Hollywood’s most enduring genre has established tropes, but these films break through traditional boundaries by locating their narratives outside the American Frontier.
SUMMARY
– Modern Westerns have defied the traditions of their predecessors by moving their narrative environments away from the distinctive planes of the frontier and relocating them in different areas of the world.
– Movies like Drive and Willy’s Wonderland maintain Western traditions such as silent heroes with taciturn dialogue, but their plots move away from the traditional Wild West settings.
– Only God Forgives transports its Western-oriented plot all the way to Bangkok, while The Nightingale adapts genre tropes to the Australian Outback.
Staples of the Western are epitomised in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, where iconic images of Clint Eastwood’s laconic, cigar-wielding Man With No Name reign supreme. Beyond this essential taciturn speech and mysterious exterior, the backdrop of the American frontier was an essential means to set a cinematic context for conflict and revolution. However, revisionist Westerns frequently play with traditional settings to craft a narrative that is distinct from the frontier while maintaining essential genre characteristics.
Situating the Western in a different part of the world offers a wide range of opportunities for commentary on the popular genre by referencing recognisable cinematic language in a different context. Through this relocation of traditional settings, filmmakers utilise the universality of the Western to challenge Hollywood traditions and craft radical tales of their own.
9 Drive (2011)
Location: Los Angeles
At first glance, Nicloas Winding Refn’s cult classic has all the trappings of a neo-noir with its dark streets, brutal violence and men of few words. Take a closer look, however, and it’s a modern mirror of George Stevens’ 1953 classic Shane, a tale of an outsider who comes into town to tidy up the troubles of a desperate town and tries to earn the affections of married mother Marian Starrett and her young son Joey in the process. The saloon that houses Shane’s bad guys is swapped for a pizzeria in Drive, and steeds replaced with cars as Gosling’s nameless Driver moonlights as a getaway goon through the claustrophobic streets of LA. Refn deliberately sought out the older, grimier areas of LA to shoot during pre- production, with the startling wide shot of a glossy LA alongside the pounding beats of Kavinsky’s ‘Nightcall’ representing a rare vision of expansive landscape, a sly jab at Hollywood glitz which Refn continues to critique.
8 Willy’s Wonderland (2021)
Location: Hayesville, North Carolina
Nicolas Cage made his cultural mark with more talkative, eccentric roles, but he can do a mocking silent hero role just as well when he’s forced to fight off a swarm of malfunctioning animatronics in a Hayesville pizza restaurant. It’s difficult not to make a few Five Nights at Freddy’s comparisons, but the Western-coded environment is also emphasised, like Drive, with Cage’s mythically named ‘The Janitor’, who dishes out similar levels of OTT violence when the tides start to turn against him. A scathing satire on silent hero tropes, Cage doesn’t utter a single word as he enthusiastically pummels the bad guys into oblivion.
7 Logan (2017)
Location: El Paso, Texas
Based on Mark Miller and Steve McNiven’s ‘Old Man Logan’ comics line, Logan follows Hugh Jackman’s aging Wolverine as he looks after a dementia-ridden and increasingly dangerous Charles Xavier. Forced to come out of retirement to save a girl who appears to have similar power to his own, Logan utilises traditional Western desert vistas to create a dystopian landscape that is devoid of the bright colour scheme found in many contemporary superhero movies. It is the fourth-highest box office grossing R-rated film at time of writing, with its themes of grief and brutal violence pushing the superhero element further towards a Western aesthetic.
6 Only God Forgives (2013)
Location: Bangkok
Following a critical darling like Drive was never going to be easy, but the series of boos and walkouts at Only God Forgives’ Cannes debut was a far cry compared to the mountains of praise heaped on his previous work. Refn has explicitly described the film as a Western, and has made no apologies for its gruesome scenes of violence. Teaming up with Gosling for a second time, the plot centres on expatriate Julian as he is forced to confront his mother (a scathing Kristen Scott Thomas on top form) after the killing of his brother. Julian manages to say even less than Driver, communicating in wordless stares as he tries to escape the shackles of his past. The Western hero’s traditional taciturn man is oppressed by an Oedipean nightmare that defies traditional notions of masculinity, with saturated reds and claustrophobic halls undercutting the traditional wide vistas of desert landscape.
5 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Location: Wyoming
It was derided as ‘the gay cowboy movie’ at time of release and received notable criticisms from the Oscar board, including Tony Curtis. Best actor winner Ernest Borgnine remarked in a somewhat paradoxical statement that “if John Wayne were alive, he’d be rolling over in his grave”. Yet Ang Lee’s pastoral romance has stood the test of time despite its underwhelming Academy performance and – despite its traditional Western setting – has subverted the default heterosexual setting of the Wild West to tell a tender tale of grand romance in Wyoming.
4 Pig (2017)
Location: Oregon Forests
The revenge Western is a popular iteration of the genre, but it’s not the violent route chosen by Nicolas Cage’s mysterious recluse Robin after his prize pig is stolen from his home in the Oregon forest. What plays out instead is a ruminative and sombre search for his porcine comrade, with a reminder that Westerns don’t have to be full of gunfights and action to fit the bill. Cage delivers one of the finest performances of his career, switching his usual boisterous energy for a quieter, and highly effective, approach.
3 You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Location: New York City (but not specified)
Billed as ‘Taxi Driver for the 21st Century’ on its central promotional poster, Lynne Ramsay’s most recent odyssey focuses on Juaquin Phoenix’s disturbed veteran Joe as his latest assignment to rescue a girl from prostitution goes upside down. While it certainly has the bare bones of Scorsese’s murky masterpiece, Ramsay, while riffing on the traditional Western idea of the hired gun, prioritises the little details of objects and bodies, skilfully swerving away from moments of violence with nuanced editing and deft cinematography. Locations are stated if you look up a description of the film, but otherwise, the hellish ground that Joe traverses on his journey are never specified.
2 The Nightingale
Location: The Australian Outback
While director Jennifer Kent made her name with her debut psychological horror The Babadook, she solidified her reputation with her underrated sophomore effort The Nightingale, which offers a rare example of the female revenge tale as Irish convict Clare Carroll seeks retribution for the murders of her husband and son and her own rape at the hands of Sam Clafin’s Lieutenant Hawkins. Teaming up with aboriginal tracker Billy (played by real life Yolngu Aboriginal actor Baykali Ganambarr), the two set out on a double revenge mission. A world away from the American frontier, Kent nevertheless examines the horrors of colonialism in a remarkable work of brutality and beauty.
1 Blade Runner 2049
Location: Los Angeles
Like Ridley’s Scott’s original masterpiece, Blade Runner 2049 has clear noir influences with its central taciturn hero and the dark dystopian Los Angeles, yet the film’s laconic dialogue, sacrificial themes and distinctive trench coat-wearing hero are combined with frequent Western imagery. This spectacle is exhibited no more explicitly than during the iconic Las Vegas scene where Ryan Gosling’s tortured K slowly moves through a sea of desert orange in search of Deckard and his own identity. No gunshots are fired, nobody is killed, and the setting is far away from the Wild West, yet the image of K’s loner silhouette epitomises the mystery of the Western hero, obscure and compelling in equal measure.