Steven Spielberg says he’s developing his first Western, but his comments ignore the fact that he dabbled in the genre before, with the TNT miniseries Into The West. With the release of his reimaging of West Side Story, he's finally made a musical, which has long been on his bucket list. Notwithstanding this, Spielberg has said he hasn't tackled the Western genre yet, and that he's got a few in development.
Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of all time, with a body of work unrivaled among his peers. He's hit all the major genres during his fifty-plus years in the industry, including thrillers (Jaws, Duel), action adventures (the Indiana Jones movies, Jurassic Park), sci-fi (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.), war (Saving Private Ryan, War Horse), fantasy (Hook, The BFG), historical dramas (Lincoln, Amistad), comedy (1941, The Terminal), and even romance (Always). While a Steven Spielberg Western movie is exciting to contemplate, it's untrue to say he's never made a Western before, as he was an executive producer on Western miniseries Into The West.
Into The West premiered on TNT in 2005, executively produced by Steven Spielberg through DreamWorks Television. Starting in the 1820s and spanning multiple generations, it explores the American expansion as told through the eyes of two families, one white American, and one Native American, as their lives become intertwined through the key events of the 19th-century. Steven Spielberg assembled a fantastic ensemble cast of characters for the miniseries, including Josh Brolin, Keri Russell, Wes Studi, Gary Busey, Michael Spears, Sean Astin, Tonantzin Carmelo, and Will Patton among many others. It was a critically acclaimed miniseries at the time, though it has sadly been largely forgotten over the years.
Executive producers can have many degrees of involvement. It can be a superficial, or ceremonial, role or a legally required inclusion with little-to-no involvement. Conversely, it can give a project gravitas, open doors for financing, and include hands-on control over numerous aspects of production. Spielberg usually falls into the latter category and has been an executive producer on many TV shows, most notably HBO's Band of Brothers and The Pacific. He was a huge creative presence on those acclaimed shows and they're often included in any retrospective of his career. It would therefore be a disservice to Into The West to omit it from his filmography or say he hasn't made a Western, as it's a worthy addition at the level of those shows, with rich storytelling told on an epic scale.
Hopefully, Steven Spielberg will have the opportunity in the near future to get behind the camera for one of the Western movies he's developing. It couldn't come at a better time, as Netflix is currently leading the way on reviving the once flourishing Western genre, with The Harder They Fall, and Power Of The Dog both critically acclaimed entries. Still, Into The West deserves recognition and remembrance as a Steven Spielberg Western.