The term “Neo-Western” refers to a cinema subgenre that features new takes on classic western themes. This subgenre frequently contains anti-hero protagonists, huge vistas, and rough scenery, and occasionally incorporates a heavy dose of bloodshed and gunfighting. Neo-westerns continue the basic themes of separating right from wrong in a lawless society. The gritty pursuit of justice or retribution, and the melancholy remorse that can accompany a career of perilous actions. Much like the original genre that inspired this new branch of film. This collection is basically neo — or modern — western, with a combination of drama, romance, and even some humour. As a result, we’ve come up with our 10 best neo-western movies of the twenty-first century.
1. EL Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
Director- Vince Gilligan
Jesse must finally liberate himself from Tod’s uncle Jack’s torment and slavery, as well as from Mr. White. He’s fleeing a police manhunt, and Saul Goodman’s hoover guy, Ed Galbraith, is his only hope of escaping. A man who can provide you with a new identity and a new beginning for the proper price. Jesse is racing against the clock, with the help of his crew. In order to save enough money to purchase a ‘new dust filter for his Hoover MaxExtract PressurePro model,’ and a new life.
2. No Country For Old Men (2007)
Director- Ethan Coen
Llewelyn Moss, a welder and hunter from rural Texas, discovers the bodies of several drug runners who were all killed in a violent encounter. Rather than reporting the theft to the authorities, Moss decided to keep the $2 million gift for himself. This attracts the attention of psychopathic assassin Anton Chigurh. He murders practically every rival, bystander, and even employer in pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss urgently tries to stay one step ahead of Chigurh. The blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with an increasing ferocity. Meanwhile, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, who is oblivious to the severity of the murders he is seeking to prevent, oversees the inquiry.
3. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
Director- Tommy Lee Jones
Mike Norton is an arrogant new border patrolman in Texas near the Mexican border. He accidentally kills Mexican cowboy Melquiades Estrada and buries him in the desert. When Melquiades’ body is discovered by accident a week later, his best friend, ranch foreman Pete Perkins, claims the body and burys Melquiades in his hometown of Jimenez. While pressing the local sheriff Belmont to uncover the perpetrator. Melquiades, on the other hand, is not handed to Pete because he is not a relative. His body is reburied in a nearby cemetery. Pete kidnaps Mike and compels him to dig up the grave and bring the body to Melquiades’ family in Mexico. After Rachel reveals the killer’s name. The tragic reality of the desperate Mexicans who live near the US border is revealed while they are travelling to Mexico.
4. Once Upon A Time…Hollywood (2019)
Director- Quentin Tarantino
Rick Dalton, the once-young and popular action actor, finds it impossible to believe that the voracious and always hungry for new blood film industry can do without him after a dizzying five-year rise to the top in the cutthroat world of glittering Hollywood and a long decade of treading water. Rick and his empathetic confidant and former stunt double, Cliff Booth, face the dismal prospect of a boring new existence in an ever-changing 1969 Los Angeles, sensing that his career may be reaching its end. Unlike his beautiful next-door neighbours, Roman Polanski, fresh off the triumphant success of Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and Sharon Tate, rising star of The Wrecking Crew (1968), Rick now has to make a difficult choice. Of course, none of them realises that their destiny, and lives, are in the hands of a certain Charles Manson and his army of savagely zealous followers.
5. Hell Or High Water (2016)
Director- David Mackenzie
Toby Howard, a divorced father, and Tanner Howard, a hardened ex-con, come up with a wildly audacious plan to generate some cash following their mother’s recent death and the family’s West Texas farms facing impending foreclosure. As a result, the desperate pair will go on a crime spree, targeting the Texas Midland bank’s small-town branches, thanks to Toby’s perfectly prepared plot. Nonetheless, the Howard brothers are pursued by Marcus Hamilton, an unyielding Texas Ranger, and his loyal deputy, Alberto Parker, a half-Comanche, who are patiently waiting for even the tiniest error to bring them down. As the two opposing spouses will soon collide, an unavoidable clash in the rough and sun-baked landscape of West Texas will have unintended repercussions.
6. The Revenant (2015)
Director- Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Hugh Glass, an experienced nineteenth-century tracker, and his son, Hawk, lead a hunting and trapping trip in the undiscovered territory of the ferocious Arikara Indian tribe in the untamed and harsh wilderness of mid-winter snow-capped Missouri. A rapid and devastating attack by a strong grizzly bear leaves a horribly mauled Glass on the verge of death, double-crossed and abandoned by his men, as the party of trappers struggles to navigate back to the remote Fort Kiowa. Hugh’s ferocious drive to live is now the only thing that can keep him alive in one of the world’s most hostile places, giving him the strength to drag his unrecognisable carcass and exact his retribution.
7. The Hateful Eight (2015)
Director- Quentin Tarantino
John “The Hangman” Ruth, a rough bounty hunter in post-Civil War Wyoming, risks an impending blizzard to carry his shackled prisoner, Daisy Domergue, to Red Rock to stand trial for murder. With the impending snowfall, John and his new unsavoury travelling companions, Major Marquis Warren, a fellow bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix, Red Rock’s soon-to-be-appointed sheriff, will have no choice but to take refuge in Minnie’s Haberdashery. But there’s another unwelcome encounter in store, when four more dubious visitors join this already tumultuous gang. The cruel eight are trapped in this unforgiving white hell and must suffer each other until the storm passes.
8. The Power Of The Dog (2021)
Director- Jane Campion
Montana, 1925. The polar opposite Burbank brothers—swaggering, boorish Phil and stylish, mild-mannered George—have been operating the family’s rich ranch for decades, harbouring a secret but apparent conflict over everything. Phil takes tremendous joy in harassing his soft-spoken sibling, owing his charisma and unwavering competency to his late mentor “Bronco” Henry. As a chance encounter with widowed lodging house owner Rose and her sensitive adolescent son Peter results in an unexpectedly deep bond, mean Phil shifts his concentration away from his troubles and focuses on the silent boy—an easy target. And harassment and abuse are increasingly leading to depression and alcoholism. However, mysteries can occasionally be found in plain sight.
9. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Director- George Miller
Max Rockatansky, a lone post-apocalyptic survivor, fights to keep one step ahead of the water-controlling tyrant Immortan Joe’s marauding gangs, the Wild Boys, after a close escape in the arid deserts of the dystopian Wasteland. Max, on the other hand, will soon run upon one of Joe’s most trusted lieutenants, the courageous warrior Imperator Furiosa, who has just departed the Citadel in her heavily armoured War Rig truck, absconding with an irreplaceable quintet of women. Now, the mighty ruler and his legion of insane zealots are on the hunt for Max and Furiosa, an unlikely duo.
10. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (TV Movie 2007)
Director- Yves Simoneau
Following the loss of the United States Army at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the 1880s, the government continues to drive Sioux Indians off their territory. Senator Henry Dawes introduces Native American rights legislation in Washington, D.C. Schoolteacher Elaine Goodale joins Dr. Charles Eastman, a Sioux native with a Western education, in working with tribe members in South Dakota. Meanwhile, Lakota Chief Sitting Bull defies government pressure.
We have come to a close. Once you have read this best Neo-Western movies article, please, let us know what you think in the comment section below. Is there anything that we missed?
