10 Most Visually Stunning Westerns Ever Made

8. The Sisters Brothers (Benoît Debie)

The Hateful Eight Samuel L Jackson Kurt Russell
One Media

Arriving at the rear end of 2018 on the back of several well-received festival rollouts - including the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival - Jacques Audiard's first English-language feature got somewhat buried and passed over for awards season, which is something of a shame given the sheer quality of its performances and technical craft.

Though the eye-catching quartet of lead performances from John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed are the worthy star attraction to this offbeat, slow-growing adaptation of Patrick deWitt's 2011 novel, its cinematography from Spring Breakers lens-man Debie is among his career best, transmuting from sun-baked starkness through shadowed agony as the brothers' best-laid plans slowly begin to fold in upon themselves.

It's a film whose visual power doesn't hit with visceral immediacy though; rather, it percolates at a leisurely pace before blossoming into a collection of often painful images, laced with raw emotion under their surface. The film was shot on location in that favourite locale of the spaghetti western genre, rural Spain; Audiard's choice to film adjacent to his homeland of France pays dividends in conjuring the feel of a old-fashioned genre piece underneath its slightly skewed vision.

Contributor

Something of a culture vulture, Mr Steel can historically be found in three places; the local cinema, the local stadium or the local chip shop. He is an avowed fan of franchise films, amateur cricket and power-chords.