If you want to brainstorm iconic actors well known for their work in the Western genre, Leonardo DiCaprio probably isn’t going to be one of the first names that pops into mind (you’re more likely to think of someone like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne). DiCaprio’s one of those actors who’s appeared in a wide range of movies throughout his acting career, including romantic epics (Titanic), intense crime films (The Departed), and dramedies like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The last of those has him playing an actor known for acting in Westerns on TV, and grappling with the idea of appearing in spaghetti Westerns as a way to stay relevant, but the film itself can’t be called an actual Western.
As such, there are just four Western movies starring Leonardo DiCaprio to date, but they’re all interesting in their own ways, and remain worth talking about and watching. Each was made by a different director with their own distinctive style, and it’s honestly hard to compare the bunch of them beyond saying “They’re all generally Westerns or have Western elements” and “They all feature DiCaprio in starring roles.” In any event, they’re ranked below, starting with the pretty good and ending with the pretty great.
Consider this one more underrated than “bad” in the traditional sense, even if it’s ranked last here. The Quick and the Dead might not be quite as good as the other Westerns that star Leonardo DiCaprio, but it still has a ton to offer, and is better than its last-place position might imply. It’s got a good deal of over-the-top action and style, thanks to Sam Raimi being the director, and there's a simple yet interesting premise here, too, that revolves around a quick-drawn tournament held inside a small town that gets increasingly more high-stakes (and deadlier) as it goes along.
Sharon Stone plays the lead role here, and Gene Hackman probably steals the show as the villain (in a very Unforgiven kind of way), but Leonardo DiCaprio is quite good here too, playing an ambitious young gunslinger known as The Kid. If you’re curious to see what a Sam Raimi Western would look like, then The Quick and the Dead is a must-watch, and even with it being a little uneven and occasionally too chaotic for its own good, a large chunk of it’s exceedingly fun, not to mention gleefully unpredictable.
Though it might be a good deal colder and snowier than most Western movies, The Revenant still qualifies as a Western… and a noticeably bleak one, too. It takes place during the 1820s and is about frontiersman Hugh Glass, and the way he had to fight for survival in horrid conditions after being attacked by a bear and left for dead by the other members of his animal trapping party. Oh, and to make matters worse, one member of the group also murders Glass’s son, which makes The Revenant both an intense survival film and a movie centered on getting revenge.
That makes it exceptionally violent for most of its runtime, but The Revenant is also a movie with a certain amount of beauty to it; the whole thing looks and sounds amazing on top of being sometimes horrifying. Also, yes, it was the movie that finally got Leonardo DiCaprio an Oscar, and it’s not too hard to see why, given his performance is a bold, showy, and physically demanding one. You do really believe you’re watching DiCaprio fight for his life in grueling conditions at just about every turn, and he truly sells the anger, despair, and determination of the character he’s playing. It’s not the easiest Western to watch, nor the most traditional, by any means, but The Revenant is still very much worth watching for anyone with a sufficiently strong stomach.
The Revenant
- Release Date
- December 25, 2015
- Runtime
- 156 minutes
While Killers of the Flower Moon was far from the first time Leonardo DiCaprio showed up in a Martin Scorsese film, it did mark the first instance of the frequent collaborators making a Western… kind of. Though this takes place about 100 years after The Revenant, and is a very different sort of film overall, Killers of the Flower Moon can similarly be called an unconventional Western, or maybe one that’s revisionist in nature. The story here is far from a straightforward or even particularly entertaining one, given it’s about a horrific series of crimes committed against the Osage people in Oklahoma during the 1920s, all done to gain access to the oil-rich land they owned.
It’s more of a crime epic with a sort of Western setting, and some Western iconography visualized throughout. What’s important is that Killers of the Flower Moon is as great as it is difficult/uncomfortable, and it is most definitely difficult and uncomfortable to watch. The performances are fantastic and work to drive home the horror and impact of the story at hand. It’s an important one that needed telling, and it also features one of the boldest and most thought-provoking endings found in any Martin Scorsese film to date.
Though it’s not quite a perfect movie, Django Unchained is, for the most part, a pretty great one, and debatably the best Western Leonardo DiCaprio has starred in to date. He makes an impression as a truly irredeemable villain: plantation owner Calvin Candie, who has the wife of the titular Django. Once Django is freed from slavery, he sets out to rescue his still-enslaved wife, along the way getting satisfying vengeance on those who were responsible for his suffering. So, it’s another revenge movie with DiCaprio, only here, he’s the target of the protagonist, rather than being the protagonist the way he was in The Revenant.
Also, like The Revenant, Django Unchained is an extremely bloody Western, but that’s to be expected when the director is Quentin Tarantino. As a whole, Django Unchained might be a touch too long, and arguably runs out of steam just a little when there are about 20 to 30 minutes to go… but it’s a lengthy movie, and the majority of that extended runtime is compelling stuff. It might well be the most direct story Tarantino has told to date, with clear heroes and villains (well, Kill Bill is also pretty straightforward, albeit more willing to play out of chronological order), but it all works exceptionally well. And DiCaprio is far from the only actor here doing fantastic work, as the likes of Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Samuel L. Jackson are all great, too.
