<\/p>\n
The Western isn’t exactly at the height of its popularity in the 2020s, but 2019’s “Bacurau” makes a compelling argument for its relevancy. The film’s mashup of styles makes for a truly unique experience that’s not only thrilling but also has a sharp satirical edge. What’s more, the movie was a hit with critics, who gave the film a collective 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the 1970s, Roger Ebert gave a perfect score to “El Topo,” a controversial and disturbing Western<\/a> that, in the years since, has been similarly lauded by other critics. “El Topo” was credited with kicking off the so-called “Acid Western” genre, which combined tropes of classic Old West adventures with a surrealist style and counter-cultural spirit informed by the subversive artists that had been so influential in the 1960s. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s inimitable film created a disorienting, surrealistic, psychedelic take on an American genre but, sadly, the same decade “El Topo” debuted also saw the death of the Western as a reliably popular genre. By the end of the ’70s, the Western had been superseded by science fiction movies, and it’s since been kept on life support by some truly outstanding revisionist efforts that have earned critical acclaim yet failed to restore the genre to its former glory. (Of course,\u00a0Taylor Sheridan and his extensive slate of neo-Western TV shows<\/a> might be just about to change all that.)<\/p>\n Still, we can at least say the Western has never truly gone away, which is a good thing because otherwise we might never have gotten “Bacurau.” The surreal film from Brazilian writer\/directors Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho and Juliano Dornelles defies easy explanation, blending social commentary with action genre thrills and evoking the spirit of previous weird Westerns like “El Topo” in the process.<\/p>\n