Best movies like First Cow
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A taciturn loner and skilled cook has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon Territory, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant also seeking his fortune; soon the two collaborate on a successful business, although its longevity is reliant upon the clandestine participation of a nearby wealthy landowner’s prized milking cow.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, stylized, realistic, contemplative, independent film, costume drama
Best tv shows and movies like First Cow (2019):
Similar in 90%
Zandy's Bride (1974)
Plot Summary:
Zandy Allan purchases a mail-order bride, Hannah Lund. He treats her as a possession, without respect or humanity, until their shared ordeal as they struggle to survive develops in him a growing love.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: spaghetti western, sincere, atmospheric, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, technicolor, cult film
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Similar in 81%
Grey Owl (1999)
Plot Summary:
Archie Grey Owl is a trapper in Canada in the early 1930s when a young Iroquois woman from town asks him to teach her Indian ways. They live in the woods, where she is appalled at how trapped animals die. She adopts two orphaned beaver kits and helps Archie see his way to stop trapping. Instead, he works as a guide, a naturalist writer, and then the Canadian government hires him to save the beaver in a conserve by Lake Ajawaan in Prince Albert National Park. He writes a biography, which brings him attention in Canada and invitations to lecture in England. Before he leaves, he and Anahareo (Pony) marry. In England, his secret is revealed. Will Anahareo continue to love him?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Western
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: period piece, thought provoking, clever, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying, independent film
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Similar in 81%
The Journey of August King (1995)
Plot Summary:
The Journey of August King is a multi-dimensional drama about a North Carolina farmer in 1815. August King, a widower, is on his way home as he does every year after selling his produce and purchasing the stock and goods he will need to survive the winter. On his journey, he comes upon a run-away slave, a young woman about 19 and August King must decide to violate the law and help this slave to freedom or else leave her to be hunted down and, ultimately, returned to her slave owner.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: independent film, tense, serious, realistic, crying, sexy, touching, brutal, enigmatic, feel good
Similar in 81%
Ride in the Whirlwind (1966)
Plot Summary:
Three cowhands, between jobs, have the bad dumb luck to pitch night camp in the same valley as a cabin full of guys who just robbed a stagecoach and killed the guard. Come morning, a posse arrives, forms up along the ridge, and takes for granted that everyone down below is guilty--fit for either shooting to bits or hanging from a tree, whichever comes first. Precisely half of Ride in the Whirlwind's 82 minutes is devoted to tapping the matter-of-fact, absurdist horror of that situation. In the remaining half, the two surviving cowpokes (Jack Nicholson and Cameron Mitchell) seek shelter at a farmhouse where they reluctantly threaten the farmer, accept breakfast from his wife, flirt with his daughter (Millie Perkins), play some checkers, and hope to remain undetected till nightfall.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, disturbing, serious, suspenseful, existential, cult classic, independent film, stylized
Similar in 77%
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)
Plot Summary:
Based on true events that happened in Banning,California, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, tells the story of one of the last Western manhunts, in 1909. Willie Boy, a Native American, kills his girlfriend's father in self defense, and the two go on the run, pursued by a search posse led by Sheriff Christopher Cooper.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: tense, sincere, rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 78%
The Rider (2017)
Plot Summary:
Once a rising star of the rodeo circuit, and a gifted horse trainer, young cowboy Brady is warned that his riding days are over, after a horse crushed his skull at a rodeo. Back home on the Pine Ridge Reservation, with little desire or alternatives for a different way of life, Brady’s sense of inadequacy mounts as he is unable to ride or rodeo – the essentials of being a cowboy. In an attempt to regain control of his own fate, Brady undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, inspirational, touching, captivating, suspenseful, indie film, rough, motivational, dark, sad
Similar in 77%
The Hired Hand (1971)
Plot Summary:
Harry Collings returns home to his farm after drifting with his friend, Arch. His wife, who had given up on him, reluctantly allows him to stay, and soon believes that all will be well again. But then Harry has to make a difficult decision regarding his loyalties and priorities.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy, vintage
Similar in 84%
Ride the High Country (1962)
Plot Summary:
An ex-lawman is hired to transport gold from a mining community through dangerous territory. But what he doesn't realize is that his partner and old friend is plotting to double-cross him.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: spaghetti western, sentimental, realistic, retro, cult classic, aesthetic, serious, captivating, tense, atmospheric
Similar in 83%
Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Plot Summary:
A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the penitentiary.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: black and white, existential, retro, tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, surprise ending, neo western, road movie
Similar in 79%
Two Rode Together (1961)
Plot Summary:
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, cynical, suspenseful, retro, spaghetti western, vintage, wild
Similar in 87%
Junior Bonner (1972)
Plot Summary:
McQueen is Junior Bonner, an aging rodeo champ who returns to his home town to participate in the annual rodeo. He finds his family estranged, does what he can to help, and then moves on ... after some good rodeo riding and a few brawls.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, funny, cult classic, independent film, neo western, psychological, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Certain Women (2016)
Plot Summary:
The lives of four women intersect in small-town America, where each is imperfectly blazing a trail.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, captivating, ironic, disturbing, poetic, indie film, heartfelt, profound, weird, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
The Sisters Brothers (2018)
Plot Summary:
The colourfully named gold prospector Hermann Kermit Warm is being pursued across 1,000 miles of 1850s Oregon desert to San Francisco by the notorious assassins Eli and Charlie Sisters. Except Eli is having a personal crisis and beginning to doubt the longevity of his chosen career. And Hermann might have a better offer.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 69000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: France, Spain, Romania, Belgium, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: captivating, epic, artsy, black comedy, powerful, historical drama, tear jerker, exciting, light, feel good
Similar in 84%
The War Wagon (1967)
Plot Summary:
An ex-con seeks revenge on the man who put him in prison by planning a robbery of the latter's stagecoach, which is transporting gold. He enlists the help of a partner, who could be working for his nemesis.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: exciting, intense, humorous, suspense, tense, captivating, retro, realistic, semi serious, surprise ending
Similar in 87%
Old Joy (2006)
Plot Summary:
Two old pals reunite for a camping trip in Oregon's Cascade Mountains.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: road movie, atmospheric, talky, lyrical, sincere, realistic, touching, serious, independent film, entertaining
Similar in 77%
Conagher (1991)
Plot Summary:
Mrs. Evie Teale is struggling to stay alive while raising her two children alone on a remote homestead. Conn Conagher is a honest, hardworking cowboy. Their lives are intertwined as they fight the elements, indians, outlaws, and loneliness.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, wild
Similar in 83%
The Claim (2000)
Plot Summary:
A prospector sells his wife and daughter to another gold miner for the rights to a gold mine. Twenty years later, the prospector is a wealthy man who owns much of the old west town named Kingdom Come. But changes are brewing and his past is coming back to haunt him. A surveyor and his crew scouts the town as a location for a new railroad line and a young woman suddenly appears in the town and is evidently the man's daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Western
Country: UK, France, Canada, USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, intense, serious, captivating, realistic, bleak, epic, contemplative, gloomy, erotic
Similar in 82%
Damsel (2018)
Plot Summary:
The Wild West, circa 1870. Samuel Alabaster, an affluent pioneer, ventures across the American frontier to marry the love of his life, Penelope. As his group traverses the west, the once-simple journey grows treacherous, blurring the lines between hero, villain and damsel.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, absurd, period piece, anamorphic, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 81%
Ambush at Dark Canyon (2012)
Plot Summary:
U.S. Marshall Duke Donovan is imprisoned, accused of being an accomplice in a bank robbery. After discovering that his partner is planning to kill his wife, he must escape prison in time to save his wife and clear his name.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 509
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, tense, captivating, suspense, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 81%
The Stalking Moon (1968)
Plot Summary:
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.`.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic, retro, spaghetti western, independent film, suspense, wild
Similar in 85%
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Plot Summary:
Running from the law after a bank robbery in Mexico, Dad Longworth finds an opportunity to take the stolen gold and leave his partner Rio to be captured. Years later, Rio escapes from the prison where he has been since, and hunts down Dad for revenge. Dad is now a respectable sheriff in California, and has been living in fear of Rio's return.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: intense, rough, serious, suspenseful, exciting, tense, realistic, cult classic, thought provoking, enigmatic
Similar in 87%
Meek's Cutoff (2010)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1845, this drama follows a group of settlers as they embark on a punishing journey along the Oregon Trail. When their guide leads them astray, the expedition is forced to contend with the unforgiving conditions of the high plain desert.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, surreal, stylized, visually appealing, serious, thought provoking, realistic, art house, allegory, educational
Similar in 82%
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
Plot Summary:
Wendy, a near-penniless drifter, is traveling to Alaska in search of work, and her only companion is her dog, Lucy. Already perilously close to losing everything, Wendy hits a bigger bump in the road when her old car breaks down and she is arrested for shoplifting dog food. When she posts bail and returns to retrieve Lucy, she finds that the dog is gone, prompting a frantic search for her pet.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, sad, road movie, psychological, realistic, emotional, meditative, talky, stylized, sincere
Similar in 82%
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Plot Summary:
A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town, and their enterprise thrives until a large corporation arrives on the scene.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, bleak, breathtaking, cynical, spaghetti western, visual, cult classic, mind blowing, historical drama, social
Similar in 90%
The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky (1995)
Plot Summary:
A young ranger in the Montana wilderness discovers the great forces of nature while learning the importance of honor, trust and integrity. Legendary veteran ranger Bill Bell educates the young man and guides him toward manhood. The year is 1919-a time when being a ranger meant more than operating expensive equipment. Forest fires were fought with guts and courage, not chemicals and airplanes. Bill Bell was the toughest ranger in an elite crew of very rugged men. A figure of heroic proportions, he was generally feared and respected by all. It was even rumored that he had at one time killed a sheep farmer, which only fueled his already enormous reputation. The young ranger does everything to remain in the good graces of Bill Bell, the senior ranger he idolizes. Their tentative rapport grows into a friendship through a hilarious and heroic rite of passage in which the younger ranger meets the test-and the woman of his dreams.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, exciting, tense, captivating
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Similar in 84%
The Homesman (2014)
Plot Summary:
When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy. Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs, to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: France, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, tense, bleak, realistic, depressing, harsh, emotional, suspense, serious, road movie
Similar in 90%
True Grit (2010)
Plot Summary:
Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and adventure on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 353000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, atmospheric, rough, suspenseful, scenic, visually appealing, serious, captivating, dark
Similar in 77%
Hostiles (2017)
Plot Summary:
A legendary Native American-hating Army captain nearing retirement in 1892 is given one last assignment: to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous territory back to his Montana reservation.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 93000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, suspense, psychological, captivating, motivational, heartbreaking, serious, tear jerker, spaghetti western
Similar in 77%
Of Mice and Men (1992)
Plot Summary:
Two drifters, one a gentle but slow giant, try to make money working the fields during the Depression so they can fulfill their dreams.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sad, touching, emotional, depressing, social, mind twisting, independent film, tense, sincere, serious
Similar in 86%
Django Unchained (2012)
Plot Summary:
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 17000000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: suspense, talky, cult classic, brutal, captivating, epic, rough, serious, witty, bloody