The 21st century has already produced numerous great movies, including some outstanding Westerns that have helped redefine the genre. At one time, there was no more successful genre than the Western, and one of the earliest movies ever made was The Great Train Robbery, which was also the earliest Western.
The genre produced icons like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Kevin Costner, but the number of Westerns produced since the end of the ’70s has dwindled. That said, several great Westerns have emerged over the last 25 years, including two that are considered among the best movies of the entire 21st century.
The Power Of The Dog (2021)
The Power of the Dog was highly praised when it was released in 2021 and became an Oscar favorite by the end of the year. The Jane Campion film shares much in common with Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, as it primarily focuses on toxic masculinity in Western communities and how it destroys good people.
In this case, it is a wealthy ranch owner named Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), a man who degrades everyone he knows, and this includes his brother’s (Jesse Plemons) new bride, Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and her teenage son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The Power of the Dog ends with a devastating finale.
The Netflix-produced movie earned high praise, with a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. However, it won only one award, with Campion winning Best Director. Its Oscar losses and lower 76% audience score hold it down from other Westerns in the 21st century.
Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)
Released in 2007, Sukiyaki Western Django is a pure cult classic among the best Westerns of the 21st century. The movie, as its name suggests, is another take on the spaghetti Western genre, specifically its classic films featuring the Western legend Django. It was also a fresh take on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo.
A lone gunman travels to the town of Yuta and ends up in the middle of a war between clans that threatens the innocent people there. What makes this unique is that it is a Western movie made in Japan, which is a refreshing departure from the American movies that often referenced samurai films in Western settings.
Quentin Tarantino even had a small role in the film, which was a fun moment since he went on to make his own Western, Django Unchained, five years later. Critics’ scores were not high, with only a 57% fresh score, but, as mentioned, this is a cult classic and a great time for fans of spaghetti Westerns from the past.
Wind River (2017)
Wind River is a movie that anyone who loves Taylor Sheridan’s television work, particularly on shows like Yellowstone, should seek out and watch immediately. This movie was Yellowstone before he ever created that hit series, and it features both Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen in the lead roles.
Wind River is a neo-Western crime thriller that follows a veteran wildlife officer (Renner) who teams with a rookie FBI agent (Olsen) to find the person who killed a young Native American woman. This was based on real-life stories of Native American murders that have remained unsolved throughout the years.
The movie was highly praised for its portrayal of Native American culture and for shedding light on a real-world problem that is often ignored. It was also one of Taylor Sheridan’s few directorial movie releases, which also makes it worth seeking out.
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008)
Another foreign-made Western arrived in 2008 with the South Korean movieThe Good, the Bad, the Weird. In much the same way thatSukiyaki Western Django was a homage to the spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars, this movie was highly influenced by Clint Eastwood’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
This sees a bandit (The Bad) hired to acquire a treasure map from a Japanese official. A Thief (The Weird) steals it from him and goes on the run. Soon, a bounty hunter (The Good) shows up looking for the bandit. Soon, another party, a group of Manchurian bandits, arrives, seeking the map, and chaos ensues.
This Western, screened in compeтιтion at Cannes, went on to become a festival favorite before its release, garnering positive reviews and an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also went on to receive several nominations at Asian film awards ceremonies, and Kim Jee-woon won Best Director at the Blue Dragon Film Awards.
First Cow (2019)
First Cow was a 2019 drama film based on the 2004 novel The Half-Life. Directed by Kelly Reichardt, the movie follows a traveling cook who starts an illegal business using stolen milk from a wealthy trader’s cow. Although the plot doesn’t sound interesting, this ended up being one of the best movies released in 2019.
The film is set in the 1820s in the Oregon Country, and follows a chef (John Magaro) and a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) whom he meets while traveling. When their outpost’s first milk cow arrives, they decide to steal its milk and start to make money by selling goods using this stolen milk.
While the movie reveals the consequences of their actions at the start, it wisely refrains from showing the actual outcome, allowing the film to conclude on a thoughtful note. Critics loved the movie, awarding it a 96% score, and most praised its smart storytelling.
The ᴀssᴀssination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
The ᴀssᴀssination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was an incredible Western that was a slow-burning drama with an impressive cast. This was a revisionist Western directed by Andrew Dominik, starring Brad Pitt as the legendary outlaw Jesse James and Casey Affleck as his killer, Robert Ford.
With Sam Rockwell, Sam Shepherd, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeremy Renner, and Zooey Deschanel in the cast, this was loaded with riches. As a slow-burning drama, it was perceived as an arthouse picture upon release and ultimately became a box office bomb. However, it has a lasting legacy as a brilliant Western film.
Critics awarded it a 76% Rotten Tomatoes score, with the audience rating at 75%, but it has since received acclaim. It appeared on several top ten lists for the year, including that of the National Board of Review, and earned two Oscar nominations, including one for Affleck and one for Roger Deakins’ cinematography.
The Harder They Fall (2021)
Released in 2021, The Harder They Fall was one of the few Western movies to have an all-Black principal cast. It is also a revisionist Western, as all the characters were based on real cowboys, lawmen, and outlaws of the 19th-century American West, although the story was mostly fictional.
Jonathan Majors stars as cowboy Nat Love, while Idris Elba is outlaw Rufus Buck, Zazie Beetz is Stagecoach Mary, Delroy Lindo is lawman Bᴀss Reeves, and Lakeith Stanfield is outlaw Cherokee Bill. The film follows Rufus Black and his gang as they are on the run from Bᴀss Reeves and a vengeance-seeking Nat Love.
Critics awarded the movie an 88% fresh score, and it earned several award nominations, winning Outstanding Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards and Best Picture at the African-American Film Critics ᴀssociation Awards.
The Proposition (2005)
The Proposition was an Australian Western film released in 2005, directed by John Hillcoat (The Road) and written by musician Nick Cave. Guy Pearce stars as Charlie Burns, a bushranger who opens the movie in a gunfight with the police, where everyone but him and his brother is killed.
However, the main plot of the film follows Charlie when he returns with an injured Mikey to his brother Arthur (Danny Huston). However, he soon learns that, as many bad things as he has done, he is nowhere near as evil as Arthur, and he has to decide what to do when things get out of control.
Critics praised The Proposition and awarded it an 86% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score. While it was violent, brutal, and unflinching, it was also praised for being thought-provoking and intelligent. It went on to earn 11 AACTA Awards nominations, winning four.
True Grit (2010)
True Grit was a remake of a classic John Wayne movie. While the original was the only film for which Wayne won an Oscar, the remake by the Coen Brothers was just as good, if not better in many ways. Jeff Bridges took on the role of Rooster Cogburn, a U.S. marshal who agrees to help a young girl find her father’s killer.
This was also Hailee Steinfeld’s breakout role as the young girl, while Matt Damon played the Texas Ranger working with them, and Josh Brolin starred as Tom Chaney, the killer.
The Coens had proven to have a knack for Westerns, as they also directed the brilliant The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which easily could have made this list, and the even better No Country for Old Men. True Grit earned 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, but didn’t win any.
Django Unchained (2012)
Quentin Tarantino directed two Westerns in the 21st Century, and both of them could be counted among the best. However, The Hateful Eight has enough problems to just miss out compared to other movies, and Django Unchained is easily the better of the two Tarantino releases.
Jamie Foxx is Django, a freed enslaved man, who agrees to team up with a bounty hunter named King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Django says he will help King find his next bounties, and in exchange, King will help Django find his wife, whom he was separated from while enslaved. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a plantation owner.
Critics praised the story and direction of the movie, awarding it an 87% fresh score. It also landed on countless top ten lists for the year and earned five Oscar nominations. Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor, and Quentin Tarantino won Best Original Screenplay.
