Best Western Movies of 2018

A western set on the New Mexico frontier a few years after the Civil War and centered on a struggling young family and the mining company who wants to buy their land.

Brady Blackburn, a rodeo bronc rider with some renown, learned everything he knows about horses and riding from his parents, Wayne and the now deceased Mari Blackburn. Brady is recovering from a fall off a bronking horse in a rodeo, the most serious of the injuries being a skull fracture which required a metal plate being inserted into his head. Including checking himself out of the hospital earlier than advised, Brady is determined to get back up onto the literal and proverbial horse as quickly as possible as being a cowboy is all he knows. But deep in his heart he knows that returning to the rodeo in particular is something that is probably not in the cards without increased risks, which is eventually confirmed by his doctor who tells him that he cannot sustain another serious head injury without some major consequence. He does not even want his friends and family to treat him with kid gloves in being able to do any of those physical activities which are part and parcel for him of being a man and a cowboy. Brady has to come to some realization as to this fact and come to terms with it - which is difficult even as his best friend, former rodeo rider Lane Scott will forever be institutionalized needing around the clock medical care from a similar accident - or end up killing himself physically in the attempt to bronc again, or killing himself emotionally in not being able to do what he loves.

Lucky is an old US Navy veteran of rigid habits and attitudes in a small town. When his routine is interrupted by a sudden collapse at home, Lucky finds himself realizing that his remarkably healthy old age is going to face an inevitable decline and he has to accept it. In that difficult reassessment, Lucky must face up to what he believes in and how much it compares to his neighbors' priorities. In doing so, Lucky finds that his life has its positive side as he searches for some meaning that he can accept.

Forty-six year old Reverend Ernst Toller is the pastor at the historic First Reformed Church in upstate New York. It is seen as the "tourist" church or the "souvenir shop" (its historical significance partly it being a stop on the underground railroad before the slaves crossed into Canada) by Abundant Life, which owns the church and which operates a modern self-named five thousand seat church overseen by Reverend Joel Jeffers. First Reformed is celebrating its two hundred fiftieth anniversary this year, for which a major event is planned, modest in size only at First Reformed itself although the dignitaries like the governor and mayor will be at attendance there, while the event will be simulcast at Abundant Life. Most of the speech-making will be done by local industrialist Ed Balq, a major benefactor of Abundant Life and who is the major donor for the necessary upgrades at First Reformed to be able to hold the event there, and for the event itself, while Toller's participation will be minimal beyond the introductory sermon. First Reformed is generally a sparsely attended church meaning that Toller doesn't have to do much direct ministering, although he does have the stock answers when asked how God factors into this or that situation in one's life. Toller himself has long been divorced, his marriage which could not survive the death of their son, Joseph, in war. Because of that history, Toller believes he is incapable of human love, despite a brief relationship with Esther, the choir mistress at Abundant Life, she who is arguably still in love with him. Toller is neglecting the warning signs about his poor health, the symptoms pointing to a probable diagnosis of stomach cancer, which is only exacerbated by his largely liquid (i.e. alcohol) diet. Toller is already examining his life and work in writing a daily journal for a year, that journal which he intends no one ever to read, but these issues in Toller's life become more pointed when a new pregnant congregant, Mary, asks him to speak to her husband Michael, who Toller will learn is an environmentalist concerned about bringing another human life into what he already sees as a world doomed because of man's role in climate change.

Gone Are the Days follows the story of notorious outlaw, Taylon Flynn. Aged, ill, and unable to reconcile the man he was to who he has become, Flynn is hell-bent on exiting this life in a blaze of glory. His plans go awry upon the discovery of the sordid life his estranged daughter is forced to live. To save her, he must summon the inner demons he purged long ago, and finds that redemption is a hard road to travel.

THE NIGHTINGALE is a meditation on the horrors of Australian colonization, set at the turn of the 19th century. The film follows Clare, a 21-year-old native Irish wife and mother held captive beyond her 7-year sentence, desperate to be free of her obsessed master, British lieutenant Hawkins. Clare's husband Aidan intervenes with devastating consequences for all. When British authorities fail to deliver justice, Clare pursues Hawkins, who leaves his post suddenly to secure a captaincy up north. Unfamiliar with the Tasmanian wilderness she enlists the help of an orphaned Aboriginal tracker Billy. Marked by their traumas, the two fight to overcome their distrust and prejudices against the backdrop of Australia's infamous 'Black War'.

When cowboy Lefty Brown witnesses the murder of his longtime partner, the newly-elected Senator Edward Johnson, he strikes out to find the killers and avenge his friend's cold-blooded murder. Tracking the outlaws across the vast and desolate Montana plains, Lefty stumbles across a young wannabe gunslinger, Jeremiah, and an old friend, a former hard-drinking pal turned U.S. Marshal, to help deliver the men to justice. After a gunfight with the outlaws leaves Jeremiah wounded, Lefty returns home with the names of Johnson's killers only to find that he is being accused of his friend's murder by the governor. With the tables turned Lefty must evade the law, get the Marshal to stop drinking again, and prove his innocence by exposing the powerful men ultimately responsible for Johnson's death.

A once-peaceful frontier town becomes a den of vice after vicious outlaw Dutch Albert and his gang arrive and begin gunning down their opposition. Undertaker Patrick Tate must now choose between the blood money he makes burying the murderers' victims and the threats he and his family face as the death toll continues to rise.

New Mexico Territory, 1880. Rio Cutler and his older sister Sara must abandon their home after an unfortunate event happens. In their desperate flee to Santa Fe, they cross paths with the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid and his gang, who are ruthlessly pursued by a posse led by Sheriff Pat Garret.

Takes place beyond the solar system in a future that seems like the present. About a group of criminals who accept a mission in space to become the subjects of a human reproduction experiment. They find themselves in the most unimaginable situation after a storm of cosmic rays hit the ship.

Del is alone in the world. After the human race is wiped out, he lives in his small, empty town, content in his solitude and the utopia he's methodically created for himself - until he is discovered by Grace, an interloper whose history and motives are obscure. And to make matters worse, she wants to stay.

A loner and cook (John Magaro) has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon Territory, though he only finds connection with a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee). The men collaborate on a business, although its longevity is reliant upon the participation of a wealthy landowner's prized milking cow.

Twenty years ago, the young 'Five Fingers' fought for the rural town of Marseilles, against brutal police oppression. Now, after fleeing in disgrace, freedom-fighter-turned-'outlaw' Tau returns to Marseilles, seeking only a peaceful pastoral life. When he finds the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it. can he free himself from his past? Will the Five Fingers stand again?

After he's attacked on the street at night by a roving motorcycle gang, timid bookkeeper Casey (Jesse Eisenberg) joins a neighborhood karate studio to learn how to protect himself. Under the watchful eye of a charismatic instructor, Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), and hardcore brown belt Anna (Imogen Poots), Casey gains a newfound sense of confidence for the first time in his life. But when he attends Sensei's mysterious night classes, he discovers a sinister world of fraternity, brutality and hyper-masculinity, presenting a journey that places him squarely in the sights of his enigmatic new mentor.

Six strangers, (Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny and Lewis Pullman) each with their own secrets, meet at the El Royale hotel of Lake Tahoe. Taking place over one night, alliances are made and secrets are revealed.

Detective Matthias Breecher is hired to track down the worst of the Confederate war criminals. As he roams the Old West seeking justice, his resolve is tested when he meets a determined pioneer woman who is far more than she seems.

In 1892 after nearly two decades of fighting the Cheyenne, the Apache, and the Comanche natives, the United States Cavalry Captain and war hero Joseph Blocker is ordered to escort the ailing Cheyenne chief, Yellow Hawk--his most despised enemy--to his ancestral home in Montana's Valley of the Bears. Nauseated with a baleful anger, Joseph's unwelcome final assignment is further complicated when widowed settler Rosalie Quaid is taken in by his band of soldiers. Aggressive packs of marauding Comanches are still on the warpath and thirsty for blood, so can the seasoned Captain do his duty one last time?

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