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The Coen brothers ’ critically acclaimedNo Country for Old Men , conform from the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy , is a meridian example of the neo - western writing style . Much like the neo - noir , the neo - western takes the figure and motifs and themes of the traditional western and transpose them into a modern setting , as opposed to the common placement in frontier time .
With bare desert landscapes , witless force , corrupt lawmen , andmorally dubious antiheroes running from a dark yesteryear , the neo - westerly produces some powerful movies . Here are the 10 Smartest Neo - Westerns To Watch If You LikeNo Country For Old Men .
Hell or High Water
The setup ofHell or High Wateris the same as a dozen horse opera we ’ve seen before : a couple of crooks labour across West Texas , rob banks and evading a by - the - book peace officer . The wind here is that it takes lieu today , and it has a powerful message about the country of the economy . These two guys , played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster , have only resorted to robbing banks because they ca n’t afford to make their mortgage payment , they ’re give-up the ghost to lose their home base , and they have no other options . They ’re products of their lodge . Jeff Bridges was make for an Oscar for his performance as the cop on the bank robber ’ trail .
City Slickers
patently , the most democratic portmanteau of the westerly and the clowning is Mel Brooks ’ seminal parodyBlazing Saddles , but since it ’s set in 1874 , it count as more of a revisionist western than a neo - western , despite its many , many mistiming . City Slickers , on the other hand , is a hilarious western set in the present day . Billy Crystal leads a group of snowy - collar guys who steer to a dude ranch to help with a cattle drive . Jack Palance , bonk for playing the menacing and iconic villain inShane , plays the rancher here . The humor occur from the fact that these guy have grown up on cowboy motion picture , but they do n’t have it away the first thing about being a cowboy .
Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee’sBrokeback Mountaincontroversially lose out to Paul Haggis’Crashfor the Academy Award for Best Picture . While both are outstanding films , Brokeback Mountainis well the better of the two . And not only that , it ’s well-fixed to compare the two side - by - side , because they ’re both technically “ societal issues ” movie . Crashdeals with racism andBrokeback Mountaindeals with homophobia . The difference is thatCrashis very on - the - nozzle ; it ’s very overt in indicate out racial tension and what ’s improper with them . Lee ’s moving-picture show is a lot more powerful than that , because it does n’t cram the issue down your throat . It ’s just a love story between two people whose place in time and order keeps them apart . By making it about the fictitious character , the importance of the issue comes through more naturally .
El Mariachi
The feature article directorial debut for Robert Rodriguez , the writer - director who would go on to give us such disparate franchises asSpy KidsandMachete , El Mariachiset the Guinness World Record for the meretricious film ( its budget was a measly $ 7,225 , mostly achieved through Rodriguez doing a lot of the behind - the - scenes chore himself ) to snap $ 1 million at the box office .
shoot in the northerly Mexican margin town of Ciudad Acuña , Coahuila , El Mariachiis a tale of false identicalness as a mariachi is false for an notorious criminal by a homicidal gang . Rodriguez chronicled the qualification of the film in his bookRebel Without a Crew .
6. The Proposition
Falling into the class of “ bushranger movies , ” or “ core pie westerns , ” or “ kangaroo westerns , ” which is to say , a western solidification in the Australian outback , The Propositionis a particularly bleak neo - western helmed by John Hillcoat , who would go on to direct such similarly bleak motion picture asThe RoadandLawless . The plot determine a law officer apprehending an ill-famed outlaw and differentiate him he has nine 24-hour interval to assassinate his old brother or they ’ll execute his new pal . Like any great motion picture , it ’s about a quality who is faced with a hard decision , and what they adjudicate to do will regulate who they are at their core .
Broken Arrow
Although it ’s framed as a John Woo action at law thriller , 1996’sBroken Arrowis as much a western as anything else . Christian Slater and John Travolta virtuoso as two role with the most action flick - ish name calling ever conceived : Riley Hale and Vic Deakins . Would - beJustifiedcreator andSpeedscreenwriter Graham Yost wrote the script , which orbit around a banding of terrorist outlaws who steal nuclear weapons from the U.S. governance , and the Park Ranger and pilot who attempt to get the nukes back . Broken Arrow ’s use of caravan - base chronological sequence , desert landscape , and accelerator pedal - toting standoffs set it straightforwardly in the neo - westerly musical genre .
Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese has suppose thathis grisly ‘ 70s vigilante thrillerTaxi Driverwas inspired by John Ford ’s seminal westernThe Searchers . Travis Bickle is a traditional western antihero survive in the haywire one C . He ’s just return from state of war ( inTaxi Driver , it ’s the Vietnam War , as match to the Civil War , as is the caseful in a lot of westerns ) and he ’s nauseate by the outlawry in his town ( in this case , New York City at the summit of its seediness ) .
His crusade of vigilante justice is driven by meeting an underage working girl and resent a Presidential candidate ’s duplicitous campaign .
Wind River
After writing the terrific screenplays forSicarioandHell or High Water , Taylor Sheridan essay his hand at directing withWind River , a pic that combines the neo - western with the murder closed book . A duo of Marvel doer – Elizabeth Olsen ( Scarlet Witch ) and Jeremy Renner ( Hawkeye ) – adept inWind Riveras an FBI broker and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker , severally , as they attempt to solve a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming . Sheridan wrote the film to soak up attention to the startlingly high turn of Indigenous women who are pink and murdered in the United States to this day .
Logan
Loganworks as a comic book reinvention ofShanefor the same reason thatJokerworks as a laughable Quran reinvention of Martin Scorsese’sTaxi DriverandThe King of Comedy . James Mangold did n’t just put the motifs and plot level ofShaneinto a Wolverine movie – he also put in the same themes , the unobserved things that madeShanetruly great . InLogan , we find a burn up - out Wolverine who is running from his legacy and loath to help hoi polloi , because people who get close to him wind up up dead . When he meetshis cloned daughter Laura , a.k.a . X-23 , he pushes her away until he feels compelled to save her and the next generation of mutant .
Assault on Precinct 13
well one of the bully action thrillers of the 1970s , Assault on Precinct 13is a production of John Carpenter ’s incredible artistic idea : he write it , he directed it , he edited it , he composed the musical score – behind the scenes , it ’s all him . The script was originally entitledThe Anderson Alamo , and it was intemperately inspired by Howard Hawks ’ classic westernRio Bravo . Gangbangers teem a law post , armed to the teeth , after swearing a blood curse to exact revenge on the police of Los Angeles for kill six crowd member . As the police contend to fight back , a breathtaking ultraviolent thriller is born .
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