11 Years Later, Michael Fassbender's Forgotten Western Masterpiece Is Streaming For Free

Published Aug 21, 2026, 5:30 PM EDT Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more. Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor. He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre. To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net. There is an underrated, lesser-seen Michael Fassbender Western that is available to watch right now for free on streaming. Fassbender is not known for Western movie roles. He has established himself in everything from psychological dramas and historical epics to spy movies, superhero releases, and crime dramas. However, in 2015, he took on one of the lead roles in a revisionist Western that co-starred Kodi Smit-McPhee. The movie is Slow West, the directorial debut of John Maclean, which takes place in the mythical American West. Smit-McPhee stars as a young Scotsman who comes to the American West searching for his lost love after her father flees Scotland when he ends up with a bounty on his head. When the young man arrives, he teams up with a bounty hunter (Fassbender) to find the young woman, not knowing there is a bounty on her head in America as well. Slow West was released on May 15, 2015, in the United States, but it had a simultaneous video-on-demand release, causing it to disappear quite quickly. It did make $1.3 million at the box office, while receiving positive reviews, with a 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating. However, the slow-burn Western remains a mostly unknown release, but it is streaming for free, so people can see why it received such great reviews. Slow West Is Streaming on Tubi Slow West is currently streaming for free on Tubi, as it was added to the streaming service in August 2026. The movie follows a young man named Jay (Smit-McPhee) who comes to America to find his lost love, not knowing how dangerous the American West is. He meets a bounty hunter named Silas (Fassbender), who agrees to help him. However, Silas knows there is a bounty on the young woman's head and plans to cash in himself. This all leads to a series of violent events when they find other bounty hunters looking for the young woman (Caren Pistorius) and her father (Rory McCann), and eventually Silas decides he needs to do the right thing and stand by Smit-McPhee to attempt to reunite him with the young woman and stop the bounty hunters seeking to collect the bounty. Slow West Is A Criminally Underseen Revisionist Western The fact that this was a movie simultaneously released on demand, from a first-time director, helped doom it. The film did break $1 million at the box office, which is more than can be said for many first-time directors' debuts, but the movie deserves a lot more love and respect. Not enough people have heard of it, which is tragic since it has such a positive critical response. However, the good news is that the movie might start to get a lot more attention thanks to the free streaming on Tubi and the fact that the director's follow-up movie is getting more attention after its 2025 release in the United Kingdom. Tornado, which co-stars Jack Lowden and Tim Roth, is getting attention in the United States this year, and it might finally help Maclean break out after Slow West's impressive debut. Tornado stars Koki as a young Japanese woman in Scotland in the 1790s who goes on the run from a gang of brigands after her father is killed. It has a similar story and theme to Slow West, with a young person running from armed killers, and with it also streaming on American services, it might give people an incentive to look back on Slow West 11 years after its initial release. Michael Fassbender Gives One Of His Best Performances In Slow West While he is not known for his Western roles, Fassbender proved that he was up to the task in Slow West. Critics praised director Maclean's slow-burn storyline and said he offered up an inventive story for genre fans. However, at the same time, Fassbender received praise for his performance as well. He is the man who walks the line between good and bad, and he has to make people believe he has the goodness in him. This should come as no surprise. Whether it was his performances as Magneto in the X-Men prequels or dramas like Shame, Fassbender has mastered the ability to be a bad person who could eventually do something great. He was great beside the teenage Smit-McPhee, and the two were able to really pull the viewers into the story and make this a Western that stands up well with other modern-day Westerns. Kodi Smit-McPhee Followed Up Slow West With Another Great Western Smit-McPhee ended up going on to star in another Western after Slow West, and that movie received a lot more mainstream attention. Six years after the release of Slow West, The Power of the Dog was released, and that movie was an Oscar contender. That film saw Smit-McPhee play Peter, the son of a woman named Rose (Kirsten Dunst). The story is dark, as he ends up being bullied and eventually mentored by a cruel ranch owner named Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose brother George (Jesse Plemons) falls in love with Rose. The Power of the Dog earned 12 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, while winning for Best Director (Jane Campion). Smit-McPhee also earned a nomination, and Slow West was where he hinted he could achieve this success. Release Date May 15, 2015 Runtime 84 Minutes Director John Maclean Cast Kodi Smit-McPhee Jay Cavendish