Sometimes Hollywood experiments hit gold, and other times, you getCowboys & Aliens. Back in 2011,Iron MandirectorJon Favreautried to wrangle a sci-fi Western blend with one of the most stacked casts imaginable. The movie starredDaniel Craig,Harrison Ford,Olivia Wilde,Sam Rockwell,Paul Dano,Walton Goggins,and more. With names like that, how could it miss? Well, miss, it did as the movie was a box office failure and was brutally lassoed by critics and audiences alike. However, over a decade later,Cowboys & Alienshas maintained a certain intrigue and has now found a second life on streaming as that “so bad it’s kinda good”gem fans can’t resist revisiting.
What Did Taylor Sheridan Say About Sci-Fi Westerns?
Genre blending is tough to pull off, and sci-fi westerns are especially tricky. The tones often clash, no matter how much star power you throw at them. The subgenre has few true successes, a point modern Western hitmakerTaylor Sheridanhas hammered home in the past. In a past interview, he bluntly expressed his feelings about the mash-up, calling it “dead” in defense of the more classic Western style:
“I knew there was such a thirst, that a Western done well is a universally loved genre. It captures everything American, this sense of freedom and vastness and independence. And there’s a romance to it…I remember there was an article written about the Western genre is dead, and it came out right after the movie Space Cowboys came out.
“And I remember saying, ‘No, the Western genre is not dead, but the sh*tty Western genre where you try to merge it with fking aliens is dead. That’s dead, and there’s no reason to ever revive that.’ I just don’t think I’m that unique. If something’s interesting to me, it’s probably going to be interesting to a lot of other people. I’m just not that fking special.”
And yet, while the sci-fi Western may be “dead” on paper, the recent streaming resurgence ofCowboys & Alienssuggests audiences still have an appetite for weird,messy, genre-bending rides, especially when they’re entertaining.Cowboys & Aliensis streaming now on Peacock. Check it out!
Cowboys & Aliens
