Film
Empire of the Summer Moon
A sweeping account of four decades of conflict between the Comanches and encroaching colonists, tracing how a warrior culture's mastery of mounted warfare reshaped the American West. It's a story of resistance, adaptation, and the clash of civilizations told with attention to the complexity of all sides. For anyone who wants history that feels alive, not sanitized.
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Killers of the Flower Moon2023
Scorsese's meticulous account of Osage exploitation in the 1920s, showing how a powerful Indigenous nation was systematically robbed and murdered. De Niro and DiCaprio anchor a story about greed and complicity that will haunt you.
But It's long, deliberate, and the violence comes as quiet betrayal rather than action spectacle. Some find Scorsese's pacing glacial.
The Searchers1956
Ford's masterpiece wrestles with racism in a man obsessed with revenge against Comanche raiders. The landscape is gorgeous, the moral complexity is genuine, and it still feels dangerous and unsettled in ways most Westerns never attempt.
But Wayne's character is ugly and the film doesn't soften him much. Also black-and-white, made in 1956—some will find the style feels remote.
True Grit2010
The Coen Brothers remake is sharper and funnier than the original, following a fierce young girl and a hard-worn marshal into Indian Territory. Jeff Bridges is magnificent, and the dialogue crackles with intelligence and actual period flavour.
But It's a revenge story, not a history lesson, and the focus is narrow. If you want sweep, this isn't it.
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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee2007
Both examine how a people mastered warfare, adapted to threats, and were ultimately overcome not by military defeat alone but by resource depletion, broken treaties, and sheer numbers. Both ask: what did this cost?
An HBO miniseries about the Army's final campaigns against Plains tribes, told from the perspective of the Lakota. It's a formal history lesson—your teacher is the actual record—but deeply humanized. Aidan Quinn and Anna Paquin anchor real historical tragedy.
But It is genuinely bleak and doesn't offer redemption or hope. Also, the TV movie format (made for cable, not cinema) means the grandeur is bounded by its own screen. Hard to watch.
More like this (8)
Dances with Wolves1990
A Union soldier finds himself adopted by a Lakota tribe and falls in love with the culture. Expansive, visually stunning, and genuinely moving about the richness of Indigenous life before catastrophe.
But It centers a white protagonist's enlightenment, which has aged awkwardly. Some see it as earnest rather than complex.
18832021
Paramount's prequel to Yellowstone follows the Dutton family during the actual settlement of Montana, with real Comanche and Lakota actors and consultants shaping authentic depiction. It's brutal, beautiful, and honest about what expansion cost.
But It's a prestige soap opera first, history second. Also requires patience with the Yellowstone universe's particular tone.
The Last of the Mohicans1992
A different conflict, earlier era, but Mann's film captures something essential about Indigenous warriors facing dispossession—skilled, dignified, doomed. The action sequences are rapturous and the cinematography is extraordinary.
But It's a romance wrapped in history, and some of the period detail feels invented. Also a bit of 90s melodrama creeping in.
Black Cloud2004
An indie film about Navajo youths navigating poverty and tradition. It's not directly about mounted warfare, but it captures the weight of historical trauma and dispossession in lived, immediate terms that academic history often misses.
But It's slow, quiet, and has no famous faces. The production values are modest. Not for anyone wanting action or plot momentum.
Deadwood2004
A profane, brilliant series about the founding of a South Dakota town in the 1870s. It catches the moment settlement actually happened—chaotic, corrupt, violent—with Indigenous peoples present as a real force, not backdrop.
But Extremely violent, extremely crude language throughout. Also, it got truncated and the story doesn't fully resolve (though later films help). Demanding to watch.
Heaven's Gate1980
Cimino's controversial epic about Wyoming settlers clashes with the visual beauty of his filmmaking and genuine attempt to show the clash between old money, new settlers, and Indigenous dispossession. Flawed, ambitious, one of a kind.
But Nearly four hours long, narratively dense, and the 1980s print quality can feel grainy. Critics still argue about whether it works. Definitely not for everyone.
Nomadland2021
Both are about peoples forced to move constantly to survive, adapting skills and culture to stay alive, and ultimately confronting a world that has decided they don't get to live that way anymore. Both are elegies.
A Zhao film about modern American van-dwellers in economic free fall. It sounds nothing like history, but it captures something profound about displacement, adaptation, and the end of a way of living that the Western itself is about. Poetic, unsentimental, alive.
But No plot, minimal dialogue, and long stretches of landscape. It demands your patience and offers no catharsis. Also, the connection is philosophical, not literal, which some find frustrating.
Sweetwater2023
Like Empire of the Summer Moon, it centers Indigenous experience and agency rather than white settlement, and it treats the frontier not as triumph but as a place where survival itself is an act of resistance and grace.
A sparse, strange Western about a Black woman preacher and an Arapaho woman forming an alliance in a dead frontier town. It's a formally experimental film—dialogue is minimal, shots are held long—about survival, sisterhood, and refusal. A debut of real vision.
But Extremely slow and deliberately fragmented. Some will find it inaccessible or pretentious. It doesn't answer every question. Also, barely distributed—difficult to find.
People
Directing
- Taylor SheridanDirector
Writing
- S.C. GwynneNovel
- Taylor SheridanWriter
Production
- Jenny WoodProducer
- Taylor SheridanProducer
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A History of Britain by Simon Schama, The Transcontinental Railroad