The New Lawlessness

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The New Lawlessness

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By Ben Elliott

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In Westerns, the law inevitably comes to town.

The sense of freedom provided to pioneers pushing past the existing American systems of the late 19th century simultaneously bred a violent outlaw culture that took what it wanted. The tension in that dynamic — the need to establish a sense of justice in a lawless land — fuels classic Westerns. Even if there are questions about the ends justifying the means in morally grey stories like The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, there’s rarely a question about whether or not this society was on a course that needed to be corrected.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962

But what do Westerns look like in the 21st century, when the West is won and the internet makes even the most desolate of places part of the global community?

Neo-westerns like No Country for Old Men, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Sicario, and Hell and High Water flip the script, showing us a West where the law exists but is either too corrupt, compromised, or ill-equipped to take on the shifting morals of the modern world.

Eddington, 2025

This erosion of the lawman mystique continues in Ari Aster’s Eddington, a darkly funny satire coming to The Triplex this week. Set in the early days of the pandemic, it follows its titular small New Mexico town as tensions spill over from online message boards to the streets when their disillusioned sheriff runs against the incumbent mayor.

It’s a story that suggests a new kind of lawlessness. Long gone are the black-clad Lee Van Cleefs of classic movies — in the hyper-connected, fractured world we live in, everyone is a bad guy if you go down the right rabbit hole. It’s a new frontier for truth, one that questions if any sort of “law man” will be able to save the day.

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