10 Criminally Underrated Westerns You Must See Before You Die
7. Young Guns
20th Century Fox
Young Guns is a film most are likely to have heard of, but it may be the case that it's fallen short of the acclaim it deserves due to its cast, who were all relatively young at the time.
Spearheaded by the brothers Sheen (Emilio Estevez and Charlie), as well as Kiefer Sutherland, Christopher Cain's story of the Lincoln County War surprises for all the right reasons, despite its bafflingly low 42% average on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite compelling performances from all of the cast, including Emilio Estevez as the infamous Billy the Kid, Young Guns just never seemed to be taken seriously by the viewing public, despite receiving praise for its authentic depiction of the Lincoln County conflict.
Despite the lacklustre critical response, Young Guns was a financial success, and even spawned a sequel - however unnecessary - in 1990. Nothing beats the original though, which nails action and suspense in equal measure.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
