Film

High Ground

Name: High Ground
Genre: Thriller, Action, Drama, Western
Released: 2021
Cast: Simon Baker, Jacob Junior Nayinggul, Jack Thompson, Callan Mulvey, Caren Pistorius

A 2021 Australian western that pits a morally compromised bounty hunter against a young Indigenous man in the remote outback. Tense, visually striking, and genuinely interested in its moral complexity rather than easy answers. For viewers who want their westerns to interrogate rather than celebrate the mythology.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a lean, sun-bleached western that treats its frontier violence as a moral reckoning rather than spectacle, with a sharp eye for landscape and an uneasy partnership between two men on opposite sides.

Skip it if you want brisk, crowd-pleasing action, because this one is slow, grim and reluctant to lift its mood even briefly.

What it asks of you: It runs a lean 104 minutes but spends long stretches on silence and open country, and trusts you to read motive from faces rather than dialogue.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Proposition2005

A savage Australian western about violence, family, and colonial brutality. Shares High Ground's refusal to make its villains simple and its setting as a character in itself.

But Relentlessly bleak and graphic. If you're watching for catharsis or a heroic arc, you won't find it here.

True Grit2010

A bounty hunter thriller that's also a coming-of-age story, where moral clarity crumbles the closer you look. Both films trust their audiences to hold contradictions.

But Deliberately paced. It builds rather than rushes, and some find the Coen Brothers' rhythm mannered.

Hell or High Water2016

A modern western about men on opposing sides of a manhunt, each with legitimate grievances. Like High Ground, it refuses to let you know who to root for until the final reckoning.

But The dialogue is sparse and the action sudden. If you need constant plot momentum, it can feel slow between set pieces.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from High Ground

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Deer Hunter1978

Both films centre on a solitary man in the Australian wild, where the land's indifference undermines his sense of purpose and moral standing.

Willem Dafoe as a contract killer hunting a tiger in remote Tasmania, where the landscape and his isolation become the real antagonist. Like High Ground, it's about a man becoming smaller as the wilderness reveals him.

But Glacially paced and visually austere. Long stretches with minimal dialogue, in a landscape that offers no comfort. Some will find it meditative; others will find it difficult.

Wind River2017

A crime thriller set on a Native American reservation, centred on systemic injustice and the violence it enables. Shares High Ground's willingness to implicate colonial structures rather than just individuals.

But Heavy subject matter handled without lightness. It's a procedural about murdered Indigenous women, and that weight never lifts.

Slow West2015

A revisionist western about a young man and a cynical drifter on a journey through stunning landscape. Leans into moral ambiguity and the cost of survival in unforgiving country.

But Stylised in ways that can feel precious. Not everyone connects with its particular visual language or its deadpan humour.

Sweet Country2018

An Australian western about an Aboriginal stockman accused of murder, forced into the outback. Another film wrestling with colonial violence and the invisibility of Indigenous experience.

But Deliberately slow. It meditates as much as it dramatises, which some find meditative and others find frustrating.

The Ballad of Little Jo1993

A revisionist western about a woman surviving in the frontier by living as a man. Shares High Ground's interest in how identity and survival clash with the mythology we've been sold.

But Low budget, which shows. The craft is in the storytelling, not the spectacle, and that's a hard sell for western fans expecting scale.

Johnny Guitar1954

A strange, gender-bending western about a woman who runs a saloon and the outlaw she once loved. Shows how early filmmakers could subvert the genre's pieties from within.

But It's a 1954 film made by a blacklisted director using unconventional grammar. It can feel impossibly distant from contemporary cinema.

Cargo2017

Both centre Indigenous Australian characters navigating a landscape where colonial violence (literal or metaphorical) has corrupted everything. Both refuse to make the Indigenous perspective secondary.

An Indigenous Australian zombie film where the genre's conventions are recontextualised through Aboriginal culture and perspectives. Uses the thriller skeleton to tell a story about community and belonging.

But It's a genre film, so expectations matter. If you want traditional horror/thriller beats, you'll find this too patient with character and culture.

Brokeback Mountain2005

Both use the western genre to explore how class, context, and circumstance can prevent genuine human connection, even when it's what both parties want most.

A western built around a relationship between two men in the American frontier. Like High Ground, it's about intimacy and understanding becoming impossible across unbridgeable divides, using the western setting to explore isolation.

But It's a love story, not an action film. The emotional devastation is the whole point, and some find that more difficult than external conflict.