If you’re tired of the oversaturation of Taylor Sheridan-produced Western media and want something that goes beyond what Yellowstone was able to deliver, then we have some great news for you. Folks who have yet to embark on Longmire ought to give the neo-Western gem a try now that it can be found on both Prime Video and Paramount+. In addition to delivering some of the finest Wyoming-centric mysteries the on-screen genre has to offer, the A&E-turned-Netflix drama helped pave the way for further Native American representation on television.
‘Longmire’ Is Arguably the Best Neo-Western Series Out There
There are several things that set Longmire apart from the works of more recent neo-Western filmmakers. For one thing, the show was unashamedly a police procedural with a Western flare that leaned more into the drama than anything Marshals is doing right now. It struck an inspired balance between making Sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) feel like a classic Old West lawman and ensuring that viewers still buy that a man of his “honesty and integrity” would exist today. It helped that the series itself was loosely based on the popular mystery novels by author Craig Johnson, who had fully fleshed out the character over several stories by the time the series premiered on A&E in 2012. Although Longmire could sometimes lean too episodic early on (by the time the show moved to Netflix it became a bit more serialized), it ultimately worked in the show’s favor, allowing Walt and his crew to speak to individual issues on the Rez.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Western Icon Are You Most Like? No Name · Doc Holliday · Wyatt Earp · Mattie Ross
Pick your name, your gun, your horse and how you spend a night in town, and we will tell you which legend of the Old West you would have been. Four icons are waiting at the end of this: the stranger who never gives his name, the gambler who would die for a friend, the lawman who never wanted the badge, and the girl nobody has ever talked out of anything.
🚬No Name(Dollars Trilogy)
🃏Doc Holliday(Tombstone)
⭐Wyatt Earp(Tombstone)
🐎Mattie Ross(True Grit)
01
The town is about to learn your name. What do they call you? In a Western, what people call you is already half the character.
02
What are you carrying? Everything out here is character, right down to what is sitting on your hip.
03
What are you riding? A hero and their horse is one of the oldest relationships in cinema.
04
You have got one evening in town. How does it go? The saloon is where these films quietly tell you who somebody really is.
05
A stranger offers you money for a job that sounds like trouble. Somebody always turns up with a full purse and a bad idea.
06
Somebody is waiting for you in the street. What does the town see? Two people, an empty road, and everybody else watching from behind the shutters.
07
What is the one thing you will not do out here? The code is about the only thing west of the river that actually holds.
08
The job is finished. Where does the story leave you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your icon.
The Dust Has Settled Your Western Icon Is…
Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble.
This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.
The Dollars Trilogy · 1964–1966
The Man With No Name
You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to,
because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room
without you ever having to mention it.
Eastwood built the character out of everything he refused to do, stripping away the
backstory, the speeches and every bit of reassurance until only the competence was left.
You keep your own counsel, and while other people occasionally find that unnerving, you
have never felt any real need to fix it for them.
The Dollars films work because he genuinely is in it for himself right up until the
moment he is not, and he never explains that part either.
You would be gone before anybody got a chance to thank you.
Doc Holliday · Tombstone · 1993
Doc Holliday
You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal
person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two
things were in any tension.
Doc has no real reason to be in this fight beyond the fact that his friend is in it,
which is the only reason he has ever needed for anything.
You lead with wit, and it does a very effective job of hiding how seriously you take the
handful of people you actually care about.
Val Kilmer’s performance is the most quoted in the entire genre because the jokes keep
getting sharper as the situation gets worse.
You would spend everything you had on this and still describe it as a good week.
Wyatt Earp · Tombstone · 1993
Wyatt Earp
You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the
alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most
Western reason there has ever been.
Earp is the reluctant authority figure, a man who came to town specifically to be left
alone and somehow ended up answerable for all of it.
You are protective by instinct, so when something goes wrong your first thought is who
is exposed rather than who is to blame.
These films understand that keeping order costs far more than breaking it, and that the
person holding the line almost never gets thanked.
You would do the whole thing again, and you would complain about it the entire time.
Mattie Ross · True Grit · 1969 & 2010
Mattie Ross
Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had
already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.
Mattie is the most relentless character in the Western canon and she manages it through
argument, paperwork and flat refusal rather than a fast draw.
You have no patience for being managed, so you negotiate, you check the details and you
turn up exactly when you said you would.
True Grit is the rare Western where the moral centre is the youngest person on screen
and every adult around her has to catch up.
You would get what you came for, and the film is honest about what that takes out of
you.
No doubt, a show like Yellowstone dealt with the conflict between the contemporary West and modern-day reservations, but Longmire did it first, getting into the nitty-gritty by pulling from historical and contemporary events alike. Season 1’s “Dog Soldier,” for instance, was inspired by a real-life investigation into how some take advantage of the foster care system by displacing Native children from the Rez. Likewise, Season 3’s “Miss Cheyenne” chronicles the dark history of medical malpractice on the reservation, pulling from actual historical accounts to craft the modern-day narrative. In all this, it never resorts to caricatures, instead challenging Native American stereotypes and ensuring that characters are well-rounded and psychologically complex. Just as there are “good white men” and “bad white men,” there are also “good Indians” and “bad Indians,” with every character so well-crafted that it can sometimes be hard to tell who is which.
This is, of course, what sets a show like Longmire apart. There are no “wise old Indian” caricatures or Tonto-inspired sidekicks. Every major Native American character (and several non-major characters) were given meaty material to work with. For instance, A Martinez‘s Jacob Nighthorse is a layered opportunist who, on one hand, appears to genuinely care for his people and, on the other, seems to prey upon them. Walt famously can’t stand him for his business practices, but not due to any racial prejudices. In fact, Walt’s closest friend is Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips, who was given the blessing of the Cheyenne elders in his portrayal, per Cowboys & Indians), who gives back to his local community often and serves as a bridge between the viewer and the tribal practices. And this isn’t even noting Graham Greene‘s provocative Malachi Strand, Irene Bedard‘s compassionate May Still Water, or Zahn McClarnon‘s capable Tribal Police Chief Mathias, a stepping stone on his path to playing Lt. Joe Leaphorn on AMC’s Dark Winds.
‘Longmire’ Was a Trailblazer In Native American Representation
Part of what made Longmire so great was the fight for authenticity when it came to Cheyenne customs and cultural issues. Audiences have long praised the series for its attention to detail regarding reservation life — and that means both the good and the bad. While Longmire doesn’t exclusively deal with Native politics or issues, it never shied away from getting Walt on the Rez every chance it got, both as a concerned citizen trying to help and a lawman looking for justice. Eventually, his daughter Cady (Cassidy Freeman) would try to do the same. Of course, the rest of the non-Native cast is great too, and some episodes have nothing to do with the Rez at all, focusing instead on issues regarding military veterans, serial bank robbers, organized crime, and other one-and-done Western mysteries. Sometimes, as was the case in Season 1’s “Unfinished Business,” those issues would lead to the Rez, but other times not.
It’s no wonder that Native American artists and creatives have flocked to Longmire. “It gave a lot of Indigenous actors a lot of work playing really interesting, fully realized human beings,” A Martinez told UPI at a “Longmire Days” event years later. “It was revolutionary in that regard.” Indeed, the show’s commitment to realizing its entire cast — Native and non-Native alike. Although a show like Yellowstone or Marshals may touch mildly on Rez-based issues (indeed, the former always stopped just short of saying something profound while the latter relies too heavily on uninspired episodic reservation plots), Longmire lived in this space, no doubt paving the way for other Native-centric shows like Dark Winds or Reservation Dogs to do the same. If you’ve not yet given Longmire a shot and you’re looking at something modern to scratch your Western itch, look no further than this grand six-season drama.
Longmire is available for streaming on Prime Video and Paramount+.
