Some pointed out that Huang's method of production-featuring amateur casts, low budgets, real locations and creative freedom-had already been seen in the new wave of Taiwan cinema during the 1980s, and that The Man from Island West simply raised this approach to a peak.
也有人認為，黃明川的創作方式，如採用非職業演員、低成本製作、強調實景拍攝以及創作自由等，已經見諸於一九八○年代的台灣新電影之中，《西部來的人》只是將這樣的理念推到極致。