Over the last few years the western, that most American of film genres, has quietly been enjoying a resurgence. It hasn’t been happening on the big screen, though there have been brief, buzzed-about releases like Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, the Coen Brothers’ True Grit remake, Antoine Fuqua’s black actor focused Magnificent Seven remake, art house French favourite Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers, Jeymes Samuel’s black character revisionist Netflix smash hit The Harder They Fall and Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning The Power of the Dog. 

There are also films that are western in theme and setting — good men fighting evil in the bleak rural landscape of Texas and other middle American states — but modern in period like the Coens’ No Country for Old Men and writer Taylor Sheridan’s critically acclaimed neo-westerns Hell or High Water and Wind River...