Highest-Rated Movies about 'American West'

Bad Company (1972), Ride in the Whirlwind (1965), Buck (2011), Hour of the Gun (1967), Santa Fe Trail (1940), Unforgiven (1992), The Wind (2018), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best American West movies.

#5. 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: western, history, war, adventure, drama, american civil war, military ...

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#6. Unforgiven (1992)

Storyline: The town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming is full of normal people trying to lead quiet lives. Cowboys try to make a living. Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett (Gene Hackman) tries to build a house and keep a heavy-handed order. The town prostitutes just try to get by.Then a couple of cowboys cut up one of them. Dissatisfied with Bill's justice, the prostitutes put a bounty on the cowboys. The bounty attracts a young gun billing himself as "The Schofield Kid" (Jaimz Woolvett), and aging killer William Munny (Clint Eastwood). Munny reformed for his young wife, and has been raising crops and two children in peace. But his wife is dead. Farm life is hard. And Munny is no good at it. So he calls his old partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), saddles his ornery nag, and rides off to kill one more time, blurring the lines between heroism and villainy, man and myth.

Plot Keywords: western, crime, drama, revenge, violence, moral dilemma, bounty hunter ...

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#9. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Storyline: Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized, and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rocks, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia". Based on the exploits of the historical characters.

Plot Keywords: western, crime, adventure, action, historical, biographical, outlaw ...

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#10. The Wild Bunch (1969)

Storyline: It's 1913, and the "traditional" American West is dying. Amongst the inhabitants of this dying era are a gang known as "the wild bunch." After a failed railroad office robbery, the gang heads to Mexico to do one last job. Seeing their times and lives drifting away in the 20th century, the gang takes the job and ends up in a brutally violent last stand against their enemies deemed to be corrupt, in a small Mexican town ruled by a ruthless general.

Plot Keywords: western, violence, shootout, moral ambiguity, american west, antihero, brotherhood ...

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#11. The Big Country (1958)

Storyline: Retired, wealthy sea Captain James McKay arrives in the vast expanse of the West to marry fiancée Pat Terrill. McKay is a man whose values and approach to life are a mystery to the ranchers and ranch foreman Steve Leech takes an immediate dislike to him. Pat is spoiled, selfish and controlled by her wealthy father, Major Henry Terrill. The Major is involved in a ruthless land war, over watering rights for cattle, with a rough hewn clan led by Rufus Hannassey. The land in question is owned by Julie Maragon and both Terrill and Hannassey want it.

Plot Keywords: western, epic, romance, drama, conflict, revenge, honor ...

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#13. Purgatory (1999)

Storyline: After outlaw Blackjack Britton (Eric Roberts) and his gang hold up a bank, they escape through a dust storm and wind up in the sleepy town of Refuge. Finding its inhabitants and sheriff (Sam Shepard) unusually passive and genteel, Blackjack and his bunch begin to take advantage, causing all manner of trouble. The gang can't fathom the town's lack of fight until they learn that Refuge is actually a purgatory for famous dead gunfighters who must resist the violence that marked their lives.

Plot Keywords: western, supernatural, crime, mystery, drama, redemption, small town ...

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#14. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Storyline: Rancher Dan Evans heads into Bisbee to clear up issues concerning the sale of his land when he witnesses the closing events of a stagecoach robbery led by famed outlaw Ben Wade. Shortly thereafter, Wade is captured by the law in Bisbee and Evans finds himself one of the escorts who will take Wade to the 3:10 to Yuma train in Contention for the reward of $200. Evans's effort to take Wade to the station is in part an effort to save his land but also part of an inner battle to determine whether he can be more than just a naive rancher in the eyes of his impetuous and gunslinging son William Evans. The transport to Contention is hazardous and filled with ambushes by Indians, pursuits by Wade's vengeful gang and Wade's own conniving and surreptitious demeanor that makes the ride all the more intense.

Plot Keywords: western, crime, drama, action, adventure, thriller, gunfight ...

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#15. Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Storyline: While visiting Paris in 1908, upper class Lord Burnstead loses his butler playing poker. Egbert and Effie Floud bring Ruggles back to Red Gap, Washington. Effie wants to take advantage of Ruggles' upper class background to influence Egbert's hick lifestyle. However, Egbert is more interested in partying and he takes Ruggles to the local 'beer bust'. When word gets out that "Colonel Ruggles is staying with his close friends" in the local paper, the butler becomes a town celebrity. After befriending Mrs. Judson, a widow who he impresses with his culinary skills, Ruggles decides to strike out on his own and open a restaurant. His transition from servant to independent man will depend on its success.—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>

Plot Keywords: comedy, classic, american film, black and white, 1930s, culture clash, social class ...

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