Medora: Empress of the Badlands

MEDORA: EMPRESS OF THE BADLANDS – Will Van de Crommert

September 15, 2026 Leave a comment

One of the greatest thrills I get as a film music critic is when I stumble upon a score for an almost completely unknown film, listen to it on a whim, and discover a gem. This happened to me this week when I listened to the music for this film, Medora: Empress of the Badlands, a period western directed by Daniel Bielinski, which had a very short theatrical run in limited cinemas back in April before moving to on-demand and streaming services. It is a tale that brings together Gilded Age New York wealth, European aristocracy, the Dakota cattle boom, Theodore Roosevelt’s Badlands period, frontier gun culture, and late-19th-century French politics, all in one remarkable story. Read more…