Best Westerns of This Decade (So Far)

The Just Westerns YouTube channel shares a breakdown of its top Western films and TV shows released between 2020 and 2025.

There's plenty of great material here to add to your "must watch" list.

What We Did On The Bank Holiday

Alice likes to 'ride in style' on my lap

The late August Bank Holiday weekend is traditionally the time when we visit "living history" shows, however our options were rather limited this year.

Given my current state of restricted mobility the Medieval Festival and Hever Castle were out because of the terrain.

However, fortuitously, a new company had stepped up to offer mobility scooter rental at Military Odyssey - so that's where we headed.

We hadn't been for a couple of years because of the lack of scooter hire (even when I could walk with my stick it was still too large an area for me to get round), so this was perfect timing.

Much calmer when she was indoors and away from the sounds of simulated warfare

There was plenty of wargame stuff at the show for me to coo over, as well as the usual displays of 'living history'.

Everyone we interacted with was really kind and considerate to us, given my disability, and also to Alice who did NOT like all the loud noises. She made herself very comfortable in several stalls where the traders showered her with attention, cuddles, and offers of water.

The further we got away from the cannons and muskets the more relaxed she became, but I blame myself - in my enthusiasm to visit the show - for forgetting how noisy it can be with just the kind of sounds that Alice doesn't respond well to.

Rachel and I agreed that if we go next year we'll probably leave Alice with Rachel's parents for the day.

It was terribly frustrating, though, for me that I was unable to get off the scooter this year and poke around the stalls - but that did mean we didn't return home with the usual selection of random books and minor militaria.

Leaning into my penchant for hats, I did weigh up the possibility of an American Civil War Union officer's kepi, a pith helmet, and a selection of baseball caps, but ultimately came to the conclusion that I could live without them.

In fact, the only thing we actually brought back was a bag of fudge, which didn't last long once it got through the front door. 

Rachel was nominated photographer this year and here's a small selection of the many great pictures she took:

Sheppey Models had some lovely games set up

The Spearfish Creek mining camp is always a favourite place to visit

Historian Rates Nine American Civil War Battles In Movies

Garry Adelman, a historian, rates nine American Civil War battles in movies.

He comments on the Civil War-era artillery and rifles on display in Free State of Jones (2016), starring Matthew McConaughey; and Emancipation (2022), starring Will Smith. 

He explains the use of dynamite and other explosives seen in Cold Mountain (2003), starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger; Sahara (2005), starring Matthew McConaughey; and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967), starring Clint Eastwood.

He breaks down the military strategy seen in the battle scenes in Glory (1989), starring Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington; Gettysburg (1993), starring Jeff Daniels; and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and Tommy Lee Jones. 

And finally, he separates fact from fiction regarding Civil War-era surgeries as seen in Dances with Wolves (1990), starring Kevin Costner.

Adelman is the chief historian at the American Battlefield Trust. He has also been a licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg National Military Park for 27 years.

And Now For Something (Almost) Completely Different

My bargain haul

Like a great many geeks of a certain age, I love - and am continually inspired by - Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series of pulp novels.

Way, way back in 2018 Modiphius Entertainment was Kickstarting a John Carter roleplaying game (one of their 'everything at once' splurge releases of multiple books, miniatures, dice, tile sets etc) and, for a minute, I was 'all-in'.

But then, it struck me that (a) I'm not really a fan of their 2d20 house system, (b) releasing everything at once means a LOT of reading (and their books tend towards the tiny text-heavy), and (c) none of my gaming group had ever expressed any interest in Barsoom or John Carter, which would mean having to 'teach' them all about the Martian cultures, language etc on top of a new set of rules.

So, I cancelled my Kickstarter pledge and consigned the game to the dusty halls of my "what could have been" dream storage unit.

As far as I could tell, after the initial gush of books (that were part of the Kickstarter), Modiphius didn't do anything else with the setting and let it fade, with the system only popping up in the occasional sale listing.

Books from Modiphius tend to be beautifully produced, often hardbacks, and sport a heft price tag. 

I've got their Conan The Barbarian core rules book and the more recent Dune one, but mainly to look nice on my shelves. Both of these were acquired via eBay for a fraction of their 'recommended retail price'. 

Conan - like John Carter - is another property that Modiphius no longer supports (although old John Carter books remain available at full retail cost). 

The license for Conan has reverted to Heroic Signatures, who are publishing a fresh roleplaying game through Monolith, which is due out later this year.

Conan RPG from Modiphius

The last, active, mention of John Carter in connection to roleplaying I remember seeing was a 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons supplement as part of a Kickstarter for an audiobook series.

And with that, John Carter - as a roleplaying game - slipped out of my mind.

Until, the other day, when an advert popped up somewhere for a Modiphius "moving warehouse" sale. And I thought: why not take a look?

And I was gobsmacked: the few John Carter items they had listed were going for pennies.

I didn't really need a new game, but how could I resist the core, hardback, rules for £4; tile sets (airships and ruins) for £1.50 each (which have potential utility in a variety of settings); and a player's guide and character cards/tokens set also for £1.50 each?

With postage, I got this lot (see picture at top of article) for under £20, saving almost a hundred quid on their original list price. 

Will I do anything with these rules? Who knows? Or will they just sit prettily on my shelves next to Conan and Dune?

At least, now, seven years later, I actually have the John Carter core books in hand, and I'm sure there are other companies out there manufacturing John Carter-inspired miniatures to sword fight across the deck of my airships!

Of course, I could let this slide on a technicality by reminding you that John Carter himself - before he was transported to Barsoom/Mars - was an American Civil War veteran, a Confederate captain from Virginia, which kinda makes him part of my on-going Western theme.

Refighting Bunker Hill (In 15mm)

Today on Little Wars TV we commemorate the 250th anniversary of Bunker Hill with a spectacular miniature wargame played at the Army Heritage & Education Center in Carlisle. 

Can our British players devise a new strategy to dislodge the rebels without suffering crippling casualties? Or will the stubborn colonials find a way to overcome a lack of centralized leadership and give King George a bloody nose?

We want to thank our hosts at AHEC, as well as veteran wargamer and Revolutionary War re-enactor Jim McGauhey for running the game.

Jim built this fantastic tabletop and painted the 15mm armies you see in the video. He used the rules British Grenadier, a descendent of Andy Callan's brilliant 1987 classic, Loose Files & American Scramble.

Wargames Illustrated magazine just re-released Andy's old article with beautiful new illustrations and design notes. Better yet--they made it available for free!

While I still firmly believe that roleplaying games - on the whole - aren't a spectator sport, I've always had a soft spot for actual wargames, because of the beauty of the miniatures, terrain etc

Even though the subject matter of this game is (technically) outside the remit of my blog (my wargaming focus is on America's 19th Century - Wild West and Civil War) and in a scale I don't have any interest in playing (I'm a 28mm guy), this video is still a wonderful example of the attraction of historical wargaming.

American Civil War Horror Flick 'Resurrection Road' Pits iZombie's Malcolm Goodwin Against Confederate Monsters

An elite squad of six Black soldiers, led by ex-slave Barabbas, have been sent on a suicide mission; to infiltrate a Confederate fort deep in the Arkansas woods and blow up its long-range guns, altering the course of the war.

But as they venture further into enemy territory, the mission takes a chilling turn. The soldiers uncover a dark and sinister secret buried within the heart of the forest - one that will test their courage, loyalty, and will to survive like never before.

Resurrection Road is out now on digital in the States, and is available in the UK on DVD in September - trust me, I've pre-ordered it!

Django & Django (2021)

Django & Django is an 80-minute documentary looking at the history of Italian/Spaghetti Westerns and their influence on Quentin Tarantino's 2012 Django Unchained (available in the UK on Sky Documentaries as well as being a bonus feature on the recent blu-ray release of Django).

The primary focus of the piece, presented largely as a casual conversation with Quentin Tarantino (occasionally intercut with a few other talking heads), is his admiration for the work of the late Sergio Corbucci (aka The Other Sergio or The Second Best Spaghetti Western Director).

Tarantino is seemingly given free rein to enthuse over a genre he clearly loves in his trademark style of blending his encyclopaedic film knowledge with limitless child-like enthusiasm:

"Of all the great Western directors, Corbucci created the most pitiless West that there was. The most pitiless, the most pessimistic, the most surrealistically grotesque, the most violent."

While Tarantino does detail how Corbucci's body of work helped shape Django Unchained, he graciously devotes the main thrust of the presentation to discussing Corbucci's ultra-violent Western oeuvre of the 1960s and early '70s: Django, The Great Silence, The Specialists, Navajo Joe, The Mercenary, Sonny and Jed etc

Although Corbucci only (obviously) appears in archival footage, this Italian production manages to interview the charismatic Franco Nero (who played Django in the original 1966 movie) and, a year before he died, Ruggero Deodato, who was assistant director on Django before helming the infamous Cannibal Holocaust in 1980.

A fascinating watch for fans of the genre, 80-minutes feels too short a time to listen to Tarantino and dissect the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Corbucci... and yet some of the documentary seems a bit self-indulgent.

There's a couple of overly long 'behind-the-scenes' sequences without dialogue and commentary, which are superficially interesting but lack real context and meaning.

However, for me, the worst offence was the documentary's "prologue" (the film is broken up into chapters, naturally), which is a make-believe "deleted scene" from Tarantino's Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood that hijacks and reimagines a real story about a young Burt Reynolds interacting with Corbucci, but attributes it to Tarantino's character, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Maybe it's because I'm no fan of Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood  (for me it's Tarantino's weakest movie, but what do I know?), but this felt like an unnecessary introduction to the subject of the documentary.

Conversely, the film wraps up with a wonderful experiment in the creation of headcanon as Tarantino kicks around an idea for who Django (a Northern soldier in the Civil War) had come South to find, and ultimately seek brutal revenge on behalf of.

As far as I am concerned, Tarantino's headcanon is now my headcanon for Django's backstory.

Growing The Western Library With Easter Treats

Magnificent Easter treats from Rachel today

Nothing says Easter more than books about American Civil War battles and a 19th Century cannibal outlaw.

As is "tradition" in our house, rather than exchanging chocolate eggs (we know Rachel's parents will have us covered in that department), Rachel and I get each other small gifts to mark this holiday instead.

Iain MacGregor's U.S. Civil War: Battle by Battle is a beautifully illustrated Osprey book that looks at 30 key engagements from the war, both on land and sea.

It is resplendent with illustrations of uniforms, flags, ships etc as well as the usual high-standard full-page 'action' paintings that Osprey's publications are renowned for.

The Kentucky Cannibal, by Ryan Green, tells the true story of Boone Helm, a murderous mental asylum escapee whose journey to "the West" earned him a reputation for killing and eating adversaries and travelling companions alike. 

I got Rachel a couple of outdoor, solar powered, lamps that she wanted.

PROJECT 60: Work on Dead Man's Hand Has Begun!

Work on my Dead Man's Hand skirmish game has begun.

I have dispatched a number of miniatures to be professionally painted, including a gang of Law Men, some Legends of The West (including The Man with No Name and Jonah Hex), and a selection of appropriate Wargames Illustrated's Giants In Miniature figures (including Django and his coffin, General Custer, and several American Civil War characters).

Oh, and there's a 3D printed figure - from Minijenix - included that's going to be Timmy The Flea, the leader of my homemade outlaw collective, The Hole-in-The-Head Gang.

To that end, I have plans to build six or so other miniatures from the plastic parts that that came in the Dead Man's Hand starter box. I suspect these will take time and a lot of trial and error.

That also means I shall - eventually - be getting round to building and painting the plastic buildings .

It's been years (decades?) since I painted anything, and that was mainly drybrushing scenery pieces (walls, rocks etc).

So, I'll need to invest in some relevant paints and brush up (pun intended) on simple painting techniques for wooden buildings.

Great Escape Games has this introductory video that I shall be watching on repeat until it sinks in.

This later part of the project will come to fruition when the weather gets better and I'm able to spend extended periods of time in our garden room (which has been designated the "craft room") and I can superglue fiddly bits of plastic and my fingers together and splash paint around with merry abandon.

Ready Or Not (2019)

On her wedding night new bride Grace (Samara Weaving) discovers that her wealthy in-laws have some very strange traditions, including insisting that all new members of the family play a randomly chosen game before they be accepted in.

The Le Domas family have made their jealously-guarded fortune through the sale and manufacture of games since the Civil War, when family tradition claims their ancestor struck a deal with a supernaturally powerful entity by the name of Mr Le Bail.

But this deal comes with certain demands.

The wedding night game chosen for Grace is "hide-and-seek"... but with a brutal twist. As she goes off to hide in the family mansion, her new family are tooling up with guns, crossbows, battle axes etc with the idea of eventually ritually sacrificing her to their "mysterious benefactor".

Written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, and directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, Ready or Not is a beautifully trimmed to the bone thriller, devoid of tedious build up to the inevitable carnage, instead pretty much hitting the ground running after a handful of snappy, establishing scenes.

We know next to nothing about Grace going into this, except that she was raised in foster homes, and we root for her simply because she is protagonist, trapped with an insane family of devil-worshippers.

The tight script runs the gamut from dark, dark humour to near-torture porn moments of graphic gore, but is always breathlessly propelling the story forward.

Don't look for depth or hidden meaning here, Ready or Not is a fun, simple, action-packed horror thriller, and a great way to spend an hour-and-a-half, as long as you are okay with Deadpool-levels of casual violence.

There's no real effort made to conceal the nature of the pact that Le Domas family believe is the secret to their success, with its Angel Heart style of chosen alias for the possible Big Bad of the piece.

The Hateful Eight (2015)

Sometime after the end of the American Civil War, a stagecoach is hurtling through snow-covered Wyoming, trying to keep ahead of a blizzard. On board are grizzled bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his valuable prisoner, the murderous Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

On their journey they encounter a couple of men, seeking rescue from the cold, fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson), and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), the new sheriff of Red Rock - the coach's ultimate destination.

Unable to outpace the storm, the coach stops at Minnie's Haberdashery, an isolated waystation in the mountains, where they meet a number of other strangers (Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, and Demián Bichir) - but, suspiciously, not the station's owner or her partner.

Then the storm hits and they are stuck there until it passes.

The Hateful Eight is another Western masterpiece from Quentin Tarantino, who draws on a number of familiar techniques (chapters, non-sequential storytelling, historical liberties etc) to mesmerise his audience for two-and-three-quarter hours.

As might be expected from a Tarantino movie, as well as excessive harsh language (and a heap of racial slurs), the scenario eventually builds to a very bloody - and protracted - climax.

Because of the 19th Century setting, the absence of pop culture riffs in the dialogue means it isn't as riddled with quotable lines as some of his movies, yet it still resonates. However, The Hateful Eight relies primarily on atmosphere and tension to hold the audience's attention for such a long runtime.

It's been almost nine years since I last saw this, so not only had I forgotten all the magnificent twists and reveals in this epic, dark, character-driven drama, but I had no problem being carried along by Tarantino's mastery of pacing.

With the long middle act of the film, and much of the final act, taking place in a single - albeit large - room, The Hateful Eight can feel like a play at times, which, again, isn't necessarily a bad thing and highlights Tarantino's willingness to experiment with film-making styles.

Both this, and the sweeping scenery the coach travels through in the opening act of the film, make majestic use of widescreen. I hate to think how crushed, or cut, this beautiful-looking work of art would appear in full-screen or on an old-style TV set.

In a number of ways, The Hateful Eight took me back to Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, hitting many similar beats.

The plot is similarly straight-forward, while the story is complicated by the many strong characters and their individual, and often hidden, goals.

Every character the audience is introduced to along the way is, in some way, a bad person and one of the film's themes is the value of reputation (generally regarded as a key element of the old west, or, at least, Westerns).

Ruth knows the financial worth of his prisoner, and fears others might be out to steal her from him for the cash reward or to simply set her free. His paranoia is infectious and we quickly become suspicious of everyone, doubting what they saying, looking for double-meanings, or clues to who wants what.

And Tarantino is in no hurry to get to the big reveal, ratcheting up the tension as tightly - and slowly - as he can. This isn't a film for someone looking for a quick fix. The Hateful Eight requires investment.

Django Unchained (2012)

 

While it may not be replete with quotable dialogue and obvious pop culture references, Quentin Tarantino's bloody revenge Western Django Unchained is his best work since the glory days of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

Two years before the American Civil War, dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees enslaved Django (Jamie Foxx) to help him identify a trio of outlaws he is after.

However, the German soon discovers that Django has a knack for bounty hunting and the two team-up.

Django isn't just interested in the money though, he wants to track down - and free - his wife Broomhilda von Shaft (Kerry Washington), a fellow slave.

The bounty hunting duo track her to an infamous plantation run by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who has a penchant for "mandingo fighting" - brutal, to-the-death, bare-knuckle contests between slaves.

Arriving at the plantation, and posing as a pair of businessmen interested in buying a fighter, the duo arouse the suspicion of Candie's house-slave Stephen (Samuel L Jackson), who senses a connection between Broomhilda and Django.

Reinventing the Spaghetti Western genre for a modern audience, Django Unchained's daunting two hour 50 minute running time shouldn't discourage anyone from watching - it's thoroughly engrossing and while packed to the gills with vile and obnoxious characters, be assured they get their comeuppance. For all its modernity, this is still a classic Western after all.

And there are a lot of foul characters in this movie, as it is depicting a disgraceful time when racial prejudice and slavery was common place and people were treated as property to be disposed of as their owners saw fit.

But this state of affairs is never glorified - it is there to be reviled and, in one laugh-out-loud scene, ridiculed (the lynch mob with their ill-fitting masks is a classic and would not have felt out of place in Blazing Saddles).

Being a Tarantino film - and a Western - there are, of course, gun fights, which become increasingly bloody as the number of participants increase and the Grand Guignol factor is ramped up. While the violence is shocking in parts, much is so over-the-top as to be cartoon-like.

Such a great film, it's almost churlish to highlight its one low-point, but it's a frequent flaw in Tarantino's movies: his cameo.

In the final act of Django Unchained, Tarantino pops up looking like an uncomfortable 21st Century dude in fancy dress - rather than a 19th Century cowboy - with an accent that travels all around the world before you realise he's supposed to be Australian.

Thankfully, his time on screen doesn't last long, but eventually someone needs to sit him down and tell him that while he's a brilliant writer and director, he really can't cut it as an actor.

Seriously, one day, his ego is going to demand he take a more central role in one of his films and he could sink it single-handedly.

Curse Of The Demon Mountain (1977)

Curse of The Demon Mountain aka The Shadow Of Chikara is another of those films that I saw as a kid that blew my tiny, impressionable mind.

This was the first film I consciously recall that blended two distinct genres - in this case Western and Horror.

In subsequent years, it has been notoriously difficult to get hold of on DVD and so eventually, a few months ago, I caved and picked up off eBay - for only a couple of quid - the infamous "Dead Of Night" version... which has to be the worst quality DVD I have ever seen.

The hissing, tinny soundtrack nicely complements the blurry imagery (and this is even 'upscaled' with our blu-ray player) that resembles a sixth generation VHS pirate copy. Any hint of strong language has been brutally excised from this edition ("get away from her, you (silence)") and there are a number of dreadful, unsubtle scene cuts (almost as though they were heavy-handed advert breaks).

But then subtly is not the name of the game in Curse Of The Demon Mountain, suspicious minds will figure out the twist within minutes.

At the tail end of the American Civil War, a pair of veterans - Captain Wishbone Cutter (Joe Don Baker) and half-Indian scout Half-Moon O'Brien (Joy N. Houck Jr) - turn treasure hunters when they leave of a cache of diamonds stashed in the mountains. They bring along a geologist to assay the rocks, Amos 'Teach' Richmond (Ted Neeley).

Along the way they stalked by an unseen enemy that shoots black arrows at them, have a run-in with a trio of inbred bushwackers and rescue a damsel in distress (Sondra Locke) from the aftermath of a massacre.

There's even some pretty decent torch-lit cave exploration scenes that ooze with Dungeons & Dragons-ness and there's probably a half-decent movie (at least worthy of a remake) hidden behind the appalling presentation.

Mortal Engines' Author Philip Reeve Takes Us Back To The Old West For His New Film

Arkansas, 1871. When her homesteader husband is murdered by outlaws seeking the gold he stole in the Civil War, homesteader Annie Harper sets out alone to beat them to the place where the treasure is hidden.

In late 2023, my favourite author, Philip Reeve - creator of the peerless Mortal Engines and Railhead books - gave us Gwenevere , a delightful short film encapsulating his love of Arthurian mythology.

This week, his production company - Bonehill Films - released the first trailer for his follow-up film, Prairie Rascals, a short Western, again shot around where he lives in Dartmoor.

In the introduction to the trailer, Philip writes that this is:

"... [a] teaser trailer for our new film Prairie Rascals, starring Rosanna Lambert, Laura Frances Martin, Mylo Sermon, Amanda Lindseth, Nicholas De Jasay, Arran Hawkins, Xanthe Baylis and Nick Riddle. Music by Nick Riddle, vocals by Rosanna Lambert.

"We hope to screen the finished film locally this summer and autumn, and upload it to the Bonehill Films channel next Christmas."

Returning from the Gwenevere cast are Rosanna Lambert taking the lead role of Annie Harper, Queen Gwenevere herself, Laura Frances Martin, as "ruthless desperado" Cat Hannigan, and former Lancelot Arran Hawkins as the cowardly sheriff.

You can read about the film shoot here on Philip's blog - Station Zero - and, last year, on Twitter (aka X), he published a selection of costume design sketches for Prairie Rascals, which you can see below:

Seraphim Falls (2006)

Mighty Mouse versus Superman, a polar bear versus a tiger, King Kong versus Godzilla... these are the fantasy match-ups that spark pub debates the length and breadth of the country. But who'd have thought of pitting James Bond against Qui-Gon Jinn?

Seraphim Falls is a revenge thriller and an epic chase set against the backdrop of the Old West in the years following the American Civil War.

Starring two of Ireland's finest actors, it follows Confederate Colonel Carver's (Liam Neeson) ceaseless hunt for Union Captain Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) for reasons that aren't made clear until about two-thirds of the way into the story.

The stunning scenery shifts from the snow-bound mountains, down through the flatlands and into the baking desert for a climax, assisted by the sudden appearance of Anjelica Huston's snake oil salesman Madame Louise Fair, that switches from the hyper-real to the slightly mystical and allegorical.

Brilliantly scripted by David Von Ancken (who also directed) and Abby Everett Jaques, Seraphim Falls isn't your run-of-the-mill gunfights and white hats/black hats Western but an examination of corrupting power of obsession (on one side) and a man trying to escape a past mistake (on the other). There is no definitive good guy or bad guy when it comes to the main characters.

The story also makes great use of its changing environment as man is first and foremost being pitted against the environment, rather than other men; particularly the extremes of cold or heat that you can feel from the screen safe and sound on your sofa. Star Wars fans should also look out for the interesting variation on the classic 'use of a dead tauntaun' sequence from The Empire Strikes Back.

Some have criticised the ending as a 'cop out' although, personally, I thought it was the only satisfying ending the tale could have.