10 Greatest Westerns Of The 21st Century

10. Django Unchained

Although there’s a case to be made in favour of the Hateful Eight being Quentin Tarantino’s best Western movie, Django is by far the more focused and less self-indulgent of the two. Propped up by three uniquely brash performances from Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio, Django is indeed unchained, a goofy splatterfest and love letter to pulp Westerns.

Although hardly the heartfelt and measured response to slavery that 12 Years a Slave was, Django revels in the simpler pleasures of revenge and retribution. Like Inglorious Basterds before it, Tarantino’s 2012 revisionist Western is all about making evil men pay for their crimes, through the most violent means necessary.

It’s not an easy watch, per se, and certainly won’t be winning any prizes for subtlety, but Tarantino’s Academy Award winning screenplay features some of his finest exchanges and monologues (a high bar to reach, when you consider his track record), and exquisitely reimagined the themes and subject matter that could be tackled within a Western setting.