While John Ford put John Wayne through his paces amid the rocky spires of Monument Valley, establishing the flat expanses of the Southwest as a mythic American dreamscape, a few filmmakers of Westerns began exploring new locations, trading sand for snow. This led to a new Western sub-genre – the winter Western.
There is little Fordian romance, or indeed sun, to be found in the winter Western. Examples of the form tend to be bleak, unforgiving, even brutal. The heat-baked, red-sand desert beloved of Ford and his disciples has its own harshness, of course, but when it comes to evoking the gray areas of human morality, nothing beats a literal gray area.
10
Track Of The Cat
Directed By William Wellman
Track of the Cat
- Release Date
-
November 19, 1954
- Runtime
-
102 minutes
- Director
-
William A. Wellman
- Writers
-
A.I. Bezzerides
- Producers
-
John Wayne
-
-
Robert Mitchum
Curt Bridges
-
Tab Hunter
Harold Bridges
-
Teresa Wright
Grace Bridges
Snowy landscapes may look beautiful on film, but they can create nightmares for actors. Such was the case on Track of the Cat, the production Robert Mitchum called the hardest of his career, thanks to the Mount Rainier, Washington shooting locale.
The director wanted to make a black-and-white movie in color, and the snow provided the perfect means of achieving the desired effect.
The wintry setting isn’t just there for atmosphere in William Wellman’s 1954 Western. The director wanted to make a black-and-white movie in color, and the snow provided the perfect means of achieving the desired effect. The Coen Brothers pulled off the same trick 50 years later with the similarly monochrome Fargo.
Track of the Cat grossed a healthy $2 million when it was released, making the film a more-than-worthwhile venture, even if it did almost break famous tough-guy Mitchum.
9
Wind River
Directed By Taylor Sheridan
Yellowstone made Taylor Sheridan a TV mogul, but before that, he made his mark in feature films, penning the scripts for Sicario and Hell or High Water, along with writing and directing Wind River.
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A mystery thriller starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, Wind River qualifies as both a neo-Western and a winter Western. It’s also part of a trilogy about the modern-day frontier, along with the aforementioned Sicario and Hell or High Water.
The movie’s snowy Wyoming setting (it was filmed in Utah) isn’t just there for mood, but proves integral to the film’s plot, as the frigid, lung-destroying air becomes a literal murder weapon. Wind River sits at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was a hit at the box office, grossing $45 million on a budget of $11 million.
8
The Great Silence
Directed By Sergio Corbucci
The Great Silence
- Release Date
-
January 27, 1969
- Runtime
-
105 Minutes
- Director
-
Sergio Corbucci
- Writers
-
Sergio Corbucci, Vittoriano Petrilli, Mario Amendola, Bruno Corbucci, John Davis Hart, Lewis E. Ciannelli
Sergio Leone is almost universally recognized as the master of the spaghetti Western. If there’s a runner-up in that race, it’s Sergio Corbucci. Released in 1968, the brutally nihilistic The Great Silence is widely regarded as the #2 spaghetti Western director’s masterpiece.
Quentin Tarantino has often sung Corbucci’s praises. While promoting his own film The Hateful Eight, the director cited The Great Silence as his favorite example of the sub-genre he dubbed “snow Westerns” (via IGN). Another Corbucci film inspired Django Unchained’s title, but The Great Silence seems to have been a bigger influence on the film’s story.
Concerns over The Great Silence‘s incredibly dark climax led Corbucci to film two alternate endings, one upbeat and the other ambiguous, but both were rejected by producers.
Corbucci’s unsparingly bleak movie may have more snow in it than any other winter Western, and a higher body-count too. The Great Silence’s 100% RT fresh rating speaks to its status as one of the great spaghetti Westerns not directed by Leone.
7
Day of the Outlaw
Directed By Andre De Toth
Andre De Toth’s 1959 drama demonstrates how a setting can elevate a fairly standard story. Placed in a typical dusty frontier town, Day of the Outlaw might feel like any one of a hundred other movies. Set in the mountains, where life seems to be hanging on by a thread, it plays like a unique, windswept vision of hell.
This underrated gem has also been cited by Tarantino as a favorite “snow Western.” The Hateful Eight director could’ve called it a “wind Western,” after the wintry element that can be heard whispering behind almost every scene. Rotten Tomatoes has compiled just seven Day of the Outlaw reviews, but they’re all positive, giving it a 100% fresh rating.
6
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Directed By Andrew Dominick
The exploits of famous outlaw Jesse James have been a favorite subject of Westerns for decades. While many films have romanticized James as an Old West Robin Hood, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford depicts him as a haunted man who seems resigned to his impending death.
The paintings of Andrew Wyeth served as the inspiration for legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins in rendering the Canadian prairie’s grayish winter starkness for The Assassination of Jesse James. The movie’s look enhances its sense of dreamlike inevitability, as the murderous scenario promised by the title slowly plays out.
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Andrew Dominick’s film may indeed have been too slow-moving, dreamlike and bleak for audiences. Despite starring Brad Pitt, it grossed just $15 million. 77% of reviews compiled by Rotten Tomatoes are positive, a reflection of the movie’s reputation as an underappreciated gem. Deakins and Casey Affleck both got Oscar nominations.
5
The Hateful Eight
Directed By Quentin Tarantino
Inspired by the likes of The Great Silence and Day of the Outlaw, Tarantino made his own contribution to the winter Western sub-genre with The Hateful Eight. The director went easy on his actors, however, subjecting them to the snowy elements for only part of the movie, the rest being set cozily inside a stagecoach stopover.
Not that the tone of Tarantino’s film is especially cozy. As frigid as it is outside, that’s how chilly the dynamic is between the film’s eight hateful principals, as Tarantino weaves a murder-mystery a la Agatha Christie, with characters straight out of Bret Harte.
The Hateful Eight grossed $161 million against a budget of up to $62 million. Tarantino’s second straight Western received a less-enthusiastic critical reception than Django Unchained, but still reached 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, while snagging three Oscar nominations, with its one win going to Ennio Morricone’s score.
4
The Revenant
Directed By Alejandro González Iñárritu
The Revenant
7/10
- Release Date
-
December 25, 2015
- Runtime
-
156 minutes
- Director
-
Alejandro González Iñárritu
- Writers
-
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mark L. Smith
There is romance in a white character leaving behind the “civilized” world to live in the wilderness, at least according to Hollywood. The Revenant strikes a different chord, depicting a man who escapes the modern world’s savagery by plunging into a more primal sort of hell, where the bone-chilling climate is just the first torture.
It is easy to make fun of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Revenant Oscar campaign, with all its stories of on-location hardship, and the miseries inflicted by director Alejandro González Iñárritu in his quest for realism. But the strength of DiCaprio’s performance can’t be denied.
The Revenant was loosely based on the story of real-life survivalist Hugh Glass.
DiCaprio badly wanted his Oscar, and the Academy happily acquiesced, giving the star the Best Actor trophy, one of three awards claimed by the 12-time-nominated epic. Iñárritu’s uncompromising artistry caused The Revenant’s budget to balloon to $135 million, but it was worth it, as the film grossed $533 million worldwide, while racking up a 78% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
3
Jeremiah Johnson
Directed By Sydney Pollack
Jeremiah Johnson
- Release Date
-
December 21, 1972
- Runtime
-
108 Minutes
- Director
-
Sydney Pollack
- Writers
-
Vardis Fisher, John Milius, Edward Anhalt
43 years before The Revenant’s protagonist trekked off into the wilderness, Jeremiah Johnson sent Robert Redford into the Rockies to learn the ways of the mountain man, in a story based partially on the real-life exploits of a legendary frontiersman.
Sydney Pollack’s film at first paints an idyllic picture, but things turn dark as loss is visited upon Johnson, and the peaceful man is forced into violence. Audiences loved Pollack’s epic tale of the West, pushing it to a $44 million gross on a budget of $3 million.
The film’s critical reputation is not in dispute, as it sits at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. “And some folks say he’s up there still,” Tim McIntire intones as the Jeremiah Johnson credits roll. The real Johnson may not still be up there, but the movie has lived on thanks to the hugely popular nodding Redford internet meme.
2
Ride The High Country
Directed By Sam Peckinpah
Ride the High Country
- Release Date
-
June 20, 1962
- Runtime
-
94 minutes
- Director
-
Sam Peckinpah
- Writers
-
N.B. Stone Jr.
- Producers
-
Richard E. Lyons
-
Randolph Scott
Gil Westrum
-
-
Mariette Hartley
Elsa Knudsen
-
Peckinpah revolutionized the Western with his violent revisionist epic The Wild Bunch. Eight years earlier, he presided over legendary cowboy actor Randolph Scott’s final film, Ride the High Country, a movie whose title could be the name of a book on winter Westerns.
Relatively sedate compared to The Wild Bunch, Ride the High Country is a classic dying-of-the-West movie, about an aging lawman teaming with his morally dubious old friend to undertake a perilous mission. Amazingly, the film was originally released as the bottom half of a double-bill, and written off by MGM as a loss despite its modest budget.
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As so often happens with overlooked masterpieces, European critics were the first to recognize the greatness of Peckinpah’s film. Everyone else caught on, and Ride the High Country now sits at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie entered the National Film Registry in 1992.
1
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Directed By Robert Altman
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
- Release Date
-
July 8, 1971
- Runtime
-
120 Minutes
- Director
-
Robert Altman
- Writers
-
Edmund Naughton, Robert Altman, Brian McKay, Robert Towne, Joseph Calvelli
-
Warren Beatty
John McCabe
-
Julie Christie
Constance Miller
Many a Western begins with a mysterious stranger appearing in town, bringing violence with him. The arrival of Warren Beatty’s McCabe eventually brings violence, but McCabe himself is not a violent person, and the “mystery” around him is a function of the townspeople’s paranoia.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller is about a pair of scrappers hanging on by their fingernails, having used up all their chances. The film’s hardscrabble setting is a perfect stage for their final act. The movie would make no sense in the sunshine, so it’s set in the mud and damp, the drizzle, the grayness, and finally, an all-encompassing blizzard.
Critics loved this Western from the start, with the famed Pauline Kael gushing over it, and Rotten Tomatoes has it at 85% fresh.
The movie failed upon its initial release, but Beatty believed in it so much, he pressed the studio to re-release it a year later with a new ad campaign, and it performed better. Critics loved this Western from the start, with the famed Pauline Kael gushing over it, and Rotten Tomatoes has it at 85% fresh.
