Highest-Rated Movies about '1850s', Sort by Popularity

Barbary Coast (1975), The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000), The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005), Django Unchained (2012), Madeleine (1950), Santa Fe Trail (1940), The Emigrants (1971) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best 1850s movies.

#4. The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005)

Storyline: It is the year 1857. The British are plundering the resources of their Indian subjects, who have reached their breaking point. Soldier Mangal Pandey (Aamir Khan) leads an uprising against India's imperialist occupiers -- events the British call a mutiny and the Indians call a war for independence. Throughout the violent events, Mangal maintains a friendship with Capt. William Gordon (Toby Stephens), who sympathizes with India's subjugated citizens and obeys his conscience.

Plot Keywords: indian, captain, british government official, british soldier, freedom fighter, officer, brash ...

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#5. Django Unchained (2012)

Storyline: In 1858, a bounty hunter named Schultz seeks out a slave named Django and buys him because he needs him to find some men he is looking for. After finding them, Django wants to find his wife, Broomhilda, who along with him were sold separately by his former owner for trying to escape. Schultz offers to help him if he chooses to stay with him and be his partner. Eventually they learn that she was sold to a plantation in Mississippi. Knowing they can't just go in and say they want her, they come up with a plan so that the owner will welcome them into his home and they can find a way.

Plot Keywords: slave, bounty hunter, criminal, plantation owner, wife, servant, gritty ...

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#7. Santa Fe Trail (1940)

Storyline: After graduating from West Point, Jeb Stuart (Errol Flynn) and George Custer (Ronald Reagan) are both stationed to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Once there, they find that the violent abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey) has laid waste to the state, killing anyone who gets in the way of his anti-slavery crusade. While the duo must work together to battle the murderous revolutionary, they also come to blows over their competing love for Kit Carson Holliday (Olivia de Havilland).

Plot Keywords: abolitionist, soldier, woman, melodramatic, rousing, kansas, violence ...

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#8. The Emigrants (1971)

Storyline: In the middle of the 19th century, Kristina and Karl-Oskar live in a small rural village in Smaaland (southern Sweden). They get married and try to make a living on a small spot of land. However, the small size of their land, the infertile soil, and some bad harvests make it tough. One of their children even starves to death. Thus, they decide to emigrate to the U.S. They meet a group of farmers with their families planning the emigration under the leadership of a banned priest. They sell everything and embark for the U.S. The journey on the sailing ship is long and tedious. Some of the emigrants will never reach the New World.—Gerhard Windecker <g.wind@mbox300.swipnet.se>

Plot Keywords: farmer, husband, wife, son, daughter, somber, touching ...

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#9. Westward the Women (1951)

Storyline: In a time when "The West" pretty much ends in Texas and only California is slowly being populated by the white men, there's a severe lack of women among the workers on Roy Whitman's farm in the California Valley. So he goes back east to Chicago to recruit 150 women willing to become wives for his employees. From the candidates he selects 138 who seem able to survive a months long journey across "The Great American Desert" and the Rocky Mountains.—Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

Plot Keywords: prostitute, trail guide, mail-order bride, pregnant woman, native american, cook, amusing ...

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#10. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Storyline: During the mid-nineteenth century, Jeremiah Johnson, after a stint in the US Army, decides that he would prefer a life of solitude and more importantly peace by living with nature in the mountains of the frontier of the American west. This plan entails finding a piece of land upon which to build a house. This quest ends up being not quite what he envisioned as he does require the assistance of others to find his footing, and in turn he amasses friends and acquaintances along the way, some who become more a part of his life than he would have imagined. Perhaps most importantly, some of those people provide him with the knowledge of how to co-exist with some of the many Indian tribes, most importantly the Crow, on whose land in Colorado Jeremiah ultimately decides to build his home. But an act by Jeremiah upon a request by the US Cavalry leads to a chain of events that may forever change the peaceful relationship he worked so hard to achieve with his neighbors and their land.

Plot Keywords: mountain man, native american, chief, settler, soldier, wife, intense ...

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#11. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Storyline: Adam, the eldest of seven brothers, goes to town to get a wife. He convinces Milly to marry him that same day. They return to his backwoods home. Only then does she discover he has six brothers - all living in his cabin. Milly sets out to reform the uncouth siblings, who are anxious to get wives of their own. Then, after reading about the Roman capture of the Sabine women, Adam develops an inspired solution to his brothers' loneliness.

Plot Keywords: woman, brother, mountain man, townsperson, father, love interest, heartwarming ...

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#12. Camille (1936)

Storyline: An attractive woman going by the name Marguerite lives in Paris and is a courtesan, kept by the rich aristocrat Baron de Varville. When the handsome young Armand sees her for the first time, he immediately falls in love. Camille is not so easy as to fall for his charms immediately. She lives a comfortable life, after all. As she comes to have feelings for him, Armand's father intervenes asking her not to cast a shadow on his son's future prospects and she agrees. In her greatest time of need however, the loving Armand returns to her.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: courtesan, young man, love interest, father, baron, maid, melodramatic ...

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#13. Burn! (1969)

Storyline: The professional mercenary Sir William Walker instigates a slave revolt on the Caribbean island of Queimada in order to help improve the British sugar trade. Years later he is sent back to deal with the same rebels that he built up because they have seized too much power that now threatens British sugar interests.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: secret agent, general, plantation owner, dockworker, slave, engaging, powerful ...

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#14. Pale Rider (1985)

Storyline: A gold mining camp in the California foothills is besieged by a neighboring landowner intent on stealing their claims. A preacher (Clint Eastwood) rides into camp and uses all of his powers of persuasion to convince the landowner to give up his attacks on the miners.

Plot Keywords: hero, land owner, miner, marshal, dark, tense, gritty ...

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#15. The Iron Horse (1924)

Storyline: Springfield, Illinois. Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west, but Marsh, a contractor, is sceptical. Abraham Lincoln looks on as their children, Davy Brandon and Miriam Marsh, play together. Brandon sets off with Davy to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him. Davy buries his father... Years pass. It is 1862 and Lincoln signs the bill authorizing construction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways. Marsh is principal contractor and Miriam is engaged to Jesson, the chief engineer... Crews of Chinese, Italians, and Irish work to build the railway while resisting Indian attack. When the pay train is delayed by Indian ambush, the Italians go on strike. Miriam persuades them to return to work... Marsh needs to find a shortcut through the Black Hills. To finish on time, he needs to shorten the route by 200 miles. Bauman, the biggest land owner, wants the route to stay the same - through his land. Marsh has entrusted Jesson with finding the new route. Bauman has Ruby, a saloon girl, persuade Jesson to do otherwise... Davy, now a pony express rider, recalls his father's discovery. He sets off to find the pass. He goes alone, except for Jesson...—David Steele

Plot Keywords: surveyor, contractor, engineer, renegade, landowner, fiancée, gritty ...

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