Writing the West

Aaron Eckhart is an American actor known for his range across dramas, thrillers, and character-driven indie films. He broke out with In the Company of Men (1997) and earned mainstream recognition with Thank You for Smoking (2005) before starring in major films such as The Dark Knight (2008) and Olympus Has Fallen (2013). Eckhart appeared in Ron Howard’s The Missing (2003), a revisionist western set in the New Mexico Territory, and more recently Thieves Highway (2025), which draws on modern western themes of land, moral codes, and rural justice—an extension of his real-life connection to ranching in Montana.