Taylor Sheridan's Favorite Film Is Clint Eastwood's Masterpiece That Turned the Western Genre Upside Down
This movie defined the development of the genre for decades to come – without it, there would be no Yellowstone and other projects that made Taylor Sheridan famous.
At a time when Westerns seemed like relics of Hollywood's past, Taylor Sheridan reinvented the genre for modern viewers. With gritty storytelling and morally complex characters, Sheridan has become the defining voice of neo-Western cinema.
Sheridan's favorite movie? If you think it's a Western, you're right. But which one? Maybe The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly? Or Once Upon a Time in the West?
Taylor Sheridan Has Nothing But Praise for Unforgiven
The answer is less obvious, but no less compelling. In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Taylor Sheridan admitted that his favorite film is Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven:
“Clint Eastwood demystified and destroyed our notion of a Western. I mean, demolished the genre; he turned it upside down. [...] He did things in the storytelling that hadn't been done in the way that they were done. Incredible.”
It seems that the creator of Yellowstone and Mayor of Kingstown could not have another favorite movie – Sheridan himself, like Clint Eastwood with Unforgiven, updated and revived a genre that seemed completely outdated.
With Unforgiven, Eastwood Wanted to Bury the Western Genre, but Ended Up Reviving It
It was after Unforgiven that the world finally discovered Eastwood's talent as a director: the result – a bunch of Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Ideally, Eastwood should have won Best Actor as well: it would be hard to imagine a more beautiful conclusion to his cowboy career. But it didn't work out that way – the award went to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman.
Eastwood, who had never been nominated for an Oscar, admitted that he had intended Unforgiven to be the end of the genre. In fact, the opposite happened: the film resurrected the Western from the ashes.
Unforgiven Breaks Genre Stereotypes and Takes Us Behind the Scenes of Cowboy Life
Unforgiven is about what happens to tough cowboys after they ride off into the sunset. Eastwood's character is a former gunslinger who has become a boring farmer and quiet family man. But when his family is threatened, he is forced to go on one last bloody mission.
And in this case, "one last" is not just a convenient genre trope: Eastwood is merciless to both his characters and Western clichés.
He deconstructs and revises familiar aesthetics: in Unforgiven, a tough cowboy can turn out to be a half-blind, ruthless killer, and justice remains just a pretty word.
Without Unforgiven, There Would Be No Yellowstone or Hell or High Water
Unforgiven set a new standard for the genre. Films like No Country for Old Men and Taylor Sheridan's Hell or High Water owe a debt to its gritty and violent realism.
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Modern TV Westerns like Yellowstone embrace moral complexity because Unforgiven proved that viewers would accept flawed characters over black-and-white heroes.
Unforgiven wasn't just a masterpiece – it was the Western's reckoning, a movie that forced the genre to grow up.
