Lead with the assumption that modern and contemporary forms of the western genre are engaged in the a necessary »dialogue« with the classic western, this work discusses the genre and terminological problems associated with the »contemporary American neo–western«. In accordance with understanding the genre as a »structure beyond the film«, western is directly connected to the American »myth« and »national identity«, as well as the established iconographic spectrum. The theoretical section of this work includes film genre discussions by André Bazin, Nikica Gilić, Jim Kitses and Steve Neale, presented in the frame od the historical development of the western genre and its relations toward the »American national myth«, with an emphasis on individual film achievements. Considering the elements of the »neo–western« are, within the contemporary cinema, found in other film genres, like crime films, dramas or road films, the problems of the »genre fluidity« are addressed as well, again related to those of terminology. In continuation, various forms of representation of the »American West« in the »contemporary neo–western« are defined in accordance with the discussions by Campbell, Matthew Carter and Patricia Nelson Limerick. In the end, the main genre elements of the »contemporary neo–western« are articulated on the example of No Country for Old Men (2007) by Joel and Ethan Coen, with an emphasis on its criticism oriented toward the »American myth«, as well as the concepts of »masculinity«, »heroism« and those of »good« and »evil«.