The Magnificent 7: Some Unusual 21st Century Westerns You May Have Missed

Over the past decade, cinema has witnessed a real renaissance of Westerns. Many directors who grew up on the classics of John Ford and Sergio Leone turned to the once half-forgotten genre.

Antoine Fuqua directed the remake of The Magnificent Seven, and James Mangold directed the new version of Train to Yuma.

Other directors undertook to rethink the genre: Westerns appeared from Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and other top directors. Classics are in trend now and if you support it, check casino classic review to have some quality time.

But everyone knows these classic works very well. However, against their background, many other films and TV series were not very noticeable but still deserve attention.

#1. Godless

At the end of 2020, literally, everyone started talking about screenwriter Scott Frank. After all, it was he who wrote and directed the main hit series — “The Queen’s Gambit”. But his previous work for television was much less discussed, although it won a dozen nominations for “Emmy”.

#2. Slow West

Scotsman John McLean made his feature-length debut at the Sundance Film Festival, where he won one of the important awards. Critics also appreciated the work, but the audience’s interest was not too high. Although for one of the main roles, McLean invited the audience’s favorite Michael Fassbender, who had already played in his short films.

#3. The Good, the Bad, the Weird 

Those who lacked the action and shootings in the previous examples should pay attention to the unusual Korean film.

#4. The Salvation

Another western from a country seemingly far from typically American stories — Denmark. The director Christian Levring (one of the signers of the famous “Dogma 95” by Lars von Trier) is not too familiar to the general audience. But Salvation screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen regularly releases successful films, in which he invariably invites Mads Mikkelsen. And this picture is no exception.

#5. The Homesman

Tommy Lee Jones regularly makes films based on books by American authors and plays in them himself. The genres are different: from the chamber drama “Evening Express “Sunset Limited” to the crime thriller “Three Graves”.

#6. Woman Walks Ahead

Surprisingly, there is a place for a mixture of romance and political drama in the selection of westerns. Moreover, it is based on real events.

#7. The Ballad of Lefty Brown

In westerns, and indeed in any genres that imply bouncy action, the protagonist often has a funny and ridiculous assistant. He usually entertains the viewer, and at the same time sets off the coolness of his partner. But in 2017, director Jared Moshe finally decided to let the typical sidekick speak up.

All the films listed above, of course, lose in scale and production to many top westerns. But they allow a little broader look at the classic genre and find new facets in stories about cowboys and revolvers, and therefore deserve attention.