering a precise, subtly detailed performance that earned him the Best Actor award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Written by Guillermo Arriaga (Babel, 21 Grams) and filmed in various locations in Texas, the film details the fateful journey of Texas cattle rancher Pete Perkins (Jones) after Melquiades Estrada (Julio César Cedillo), an undocumented laborer in his employ, is killed by a reckless Border Patrol agent (Barry Pepper). “Pete takes justice into his own hands,” critic Roger Ebert wrote in his four-star review. “And not simple justice, which might involve killing the agent, but poetic justice, which elevates the movie into the realms of parable.”

2. The Proposition (2005): After an outlaw gang led by his notorious older brother slaughters a family in the Australian outback of the 1880s, desperado Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce of Memento) is offered a hard bargain by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone), the closest thing to a law enforcer in the area. He must either track down and kill his bad brother Arthur (Danny Huston) within nine days or Mikey (Richard Wilson), his feeble-minded younger sibling, will be hanged on Christmas Day. The Proposition sparked many favorable comparisons to the films of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone when it reached U.S. screens a year after its Australian premiere. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal hailed it as “a visionary tale of a fragile civilizing impulse crushed by family loyalty and a lust for revenge,” and Chris Barsanti of Film Journal International raved: “Very simply, this is the finest, strangest and most uncompromising western to hit screens since Unforgiven.”

3. Meek’s Cutoff (2010): American Western historical survival film directed by Kelly Reichardt and starring Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Will Patton, Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Tommy Nelson, and Rod Rondeaux. The story is loosely based on a historical incident on the Oregon Trail in 1845, in which frontier guide Stephen Meek led a wagon train on an ill-fated journey through the Oregon High Desert along the route later known as the Meek Cutoff in the western United States. The film was shown in competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. The film is formatted in the Academy ratio (1.37:1), a standard used in many classic Westerns.

4. Django Unchained (2012): American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Produced by Tarantino's A Band Apart and Columbia Pictures, it stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, and is with Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson in supporting roles. Set in the Antebellum South and Old West, it is a highly stylized, revisionist tribute to spaghetti Westerns. Its title refers particularly to the 1966 Italian film Django by Sergio Corbucci (that film's star, Franco Nero, has a cameo appearance in Tarantino's). The story follows a slave who trains under a German bounty hunter with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his wife. Development of Django Unchained began in 2007, when Tarantino was writing a book on Corbucci. By April 2011, Tarantino sent his final draft of the script to The Weinstein Company (TWC). Casting began in the summer of 2011, with Michael K. Williams and Will Smith being considered for the role of the title character before Foxx was cast. Principal photography took place from November 2011 to March 2012 in California, Wyoming, and Louisiana. Django Unchained premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 11, 2012, and was theatrically released by The Weinstein Company on December 25, in the United States, with Sony Pictures Releasing handling international distribution. It was a commercial success, grossing $426 million worldwide against its budget of $100 million, becoming Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date. The film received acclaim from critics, mainly for Waltz's & Dicaprio's performance and Tarantino's direction and screenplay. The film's extensive graphic violence and frequent use of racial slurs were controversial. The film received numerous awards and nominations, winning two out of five nominations at the 85th Academy Awards. Waltz won several awards for his performance, among them Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTAs. For his screenplay, Tarantino won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA.

5. Hell or High Water (2016): American neo-Western crime drama film directed by David Mackenzie and written by Taylor Sheridan. It follows two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who carry out a series of bank robberies to save their family ranch, while being pursued by two Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham). It was the final film produced by OddLot Entertainment before its dissolution in 2015. Hell or High Water premiered at the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2016, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 12, 2016. It received critical acclaim, particularly for Pine, Foster, and Bridges' performances, Sheridan's screenplay, and the editing. It grossed $37.9 million on a $12 million budget. The American Film Institute selected it as one of its 10 movies of the year, and it was nominated for numerous awards, including four Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Bridges), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing. The film is the second installment of writer Taylor Sheridan's American Frontier Trilogy, along with Sicario and Wind River.

6. Appaloosa (2008): American Western film based on the 2005 novel Appaloosa by crime writer Robert B. Parker. Directed by Ed Harris and co-written by Harris and Robert Knott, Appaloosa stars Harris alongside Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger, and Jeremy Irons. The film premiered at 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in selected cities on September 19, 2008, then expanded into wide release on October 3, 2008. This movie has won four different awards, including the Western Heritage Award in 2009.

7. The Ballad Of Lefty Brown (2017): American western action film written and directed by Jared Moshe. Starring Bill Pullman, Kathy Baker, Jim Caviezel, Tommy Flanagan, and Peter Fonda, the film follows Lefty Brown (Pullman), a Montana frontiersman seeking vengeance against the outlaws who murdered his friend, the newly elected Senator Edward Johnson (Fonda). The Ballad of Lefty Brown premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 15, 2017. Despite underperforming commercially, the film received critical acclaim, with particular praise for Pullman's performance.

8. Borrrowed Time (2015): American animated Western short film directed by Pixar artists Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj.

9: Brimstone (2016): Psychological Western film written and directed by Martin Koolhoven. The film stars Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Emilia Jones, Kit Harington, and Carice van Houten. It is a Dutch-American as well as French, German, Belgian and Swedish international production. The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2016, where it caused controversy. It premiered in the Netherlands on 12 January 2017, where it was very well received, as in the rest of Europe and was released on 10 March in the United States, where it received mixed reviews from critics.

10. Diablo (2015): Canadian-American revisionist Western psychological thriller film produced, co-written and directed by Lawrence Roeck, and starring Scott Eastwood, Walton Goggins, Camilla Belle and Danny Glover. It was the first western film starring Scott Eastwood, the son of Western icon Clint Eastwood. It was released on January 8, 2016 by Orion Pictures and Momentum Pictures.

11. Forsaken (2015): Revisionist western film directed by Jon Cassar, from a screenplay by Brad Mirman. The film stars Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Brian Cox, Michael Wincott, Aaron Poole and Demi Moore. The film had its world premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 16, 2015. The film was released on February 19, 2016. One of the executive producers on the film was Doug Falconer.

12. GONE ARE THE DAYS (2018): American Western film directed by Mark Landre Gould and starring Lance Henriksen, Tom Berenger, Meg Steedle and Danny Trejo. It is Gould's feature directorial debut.

13. THE HERO (2017): American comedy-drama film directed and edited by Brett Haley and written by Haley and Marc Basch. It stars Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman and Katharine Ross and follows an aging movie star who deals with his terminal illness.

14. HICKOK (2017): American Western film starring Luke Hemsworth, Trace Adkins, Kris Kristofferson and Bruce Dern. It was released in a limited theatrical engagement as well as on video-on-demand by Cinedigm on July 7, 2017

15. HOSTILES (2017): American Western drama film written and directed by Scott Cooper, based on a story by Donald E. Stewart. It stars Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, and Ben Foster; Stephen Lang, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, Adam Beach, Q'orianka Kilcher, Jonathan Majors, and Timothée Chalamet appear in supporting roles. It follows a U.S. Army cavalry officer in 1892 who must escort a Cheyenne war chief and his family back to their home in Montana. The film had its world premiere on September 2, 2017, at the Telluride Film Festival. It had a limited release in the United States by Entertainment Studios beginning December 22, 2017, before going wide on January 26, 2018. It received generally positive reviews from critics, but grossed just $35 million worldwide.

16. IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE (2016): American Western film written and directed by Ti West. Jason Blum serves as producer through his production company Blumhouse Productions. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Taissa Farmiga, James Ransone, Karen Gillan, and John Travolta. In a Valley of Violence had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 12, 2016, and was released in a limited release and through video on demand on October 21, 2016, by Focus World. The film was a commercial failure grossing only $61,797, but received critical praise for the screenplay, direction, and the performances.

17. JANE GOT A GUN (2015): American Western film directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Brian Duffield, Joel Edgerton, and Anthony Tambakis. The film stars Natalie Portman, Edgerton, Noah Emmerich, Rodrigo Santoro, Boyd Holbrook and Ewan McGregor. After a long period of production issues since 2012, involving director and casting changes, principal photography began on March 21, 2013. The film was released on January 29, 2016. The film was shown on October 12, 2017 at the 7th Almería Western Film Festival.

18. LUCKY (2017): American drama film directed by John Carroll Lynch, written by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, and starring Harry Dean Stanton. It was one of Stanton's final onscreen roles before his death. The film tells the story of 90-year-old Lucky as he comes to terms with his own mortality and searches for enlightenment. It received positive reviews from critics.

19. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (2016): American Western action film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name, which itself was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai. The film stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, and Peter Sarsgaard. It was the final film of composer James Horner, who died the previous year after composing part of the score. His friend Simon Franglen completed the music. Principal photography began on May 18, 2015, north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Magnificent Seven premiered on September 8, 2016, at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on September 23, 2016, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received mixed reviews from critics, where the cast, action sequences, and the score were praised, but the story and screenplay received criticism. It was a moderate success, grossing $162 million worldwide on a production budget of $90 million.

20. MOHAWK (2017): American survival action-horror film directed by Ted Geoghegan, co-written by Geoghegan and novelist Grady Hendrix, and starring Kaniehtiio Horn, Ezra Buzzington, Noah Segan, and professional wrestler Jonathan "Brodie Lee" Huber in the only feature film appearance he made before his death.

21. THE REVENANT: American epic western action drama film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The screenplay by Mark L. Smith and Iñárritu is based in part on Michael Punke's 2002 novel The Revenant, which describes frontiersman Hugh Glass's experiences in 1823, and which is based on the 1915 poem The Song of Hugh Glass. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The film is considered a remake of the film Man in the Wilderness (1971). In August 2001, Akiva Goldsman purchased Punke's manuscript. Iñárritu signed on to direct The Revenant in August 2011; in April 2014, after several delays due to other projects, Iñárritu confirmed that he was beginning work on it and that DiCaprio had the lead role. Principal photography began in October 2014. Location and crew concerns delayed production from May to August 2015. The Revenant premiered at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on December 16, 2015. It had a limited release on December 25 and a wide release on January 8, 2016. It was a blockbuster, grossing $533 million worldwide. It received critical acclaim, with praise for the performances, particularly for DiCaprio and Hardy, Iñárritu's direction, and Lubezki's cinematography; however, some criticism went to its runtime. It won three Golden Globe Awards and five BAFTA Awards, including Best Film at both ceremonies. At the 88th Academy Awards, the film received 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Hardy). It won the Academy Awards for Best Director (Iñárritu, his second consecutive in that category), Best Actor (DiCaprio, his first after 5 previous nominations), and Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki, his third consecutive in that category). DiCaprio also won the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the BAFTA Award, and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actor.

22. ROUGH JUSTICE (2017): It's 1868 and the war has been over for three years. An old abandoned mine is now being transformed into a military stronghold by a corrupt Mayor and band of blood thirsty outlaws whom are a part of a larger web hell-bent on a re-surge of the civil war. When a US Marshal, James McCord comes to town only to find out that his brother has been murdered, his search for the killer takes him on life or death struggle for a much greater cause.

23. STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY (2016): Canadian western film starring Trace Adkins, Kim Coates and Judd Nelson. It is based on the life story of outlaw Nathaniel Reed.

24. THE TIMBER (2015): American Western thriller film directed by Anthony O'Brien and produced by Scott Einbinder and Patrick Newall. It stars James Ransone, Elisa Lasowski, Mark Caven, William Gaunt, David Bailie, and Josh Peck. The screenplay concerns two brothers who set out to capture or kill their estranged father, who has become violent after his fortunes crashed in the Yukon Gold Rush.

25. WIND RIVER (2017): Neo-Western crime film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan. It is the third film by Sheridan on the modern American West. The film stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and an FBI agent, respectively, who try to solve a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, and Graham Greene also star. Sheridan has said that he wrote the film to raise awareness of the issue of the high number of Indigenous women who are raped and murdered, both on and off reservations. Wind River premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the United States on August 4, 2017. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $45 million against an $11 million budget. It was theatrically released by The Weinstein Company (TWC), but in October 2017, following the reporting of numerous sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the film's distribution rights for home media were acquired by Lionsgate.

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Most recent revision July 12, 2025 08:38:40 AM

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