American Primeval and 3 Other New Westerns You Might Have Missed
The Wild West in all its glory and cruelty.
Despite the genre's more than century-long history, frontier sagas remain popular with audiences today. We have compiled a list of new westerns, including both revisionist experiments on modern classics and conventional tales of brave cowboys.
1. Strange Way of Life, 2023
Pedro Almodóvar's revisionist western premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Despite its running time of 31 minutes, the work of the famous director became one of the most talked-about films of the festival.
Cowboy Silva crosses the desert to visit his old friend, Sheriff Jake. The men have not seen each other for 25 years, and after an awkward greeting, the men reminisce over a glass of wine about their youth spent in Mexico.
The friends' nostalgia is interrupted by terrible news: a woman, the wife of the sheriff's late brother, has been killed, and the prime suspect is the son of his old friend.
2. American Primeval, 2025
The series is based on the events that took place in Utah in 1857, known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Over the course of several days, Mormon militia attacked a caravan of pioneers traveling from Arkansas to California.
More than 100 innocent men, women and children were killed in the brutal attack. Director Peter Berg and screenwriter Mark L. Smith sought to understand this tragic milestone in history.
3. The Dead Don't Hurt, 2023
Viggo Mortensen's lyrical Western tells the tragic story of a lonely carpenter and a wayward aristocrat. As the Civil War rages, men leave their homes and go to the front. Meanwhile, their wives are forced to keep house, raise children and go to work every day.
The acting duo brings to the screen a touching story of love at first sight, born in spite of the circumstances. Viggo Mortensen rethinks the genre, offering viewers a gritty frontier saga from a female perspective.
The Dead Don't Hurt has room for both cowboy shoot-outs and heartbreaking vendettas. But first and foremost, it is the story of a strong woman forced to wage a personal war, even when she is far from the fighting.
4. 1923, 2022-2025
1923 became another spin-off of the Yellowstone franchise – a prequel to the original series and a sequel to 1883. The creator of the show was Taylor Sheridan – the father of the entire serial saga about the Dutton family.
1923, the country is on the verge of an economic crisis, but in Montana it came a few years earlier. Locusts have fallen on the farmers' land, destroying all the pastures and crops.
The local ranchers do not have enough land to feed their animals, so they trespass on someone else's land, which in the harsh customs of the Wild West is tantamount to a declaration of war.