The Western Flop Vince Vaughn & Billy Bob Thornton Would Probably Like You To Forget About

Ever since Taylor Sheridan convinced Billy Bob Thornton to star in his successful new series, "Landman," we've been enjoying somewhat of a Thornton renaissance. But as much as the Paramount show reminds us of the actor's talents, it also reminds us of his past missteps. Thornton's worst movie is a crime thriller with a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score, and is the only film in the man's filmography to have earned such a dismal rating from the Tomatometer. But he's got plenty of other stinkers that came close, including 2004's "The Alamo," which was one of the biggest box office flops of all time and made just $23.9 million on a $92 million budget. Then, there's "South of Heaven, West of Hell," which sort of feels like a film in which Thornton was obliged to appear but wasn't necessarily all that happy about it.

Nor should he have been. This 2000 western came from country singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam, who not only co-wrote, directed, and scored the film, but also starred as Arizona Marshall Valentine Caset, who, in the early 1900s, receives a surprise visit from his adoptive father Leland Henry (Luke Askew), and his sons Taylor Henry (Vince Vaughn) and Arvid Henry (Paul Reubens). But the U.S. Marshal has worked hard to escape his past and tries once again to leave the outlaw Henrys behind, moving to a new town only for his old clan to track him down again. Thornton plays Brigadier Smalls, a mysterious character who enters the film alongside actress Adalyne (Bridget Fonda), and doesn't really do much beyond show off his impressive wig and imply that he may actually be dead. When I say Thornton "plays" Brigadier Smalls, he's almost not in the movie long enough to justify using such a verb, which turned out to be a good thing for Thornton, who certainly didn't need this clunker of a revisionist Western as a major part of his filmography. As for Vaughn, who had yet to pop in "Old School" and fully evolve into the comedic superstar he was in the 2000s, he had just played Norman Bates in the "Psycho" remake and appeared opposite Jennifer Lopez in "The Cell," so his career wasn't exactly in a great place, either. 

The film wasn't just a critical and commercial failure, it was nothing short of a protracted debacle, with Yoakam investing his own money in a project that reportedly resulted in him being taken to small claims court by crew members and losing his longtime producer, music director, and guitarist as a result of the financial straits in which the movie landed him.

Dwight Yoakam rose to prominence as a country singer in the 1980s and '90s, but he was no stranger to Hollywood by the time he wrote, directed, and starred in "South of Heaven, West of Hell." He'd been acting for a few years before Billy Bob Thornton cast him in his celebrated 1996 drama "Sling Blade," in which he played Doyle Hargraves, receiving a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, along with the rest of the cast, for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. By the time he came to start working on "South of Heaven, West of Hell," he'd appeared in a handful of other films and TV shows, and seemed ready to take the next step by writing and directing. Alas, his passion project remains the only film Yoakam has starred in, written, and directed, and judging by the reception, that's probably a good thing.

The film premiered at the 2000 Slamdance Film Festival before hitting theaters on December 15, 2000. It earned just $28,149 at the box office. Critics weren't impressed, either. The film has a 14% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, but in fairness, not a single so-called "top critic" reviewed this film, and there are only seven reviews available. However, a quick glance at those appraisals don't exactly inspire confidence. The sole "fresh" review, for instance, comes from Jaime N. Christley at something allied "Apollo Guide," and is summed up thusly: "It's best not to ask too many questions — better just to switch your brain to stand-by and enjoy the show."

Variety's Robert Koehler did review the movie, but he wasn't much more impressed than any other critic, writing, "This tyro filmmaking effort by country superstar Dwight Yoakam lacks the critical ingredients of shape, consistent tone, rhythm and economy that would make this truly old-fashioned oater into a lean, compelling adventure." Among the film's issues, according to Koehler, were "botched editing and staging," "awkward comedy and grizzled genre excess," and a star who was "still learning how to act."

Dwight Yoakam told The Hollywood Reporter (via CMT) that making "South of Heaven, West of Hell" was "the hardest experience [he'd] ever gone through in [his] professional life in terms of executing art." The outlet reported that several individuals involved with the film filed complaints with unions and brought litigation against Yoakam in small claims court. That would be bad enough, but Yoakam also sold his $825,000 Malibu home to finance the movie after the original financiers dropped out. When the film became a historic bomb, this led to even more fallout.

According to Style Weekly, Yoakam's producer, music director, and guitarist Pete Anderson was a casualty of "South of Heaven, West of Hell," when Yoakam broke up his band in 2002 in order to hire a more affordable touring ensemble. Anderson wasn't exactly thrilled about being dropped from the touring he was promised, and promptly sued the country singer and his label for breach of contract. Yoakam settled out of court.

Billy Bob Thornton, meanwhile, was no stranger to Westerns flops, having sworn off directing after his own Western, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses," was ruined in the edit by Harvey Weinstein. Again, Yoakam's oater wasn't exactly a Billy Bob Thornton film, as his appearance amounts to little more than a cameo (despite some of the posters selling him as the star). It still lives on his filmography regardless, and as such, you might think Thornton steered clear of his country singer pal in the years after "South of Heaven, West of Hell" debuted. But this wasn't the end of the pair's professional relationship, with Yoakam appearing in Thornton's Amazon Prime series "Goliath" back in 2016. While we haven't seen him pop up on "Landman" just yet, season 2 has already been confirmed, so we might soon see the duo redeem themselves in another "South of Heaven, West of Hell" reunion.