Taylor Sheridan Needs To Forget ‘Yellowstone’ and Return to His Neo-Western Movie Roots

These days, Taylor Sheridan is best known as a television show runner, writer, and producer, having created the massively successful series Yellowstone, along with its spin-offs 1883 and 1923. Since the premiere of Yellowstone, Sheridan has served as creator for five other series outside that universe: Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lioness, Landman, and The Madison, all successful in their own right. Each TV franchise he develops seems to turn to gold for Paramount, and, as he begins to transition to NBCUniversal, with whom he signed a new contract, expectations for him remain very high.

However, despite Sheridan’s success on the small screen, his talents continue to be diluted by what seems like a rush to build a streaming empire for Paramount (and soon NBCUniversal). Sheridan’s first writing credit on a film was 2015’s Sicario, which he followed with 2016’s Hell or High Water and 2017’s Wind River. Dubbed the Frontier Trilogy, this three-year stretch of movies reveals where Sheridan’s true storytelling talent lies: crafting narratives tightly focused on a singular theme, with an unflinching look at the modern American West. With Sheridan keeping himself limited by creating the next streaming series, his stories remain in constant danger of being diluted and losing their focus.

‘Sicario’ Should Serve as Taylor Sheridan’s Blueprint

Image via Lionsgate

While opinions differ on what Sheridan’s best-written film is, Sicario is the template of what his writing can be at its peak. A laser-focused narrative about America’s failing War on Drugs, Sicario examines what the country must do in order to combat the importation of drugs into the country. As it weaves thrilling, tense action with commentary on what is happening in both the United States and Mexico, Sheridan shows mastery of his craft through a tight screenplay that allows the film’s stars, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro, to really shine.

Largely told through the eyes of Blunt’s character, Kate Macer, the film showcases how quickly even the best of us can be swallowed up by a world we largely don’t understand. As much as she is the main character, Macer also serves as a proxy for the audience. We’re kept outside as much as she is, often wandering through the darkness in an attempt to figure this world out. Sheridan’s Sicario script places immense trust in the audience, and the movie is stronger for it.

Sicario‘s characterization is one of the script’s biggest strengths, with Brolin and Del Toro’s characters portraying the moral ambiguity inherent in fighting the drug war. Brolin seeks control in a world that thrives on chaos, while Del Toro is an agent of chaos operating on the side of control. It’s almost paradoxical in the sense that these two personalities should fight one another while also working together, albeit for different purposes. Until the end of the film, we know next to nothing about Del Toro’s character, which adds layers to the tension as the audience attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding him and why he’s here.

‘Hell or High Water’ Showcases Taylor Sheridan’s Talent for Class Struggle

Image via Lionsgate

Where Sicario succeeds as a commentary on America’s Drug War, Hell or High Water is a masterful examination of class struggle in the United States. Hell or High Water tells the story of a man who has reached his financial breaking point and is forced to enlist his criminal brother to rob banks to pay back the very bank threatening to take everything from him. While the brothers are the ones shoving guns in customers’ faces, the bank is portrayed as the film’s true villain. It’s here that Sheridan shows his talent for writing about ordinary people facing very real struggles; they’re left with nowhere else to turn once the system swallows them whole. In the era of the post-2008 financial crisis, it’s easy to see how people in rural communities could be forgotten by those who control much of their lives.

Hell or High Water‘s characters, notably the brothers of Toby, portrayed by Chris Pine, and Tanner, played by Ben Foster, never feel like caricatures. Compared to Taylor Sheridan’s characters on television, such as the Dutton family in Yellowstone, it is much easier to identify with the brothers’ problems than with the Dutton’s. The brothers capture the desperation faced by so many in an unforgiving economic landscape, giving the script real weight.

Related

Taylor Sheridan’s $84.9 Million Neo-Western Thriller Is Still an Undisputed Classic 11 Years Later

The film holds a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Taylor Sheridan Shines a Light on Marginalized Communities in ‘Wind River’

Image via STX Entertainment

“While missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exist for Native American women,” reads Wind River‘s end title card. The film centers on the death of a Native American woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation, and the investigation that follows. Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner lead the cast as an FBI investigator handling the case and a U.S. Wildlife Agent, respectively.

Sheridan is in his element here, maybe at its purest: exploring the struggle of desolate, isolated communities that have been forgotten by the larger parts of the country. In the case of Wind River, Sheridan explores how the marginalized population of Native Americans in the United States, who were forced onto reservations in various pockets of the country, struggle to deal with poverty, violence, rampant drug addiction, and more. Characters like Martin Hanson, the father of the murdered woman and portrayed by Gil Birmingham, put a face to the problems of these communities. In exploring these issues, Sheridan maintains a passion for his writing, something that often feels that has been lost in his writing for television in an effort to play for a wider audience.

Wind River, Sicario, and Hell or High Water show Taylor Sheridan at his best, and while he does not always hit with his movies, it’s clear that he’s best when working on the silver screen. Thankfully, he’s writing two new films, F.A.S.T and the Call of Duty adaptation, where he’ll get a chance to flex those muscles again.

Release Date

August 4, 2017

Runtime

107 Minutes