2022 was, by and large, a forgettable year for the Western genre. Aside from the pretty good films God’s Country, Dead for a Dollar, Murder at Yellowstone City, and the neo-Western aspects in Jordan Peele’s Nope, which was the year’s standout frontier-based title (and even that received mixed reviews), many a Western film buff out there will almost certainly have left last year unfulfilled by the meager offerings.

With the turn of the year, 2023 brings with it a new dawn, and promise of Western titles that get the inner-gunslinger in all of us firing. Big name directors such as Martin Scorsese and Pedro Almodóvar have projects in the works that are expected to be released later this year, along with some interesting oddball tiles, so it may be an exciting year for the genre. Let’s take a look at the Westerns that are coming in 2023…

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Butcher’s Crossing - March 23rd

     Saban Films

Premiering at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, director, Gabe Polsky’s debut feature is set for its worldwide release later this year. Starring the forever-wholehearted, Nicolas Cage as protagonist, Miller, Butcher’s Crossing is the screen adaptation of the highly venerated John Edward Williams novel of the same name.

The movie explores the tale of an Ivy League dropout, Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger), who ventures to the American frontier in Colorado where he links up with a group of determined, no-nonsense Buffalo hunters. Together, the team of huntsmen embarks on a brutally demanding mission that pushes both Wills and his counterpart’s sanity and lives to their absolute limits.

Killers of the Flower Moon - May 2023

     AppleTV+

Like Tarantino, Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan, a Martin Scorsese film is not just an industry event, but a cultural reference point, and after 2020’s The Irishman received its highly anticipated premiere, many a cinephile’s mind turned to thoughts of the veteran director’s next cinematic outing. Last year, it was announced that the Raging Bull creator had a new project in the works, Killers of the Flower Moon, a Western adapted from the 2017 best-selling book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

Starring Scorsese mainstays Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in the movie’s central roles, as well as The Irishman’s Jesse Plemons, Killers of the Flower Moon tells the true story of the Osage Tribe murders in 1920s Oklahoma. With the murdered occurring under peculiar circumstances, an extensive investigation is undertaken by J. Edgar Hoover (a man whose life was already subject of a Clint Eastwood biopic starring DiCaprio as Hoover) and the FBI. When assessing the 2023 curriculum for movie releases, Killers of the Flower Moon automatically jumps out as another enthralling Scorsese offering.

Strange Way of Life - TBC

     El Deseo

It’s been a truly scintillating start to the year for Pedro Pascal. The Chilean-American actor put in an inspired display in the hit dystopian, post-apocalyptic drama, The Last of Us. His 2023 it is set to get even better when Parallel Mothers director Pedro Almodóvar’s new short film, Strange Way of Life is unbound from the reigns of post-production and is volleyed into the public sphere.

The Spanish filmmaker’s new film, which will premier at Cannes in May, follows the tale of Silva (Pascal) and Jake (Ethan Hawke), old friends who reunite after twenty-five years. After they enjoy an evening of blissful reminiscence, the next day the real reason for the visit unravels, and it isn’t just to catch up over old times.

The Redeemer - TBC

     Barefoot Kid Productions

Written and directed by Myles Clohessy, The Redeemer earned acclaim at the Soho International Film Festival in New York in October of last year. A chronicle of retribution, redemption, and human will, the action-drama tails a widower, who after her husband is gruesomely murdered, must fight for her and her unborn child’s survival when she, along with her mother-in-law are kidnaped by merciless outlaws.

Concurrently, a father and son duo undertake a treacherous, and unpredictable mission to save the women. For a small budget, relatively obscure title, The Redeemer is a beautifully composed piece of filmmaking that is rich with texture, vibrancy, and cinematically.

Dead Man’s Hand - TBC

     Grindstone Entertainment Group

Starring Yellowstone’s Carl Hauser, Dead Man’s Hand follows the tale of Reno (Hauser), a recently married gunslinger who is wanting to settle down and enjoy a peaceful existence as a newlywed. However, perhaps rather predictably for any dramatization concerning a retired gunslinger just looking to live out the rest of his days in blissful serenity, Reno’s plans are derailed when in an act of self-defense, kills a bandit, who happens to be the town mayor’s brother, Clarence Bishop. Forced to resort back to old ways, Reno has to defend himself and his wife at all costs.

Surrounded - TBC

     Pixabay

It was announced in 2020 that Black Panther, Death on the Nile and Avengers: Infinity War star, Letitia Wright had been lined up to play Moses Washington in Anthony Mandler’s Western, Surrounded. While no official release date has been confirmed, the story’s premise is certainly prospectively captivating.

With themes of female empowerment, and bravery in the face of adversity, the film details Moses, an ex-Buffalo Soldier, and her attempts at claiming a gold mine, although her plan is disrupted when she’s the unfortunate recipient of an unrelenting ambush…