10 Most Visually Stunning Westerns Ever Made

3. True Grit (Roger Deakins)

The Hateful Eight Samuel L Jackson Kurt Russell
Paramount Pictures

Frankly, there's any number of westerns or neo-westerns shot by the acclaimed British cinematographer that could have made this list. The fifteen-time Academy Award nominee and two-time victor even managed to get cited twice in the same year once for his work in the genre, with No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

But I've gone with True Grit, his eleventh collaboration with the Coen Brothers, to represent his body of work here. Less an out-and-out remake of the 1969 film starring John Wayne than a more droll adaptation of the namesake book it was based on, it featured a wonderfully grizzled Jeff Bridges in the lead role and introduced the world to actress Hailee Steinfeld.

Yet the visuals are practically a character in their own right, from the quietly oppressive stark thicket of forestry through which the heroes pursue their target, to the star-and-snow-flecked rides through the night, conjuring up the sense of danger and desperation held close in the Old West through a muted lens less unforgiving than foreboding than anything else.

It's one of Deakins' best - a gorgeous vista rendered with reverence.

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.