Highest-Rated Movies about 'American Frontier'

For a Few Dollars More (1965), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Santa Fe Trail (1940), The Revenant (2015), Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best American Frontier movies.

#16. Hostiles (2017)

Storyline: In 1892, after nearly two decades of fighting the Cheyenne, the Apache, and the Comanche natives, the United States Cavalry Captain and war hero, Joseph Blocker, is ordered to escort the ailing Cheyenne chief, Yellow Hawk--his most despised enemy--to his ancestral home in Montana's Valley of the Bears. Nauseated with a baleful anger, Joseph's unwelcome final assignment in the feral American landscape is further complicated, when the widowed settler, Rosalie Quaid, is taken in by the band of soldiers, as aggressive packs of marauding Comanches who are still on the warpath, are thirsty for blood. In a territory crawling with hostiles, can the seasoned Captain do his duty one last time?

Plot Keywords: western, historical, drama, adventure, war, race relations, violence ...

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#17. Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)

Storyline: In Revolutionary America, Gil Martin takes his new wife Lana back to his farm in upstate New York. The area is remote and a distance from the fort but they are happy living in their one room cabin. With the declaration of independence, the settlers soon find themselves at war with the British and their Indian allies. Their farm is burned out and the Martins take work with Sarah McKlennar. The war continues however as the Martins try to make a new life.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: history, war, drama, adventure, romance, western, american frontier ...

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#18. The Hanging Tree (1959)

Storyline: In 1873, on the Gold Trail, Montana, the mysterious and controlling Dr. Joseph Frail arrives in the small town of Skull Creek with miners in a gold rush. Dr. Frail buys a cabin on the top of a hill and he sees the smalltime thief Rune wounded and chased by a mob that wants to hang him. Dr. Frail helps and heals Rune; but in return, he demands that the young man becomes his bond servant. The alcoholic healer and preacher George Grubb tells to the locals that Dr. Frail, who is an excellent gambler and gunfighter, is a devil and has a mysterious past but nobody gives attention to his words. Soon the stagecoach is robbed by thieves that kill the passengers but the coachman survives and three days later he reaches Skull Creek. He tells that the horses had speed down the hill with a young woman inside the stagecoach. The men organize a pursuit and the rude Frenchy Plante finds the Swedish Elizabeth Mahler burnt and blind. Dr. Frail and Rune take care of her and they learn that Elizabeth and her father, who was killed in the heist, had come to America to settle down. When Elizabeth is healed, she falls in an unrequited love with Dr. Frail and she decides to stay in Skull Creek to seek gold with Rune. They form a partnership with Frenchy and Dr. Frail secretly finances them to begin their business with The Lucky Lady Mine. When Elizabeth learns that Dr. Frail is helping her, she is upset that he is trying to control them and she promises to pay her debt to him someday. During a heavy rain, a tree falls down at the mine and the trio of partners finds a fortune in gold underground. Frenchy takes some gold to town to buy drinks with the locals and when he is drunk, he takes actions that will affect the lives of the locals and Skull Creek, mostly of Dr. Frail, Elizabeth and Rune.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Plot Keywords: western, drama, romance, revenge, crime, mystery, gunfight ...

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#19. The Long Riders (1980)

Storyline: After the American Civil War, outlaw Jesse James forms a gang comprised of himself, his brother Frank James, Cole Younger and his two brothers, Jim Younger and Bob Younger as well as Ed Miller and his brother Clell Miller. The gang is led by Jesse James and Cole Younger. The gang starts by robbing small banks and stagecoaches in the Midwest and in their home state of Missouri. Later, the gang targets bigger prizes, such as larger banks and trains. This criminal activity attracts the attention of the railroad company owners who hire the Pinkerton Detective Agency to capture the gang. When the gang kills a few Pinkerton detectives, a war of sorts starts between the Pinkerton Agency and the James-Younger gang. Sometimes caught in the middle of it are innocent civilians. In 1876, the gang is running out of banks to rob in Missouri and decides to raid a supposedly fat bank, far up North, in the state of Minnesota. But the Pinkerton Detective Agency is setting up a trap there.—nufs68

Plot Keywords: western, gunfight, historical adaptation, family bonds, violence, revenge, american frontier ...

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#20. The Culpepper Cattle Company (1972)

Storyline: Teenager Ben Mockridge feels life in a Wild West farm town has nothing better to offer than horse-cart racing with other hicks, so he naively begs cattle company owner Frank Culpepper to engage him as the youngest cowboy for a long cattle trail to a fort. His mother barely notices. Ben doesn't even seem to get it when he's told to report as 'little Mary' to the old cook, whose words, "Cowboy is something you do only if you have nothing better." gradually become clear. Instead of an exciting heroic macho life, it's endless hard work, dumb chores and embarrassment, even getting literally caught with his pants down, robbed of his horse, and witnessing unpunished crimes...—KGF Vissers

Plot Keywords: western, 19th century, american frontier, coming of age, adventure, violence, survival ...

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#21. Fort Dobbs (1958)

Storyline: Having eluded a posse, a wanted man rescues a woman and her young son from a Comanche attack. He then escorts them to the presumed safety of a U.S. Cavalry fort. Trouble develops along the way when the woman comes to believe that her rescuer was responsible for the recent death of her husband.—dinky-4 of Minneapolis

Plot Keywords: western, gunfight, revenge, lone hero, desert, manhunt, suspense ...

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#22. The Vanishing American (1925)

Storyline: History, as portrayed in this film, has been a succession of conquests of stronger races over weaker ones. As played out on the stage of Monument Valley, long ago, tribes of Indians defeated the ancient cliff dwellers; then came the Europeans to conquer the Indians. Now, in the early 20th Century, a tribe of Navajo live on a reservation overseen by an Indian-hating agent, Booker. He and his men steal the best Indian horses for their own profit. Nophaie, a tribal leader, complains to Booker's higher-ups, but he is unable to gain fair treatment from the whites. When World War I breaks out, an Army captain comes west in search of the horses that Booker was supposed to have bought from the Indians for a fair price. Marian Warner, the teacher at the Indian School, has befriended Nophaie, teaching him to read; she convinces him that the Great War is a fight for a more just world, and that, when that world comes, the Indian will be better treated. Nophaie not only brings horses for the Army, he and many other Indians enlist, and distinguish themselves in battle. But when they come back after the war is over, they find life for Indians even worse than when they left. Surely, they feel, it is time to fight back. But Nophaie is not so sure.—George S. Davis <mgeorges@prodigy.net>

Plot Keywords: silent film, western, race relations, colonialism, cultural conflict, historical drama, 1920s ...

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#23. The Proud Rebel (1958)

Storyline: With his home burned to the ground, his wife killed, and his 10-year-old son, David, rendered mute after witnessing the traumatizing incident, the former Confederate soldier, John Chandler, arrives in a small, post-Civil War Illinois community. Eager to move on with his life, and desperate to find an effective treatment for the boy, instead, John finds himself drawn into a fight with the two sons of the ruthless and unscrupulous sheep-farmer, Harry Burleigh, facing a severe $30 fine or thirty days of incarceration. As the strong, kind, and compassionate rancher, Linnett Moore, decides to intervene for the sake of David, providing food and shelter, before long, John will find himself involved in a long-standing feud. Now, faced with a cruel dilemma, John must choose between running away or putting down roots. But, can a proud Rebel find peace and love in Yankee territory?—Nick Riganas

Plot Keywords: western, family drama, historical drama, american civil war, father-son relationship, revenge, rural life ...

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#24. Man in the Wilderness (1971)

Storyline: In the early 1800's, a group of fur trappers and Indian traders are returning with their goods to civilisation and are making a desperate attempt to beat the oncoming winter. When guide Zachary Bass is injured in a bear attack, they decide he's a goner and leave him behind to die. When he recovers instead, he swears revenge on them and tracks them and their paranoiac expedition leader down.—Alfred Jingle

Plot Keywords: adventure, survival, western, revenge, historical, wilderness, loneliness ...

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#25. Heaven's Gate (1980)

Storyline: Wyoming, 1890. James Averill is the Sherriff of Johnson County, a county largely inhabited by foreign immigrants. The wealthy cattle owners view the immigrant farmers as a nuisance and hindrance to them enlarging their own land. The cattlemen's association, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, effectively declares war on the immigrant farmers, and gets the state government's blessing. They assemble an army of guns-for-hire, and, backed by the U.S. Cavalry, set out to rid the state of the immigrants. James Averill's heart is with the immigrants, but he is not sure they have a chance of winning the inevitable war.

Plot Keywords: western, epic, historical drama, american frontier, 19th century, class struggle, violence ...

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#26. The Stalking Moon (1968)

Storyline: When an army scout retires to a farm in New Mexico he takes pity on a white woman and her "half-breed" son recently rescued from Indians, and invites them to join him. He does this even knowing the child's father is a feared and murderous Apache and that sooner or later a showdown is almost inevitable.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Plot Keywords: western, drama, adventure, suspense, stalking, revenge, wilderness survival ...

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#27. The Tall Men (1955)

Storyline: Two brothers, Ben and Clint, join a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. While heading for Texas they save Nella from the Indians, and she decides to ride with them. Ben and Nella start to get romantic, but Ben isn't ambitious enough for her, and she soon meets up with the boss of the cattle drive. Will she make the right choice, and, more importantly, will the cattle make it to Montana !—Colin Tinto <cst@imdb.com>

Plot Keywords: western, adventure, action, drama, montana, gold rush, brotherhood ...

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#28. The Salvation (2014)

Storyline: The American West in the 1870s. A European settler, Jon Jensen (Mads Mikkelsen), has just welcomed his wife and son to the country when they are kidnapped and murdered. He takes revenge on the murderers, only to discover that one was the brother of a local land baron, Henry Delarue. Delarue runs the local town with a brutal hand. Now he wants vengeance on the man who killed his brother and the local townspeople are too scared of him to stand up to him. Jon is fighting more than just the local thugs, he is facing the entire town.

Plot Keywords: western, revenge, danish film, violence, gunfight, 19th century, american frontier ...

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#30. Cahill, United States Marshal (1973)

Storyline: J.D. Cahill is the toughest U.S. Marshal they've got, just the sound of his name makes bad guys stop in their tracks, so when his two young boys want to get his attention they decide to rob a bank. They end up getting more than they bargained for.—Christopher D. Ryan <cryan@direct.ca>

Plot Keywords: western, action, revenge, father-son relationship, fugitive, gunfight, american frontier ...

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