Riding Giants (2004), Westward the Women (1951), How to Change the World (2015), Bend of the River (1952), The Big Trail (1930), The Iron Horse (1924), Wagon Master (1950), The Work and the Glory III: A House Divided (2006) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Pioneers movies.
Storyline: A semiserious, often rollicking, multigenerational insider's look at the origins of surfing, the colorful and subversive birth of surf culture, and the mythology and lure of the big wave. This passionate and fluid film is without question the first authentic history of surfing from its humble Hawaiian beginnings to the big business it became to the still-rebellious universe it inhabits today. Riding Giants is a study in individuality and freedom, the pursuit and techniques of pure kinetic pleasure, and the risk taking and attitudes that characterize its leading figures. For some viewers, this is perhaps more than they ever wanted to know. But Peralta's detailed knowledge of the surfing lifestyle, its icons and locations, its boom and exploitation by the media, and the fascination it has held for young men for more than five decades is unparalleled and fuels this expedition for the expert and initiate alike. Closely chronicling the sometimes-life-and-death drama that big-wave riding entails, Riding Giants is an often-mesmerizing visual thrill ride. But the most appealing aspect of this often revelatory documentary is the realization that the man versus nature dialectic never ends; the search for the ultimate wave and the spiritual pinnacle can only be pursued but never reached.—Sujit R. Varma
Plot Keywords: documentary, surfing, sports, adventure, extreme sports, ocean, california ...
Movie Details Click Here !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: western, female protagonist, 19th century, journey, courage, perseverance, romance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1971, a group of friends sail into a nuclear test zone, and their protest captures the world's imagination. Using never before seen archive that brings their extraordinary world to life, How To Change The World is the story of the pioneers who founded Greenpeace and defined the modern green movement.
Plot Keywords: documentary, activism, environment, conservation, protest, ecology, nature ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Two men with questionable pasts, Glyn McLyntock and his friend Cole, lead a wagon-train load of homesteaders from Missouri to the Oregon territory. They establish a settlement outside of Portland and as winter nears, it is necessary for McLyntock and Cole to rescue and deliver food and supplies being held in Portland by corrupt officials. On the trip back to the settlement, up river and over a mountain, Cole engineers a mutiny to divert the supplies to a gold mining camp for a handsome profit.—Herman Seifer <alagain@aol.com>
Plot Keywords: western, adventure, drama, 1950s, redemption, betrayal, survival ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Breck leads a wagon train of pioneers through Indian attack, storms, deserts, swollen rivers, down cliffs and so on while looking for the murder of a trapper and falling in love with Ruth.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: western, epic, american frontier, historical drama, adventure, romance, action ...
Movie Details Click Here !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: western, silent film, american history, epic, black and white, 1920s, american west ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: As Mormon settlers head to the promised land at the San Juan river in Utah, they hire horse traders Travis Blue and Sandy as wagon masters. They have to forge a trail across unknown territory and face many hardships along the way. They quickly come across some stranded travelers, a medicine show run by Dr. A. Locksley Hall which includes the attractive Denver. Along the way however, they are also joined by Shiloh Clegg and his murderous clan of robbers and thieves. An encounter with the Navajo leads to an invitation to their camp but after one of the Clegg boys gets a whipping for attacking one of the Navajo women, Uncle Shiloh plans his revenge. It's left to Sandy and Travis to protect the travelers and get them to their destination.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: western, classic film, black and white, american west, adventure, journey, 1950s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Joshua Steed returns to Missouri a wealthy man with a beautiful wife; however, the past has a way of catching up. Soon Joshua is tangled in a web of rumors, deception and betrayal that threatens to tear his family apart. Back in Kirtland, financial trouble riddles the foundations of the fledgling Church causing a division, and questioning of the Prophet Joseph Smith's divine calling. Has he lost his prophetic gift? Hundreds of Saints immigrate to Missouri, where Governor Boggs raises an army - with Joshua at its head - to address the "Mormon Problem." When the militia receives orders to attack the Mormon settlement, only Joshua can save his family from the gathering mob.—Excel Entertainment Group
Plot Keywords: religion, history, drama, family, faith, american history, 19th century ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A young man leaves Ireland with his landlord's daughter after some trouble with her father and they dream of owning land at the big give-away in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local bare-hands boxer and rides in glory until he is beaten, then his employers steal all the couple's money and they must fight off starvation in the winter and try to keep their dream of owning land alive. Meanwhile, the woman's parents find out where she has gone and have come to the U.S. to find her and take her back.
Plot Keywords: adventure, romance, drama, historical, western, epic, immigration ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: After the American Civil War, many freed slaves head out West in search of free land and a better life. Former slave and Union Army sergeant Buck becomes a self-employed wagon master to wagon trains of freed slaves heading West. Buck knows the region well and he charges fair wages from the wagon trains employing him. He also has a working relationship with the local Indian tribes that charge trespassing fees from the wagon trains heading West across Indian lands. In return, they allow the settlers to move across Indian territory unhindered and to hunt a few buffalo needed to feed the wagon train settlers. However, not everyone in the region is friendly toward the black settlers traveling West. Owners of Southern plantations, dismayed by the loss of slave manpower that previously worked the plantations for free, hire band of white rogues and outlaws to prevent former black slaves from going West. In order to achieve this aim, the hired bands of rogues attack wagon trains and destroy the wagons, the supplies and the food resources of the former slaves. They threaten the black settlers with harm and they tell them to return to the Southern states where they came from and work the plantations. Wagon master Buck encourages the freed slaves to continue their trek westward and to not give up their dream of settling in the West. Knowing this, the band of rogues led by DeShay plans to capture and kill Buck. The DeShay gang sets up ambushes and traps but Buck always manages to avoid capture. The gang resides in the town of Copper Springs where the sheriff, an honest man, doesn't agree with the gang's ruthless tactics against wagon trains of freed slaves. Chased by the DeShay bunch, wagon master Buck and his tired horse arrive at a river where a black preacher, Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford, is bathing. A desperate Buck switches horses with the preacher, against the man's will, and rides off to meet his wagon train. The preacher heads to Copper Springs where he bumps into DeShay's gang. Recognising Buck's horse, the gang interrogates the preacher about Buck's whereabouts. DeShay promises a 500 dollar reward to the preacher if the preacher finds Buck and captures or kills him. DeShay also instructs the preacher to convince all black settlers to turn back east toward the Southern plantations and abandon their trek Westward. The preacher agrees with DeShay and leaves town. Outside town he meets a wagon train formed of freed slaves and led by none other than Buck. After an angry exchange between the preacher and Buck, the preacher joins the wagon train. During the following days of travel, the preacher notices that all the money of the wagon train is kept in a money belt carried by one of the women around her waist. A few days later, a distrustful Buck orders the preacher to leave the wagon train and he himself rides away to scout the area and to pay in cash a right of passage to the local Indian tribe in behalf of the trespassing wagon train. The preacher follows Buck and he witnesses the payment made by Buck to the Indian chief for safe passage of the settlers. When Buck, followed by the preacher, returns to the wagon train, a gruesome scene awaits. DeShay's gang attacked the wagon train, stole the settlers' money, destroyed their food and supplies and even killed a few settlers. Heartbroken, the surviving settlers want to turn back but Buck encourages them to go on. Angry at the devastation, Buck and the preacher decide to ride to the town of Copper Springs and exact revenge on DeShay's gang and also try to retrieve the money DeShay stole from the black settlers. There only are two against many but Buck and the preacher are determined to do it.—nufs68
Plot Keywords: western, race relations, african american, american civil war, migration, mercenaries, survival ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in each other's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as the natural enemy.
Plot Keywords: western, historical drama, survival, wilderness, adventure, female perspective, based on true events ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The happy Indians live in Antelope Valley and Eddie is the new Indian Agent. Everything seems fine until the town selectmen want the valley occupied by the Indians because it contains silver. So they hire outlaw Indians and Chico to start trouble hoping that the army will forcibly remove them from the valley and they will claim it. But Father Sullivan and Eddie believe the Indians are being wronged even though they cannot convince anyone else.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: western, romance, 1940s, classic, adventure, drama, historical ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Boston pharmacist Tom Craig comes to Sacramento, where he runs afoul of local political boss Britt Dawson, who exacts protection payment from the citizenry. Dawson frames Craig with poisoned medicine, but Craig redeems himself during a Gold Rush epidemic.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
Plot Keywords: western, black and white, gold rush, 1940s, classic hollywood, gunfight, historical drama ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: It is 1892 in Death Valley and the yields from the Borax ore are getting so small that refining it is a losing proposition. The only thing that will save the company is a new deposit of high grade Borax, and Bill has a pouch of it that he got from a dead prospector that he buried on the road. Roper knows the value of the strike could be worth millions, but he needs Bill to find the prospectors' claim so they can record it and become rich partners. While Roper has no intention of cutting Bill in on the millions, he also has his eye on young Jean. Josie sees Roper for the scalawag that his is and it means trouble in Furnace Flat.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: western, adventure, desert, historical drama, american frontier, teamwork, survival ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: During 1798,Bushrod Gentry is a Kentucky trapper who travels from place to place,sometimes staying with settler families for a night or two before moving on.Being a handsome man he often breaks the hearts of the unmarried young daughters of his hosts and it always leads to proposals of marriage from the girls' part.This causes Bushrod to quickly pack his gear, give the smitten girl his standard speech about why he cannot marry or settle down and depart in a hurry, leaving the girl in tears.But one day,after being saved from an Indian attack by young Scotish woman, Mary Stuart Cherne, he takes shelter with her family until his broken arm can heal.Invariably,the girl falls for his charm and asks him to marry her.Bushrod gives her his standard speech and thinks he's off the hook but stubborn Mary Stuart is not so easily dissuaded.This leads to lies, insinuations, evasive actions, hilarity, fist fights with her brothers, a shooting contest, broken promises and a shotgun wedding.Bushrod is determined to leave and he has a few tricks up his sleeve.—nufs68
Plot Keywords: adventure, western, romance, drama, historical, action, comedy ...
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