The Australian western is having a bit of a renaissance and is, at the same time being reinvented. The modern Australian western seeks to question the mythology on which the country was built. It eschews the plucky settler narrative for something darker, particularly exploring the destructive effects of colonisation on Aboriginal Australians. Some recent examples…
The Power of the Dog is Jane Campion’s first feature film since Bright Star, twelve years ago. Produced under the auspices of streaming giant Netflix, this modern western, set in Montana in 1925, is based on Thomas Savage’s little-known 1967 novel. Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his brother George (Jesse Plemons) work the sprawling family…
In Paul Greenrass’ new film, News of the World, a veteran of the Civil War travels across the country reading the news from papers he collects. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) shares stories of disasters, politics and gossip for audiences in every town he visits. He’s mainly talking to people who are illiterate or…
The Coen brothers are steeped in the lore of Westerns. Even leaving aside their direct remake of True Grit, many of their films – I’m thinking Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn’t There and No Country for Old Men – tap into the tropes of the genre. So it makes a lot of sense that…
Sweet Country is the sophomore feature film from indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton, best known for his award-winning 2009 drama Samson and Delilah. Although this is only his second feature film, he’s been busy with short films, television projects and documentaries like We Don’t Need A Map, which premiered at the Sydney International Film Festival in…
