Highest-Rated Movies about 'American Indian'

Winchester '73 (1950), Wonder Woman (2017), Harry and Tonto (1974), Bend of the River (1952), Dinosaur 13 (2014), The Harvey Girls (1946), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Jim Thorpe, All American (1951) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best American Indian movies.

#1. Winchester '73 (1950)

Storyline: In a marksmanship contest, Lin McAdam wins a prized Winchester rifle, which is immediately stolen by the runner-up, Dutch Henry Brown. This "story of a rifle" then follows McAdams' pursuit, and the rifle as it changes hands, until a final showdown and shoot-out on a rocky mountain precipice.

Plot Keywords: winchester rifle, native american, old west, shootout, indian war, gun violence, gunfire ...

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#2. Wonder Woman (2017)

Storyline: Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when a pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers and her true destiny.

Plot Keywords: upskirt, scantily clad female, anti war, miniskirt, premarital sex, short skirt, nudity ...

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#3. Harry and Tonto (1974)

Storyline: Harry is a retired teacher in his 70s living in the Upper West Side of New York City, where his late wife and he raised his children, where he's lived all of his life. When the building, in which he lives, is torn down to make way for a parking garage, Harry and his beloved cat Tonto begin a journey across the U.S., visiting his children, seeing a world he never seemed to have the time to see before, making new friends, and saying goodbye to old friends.—Gary Dickerson <slug@mail.utexas.edu>

Plot Keywords: stock market, retirement, manhattan new york city, widower, violin, traveling salesman, taxi ...

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#4. Bend of the River (1952)

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: gunfight, western hero, hero, saved from hanging, love triangle, knife, male female relationship ...

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#5. Dinosaur 13 (2014)

Storyline: When Paleontologist Peter Larson and his team from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research made the world's greatest dinosaur discovery in 1990, they knew it was the find of a lifetime; the largest, most complete T. rex ever found. But during a ten-year battle with the U.S. government, powerful museums, Native American tribes, and competing paleontologists, they found themselves not only fighting to keep their dinosaur but fighting for their freedom as well.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: year 1985, year 1990, year 1992, year 1993, year 1994, year 1995, year 1996 ...

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#6. The Harvey Girls (1946)

Storyline: On a train trip West to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley (Judy Garland) meets a cheery crew of young women travelling out to open a "Harvey House" restaurant at a remote whistle-stop to provide good cooking and wholesome company for railway travellers. When Susan and her bashful suitor find romance daunting, she joins the Harvey Girls instead. The saloon across the street with its alluring worldly-wise women offers them tough competition, fair and foul, and Susan catches the eye of the Ned Trent (John Hodiak), the distant but intense proprietor of the bar.—Michael Meigs <Michael.Meigs@dos.us-state.gov>

Plot Keywords: saloon, horse and carriage, piano, pianist, singer, singing, song ...

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#7. 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: colonial america, fort, native american attack, based on novel, mercy killing, inn, gunshot wound ...

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#8. Jim Thorpe, All American (1951)

Storyline: True story of Native American Jim Thorpe, who rose from an Oklahoma reservation to become a collegiate, Olympic, and professional star. After his medals are stripped on a technicality and his dream of coaching is shattered, Thorpe's life begins to unravel. His marriage to his college sweetheart ends, and he is a forgotten figure, except by Glenn 'Pop' Warner, his coach at Carlisle College.—<jmilani@ix.netcom.com>

Plot Keywords: character name as title, professional athlete, college football, alcoholism, athlete, football player, baseball player ...

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#9. The Dancer Upstairs (2002)

Storyline: The story of Detective Agustin Rejas, a man clinging to the hope of an impossible love in an impossible world. Tracking Ezequiel, a delusional anarchist who incites the downtrodden masses to join in his brutal revolution against the fascist government in their unnamed Latin American country, Rejas finds solace in his sense of self-respect and the joy that his daughter and wife bring him. Then he meets Yolanda--his daughter's soulfully beautiful ballet teacher--a woman who sparks his long-forgotten passions and represents all that is good and all that is corrupt in their troubled country. But she, who appears to be a shelter from the storm, may in actuality be the storm's eye. Ultimately, as the revolution intensifies and the net closes around hunter and hunted alike, the dancer's truth will prove as elusive as the revolutionary's cause and the detective's peace.—Sujit R. Varma

Plot Keywords: beheading, children, chinese, cigarette smoking, class, code, communism ...

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#10. Rocky Mountain (1950)

Storyline: A Confederate troop, led by Captain Lafe Barstow, is prowling the far ranges of California and Nevada in a last desperate attempt to build up an army in the West for the faltering Confederacy. Because the patrol saves a stagecoach, with Johanna Carter as one of the passengers, from an Indian attack, and is marooned on a rocky mountain, it fails in its mission but the honor of the Old South is upheld.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: stagecoach, rifle, rescue, prejudice, new mexico, massacre, american indian ...

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#11. Valdez Is Coming (1971)

Storyline: The town constable, Bob Valdez, is forced to kill someone accused by Frank Tanner of being a murderer. Valdez asks Tanner for monetary help for the man's wife, but he is ridiculed and almost killed by Tanner's henchmen. Valdez recovers and summons up his days in the U.S. Cavalry in order to fight them. Valdez wounds one of the henchmen and sends him back to Tanner with the message, "Valdez is coming."—Robbie Burns <burnodo@usit.net>

Plot Keywords: arizona desert, arizona, arizona territory, fog, ambush, honor, chase ...

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#12. Two Rode Together (1961)

Storyline: The US Army is under pressure from the desperate relatives of white prisoners of the Comanches to secure their rescue. A cynical and corrupt marshal, Guthrie McCabe, is persuaded by an army lieutenant to assist in the negotiations with the Comanches; however, just two captives are released, and their reintegration into white society proves highly problematic.—David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk>

Plot Keywords: river, interracial relationship, indian chief, slavery, cavalry, search and rescue, brother sister relationship ...

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#13. 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: navajo indian, fear, spanish, native american, drunkenness, arizona desert, arizona ...

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#14. Saginaw Trail (1953)

Storyline: Michigan in 1827 was a bit off the beaten path for any B-western, especially one from Gene Autry, so Gene had to shed his Levis (since Mr. Strauss was about 20 years away from stitching his first pair together in San Francisco) and wear a different gun-belt, but the rest of his costume (hat and string-looped shirt) didn't make much of a bow in the authentic direction in this film, which finds the fur empire of Jules Brissac in Michigan's Saginaw Valley wilderness being threatened by advancing settlers. His right hand henchman, Miller Webb, disguised as an Indian, leads renegade Delawares against the settlers. Captain Gene Autry of Hamilton's Rangers is sent to investigate. Gene and his pal Smiley, aided by Randy Lane and Brissac's niece, Flora Tourney, find evidence pointing to the guilt of Brissac and Webb and round them up to make the region safe for settlers.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: actor shares first name with character, gang leader, gang member, held at gunpoint, sword fight, disguise, deception ...

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#15. Trooper Hook (1957)

Storyline: After a band of Indians kill a group of soldiers, Sergeant Hook captures them and their leader Nanches. Among the prisoners is Nanches' son and the boy's white mother captured by them nine years earlier. Hook's assignment is to escort the mother and son to the woman's husband. Traveling by stagecoach they learn that Nanches has escaped and it's not long before he and his warriors show up intent on reclaiming the boy.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>

Plot Keywords: arizona, american indian, biracial child, husband wife relationship, missing wife, native american, native american chief ...

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