“I was exploring the death of a way of life”: The $37M Movie Taylor Sheridan Said Shows How Crippled Modern America is Right Now

As the godfather of modern Westerns, Taylor Sheridan is very astute about the corporate world’s needs and the commercial fanfare’s demands. Balancing the two gives the studios and the viewers a perfect amalgamation of sustainable, profitable, and binge-worthy dramas like Yellowstone and Hell or High Water.

Taylor Sheridan in Yellowstone [Credit: Paramount Network]

But it is not always the world of mainstream media that lets out the genius in Sheridan. As a cowboy himself, the desire to own the largest and most famous ranch in the whole world (the Four Sixes) juxtaposes his need to protect the cattle and ranch lifestyle that is currently racing toward extinction. It is this extinction that has become the filmmaker’s latest obsession when it comes to scripting a story for film or television.

Taylor Sheridan Obsesses Over the American West

Hell or High Water (2016) [Credit: Lionsgate Films]

After two decades of focusing on the wrong side of the entertainment sector, Taylor Sheridan swerved his focus to tell the audience a story about the modern American Midwest. The genre of Westerns was dead, as far as Hollywood was concerned, and ironically, it was Kevin Costner‘s Wyatt Earp that personally kicked the bucket and made it happen.

And so, after finding incredible success with his first attempt at writing a screenplay (Sicario), Sheridan went to work to compose a tale about a crippled middle America through a beautifully crafted neo-Western crime drama that won Taylor Sheridan his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

The film in question, Hell or High Water, helped revive the genre that was long thought extinct – not unlike its subject matter that shows a dwindling way of lifestyle facing a constant threat of foreclosure or bankruptcy through the eyes of two brothers planning a final heist going up against a crafty Texas lawman.

Made on a budget of only $12 million, the film raked in 4 Oscar nominations, scoring 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and cashing in $37.5 million in worldwide sales [via The Numbers].

Sheridan Exposes a Harsh Truth in His Films

Despite a lackluster career as an actor, Taylor Sheridan hit the ground running as a writer, later transitioning into an acclaimed director. In the two decades he spent struggling, aspiring, and dreaming the American Dream, Sheridan read a whole array of bad scripts that he credits with teaching him how not to write a story. Instead, he reverse-manufactured his learnings to compose a film trilogy that showed how crippled modern America is right now.

Hell or High Water feat. Chris Pine and Ben Foster [Credit: Lionsgate Films]

With Sicario, Sheridan tackled the issue of the international border drug war that plagues America, Hell or High Water explored the remnants of a bygone era’s lifestyle that was once the beating heart of the American Midwest and Wind River exposes the complete breakdown of the American justice system.

In an interview with Collider, Sheridan revealed:

And so, when Sheridan penned Hell or High Water, he was inspired to critique the unjust banking system in America and how it ruined lives and generations, the repercussions of which can still be felt in modern-day American society. In an interview with IndieWire, Sheridan claimed:

Although Taylor Sheridan continues to impress the audience with his highly dramatic and fictional tales of the American West, the touch of factual truth that colors these films and television series makes Sheridan one of the best assets of Hollywood right now who is equipped to deal with social and political issues of the current society while also delivering award-worthy blockbusters.

Hell or High Water is currently streaming on Paramount+.