23 Years Later, This Western Thriller Is Officially Finding New Life on Streaming

Even though he's an Academy Award winner with name recognition and many massive hits under his belt, in a certain way, Ron Howard is still a filmmaker who doesn’t get enough credit. Though he gets his dues as a creator of crowd-pleasing cinema, Howard is one of the few filmmakers working today who has shown utter fearlessness in tackling virtually every single genre; he’s made comedies, biopics, family films, novel adaptations, sci-fi adventures, sports dramas, thrillers, and a few controversial titles that sparked significant discourse. And in this spirit, Howard was the perfect director to reinvent the Western genre at a time in which it was experiencing a fallow period, as there hadn’t been many successful entries since the early ‘90s. The Missing wasn’t a massive hit when it was first released, but the film — which has spent weeks on Tubi's charts of most-streamed films — deserves another look for its unflinching realism, historically-based details, and terrific leading performances.

Based on the novel The Last Ride by Thomas Eidson, The Missing is set in 19th century New Mexico, where a splinter group of Apache warriors begin raiding villages, abducting women and girls to sell into sexual servitude in Mexico. Cate Blanchett stars as Maggie Gilkeson, an independent rancher whose boyfriend Brake Baldwin (Aaron Eckhart) is killed during a raid, with their daughter Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) among the captured. Although Maggie has long resisted the reconnection attempts of her father Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones), who abandoned her mother when she was a child, she realizes that his experience as a cowboy and explorer might be put to good use in finding Lilly. The Missing is an epic Western, the likes of which are reminiscent of the Technicolor classics of the ‘60s, but it’s also an intimate study about fractured families and redemption.

‘The Missing’ Is a Gritty Revisionist Western

The Missing is a successful Western because the film understands the meaning of isolation during a period in which this area of America was completely separated from the rest of civilization. Maggie is a character who was always going to have to fight hard to make a life for herself, and the fact that her father did not properly raise her makes it even more challenging. This context is necessary for understanding how helpless the situation is, as the authorities in the area are minimal, and have no realistic chance of actually catching up to the kidnappers. It also underlines the effect of the estrangement; since there were no ways to communicate between long distances when the land was still being settled, Sam has truly not gotten to know the woman that his daughter became, and feels as if he has missed out on a major part of her life.

Howard received praise for the historical accuracy in The Missing because the film took efforts to consult members of the Apache community and faithfully showcase their language and culture. There are plenty of harmful xenophobic tropes that tend to pop up within classical Westerns regarding indigenous people, but The Missing is clear to indicate that the kidnappers are a divergent, corrupted offshoot of the Apache community that has formed a deal with powerful criminal bodies to take advantage of the women left defenseless on the frontier. The Missing is considerate in how it depicts its sympathetic Apache characters, and it also does not turn Sam into a white savior character. He is an anti-hero who has committed terrible deeds out of selfishness and greed, and helping his daughter protect her family will not erase all the harm that he has caused.

‘The Missing’ Is One of Ron Howard’s Most Underrated Films

The Missing was an interesting showcase for its stars because Blanchett has rarely done action-based roles, but here, she gives a great physical performance, complete with an authentic American accent. It’s refreshing to see a female protagonist in a Western film who is not made to fit within masculine standards of heroism; that Maggie is a mother is her primary motivation, and it’s also what gives her strength. It’s also noted that Maggie is not only fighting to defend her own family, but to spare the pain of the other women who were kidnapped. Jones had a history of Western-related roles, but the degree to which Howard researched the historical details of the era allowed him to give one of his greatest performances within the genre. It clearly made an impact on Jones, who would go on to direct several Westerns of his own within the years that followed.

The Missing may not have ever been a traditional commercial sensation because it is an unapologetically grounded film that is honest about life within the 19th century, and does not necessarily paint American expansionism in a positive light. Yet, The Missing is also not a relentlessly downbeat story about suffering, as it explores how virtues can emerge within the harshest of circumstances, and how it is never too late to do the right thing. Rarely do Westerns capture the horror, imagination, and spectacle of an open landscape that was only barely touched by civilization, and The Missing works in a classical tradition without falling victim to the trap of nostalgia. Box office returns only tell half of a film’s story, and The Missing is worthy of reevaluation because of how ahead of its time it was.