Best Neo-western Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of neo-western cinema — measured across 1,031 indexed frames from 13 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Neo-western films over-index on cowboy hat, denim jacket and pickup truck — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Cry Macho (2021)
Clint EastwoodDP Ben DavisIMDb 5.7TMDB 5.9See in full on FrameThrower →
Based on the book, "Cry Macho" stars Clint Eastwood as a one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder who, in 1978, takes a job from an ex-boss to bring the man's young son home and away from his alcoholic mom. Crossing rural Mexico on their way back to Texas, the unlikely pair faces an unexpectedly challenging journey, during which the world-weary horseman may find his own sense of redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.
- 2
Tommy Lee JonesDP Chris MengesIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
A man is shot and quickly buried in the high desert of west Texas. The body is found and reburied in Van Horn's town cemetery. Pete Perkins, a local ranch foreman, kidnaps a Border Patrolman and forces him to disinter the body. With his captive in tow and the body tied to a mule, Pete undertakes a dangerous and quixotic journey into Mexico.
- 3
Hell or High Water (2016)
David MackenzieDP Giles NuttgensIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →
In Texas, after the death of his mother, the unemployed oil and gas worker Toby Howard is losing his ranch to the Texas Midlands Bank. Toby is divorced from his wife who lives with their two sons. When his brother Tanner Howard is released from the prison, they team up to rob agencies of the Texas Midlands Bank to raise money to pay the loan so that Toby may leave the real estate to his sons. Meanwhile the Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton who is near retirement and his Native American-descendant partner Alberto Parker try to anticipate the next move of the thieves.
- 4
Joel Coen, Ethan CoenDP Roger DeakinsIMDb 8.2TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →
In rural Texas, welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Rather than report the discovery to the police, Moss decides to simply take the two million dollars present for himself. This puts the psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), on his trail as he dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even employer in his pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss desperately attempts to keep one step ahead, the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the laconic Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) blithely oversees the investigation even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart.
- 5
The Rover (2014)
David MichôdDP Natasha BraierIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.3See in full on FrameThrower →
Ten years after a global economic collapse, a cold-blooded drifter traverses the scorched Australian outback on a mission to track down the men who stole his last remaining possession - his car. When he crosses paths with a badly wounded member of the gang, he takes the vulnerable, naïve young man along as his unwitting accomplice.
- 6
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Ridley ScottDP Adrian BiddleIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Louise is working in a diner as a waitress and has some problems with her boyfriend Jimmy, who, as a musician, is always on the road. Thelma is married to Darryl who likes his wife to stay quiet in the kitchen so that he can watch football on TV. One day they decide to break out of their normal life and jump in the car and hit the road. Their journey, however, turns into a flight when Louise kills a man who threatens to rape Thelma. They decide to go to Mexico, but soon they are hunted by American police.
- 7
Logan (2017)
James MangoldDP John MathiesonIMDb 8.1TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →
In 2029 the mutant population has shrunken significantly due to genetically modified plants designed to reduce mutant powers and the X-Men have disbanded. Logan, whose power to self-heal is dwindling, has surrendered himself to alcohol and now earns a living as a chauffeur. He takes care of the ailing old Professor X whom he keeps hidden away. One day, a female stranger asks Logan to drive a girl named Laura to the Canadian border. At first he refuses, but the Professor has been waiting for a long time for her to appear. Laura possesses an extraordinary fighting prowess and is in many ways like Wolverine. She is pursued by sinister figures working for a powerful corporation; this is because they made her, with Logan's DNA. A decrepit Logan is forced to ask himself if he can or even wants to put his remaining powers to good use. It would appear that in the near-future, the times in which they were able put the world to rights with razor sharp claws and telepathic powers are now over.
- 8
The Last Stand (2013)
Kim Jee-woonDP Kim Ji-yongIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Arnold Schwarzeneggeras Sheriff Ray Owens
Johnny Knoxvilleas Lewis Dinkum
Jaimie Alexanderas Sarah Torrance
Sheriff Owens is a man who has resigned himself to a life of fighting what little crime takes place in sleepy border town Sommerton Junction after leaving his LAPD post following a bungled operation that left him wracked with failure and defeat after his partner was crippled. After a spectacular escape from an FBI prisoner convoy, the most notorious, wanted drug kingpin in the hemisphere is hurtling toward the border at 200 mph in a specially outfitted car with a hostage and a fierce army of gang members. He is headed, it turns out, straight for Summerton Junction, where the whole of U.S. law enforcement will have their last opportunity to make a stand and intercept him before he slips across the border forever. At first reluctant to become involved, and then counted out because of the perceived ineptitude of his small town force, Owens ultimately accepts responsibility for the face off.
What neo-western films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a neo-western frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — cowboy hat is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- cowboy hat20.0×
- denim jacket9.6×
- pickup truck9.2×
- horse5.4×
- sedan5.0×
- rifle4.0×
- dirt3.5×
- utility pole3.5×
How neo-western films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate neo-western from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 26%widevs 20% baseline
- 56%naturalvs 44% baseline
- 55%dayvs 43% baseline
- 87%eye levelvs 69% baseline
- 34%nightvs 42% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,031 frames from 13 films carrying the neo-western label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/neo-western
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