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Appaloosa (2008)
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| Set in 1882 in the Old West territory of New Mexico, Appaloosa revolves around city marshal Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his deputy and partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), who have made their reputation as peacekeepers in the lawless towns springing up in the untamed land. In the small mining community of Appaloosa, a ruthless, powerful rancher named Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) has allowed his band of outlaws to run roughshod over the town. After the cold-blooded murder of Appaloosa's city marshal, Cole and Hitch are hired to bring the murderer to justice. While establishing new authority with equal parts grit and guns, Cole and Hitch meet provocative newcomer Allison French (Renee Zellweger), whose unconventional ways threaten to undermine their progress and to destroy the two lawmen's decade-old partnership.
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Cimarron (1931)
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| When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, however, he begins to feel confined once again, and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.
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Dead Man (1995)
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| In Jim Jarmusch's best film to date we follow the journey of east coast accountant William Blake who travels into the heart of the West in order to take up a job for rich industrialist Dickinson. Upon his arrival he finds out that the job is no longer available and an unforeseen turn of events leads Blake to kill Dickinson's son. However Blake is injured and a bullet is lodged near his heart; hanging in the balance between life and death and hunted by Dickinson's head-hunters, he embarks in a spiritual journey into the wilderness of the West guided by an Indian mystic named Nobody. Jarmusch delivers us his most poetic, spiritual and allegorical film to date, a dark, surreal Western unlike any you have ever seen. A lot can also be said about Neil Young's moody musical score. Much underrated and overlooked, this is probably the best film to come out of America during the '90s.
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Unforgiven (1992)
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| Unforgiven is a 1992 Western film which was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with the screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging and retired gunslinger who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and turned to farming. A dark Western that deals frankly with the uglier aspects of violence and the myth of the Old West, it stars Eastwood in the lead role, along with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek and Frances Fisher.
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Wild Bunch, The (1969)
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This classic western deals with 9 aging outlaws who had outlived their era, and see their way of life and their "code of conduct" fading away in the early 20th Century on the eve of World War I. Technology and the industrial revolution, in the way of cars, planes, and machine guns has rendered living and dying more impersonal, and was bringing about a new west. "The Wild Bunch" begins and ends with two of the bloodiest screen battles ever envisioned, and it tells the story of an aging group of outlaws, led by William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, as they attempt one last score, with Robert Ryan as an ex-Wild Bunch member in hot pursuit. They become involved with Mexican rebels and from that point on, we get an engaging story as the outlaws party with the Mexican army, their hookers, and their alcohol - all of this leading up to the notorious ending where the Wild Bunch man their guns and duke-it-out with their enemies.
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