10 great queer westerns and cowboy films

On 2 September 2005, Ang Lee’s iconic Brokeback Mountain premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the coveted Golden Lion. The film quickly became a major talking point for debates about actors taking on queer roles and LGBTQIA+ representation in Hollywood. Twenty years later, this tragically beautiful love story, which charts the lives of two lonely cowboys, continues to spark conversation and hold a vital place in the legacy of queer cinema.

Adapted from Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story, Lee’s western romantic drama observes Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) developing a passionate but clandestine romance over a summer while working as sheep herders in 1960s Wyoming. What starts on Brokeback Mountain spans the rest of their lives – they both marry women, but have intermittent romantic meet-ups in secret.

Lee’s romantic drama proved westerns to be fertile ground for queer exploration, with their isolated, outsider characters and masculine cowboy bravado. The film was a watershed moment cited for sparking studios’ interest in LGBTQIA+ related projects, helping to prove that playing a gay role would not – as it once did – lead to industry exile.

But though Brokeback Mountain is widely regarded as a landmark queer western, it wasn’t the first or the last film in cowboy clothes that tacked LGBTQIA+ subject matter, whether as text or subtext…

Director: Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks is one of the most renowned names of the classic Hollywood era and a master of the western genre. His 1948 classic Red River may not be considered a queer film on face value, but the homoerotic undertones are unavoidable. The film chronicles the adventures of a Texas rancher, Thomas (John Wayne), and his adopted adult son, Matt (Montgomery Clift), as they undertake a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas.

The brilliantly named gunman Cherry Valance (John Ireland) joins the father-son drive and forms an intense bond with Matt, which climaxes in a suggestive scene where they compare gun sizes… it’s not hard to read between the lines. “There’s only two things more beautiful than a good gun: a Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere,” Cherry smirks. “You ever had a good Swiss watch?” Under the scorching Texas sun, their chemistry is blinding.

Director: David Butler

The western is often regarded as a male genre, where masculine bravado dominates the frame. However, Calamity Jane questioned such assumptions. Loosely based on the real life of the eponymous frontierswoman and sharpshooter, this Technicolor western musical features one of the most rambunctious performances from Hollywood diamond Doris Day. 

The film tells the story of the straight-shooting Wild West heroine’s (Day) romance with Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel), but is arguably more interested in her relationship with her maid, Katie Brown (Allyn Ann McLerie). Many now consider Jane a lesbian-coded character at a time when Hollywood was in the clutches of the censorious Hays Code, which prevented the open exploration of queerness. It’s not just the characters but also the songs that make this a queer touchstone, from Jane and Katie’s duet ‘A Woman’s Touch’ about “flower arranging” to the gay anthem ‘Secret Love’.

Director: Nicholas Ray

Adapted from the 1953 novel of the same name by Roy Chanslor, Johnny Guitar is a florid cowgirl western from the great Nicholas Ray. The film revolves around a heated rivalry between two vengeful women, portrayed by Hollywood stars Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge. Enemies-to-lovers has always been a compelling romantic trope, and the power struggle between Arizona saloon owner Vienna (Crawford) and Emma (McCambridge) is blanketed by queer subtext. Their relentless piercing eye contact and heated back-and-forths read as obsessive desire.

The sexual tension climaxes in a scene where they both declare they want to be the one who kills the other. Both wear the trousers, literally, as Emma crowds into Vienna’s personal space, declaring: “I’m going to kill you.” Vienna replies, looking down at her from the staircase: “I know. If I don’t kill you first.” They’re facing off like two cowboys in a shootout, but there’s such pent-up emotion in the air that their words sound like a love confession.

Directors: Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol is best known for his pop art, but he also has an extensive filmography, having produced over 600 films. One of the better-known titles, and one of the last he directed, is Lonesome Cowboys, a satirical take on the classic Hollywood western and named in reference to Midnight Cowboy (1969), which was then in production. Warhol’s western vignette follows a crew of misfit ‘lonesome cowboys’ who meet a wealthy ranch owner named Ramona (Viva).

The queer ‘outsider’ perspective easily slots into the western genre, but Warhol’s characters push the boundaries, from a gender non-conforming sheriff to flamboyant, bare-chested cowboys. Warhol subverts the genre by embedding underground gay culture into the Wild West, while also bringing a guerrilla-style avant-garde aesthetic to the western’s straight-laced traditions. In Lonesome Cowboys, the lone cowboy becomes part of the collective as repressed emotion and desire are alleviated.

Director: John Schlesinger

New Hollywood icons Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight are the heart of John Schlesinger’s buddy drama Midnight Cowboy. The beloved stars play big dreamer and sex worker Joe Buck (Voight) and debilitated con man Rico ‘Ratso’ Rizzo (Hoffman). As they wander the streets of New York City – Joe always in a full cowboy get-up with the hat, fringe jacket and boots – they form an unlikely friendship.

Schlesinger’s film, which won three Oscars and remains the only X-rated film to win Best Picture, veers into an explicit exploration of queerness when Joe engages in sexual activity with other men. However, there’s also the relationship between these two men, which is notably homoerotic. As these city cowboys grapple with themselves, they care deeply for each other; Rico invites Joe to move into his neglected apartment and shines his cowboy boots while Joe fights a man for money to buy Rico new clothes. In the end, they get to ride off into the sunset together.

Director: Donna Deitch

Celebrated lesbian director Donna Deitch’s Desert Hearts is regarded as one of the first mainstream movies about lesbianism, offering a respectful and optimistic story of two gay women. This breakthrough reworks the usual western trappings – a cross-country trip, a journey of self-discovery, and two lone dreamers chasing a sense of freedom – through a queer perspective.

Based on Jane Rule’s 1964 lesbian novel Desert of the Heart, Deitch’s drama follows repressed university professor Vivian (Helen Shaver) who, while awaiting a divorce, meets the audacious Cay (Patricia Charbonneau). Shaver and Charbonneau’s performances are steeped in yearning and free-spirited charm, and their unhurried, explicit lesbian sex scene displays a candour that’s rare even today. Their romance is crowned with Cay’s heartbreakingly beautiful confession of love: “She just reached in and put a string of lights around my heart.”

Director: Gus Van Sant

Slotted between contemporary cowboy-related films Drugstore Cowboy (1989) and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) in Gus Van Sant’s filmography, My Own Private Idaho helped establish the director as an auteur of the New Queer Cinema movement. The late River Phoenix offers a mesmerising performance as Mike, a sex worker with narcolepsy who is in search of his mother. He’s joined by Scott (Keanu Reeves), the son of the mayor and a fellow sex worker, with whom he develops a deep but unrequited infatuation.

The campfire chat between two cowboys is transposed for a declaration of love in My Own Private Idaho. Scott hears Mike but gently tells his partner that he only sleeps with men for money. With touchingly tragic vulnerability, Phoenix curls in on himself as he murmurs: “I could love someone even if I, you know, wasn’t paid for it… I love you, and you don’t pay me.” It’s a devastating centrepiece from Phoenix and Reeves that taps into cowboy sensitivity.

Director: Jane Campion

Jane Campion picks apart toxic masculinity in her psychological drama set on a ranch in 1920s Montana. The Power of the Dog, which won Campion a Best Director Academy Award, is based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel and follows wealthy brothers Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons). Campion’s film charts these two brothers torn apart by love, power and trauma.

Phil turns on his brother’s new wife (Kirsten Dunst) and her teenage son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), but hatred and desire clash. Haunted by the queer longing of his late mentor, Phil’s repressed homosexuality rises to the surface with sneering homophobia. However, the man with rough, calloused hands learns to have a gentle touch as he teaches Peter the ways of the rancher.

Directors: Luke Gilford

Luke Gilford’s feature directorial debut presents a contemporary vision of the cowboy and western genre. It’s a genre renowned for its sprawling scenery, and Gilford’s rich background in photographing rodeos ensures that each of this film’s shots is beautiful enough to be framed. The coming-of-age drama, set against the backdrop of rural New Mexico, follows a young man as he finds a sense of belonging at a vibrant queer ranch.

Built around a handsome performance from Charlie Plummer, who channels his wandering masculinity from Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete (2017), Gilford’s film depicts a loving community of queer rodeo performers who are each in pursuit of their American dream. They take Dylan (Plummer) under their wing as he falls for the freewheeling Sky (Eve Lindley), while Carrie (Mason Alexander Park) offers him gentle advice. Here, the traditional cowboy milieu is re-shaped to welcome newcomers, embrace self-discovery and experiment with gender expression.

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Strange Way of Life is Pedro Almodóvar’s answer to Brokeback Mountain. Almodóvar was offered the gay cowboy project but famously turned it down due to concerns about limitations on his artistic freedom. Instead, with Strange Way of Life, the Spanish writer-director offers a tight 30-minute film packed with classic western tropes, including gunslingers, sheriffs, galloping horses and shootouts.

The film chronicles estranged best friends Sheriff Jake (Ethan Hawke) and ranchman Silva (Pedro Pascal), as they reunite after 25 years. Silva rides into the small town on horseback, and Almodóvar frames their eyes meeting after so long like a shootout. However, it’s not their guns being drawn but their hearts on the line. Between dinners where they reminisce on what could have been and intimate sex scenes where repressed passion finally breaks free, Strange Way of Life sees two lonely cowboys relive the forbidden romance of their youth.