Best movies like American Bandits: Frank and Jesse James
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like American Bandits: Frank and Jesse James? Leverage your familiarity to guide others toward movies and tv series you've seen before that might similarly transfix them. Aid in increasing the cohort of people bringing up videos between each other. We encourage your contribution!
Plot Summary:
After Jesse James is wounded by a bullet to the chest, Frank James splits the gang up and plans a rendezvous in four days time. With U.S.-Marshall Kane in hot pursuit, and betrayal within the outlaw band, the stage is set for a blazing and climactic shootout in the deserted town of 'Gila Wells'.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 460
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like American Bandits: Frank and Jesse James (2010):
Similar in 83%
The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James (1986)
Plot Summary:
This movie looks at the last years (not days, as implied in the title) of famous outlaws, Frank and Jesse James. The film opens in 1877 with the brothers trying to settle down after 15 years of thievery. Frank is shown to be a book-loving and family-oriented man, while brother Jesse is a money-hungry womanizer. The movie follows their lives through Jesse's death at the hands of the "rotten little coward" Bob Ford and Frank's death in 1892.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 478
Genere: Biography, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
Bullet for a Badman (1964)
Plot Summary:
Former Texas Rangers Sam Ward and Logan Keliher become enemies when Sam turns bank robber and Logan marries Sam's ex-wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963)
Plot Summary:
Comanche Creek, Colorado, 1875: Prisoner Jack Mason is broken out of jail by a gang of strangers. They use him in a robbery, then when the dead-or-alive reward is high enough, they shoot him and collect. The National Detective Agency, now knowing the gang's methods, arranges to have agent Bob Gifford jailed in Comanche Creek for train robbery. The gang takes the bait (not before Gifford catches the eye of lovely saloon-keeper Abbie). But how will the bait get off the hook?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 815
Genere: Western
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, detective, neo western, cult film
Similar in 77%
Frank & Jesse (1994)
Plot Summary:
At the end of the Civil War, Frank and Jesse James and other former guerillas who rode with Quantrill and Bill Anderson take the oath of allegiance to the Union. Feeling oppressed by Chicago railroad investors, the James and Younger brothers, Bob and Charlie Ford, Clell Miller and Arch Clements take to robbing banks, trains and coaches, with Pinkerton sworn to bringing them to justice.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: independent film, tense, serious, realistic, surprise ending
Similar in 90%
Heaven with a Gun (1969)
Plot Summary:
Glenn Ford plays Jim Killian, a preacher who arrives in a town divided between cattlemen and sheep herders. But Killian isn't just any preacher. He is a former fast gun who has set upon a different path.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: retro, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, romantic drama
Similar in 79%
Showdown (1973)
Plot Summary:
Two men who have been friends since childhood find themselves on opposite ends of the law.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, contemplative, semi serious, spaghetti western
Similar in 77%
Molly and Lawless John (1972)
Plot Summary:
Western - Molly, the shy, romance-starved wife of an arrogant frontier sheriff, finds herself drawn to a prisoner in her husband's jail. This prisoner, a handsome young man named Johnny, plays on Molly's sympathy and convinces her to help him escape. Molly then accompanies Johnny on his cross-country flight but soon learns he's simply been using her. Molly makes the best of the situation, however, and by the time the sheriff's posse catches up with them, Molly shows that she's learned how to assert herself. - Vera Miles, Sam Elliott, Clu Gulager.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 328
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film, realistic, semi serious, surprise ending
Similar in 76%
Bandolero! (1968)
Plot Summary:
Posing as a hangman, Mace Bishop arrives in town with the intention of freeing a gang of outlaws, including his brother, from the gallows. Mace urges his younger brother to give up crime. The sheriff chases the brothers to Mexico. They join forces, however, against a group of Mexican bandits.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: funny, retro, serious, realistic, suspenseful, wild
Similar in 87%
Hatfields and McCoys: Bad Blood (2012)
Plot Summary:
In this bloody long-standing feud, two families seek vengeance against each other as they unmercifully attempt to destroy each other's loved ones.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 600
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
Purgatory (1999)
Plot Summary:
An outlaw band flees a posse and rides into Refuge, a small town where no one carries a gun, drinks, or swears. The town is actually Purgatory, and the peaceful inhabitants are all famous dead outlaws and criminals such as Doc Holiday and Wild Bill Hickok who must redeem themselves before gaining admittance to Heaven...or screw up and go to Hell.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, suspenseful, exciting, captivating, offbeat, dark fantasy, spaghetti western, wild, cult film
Similar in 82%
Prairie Fever (2008)
Plot Summary:
A group of women contracted a strange fever and a former sheriff is responsible for taking them to the hospital in the nearest town, but in their way they will encounter a gang of murderers. His only hope is a woman whose beauty is matched only by his skill with weapons.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 777
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, exciting, captivating, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 89%
The Master Gunfighter (1975)
Plot Summary:
Don Santiago (Richard Angarola) is a vicious man who helps provoke an Indian massacre that will allow him to steal the Indians' land and claim it as his own. However, his son-in-law, Finley (Tom Laughlin), is an expert hand with both guns and swords and will not allow him to push around the peace-loving Indians or fellow settlers of the West.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 424
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: independent film, spaghetti western, exciting, rough, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
Billy the Kid (1989)
Plot Summary:
Gore Vidal's historical novel is brought to life in this television production of Turner Network Television's Billy the Kid.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 756
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000)
Plot Summary:
Valentine Casey is a Marshal in the desolate Tucson territory of the early 1900's. On Christmas Eve, his outlaw family pays him a disturbing visit. He must confront the sins of his past. He and his partner, U.S. Christmas, journey through the desert to a small town that the ruthless Henry Clan has hit in order to save Casey's love, Adelyne.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, atmospheric, independent film, realistic, wild
Similar in 85%
The Meanest Men in the West (1974)
Plot Summary:
Bronson and Marvin star as murderous half-brothers who are running from the law as well as each other. A climatic confrontation proves to each of them just how mean the other can be. "The Meanest Men in the West" is actually an amalgam of two episodes of the hit 1960's TV series, "The Virginian." In one installment, a wealthy man's daughter is kidnapped by a nasty gunslinger. But the crime is only just a means for the ruffian to draw the tough title character into a blood- thirsty revenge scheme. In the second, a drifter burglarizes the Shiloh ranch. Then an unhinged girl relies on the man to aid in her flight from home.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 318
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Brothers in Arms (2005)
Plot Summary:
Old West. New Soul. Big Payback.
IMDB Rating: 2.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, tense, suspense, suspenseful, neo western
Similar in 87%
Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice (1994)
Plot Summary:
After his mother is killed in a wagoncoach robbery a young man pursues the gang responsible. Matt Dillon goes after him hoping to stop him before the gang can kill him. Dillon is joined by Davis Healy, a businessman, who is hiding a few secrets of his own.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 390
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 85%
Return of the Outlaws (2009)
Plot Summary:
Miraculously escaping a painful demise in the gallows, a notorious outlaw cons a crooked judge, an attractive saloon girl, and an old partner into carrying out the heist of a lifetime. As the plan gets underway, a small town sheriff makes it his personal mission to capture the outlaw and ensure that justice is served.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Santee (1973)
Plot Summary:
Jody Deakes joins up with his father after many years, just to discover that his dad is part of an outlaw gang on the run from a relentless bounty hunter named Santee. Jody is orphaned soon after Santee catches up to the gang, and follows Santee in hopes of taking vengeance for his father's death. Instead, however, Jody discovers that Santee is a good and loving man, tormented by the death of his young son at the hands of another outlaw gang. Santee and his wife take Jody in and a father and son relationship begins to grow. Then the gang that shot Santee's son shows up. The film was produced by Edward Platt of Get Smart fame. It was one of the first motion pictures to be shot electronically on videotape and then transferred to film.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 593
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, serious, realistic, spaghetti western, cult film
Similar in 90%
The Gundown (2011)
Plot Summary:
Seeking revenge and justice, Cole Brandt finds himself in the lawless town of Dead River where he is faced with one last bloody showdown for freedom in order to protect The Majestic Saloon and a beautiful woman.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 911
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, exciting, rough, realistic
Similar in 89%
Yuma (1971)
Plot Summary:
A down-and-dirty town is forced to shape up when a new sheriff (Clint Walker) comes to town. However, when a scheme is launched to destroy the lawman's authority, he must discover the perpetrators and preserve his reputation.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 646
Genere: Western
Country: USA
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
The Return of Sabata (1971)
Plot Summary:
Master gunslinger Sabata arrives in Hobsonville, a town completely owned by McIntock, a robber baron who is taxing the inhabitants for the cost of future improvements to the town. Or that's what McIntock says he'll do with the money.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: spaghetti western, exciting, rough, realistic, suspenseful, atmospheric, serious, euro western, cult classic, offbeat
Similar in 76%
Barquero (1970)
Plot Summary:
Jake Remy leads a gang of outlaw cutthroats making their escape toward Mexico from a successful robbery. Barring their way is a river--crossable only by means of a ferry barge. The barge operator, Travis, refuses to be bullied into providing transport for the gang and escapes across river with most of the local populace--leaving Remy and his gang behind, desperately seeking a way across. A river-wide stand-off begins between the gang and the townspeople, both groups of which have left people on the wrong side of the river.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: spaghetti western, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 88%
Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987)
Plot Summary:
Will Mannon, "product of the Devil's loins," is released from a frontier prison and promptly goes in search of the people who put him there some 12 years ago -- Matt Dillon and Kitty Russell.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 636
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Hour of the Gun (1967)
Plot Summary:
Marshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton-gang in a fight. In revenge Clanton's thugs kill the marshal's brother. Thus, Wyatt Earp starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: retro, grindhouse, tense, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 90%
The Last Outlaw (1993)
Plot Summary:
The story follows a band of former Confederate soldiers who were part of a cavalry unit. Their commander, Graff (Rourke) had once been a heroic and staunch supporter of the southern cause, but after losing his family he became cold hearted and ruthless. His second in command is Eustis (Mulroney), whom Graff has trained on the strategies of leadership and combat command.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: brutal, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending
Similar in 89%
Joshua (1976)
Plot Summary:
A black soldier returns from fighting for the Union in the Civil War only to find out that his mother has been murdered by a gang of white thugs. He becomes a bounty hunter, determined to track down and kill the men who killed his mother.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 418
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: spaghetti western, independent film, psychological, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
The Deadly Trackers (1973)
Plot Summary:
Sheriff Sean Kilpatrick is a pacifist. Frank Brand is the leader of a band of killers. When their paths cross Kilpatrick is compelled to go against everything he has stood for to bring death to Brand and his gang. Through his hunt into Mexico he is challenged by a noble Mexican Sheriff interested only in carrying out the law - not vengeance.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, spaghetti western
Similar in 76%
Wyatt Earp's Revenge (2012)
Plot Summary:
Wyatt Earp is approached by a journalist for an interview about how he became a famous sheriff. Earp told the story of how he was a fearless U.S. Marshall. If 27-year old Wyatt Earp comes out that his first girlfriend Dora Hand was murdered. Together with his friend Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman and Charlie Bassett he goes hunting for the perpetrator.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, exciting, realistic, captivating, tense, rough
Similar in 88%
The Gunslingers (2009)
Plot Summary:
While roaming the wild plains on a quest to find a cache of hidden riches, sharp-shooting bounty hunter Butch (John Elliott) and his outlaw companions come across a deadly gang with supernatural powers in this stylized Western. As the hunt for the gold treasure becomes competitive -- and violent -- Butch, morally questionable Rattler Fenton (Brad Allen) and vengeful Akemi (Narisa Suzuki) must confront the evil and powerful Mondego (Ben Hall).
IMDB Rating: 3.8
IMDB Votes: 107
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, psychological, tense, suspense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending