Taylor Sheridan’s six favorite movies are perfect

Taylor Sheridan is a mini industry in itself. He wrote the Oscar-nominated films “Sicario,” “Hell or High Water” and “Wind River,” as well as the thrillers “Without Regret” and “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” On television, Sheridan was blowing down barn doors with “Yellowstone” and its numerous spin-offs, as well as shows like “Tulsa King,” “Lions” and “Landman.” This, in addition to his modest acting career, made Sheridan appear in television shows such as “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Party of Five,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Sons of Anarchy.” And even “Star Trek: Enterprise.” He also plays the supporting character of Travis Wheatley in “Yellowstone” and Charles in the prequel series, “1883.”

Sheridan has evolved into the modern torchbearer of Western masculinity, often drawn to the dark hearts of masculine men. He also seems to like crime stories, tales of criminals/lawmen, and conflicts that end in gunplay. However, he is neither an action junkie nor a violence promoter; His films and television shows tend to be very harsh and pessimistic, suggesting the tragedy of the dwindling Old West. His works look very old-fashioned, which is why they are so popular. Seriously, “Yellowstone” is a juggernaut.

When asked about his favorite movies By Rotten Tomatoes in 2017Sheridan chose six films that were (mostly) predictable. He is drawn to grizzled heroes, suffering fathers, and tragic figures with weapons in their hands. Perhaps unexpectedly, he was drawn to many of the Best Picture winners at the Oscars. Five of the six films below won the award, and a sixth was nominated.

Clint Eastwood’s 1992 anti-Western film “Unforgiven” It won Best Picture, and even then, Eastwood was declaring – in a meta way – that his career playing bad guys and stoic gunslingers would only light the way to dusty death. One can see a lot of similarities between Unforgiven and Yellowstone, particularly their shared Wyoming setting. “Unforgiven” follows William Mooney (Eastwood), a former bounty hunter who now attempts to live a life of quiet asceticism. However, he finds himself tragically forced to accept violence once again after being hired to track down some villains who assaulted and mutilated a local sex worker.

Regarding the film, Sheridan said:

“So what, it’s simply the way Clint Eastwood demystified and destroyed our concept of the Western. I mean, he demolished the genre, turned it upside down. It was great acting, and at times, his use of monologue and dialogue – that never happens in Westerns.” The American, he just took a baseball bat to this kind of music, and it was incredibly profound for me.

“Unforgiven” is clever in that it has it both ways. On the one hand, it is a horrific tragedy about one’s inability to escape one’s violent past, and the reputation that comes from a career of violence will follow one to the grave, no matter the level of attrition beforehand. On the other hand, the film features Eastwood, along with co-stars Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, and Richard Harris, engaging in shameless acts of masculine frivolity. One could cheer as they fired their guns and proceeded to retaliate (although one might miss the target if they did so).

Sheridan has made many crime procedurals, but he feels his films are grounded in something thematically important beyond the crime. That was certainly the lesson he learned from Norman Jewison’s 1967 film “In the Heat of the Night,” which also won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film revolves around a homicide detective from Philadelphia. Virgil Thibbs (Sydney Poitier)who, while passing through Mississippi on a family visit, becomes tied up in an investigation overseen by a racist local cop (Rod Steiger).

Regarding the film, Sheridan said:

“In The Heat Of The Night was one of the films that most influenced me. Looking back now, I can see how much it influenced my screenwriting, because here you have what sounds like a crime procedural, which is actually a crime.” Study of Race and Loneliness And it depicted the era, so I think this was one of the most influential films.

“In the Heat of the Night” has an interesting detective story, but it’s also about racism in then-modern Mississippi. In one of the film’s most famous exchanges, Steiger’s racist character mocks Virgil’s first name and asks him what he’s like at home. “They call me Mr. Tibbs,” Poitier responds, in a powerful line reading. This line was so popular, it became the title of the 1970 sequel. Steiger did not return for this film nor for the third film in the series, 1971’s “The Organization.”

One might have expected that Taylor Sheridan would love Michael Mann. Mann’s steely photography and no-frills storytelling turns any ordinary story into something cold and cerebral, and Sheridan seems to love it. “The Insider,” Mann’s best picture nominee from 1999is a biopic of Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), who aimed to blow the whistle on the tobacco industry that was secretly sneaking chemicals into cigarettes to make them more addictive. Al Pacino played real-life investigative reporter Will Bergman, who was aiming to break the story and had to team up with Wiegand.

Sheridan loved the cinematography of “The Insider” (by Dante Spinotti) and was amazed when a Steadicam shot—a shot he normally hated—was used to great effect. As he put it:

“To look at it from a filmmaker’s point of view, he’s doing things out there, breaking the rules, and usually if you’re going to use a camera operation, you’re going to use that all the time. But there’s one scene where he brings in a Steadicam, and he’s shooting this thing that’s unbelievable, And you don’t even realize that this is what you’re watching likes!”

“The Insider” lost the Best Picture award to “American Beauty,” which was a massive hit in its time. But overall, 1999 was an exciting year for movies.

Robert Benton’s 1979 film Kramer vs. Kramer was another Best Picture winner, likely because it was one of Hollywood’s most straightforward dramas about the troubles of America’s rising divorce rates. The film’s events revolve around the separation between Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) and his wife. Joanna Kramer, née Stern (Meryl Streep). The film chronicles the grueling details of a couple sharing custody of their young son Billy (Justin Henry), follows them to court, and reveals that the divorce proceedings are little more than a series of insults and reminiscing that culminate in a messy and expensive process. Break up. Many members of Generation X with separated parents can probably relate well to “Kramer vs. Kramer.”

Unlike the other films on Sheridan’s list, this one is not about crime or violence. It is, instead, about parents facing the daily hassles of legal separation. This was the only film on the Rotten Tomatoes list that Sheridan described in emotional terms, saying:

“‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ is one of my favorite movies, because you have a story that brings together a lot of ideas that we have about family, about parenting. Again, an incredibly simple plot that allows for a really rich exploration of character.”, and one of the best screenplays I’ve ever read on Launch.”

Benton also wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Avery Corman. It won Best Picture over Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” “All That Jazz,” “Norma Rae,” and “Breaking Away.” That, like 1999, was a great year for American cinema.

What can be said about him Coppola’s 1972 crime epic “The Godfather.” Which hasn’t already been written about by enthusiastic critics everywhere? It is a Shakespearean tragedy, an immigrant tale, a crime saga, and a moral examination of the inevitability of violence. Its characters have become archetypes in the American consciousness, and frat men everywhere carry posters of “The Godfather” on their walls. Sheridan seems to be one of those friends spiritually, and like everyone, loves the movie. As he put it:

“‘The Godfather’ is an interesting movie because it does a lot of things to hold the character in place in a very economical way. You don’t realize that you’re being given information, and you don’t realize that ‘We’re learning. It was one of the best-directed movies ever.’

Although “The Godfather” is largely unassailable, one could argue that it is an aggressively masculine film, and that male viewers tend to be strongly attracted to it. There’s a reason why “The Godfather” became the butt of a joke in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” There’s a certain kind of cinema insufferable who always feels the need to describe “The Godfather” to his girlfriend. Sheridan, perhaps aware of its reputation, doesn’t delve into the story or meaning of “The Godfather” on Rotten Tomatoes. He simply admires the craft of the film.

It’s like “Citizen Kane.” Why bother saying it’s one of the best ever? We all already know.

Sheridan was a little torn between calling “The Godfather” his favorite movie or… Platoon is a 1986 Vietnam War drama film directed by Oliver Stone. Also a Best Picture winner. Loosely based on Stone’s own experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, “Platoon” examines how the war tore the lives of an entire generation apart. Sheridan viewed “Platoon” in the same way as he viewed “Unforgiven” in that both belonged to the traditional masculine types that the filmmakers sought to deconstruct.

Sheridan recalls his experience watching Platoon in theaters as a teenager, and being surrounded by real Vietnam vets. This kind of experience can certainly put a profound film into a young person’s mind. As he put it:

“I think I was 15 or 16 years old when I saw this movie in the theater. I was so fascinated by it and the experience around it. I remember when I saw this movie, that was a time when there were still lines to see the next movie. The movie had come out, and we were all standing in line, 400 people to get in, and when the door opened, there were all these Vietnam veterans in their gear, grown men, crying and holding hands and arms around each other. As I sat down, I had no idea what I was about to see again, it was a deconstruction of a war movie, the antithesis of a John Wayne movie.Green hats“.'”

Stone also won Best Director, beating out Woody Allen, David Lynch, Roland Joffe, and James Ivory. This began a glorious ten-year period of Oliver Stone’s rise, during which the director directed such classic films as “Wall Street,” “Talk Radio,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “The Doors,” “JFK,” and “Natural killers.” Sheridan clearly found the “platoon” to be the most formative.