Recent westerns

The Wild Bunch

Anyone recommend any recent Westerns (2010- onwards) ?

Sad Professor

Western-inspired films are aplenty, but very few true westerns have been made in the last 4 years. True Grit and Meek’s Cutoff are the only ones I can think of. I’d strongly recommend both. There’s also the likes of Django Unchained, Rango and The Lone Ranger, although they are more pastiche. I think you’d have to widen your net a few more years to include possible future classics like The Assassination of Jesse James.

Mickeroo

Two Australian films that are well worth checking out are Red Hill and The Proposition. Obviously since they're set in Australia they may not technically be westerns but in terms of content they very much are.

The Proposition is a very dark and violent film about an outlaw offered a pardon if he hunts down his older brother.

Red Hill is set in the modern day and is a lot more fun than the Proposition, it wears its western influences firmly on it's sleeve though and is basically a straight up "New Sheriff in Town" type story.

Another one if you're not put off by subtitles is the Korean film The Good, the Bad and the Weird.

One that came out in the last few years also is Blackthorn which I personally loved, it's an unofficial sequel to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and follows Butch's later years living in exile in South America. Tie's in very well with the original film and is a must watch for any fans of it imo.

Bar the few already mentioned, there really hasn't been all that many westerns of note released over the past few years. There have been a number of low budget direct to DVD or TV westerns, though they've largely been remakes and pretty poor ones at that.

Dead Man's Burden from last year isn't half bad. Made on less than a couple of days catering on The Lone Ranger it's a low key and all the better for it post Civil War tale that uses silence to great affect. It's a film where the place is a character and can be quiet unsettling at times.

Rango is one that many seem to have missed. A wonderful animated tale and one of the few films over the past two decades where Johnny Depp is bearable. It's an unapologetic old school love in with numerous references to the greats of the genre as well as a number of other Hollywood classics, including Chinatown.

A Night in Old Mexico is available to watch on VOD, think it's on both amazon and itunes. It's a modern western with Robert Duvall playing a ranched forced to leave his ranch and land who decides to run off to Mexico for one last adventure. I've yet to watch it and reviews are mixed but Duvall playing old is always good fun.

Dead in Tombstone is a fantasy western that was made for Blu-Ray and is a bit of fun. Nothing too out there but a decent cast and some good action make it worth a watch. The kind of thing you thrown on post pub.

The Warrior's Way from a few years back is a visually sumptuous, CGI heavy piece of nonsense with some great action and a tongue in cheek feel that makes it hard not to enjoy it. It's kind of like a mad circus only with added ninja and martial arts mayhem.

Appaloosa is a bit before the time period you want but is well worth a watch. It's directed by and stars Ed Harris and much like the excellent Open Range is a film concerned with cowboys growing old. It's somewhat old fashioned and familiar and Renée Zellweger is out-acted by a horse but the action is well handled and the script is excellent.

Broken Trail is a 3 hour made for TV western starring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church and directed by Walter Hill. Set in 1898 it's the story of an aging cowboy who wants to buy a ranch of his won and in order to do so takes on a job transporting 00 horses across the west that to sell to the British army. It's the kind of old school miniseries that you wish they made more of, good performance, some gorgeous scenery and a script that has a few ideas of it's own.

Sweetwater aks Sweet Vengeance was released last year and has a great cast and reviews are positive. I've yet to watch it myself but it's on the US Netflix.

There's a number of really interesting westerns on the horizion, this year alone we have Tommy Lee Jones' The Homesman which went down really well at Cannes. Then there's The Salvation starring Mads Mikkelsen, Slow West starring Michael Fassbender, Palominas which has Buck Taylor, Michael Parks and Wes Studi, the Thomas Jane directs and starring A Magnificent Death from a Shattered Hand, Jane Got a Gun which has Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Joel Edgerton aswell as Forsaken which has Kiefer and Donald Sutherland, Brian COx and the criminally underused Michael Wincott and lets not forget the upcoming Bone Tomahawk which has Kurt Russell and Timothy Olyphant attached. One western which has been on the horizon for a long time is the The Brigands of Rattleborge which still has Park Chan-wook attached to direct.

JP Liz V1

I enjoyed Seraphim Falls and the remake of 3:10 to Yuma

Skerries

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

I enjoyed Seraphim Falls and the remake of 3:10 to Yuma

was going to say the same thing but they came out in 2006 and 2007 respectively

King Bernard

Cowboys and Aliens was one of better westerns I've seen and it was released post 2010.

Telecaster58

I think that the last truly great western to come out in cinemas was Kevin Costner's Open Range from 2003. A superb film.

Dermighty

Not quite a movie but Hatfields McCoys was a tv movie and was excellent.

Wiki link here.

Buy it at Amazon.co.uk here.

JohnFalstaff

Telecaster58 wrote: »

I think that the last truly great western to come out in cinemas was Kevin Costner's Open Range from 2003. A superb film.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) is a truly great western.

Telecaster58

JohnFalstaff wrote: »

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) is a truly great western.

I stand by my statement.

xalot

I really enjoyed Lawless which came out a couple of years ago

Shane-KornSpace

I rather enjoyed the remake of 3:10 To Yuma. I felt it was a little under rated to be honest.

The Wild Bunch

Shane-KornSpace wrote: »

I rather enjoyed the remake of 3:10 To Yuma. I felt it was a little under rated to be honest.

I thought it was absolutely brilliant, personally, and Ben Foster was terrific in the role of the main antagonist