There is a new generation of Westerns, typified by the work of writer/actor/producer Taylor Sheridan in productions like 1883 (2022). There are other examples as well such as the limited series The English (2022) or the film (2019) and the recurring series Deadwood (2004-2006). These works present a far less idolized vision of the Old West than we saw in old TV shows like Wagon Train (1957-1965) or Hollywood movies like How the West was Won (1962).
On the other hand, the Taylor Sheridan generation doesn’t repeat the efforts of the 1970s and 1980s to turn Westerns into contemporary social commentary with films like Soldier Blue (1972) or Little Big Man (1970).
What Sheridan and others are doing also looks nothing like efforts to treat the Old West like an entertaining ride at Disneyland, such as we saw in the spaghetti westerns of the 1960s or more contemporary films like Silverado (1985) [The Big Chill (1983) with guns], Young Guns (1988) [The Breakfast Club (1985) with guns] or Cowboys and Aliens (2011) [Independence Day (1996) with cowboys-and guns].
What Sheridan and others have to offer is something different. They present a grittier and less sentimentalized frontier that doesn’t neglect the ugly, tragic, diseased, brutal side of the life and death in the Old West. These new works also resist turning tales of the frontier into moralizing about contemporary attitudes on race, gender, class, and politics. For sure, women play a more prominent role in their stories. But, then again there were a lot women in the Old West and they had just as important a place in frontier life as men, so that is perfectly appropriate. Indigenous peoples are more central to story lines as well. Again, that makes sense since the Old West was just as much their story. There are also plenty of people of color-black, Asian, and every shade of European immigrant. There were straight people. There were gay people. And, that’s because, well, they were there too. What’s different about what Sheridan and others are doing is that there are fewer caricatures. There are less them and us. There is more there are just “us,” humanity-fighting, scrapping, struggling to survive. There is courage and cowards. There is redemption and dissolution. There is nobility and insanity.