Unconventional Westerns That Took the Genre to New Places
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20 Non-Traditional Westerns That Took the Genre to New Places
These films had a Western bent but were genre-defying, incorporating everything from horror to science fiction into the form.
Westerns have been around since the infancy of movie-making, with some calling the 1899 British short Kidnapping by Indians the first Western narrative film. In the 125 years since, Westerns have become the most frequently-produced genre films.
Although straight Westerns are still produced nowadays, filmmakers have been attempting to broaden the definition of the genre since mavericks like director Sam Peckinpah and scribe Dalton Trumbo sought narratives beyond 'Cowboys and Indians' in the 1960s. While luminaries like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood have come to define the 'Man on a Horse' Old Guard, many Western films have broken away from those tropes by telling stories from novel viewpoints.
Films from the perspective of Native Americans and freed-slaves have shown how the Old West had more than just gunslinging frontiersmen. Countries like Australia and Mexico have contributed to the Western film genre in ways that redefined our Old West-centric ideas about the genre.
Directors like Kathryn Bigelow and Michael Crichton have incorporated horror and science fiction into Westerns, and films like Brokeback Mountain have turned the notion of Western machismo on its head. The following are the 20 greatest non-traditional Western films.
20 Near Dark (1988)
Near Dark helps hearken back to the '80s action-trash and kitchen sink scripts of films like Repo Man and They Live. Bigelow shared some of her then-boyfriend James Cameron's muses in Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen, reconstituting them in vampire roles to a neo-Western backdrop. Decades later, Hollywood would begin further attempts at combining Westerns with horror, showing that this B-movie was actually ahead of its time and deserves today's revisionist cult status.
Bigelow Presaged Her Later Success With This Imaginative Thriller
While Near Dark gets campy at times, owing mostly to a modest $5 million budget, it bookended 1987's other notable vampire film, The Lost Boys, by making more of an imaginative horror film than its teen-driven counterpart. Bigelow's visual talent and the present-day Western components are what make the film a fun watch, and bit parts from actors like Jenette Goldstein (John Connor's foster mom in T2) make for a nostalgically sublime watching experience.
19 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
With Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, legendary director Sam Peckinpah made the full transition from mainstream Hollywood Western filmmaker to a New Hollywood avante-Western director willing to shoot in Mexico to maintain creative autonomy. Peckinpah's enormous influence on Quentin Tarantino is never more apparent than in this film, and it gave star Warren Oates the first proper platform for his talent.
For Peckinpah, it Was Darkest Before the Dawn
Made in Mexico on a microbudget after the commercial failure of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (another of Peckinpah's groundbreaking Westerns) Garcia instead broke all the rules of how heroic a Western protagonist need be. Oates' Bennie is a role straight out of Jackie Brown, a shady character who plays both sides against the middle.
18 Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Bone Tomahawk wasn't so much a horror film as a gruesome film from the oft-sadistic director S. Craig Zahler. While it maintained staples of the Western genre like a heroic Sheriff, played by Kurt Russell, and a roving band of Native American killers, Zahler made the film's calling card its truly brutal deaths.
The tribe in question doesn't have a name — they're a band of so-called 'Troglodytes' who communicate with a whistling throat modification, and process the humans they eat with the precision of a wagyu butcher.
Bone Tomahawk Dissolves From a Traditional Western Into a Brutal Survival Story
When a local woman is kidnapped by the town's antagonist tribe, Sheriff Hunt (Russell) and a local gunslinger set off on a rescue mission. Tagging along are the woman's injured husband and a reluctant Deputy (a brilliant Richard Jenkins performance). It becomes apparent, early in the film, that this ragtag posse are outmatched, and the nature of this horrifying tribe's intentions become all too real in the film's Third Act.
17 El Mariachi (1992)
El Mariachi is as legendary, these days, for demonstrating Robert Rodriguez's ability to make an epic shoot-em-up for less than $8,000, as it is for its unforgettable gun battles. Rodriguez shot the film in only 14 days in Mexico, replacing cowboys in 12-gallon hats with a stylish Mariachi who wields a guitar case full of surprises.
Robert Rodriguez Proved That If There's a Will, There's a Way
Rodriguez used El Mariachi to prove that all you need to make a feature film is a 16mm camera and extreme motivation, redefining '90s indies while he expanded the modern Western to include Spanish-language films. Viewing his Mexico Trilogy, you become aware of the 2,000-mile border shared by Mexico and America, a border that Hollywood Westerns have straddled for decades — without giving proper voice to Mexican culture.
Related: Robert Rodriguez Proudly Recalls 14-Year-Old Glen Powell's Ambitions: "I'm Going All the Way"
16 The Proposition (2005)
The Proposition alerted us to a few important facts: firstly, that Nick Cave has the same creative power with a pen as with his guitar, that Australia is as fertile a place for Western films as the American West, and that Guy Pearce has a subtle depth to his acting like no Aussie ever to grace the screen.
Ray Winstone and Danny Huston round out one of the low-key, most-talented casts ever in a Western film — that does away with convention by exploring the empty outlaw wilderness known as the Australian Outback.
Nick Cave's Script Is, At Once, Historic and Hallucinogenic
First famous as a rock musician, Nick Cave's script for The Proposition touches on aspects of Australian cultural identity ranging from the roots of England's penal colony, cultural overlap with Aboriginal tribes, and a similar frontier mentality to the one that made the American West so engaging in films. The film is a remote outback field trip and an experiential film, with magic-hour cinematography and a perfectly simple plot that make it undeniably engaging.
15 Ravenous (1999)
Ravenous
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Guy Pearce makes a second appearance on this list for an early-career performance in a '90s Western horror, Ravenous. Playing opposite Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle, Pearce humanizes a survival tale set in the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas.
The film drew together flesh-eating legends of the Donner Party and The Colorado Cannibal, making Carlyle into a predatory Colonel who draws on local Algonquin legend to justify his penchant for eating intrepid explorers who pass through his mountainous turf.
Ravenous Examined a Different Historical Setting Than Most Westerns
Unlike the countless Western films that take place during and after the Civil War Era, this survivor's tale is fashioned around the Mexican-American War and includes strangely comedic elements into what is essentially a horror film. The plagued production didn't fare well upon release, but has since gained a cult following, in part, for the many ways that it deviates from traditional Westerns.
14 El Topo (1970)
The crown jewel of experimental filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's ouevre,El Topo helped define a new Western subgenre, the "acid western," when The New Yorker's legendary critic Pauline Kael coined the term after seeing the film in 1971. A psychedelic spin on a Don Quixote tale, El Topo (Jodorowsky) is a different breed of Man in Black, a pious searcher with Christ-like abilities to make bitter water sweet.
El Topo May Be the Trippiest Western Ever Made
Despite some seemingly-sincere Christian themes, El Topo was incredibly gory and brutal for a '70s film, and in playing El Topo himself, Jodorowsky may have perpetrated a few real-life crimes during shooting — which is warranting reexamination, of late. Still, the film is hallucinogenic and visually-stunning, staking Mexican filmmaking's importance in the Western genre three decades before Robert Rodriguez made it a more mainstream endeavor.
13 Sweet Country (2017)
Few Australian films have given greater voice to the suffering of Aboriginal Australians than Sweet Country, which garnered an astounding 96% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a tender performance from Warlpiri actor Hamilton Morris. Morris plays Sam Kelly, a farm hand whose family suffers torment from an abusive settler in the Northern Territory.
Among the cast are two legends of Australian films, the New Zealander Sam Neill as Preacher Fred Smith, and Bryan Brown as the corruptible Sergeant Fletcher.
A Kangaroo Western, This Is Not
Despite the film's breathtaking, stark landscapes shot in the actual Northern Territory, this film is more of a post-colonial tale than a neo-Western, and pulls no punches about the disastrous effect of White landowners on Australia's indigenous cultures. The film's most exciting scenes occur when Sam Kelly draws his pursuers into the bush, using his knowledge of the landscape to evade capture and seek revenge.
12 Meek's Cutoff (2010)
Meek's Cutoff deviates from traditional Westerns in several ways. For one, it takes place in Oregon's High Desert, a seldom-used locale for a story that dovetails with the history of real-life fur trapper and guide Stephen Meek. Through Michelle Williams' performance as Emily Tetherow, we get a rare entrance into the brutal lives of servitude that women were forced into while settling the frontier.
In Meek's Cutoff, Unlikely Allies are Forced into Cahoots
In a classic 'blind leading the blind' tale, Emily Tetherow's grim prospects become apparent early in the film, when Stephen Meek leads his followers into hunger and despair. Emily is forced into a lose/lose situation, where she may have to ally with a local Cayuse drifter to not be subject to a fate predetermined by the fools leading her party.
11 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller was the greatest intersection of New Hollywood and revisionist Western filmmaking, with director Robert Altman coining the term "anti-Western" to describe his film. 4 years after Warren Beatty had become one of Hollywood's biggest stars with Bonnie and Clyde, Altman surrounded Beatty with one of his famous ensembles, in a tale that intertwines themes about sex work, romance, and gambling to poetic musician Leonard Cohen's sonorous songs.
Altman Bucked Convention, Making Emotionally Complex Scenes Out of a Simple Story
McCabe & Mrs. Miller's Third Act has plenty of action, but Altman makes the interaction between actors Beatty, '60s Go-Go muse Julie Christie, and Shelley Long of central importance. Rather than make the John McCabe character a macho archetype, Altman made him an emotionally complex confidence man who embodies the frontier's stake-your-claim attitude.
10 Dead Man (1995)
Dead Man
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Indie auteur Jim Jarmusch's nod to the acid Westerns of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Dead Man was a quiet, atmospheric film shot in black and white. Less a Western than an anecdote about the oddball characters found on the edge of the frontier, the audience experiences this mind-bender through the eyes of William Blake (Johnny Depp), a Cleveland accountant on the lam who is led on a spirit quest by a strange Native American named Nobody (Gary Farmer).
Jarmusch Strays From Every Western Convention
Jim Jarmusch's penchant for combining non-actors with elder statesmen of the screen is put on full display, with musicians like Gibby Haynes and Iggy Pop acting opposite the likes of John Hurt and Robert Mitchum.
Depp gave one of his most earnest performances as Blake, during a period when he was eschewing commercialism to work with artistic directors like Jarmusch and Terry Gilliam. Maybe the film's greatest legacy is its nuanced, sensitive picture of Native Americans in a way that attempted to upend decades of stereotyping.
Related: Adam Driver Reunites with Jim Jarmusch for New Movie Father Mother Sister Brother
9 The Shooting (1966)
The Shooting put Jack Nicholson right in his wheelhouse, as the fresh-mouthed villain Billy Spear, who pursues a woman through the Utah desert to fulfill a contract killing. Nicholson produced the film, directed by Monte Hellman, and seemed to enjoy playing Spear as much as he did Frank Costello in The Departed.
The Shooting never received a proper theatrical release, getting only occasional play on TV before some later revivals that were called for by critics like Leonard Maltin, who loved the film.
The Shooting's Strange Climax Separates It From Other Westerns
The Shooting's ending has long been the most divisive scene for critics. Some argue that the ways it deviated from traditional Western endings is what makes this film so unique, while others would say that dispatching of main characters in anti-climactic fashion holds the film back.
8 Westworld (1973)
Michael Crichton's science fiction credentials are unmatched as a writer, but before his script for Jurassic Park adapted his own work to enormous acclaim in 1993, he had a checkered film career as a writer/director. Crichton made some stinkers, but one visionary idea stood above the others — Westworld — which brought the future to the past with Crichton's concept for a highly realistic amusement park where the wealthy can live out their Western dreams.
Westworld Couldn't Be Further From a Traditional Western
While the HBO series Westworld brought much more clever visual effects to the franchise, the 1973 film's original theme worlds, including the Roman World and Medieval World, provided for a much more enjoyable watching experience than the oft-morose TV series. Yul Brynner's face-swapping gunslinger has become iconic, and the theme park's unraveling makes for delightfully controlled chaos.
7 El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
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El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie had an unenviable task: filling the shoes of one of TV's most beloved series of all time in Breaking Bad (and without Walter White at its disposal). It did so in spades, with a limited theatrical release belying a film that could have topped that weekend's box office. Jesse Pinkman's next chapters saw Aaron Paul mature as an actor, and appearances from stalwarts Robert Forster and Jonathan Banks offset Cranston's absence.
How the Film Was Only a Categorical Western
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has long admired the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone, and often referenced them in the series. With this film, he had the creative license to move into more Western tropes, as Pinkman seeks a new life in Alaska, sending his pursuers on a wild good chase. The film has no horses or cowboy hats, but references Westerns all the way into the final shot.
6 Hell or High Water (2016)
Part heist film, part Western, part allegory of America's farming crisis, Hell or High Water showed scribe Taylor Sheridan's immense talent right before he became one of TV's biggest showrunners with Yellowstone. Jeff Bridges slots into the Sheriff role perfectly as Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton, and watching the film elicits mixed emotions, as you find yourself variously rooting for the cops and the robbers.
This Contemporary Western Used an Untapped Plot Device
Few Westerns have ever focused as heavily on bank robbery as much this film. The Howard Brothers smash-and-grab approach isn't far-fetched, as they're targeting lightly-guarded banks in sleepy Texas towns. Ben Foster gives one of his best performances as Tanner Howard, who is so disillusioned by poverty that he's willing to sacrifice his life for the family farm.
5 Django Unchained (2012)
Django Unchained created yet another outlet for Quentin Tarantino's passion for revenge films. This time, he crafted such a plot around a revisionist Western, with a liberated Black slave, Django Freeman (Jamie Foxx) acquiring every ounce of audience investment in his quest to dispatch plantation owners and find the love of his life.
Even by the film's 2012 release, it was rare to see a Western centered around a Black protagonist, and Tarantino incorporated several genres from blaxploitation to Spaghetti Westerns in doing so.
Django Created Plenty of Controversy, Despite Earnest Intentions
Certain critics and filmmakers like director Spike Lee felt that Tarantino's depiction of slavery was disrespectful. Others, like Pulp Fiction star Samuel L. Jackson disagreed, with Jackson saying "Django Unchained was a harder and more detailed exploration of what the slavery experience was than 12 Years a Slave, but director Steve McQueen is an artist, and since he's respected for making supposedly art films, it's held in higher esteem than Django, because that was basically a blaxsploitation movie."
4 The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was writer-director Andrew Dominik's revisionist look at one of the Old West's most notorious train robbers, Jesse James (Brad Pitt). Rather than depict James as the folk hero of other Western films, Dominik and Pitt created a less righteous and forgivable icon, whose oppressive treatment of the James Gang helped contribute to his own downfall.
A Story of Unrequited Love on Celluloid
Critic Roger Ebert felt that The Assassination was essentially a "curiously erotic dance of death" between Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) and James, adding that, "If Robert cannot be the lover of his hero, what would be more intimate than to kill him?" However the film's main themes are framed, what was undeniable was its stunning, stark visuals and a stirring score by The Proposition's writer Nick Cave and his frequent collaborator, Warren Ellis.
3 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain went where no Western had previously dared, depicting a same-sex relationship between two cowpokes, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). Ennis and Jack grapple with the nature of their relationship — at turns loving, sexual and one that sees them, at times, bloodying each other in fisticuffs.
By the end of the film, the legitimacy of their love is unquestionable, thanks in large part to the sincerity of Ledger and Gyllenhaal's career-defining performances.
Brokeback Redefined the Notion of What a Western Could Be
Whether defined as a neo-Western, a revisionist Western, or a contemporary Western, the film turned notions of 'manliness' on their head. For his efforts, Ang Lee won the Oscar for Best Director, and the film's importance to Western cinema was highlighted by its preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
2 The Revenant (2015)
The Revenant created a sense of place like no Western before it, with director Alejandro Iñárritu and legendary cinematographer Emmaneul Lubezki hovering techocrane-mounted cameras over marshlands, icy cliffs, and rushing rivers to tell this climactic revenge tale. The film located the story in the Dakotas, but cheated nearby Montana and far-away Tierra Del Fuego for the frontier in this insanely difficult shooting process (Iñárritu insisted on using only natural light).
A Story Told Visually Still Required Exceptional Acting
Thanks to seamless visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic, scenes like the infamous bear attack made this an edge-of-your-seat journey, but it was Leonardo DiCaprio's painstaking performance as Hugh Glass that was most responsible for the audience's investment, with a worthy adversary in Tom Hardy as John S. Fitzgerald. Both men secured Oscar nominations after this chase-down battle, with DiCaprio taking home the gold.
1 No Country for Old Men (2007)
No Country for Old Men subverted genre quite unlike any Western before it, taking Cormac McCarthy's often difficult-to-adapt work and creating a cinematic journey that's, at turns, heroic, horrifying and hilarious. 'Strange' might be the best word — from Anton Chigurh's Pete Rose haircut and captive bolt pistol murders, to Sheriff Ed Tom Bell's soliloquies on the nature of mortality.
Despite the dispatching of many Western tropes, Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) is still an old-fashioned Western protagonist. Still, the Coen Brothers don't allow him a glorious death — simply alluding to it with the wiping of a pair of Chigurh's boots.
What Started as an Afterthought for the Coens Became Their Most-Awarded Film
The Coen Brothers were never known for adaptations, preferring the comfort of autonomous auteurism — but after mega-producer Scott Rudin bought the rights to McCarthy's novel and twisted their arms for months, they finally relented — likely realizing they could tell this story better than any other filmmaker.
It worked out. Despite many prior nominations, they had only won Best Original Screenplay for Fargo. For No Country, they secured Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay — and proper recognition as two of the greatest filmmakers of their generation.
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Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mike Damski studied Art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY while beginning a twenty year career in Film and TV, performing nearly every job on set from Production Assistant to Stuntman. His credits include Prime, Surviving Christmas, Alex and Emma, The Sopranos, Royal Pains, Taxi, Little Manhattan, Early Edition, Boston Public and many more. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon.
