Highest-Rated Movies about 'Cattle Ranch'

Hud (1963), Giant (1956), Open Range (2003), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), The Cowboys (1972), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), McLintock! (1963), Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride (1940) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Cattle Ranch movies.

#1. Hud (1963)

Storyline: Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."

Plot Keywords: neo western, small town, 1950s, barroom brawl, dysfunctional family, ranch, anti hero ...

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#2. Giant (1956)

Storyline: Texan rancher Bick Benedict visits a Maryland farm to buy a prize horse. Whilst there he meets and falls in love with the owner's daughter Leslie, they are married immediately and return to his ranch. The story of their family and its rivalry with cowboy and (later oil tycoon) Jett Rink unfolds across two generations.

Plot Keywords: rancher, cattle ranch, mexican american, racism, rivalry, oil, texas ...

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#3. Open Range (2003)

Storyline: Boss Spearman, Charley Waite, Mose Harrison and Button freegraze their cattle across the vast prairies of the West, sharing a friendship forged by a steadfast code of honor and living a life unencumbered by civilization. When their wayward herd forces them near the small town of Harmonville, the cowboys encounter a corrupt sheriff and kingpin rancher who govern the territory through fear, tyranny and violence. Boss and Charley find themselves inextricably drawn towards an inevitable showdown, as they are forced to defend the freedom and values of a lifestyle that is all too quickly vanishing. Amidst the turmoil, life suddenly takes an unexpected turn for the loner Charley when he meets the beautiful and warm spirited Sue Barlow, a woman who embraces both his heart and his soul.

Plot Keywords: rifle, directed by star, prayer, coward, frontier town, cigar smoking, hired gun ...

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#4. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

Storyline: A man is shot and quickly buried in the high desert of west Texas. The body is found and reburied in Van Horn's town cemetery. Pete Perkins, a local ranch foreman, kidnaps a Border Patrolman and forces him to disinter the body. With his captive in tow and the body tied to a mule, Pete undertakes a dangerous and quixotic journey into Mexico.

Plot Keywords: female nudity, coffee, self justice, drunkenness, car accident, illegal immigrant, border patrol ...

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#5. The Cowboys (1972)

Storyline: When his cattle drivers abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his drivers in order to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage; however, neither Andersen nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.

Plot Keywords: main character dies, long underwear, based on novel, coming of age, rancher, horse riding, saved from hanging ...

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#6. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Storyline: After a long career as a lawman that made him a legend, Wyatt Earp decides to quit and join his brothers in Tombstone, Arizona. There he would see them in a feud with the Clantons, a local clan of thugs and cattle thieves. When the showdown becomes inevitable, the help will come from Doc Holliday, a terminally-ill gambler who happens to be another Wild West legend.

Plot Keywords: blackjack, arizona territory, arizona, gun battle, acronym in title, cult film, western town ...

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#7. McLintock! (1963)

Storyline: George Washington McLintock, "GW" to friends and foes alike, is a cattle baron and the richest man in the territory. He anxiously awaits the return of his daughter Becky who has been away at school for the last two years. He's also surprised to see that his wife Katherine has also returned. She had left him some years before without really explaining what he had done, but she does make the point of saying that she's returned to take their daughter back to the State Capitol with her. GW is highly respected by everyone around him, including the farmers who are pouring into the territories with free grants of land and the Indians who are under threat of being relocated to another reservation. Between his wife, his headstrong daughter, the crooked land agent and the thieving government Indian agent, GW tries to keep the peace and do what is best for everyone.

Plot Keywords: farce, surname as title, spanking, 19th century, bully comeuppance, bully, saved from hanging ...

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#9. Quigley Down Under (1990)

Storyline: Sharpshooter Matt Quigley is hired from America by an Australian rancher so he can shoot aborigines at a distance. Quigley takes exception to this and leaves. The rancher tries to kill him for refusing, and Quigley escapes into the brush with a woman he rescued from some of the rancher's men, and are helped by aborigines. Quigley returns the help, before going on to destroy all his enemies.

Plot Keywords: long range rifle, australian aborigine, australian outback, martial arts, sawed off shotgun, arms dealer, target practice ...

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#10. 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: shot to death, montana, prostitute, ranch, brothel, epic, love triangle ...

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#11. Mountain Rhythm (1939)

Storyline: Cavanaugh and McCauley are after the ranchers land. When the Government announces the land will be put up for auction, the ranchers pool their money only to have it stolen by Cavanaugh's men. They then plan to sell their cattle but Cavanaugh announces a fake gold strike and the cowhands all leave. But Gene's hobo friend the Judge says he will get the cattle to market and he sends out a signal to his hobo friends.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>

Plot Keywords: singing cowboy, horse and carriage, hypnotism, jail, new mexico, resort, robbery ...

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#12. Guns and Guitars (1936)

Storyline: Gene joins in the fight against Morgan and his men who are trying to run infected cattle to the railroad. When Morgan's man shoots the Sheriff, Gene runs in the election to replace him. Morgan accuses Gene of the murder but Gene wins anyway and it's not long before he gets the chance to nab Morgan and his gang.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>

Plot Keywords: ruse, quarantine, election, murder, gang, cattleman, ambush ...

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#13. Sioux City Sue (1946)

Storyline: Utilizing a script from 1939's "She Married a Cop" with a 1946 Hit Parade song for the title, Gene Autry's screen return following his WW II Army Air Corps service, "Sioux City Sue" has Hollywood talent scout Sue Warner (Lynne Roberts) in search of a singing cowboy and finding and offering cattle rancher Gene Autry (Gene Autry) a contract. He agrees to go to Hollywood if there is a part for his horse Champion. Gene isn't aware they only want to use his voice in an animated cartoon. After the preview, he and Champ depart in a huff (Well, actually, Champ was in a trailer). The annoyed Sue also follows and gets work on Gene's ranch as a cook. Later, the studio heads, while looking at Gene's screen test, decide he is a natural and want to sign him to a contract. After a few misunderstandings, Gene realizes that Sue is sincere, and he signs a contract to star in a musical western, but first he has to stop a cattle stampede and rout a gang of rustlers trying to blow up his ranch dam.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: character name in title, explosion, cattle rancher, cattle ranch, violence, vindication, reprisal ...

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#14. Ramrod (1947)

Storyline: A cattle-vs.-sheepman feud loses Connie Dickason her fiance, but gains her his ranch, which she determines to run alone in opposition to Frank Ivey, "boss" of the valley, whom her father Ben wanted her to marry. She hires recovering alcoholic Dave Nash as foreman and a crew of Ivey's enemies. Ivey fights back with violence and destruction, but Dave is determined to counter him legally... a feeling not shared by his associates. Connie's boast that, as a woman, she doesn't need guns proves justified, but plenty of gunplay results.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: pursuit, cigar smoking, grief, greed, violence, vindication, reprisal ...

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#15. Australia (2008)

Storyline: In northern Australia at the beginning of World War II, an English aristocrat inherits a cattle station the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn stock-man to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

Plot Keywords: prejudice, year 1942, year 1939, drink, running, fishing, fish ...

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