The genre Robert De Niro vowed to never appear in: “They’ve been done so often”
Everything changed during the 1960s – music got heavier, skirts got shorter, and mainstream cinema became more boundary-pushing. With the demise of Hollywood censorship and an increase in progressive attitudes, particularly among the younger generation, there was a decisive moment of change that occurred during the end of the decade, and as a result, a new young crop of actors emerged as the faces of New Hollywood.
These actors were different to the classic stars who dominated in the Old Hollywood era. Unafraid to tackle themes that were otherwise taboo, these new performers reflected American cinema’s desire to take the next step towards greatness, and Robert De Niro was one of them. He began working with newcomer Brian De Palma in the ‘60s, as well as indie legend Roger Corman, establishing himself as an up-and-coming star, full of potential to become the next big thing.
This inevitably led De Niro to Scorsese, resulting in a widely praised performance in Mean Streets. The 1970s was an incredibly successful decade for the actor, with roles in gritty dramas like The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, and The Deer Hunter establishing him as an icon. Since then, De Niro has tried his hand at a wide array of genres, including some very questionable and cringe-inducing comedies like Dirty Grandpa, but there is one kind of film he once refused to do.
According to Robert De Niro: A Life by Shawn Levy, the actor claimed in 1980, “I wouldn’t want to touch a western. They’ve been done so often, and who wants to be out in the middle of the desert for three months?” It’s not an unreasonable desire; shooting in the heat of a dusty desert certainly isn’t for everyone, even if he’d be getting paid a lot to do it.
Yet, it’s ironic that De Niro would make such a claim when just four years later he would work with spaghetti western pioneer Sergio Leone, starring in the film Once Upon A Time in America. To be fair, the film isn’t a western – it’s a crime drama – but it certainly takes influence from the classic genre.
However, De Niro did appear in the anti-western Killers of the Flower Moon in 2023, which is as close as he has ever gotten to the genre. The movie was directed by Scorsese – De Niro’s closest collaborator and good friend – so it seems as though the actor trusted the filmmaker to create a western that wasn’t like all the others. Certainly, Killers of the Flower Moon isn’t your average John Wayne western; it explores the murders of various Osage members during the early 1900s, standing in stark opposition to the many famous western movies that depicted Native people as ‘savages’ and antagonistic characters.
It appears that De Niro will only get close to the western genre if the movie offers an alternative to the classic heroic American narrative that defined the films of John Ford, for example. He appeared in The Comeback Trail in 2020, which blended the western genre with crime comedy, similarly allowing himself to appear in a version of the genre far-removed from its heyday.
