The Acid Western is heavily influenced by the 1960’s counterculture, political turmoil, and use of illicit substances during that period. This subgenre is mainly reflected in film and few works of literature, if any, pertaining to it have been published. These films reflect the culture that they were produced in by presenting audiences with alternatives to capitalism, nihilistic life views, and living in harmony with nature. Oftentimes these narratives will slip into dreamlike states that develop into a very surreal vision, and sometimes the narratives may lack cohesion or a proper structure.
Two films were released that are considered the birth of the Acid Western. These films are The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind. They were shot back-to-back, and both contain most of the same cast and crew including Monte Hellman, Roger Corman, Jack Nicholson, Millie Perkins, Gregory Sander. These two films differed from the Spaghetti Westerns at the time in that they were purely American productions that reflected the country's countercultural movement of the 1960s. However, they still retain the Spaghetti Western's penchant for excessive violence.
A review published in New Yorker magazine written by Pauline Kael about Jodorowsky's El Topo was the first documented use of the term "Acid Western." In the review she explains how Jodorowsky's film combines Western cinema with the bohemian lifestyle and culture that emerged in the 1960s and became a more refined part of the art and culture in the 1970s.
"The avant-garde devices that once fascinated a small bohemian group because they seemed a direct pipeline to the occult and ‘the marvelous’ now reach the new mass bohemianism of youth. But the marvelous has become a bag of old Surrealist tricks: the acid-Western style is synthesized from devices of the once avant-garde"
- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker 1971
Screenwriter and author Rudolph "Rudy" Wurlitzer has his novel The Drop Edge of Yonder published. This book is one of the few works of literature that fall into the subgenre of the Acid Western. Wurlitzer had penned the scripts for Acid Westerns such as Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Walker (1987) that are considered classics of the subgenre. He also wrote the scripts for precursors of the subgenre like Glen and Randa (1969) and Two-Lane Blacktop (1971). In fact, this book is based on an unused screenplay titled Zebulon that had garnered interest from directors such as Sam Peckinpah and Hal Ashby. Other titles written by Wurlitzer that are in a similar vein include Nog (1968) and Flats (1970), but neither of these achieve the full Acid Western-style of The Drop Edge of Yonder.
The Drop Edge of Yonder by 
Duel in the Sun
Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad.
The Shooting; Ride the Whirlwind
In the mid-sixties, the maverick American director Monte Hellman conceived of two westerns at the same time. As shot back-to-back for famed producer Roger Corman, they feature overlapping casts and crews. The films - The Shooting, about a motley assortment of loners following a mysterious wanted man through a desolate frontier, and Ride in the Whirlwind, about a group of cowhands pursued by vigilantes for crimes they did not commit, are rigorous, artful, and wholly unconventional journeys.
The Wild Bunch
Outlaws on the U.S.-Mexican border face the march of progress, the Mexican army and a gang of bounty hunters led by a former member as they plan to rob a U.S. Army train.
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
A prospector discovers a waterhole after being left for dead in the desert by his double-crossing partners. When his ex-partners visit the well, a surprise awaits them.
El Topo
Classic Americana and avant-garde European cinema sensibilities meet Zen Buddhism and the Bible as a master gunfighter and comic mystic must defeat his four sharp-shooting rivals on an increasingly bizarre path to allegorical self-enlightenment and surreal resurrection.
The Last Movie
A Hollywood movie crew is in the midst of making a western in a remote Peruvian village. When production wraps, the baleful stuntman Kansas remains, attempting to find redemption in the isolation of Peru and the arms of a former prostitute. Meanwhile, the local Indians have taken over the abandoned set and begun to stage a ritualistic re-enactment of the production with Kansas as their sacrificial lamb.
Jeremiah Johnson
Jeremiah Johnson, disillusioned by society, sets out to be a mountain man in the mid-1800s.
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
An outlaw establishes his own brand of law and order, building a town on the edge of civilization in this farcical Western.
Ulzana's Raid
A scout assigned to aid the cavalry in tracking down a band of renegade Indians, attempts to teach an idealistic lieutenant that the only way to fight brutality is with a stronger force.
Pat Garrett & BIlly the Kid
An aging Pat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons, his sole purpose being to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.
Walker
The life of William Walker, a 19th century adventurer who abandoned his career in law and politics to become a soldier of fortune and dictator of Nicaragua.
Dead Man
On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange North American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.
The Proposition
In the Australian outback during the 1880s, Charlie Burns is presented with an impossible proposition by local law enforcement. The only way for him to save his younger brother from the gallows is to find and kill his psychotic older brother within nine days. Local law enforcer Captain Stanley has recently arrived from Britain and is facing problems of his own as he tries to shield his innocent wife from the brutalities of their new surroundings and deal with mounting pressures from renegade natives and his superior.
Quantum Cowboys
Two hapless drifters, Frank and Bruno, team up with Linde to recover her land and trek across 1870's Southern Arizona to find an elusive frontier musician. The complex quantum time theory is blended with philosophical musings about art as the way we understand our history and memories, with gunfights, horses, dance halls, cacti, and saloons!
