Best movies like Dances with Wolves
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Wounded Civil War soldier, John Dunbar tries to commit suicide – and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 285000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 181 min
Plot tags: scenic, touching, breathtaking, sentimental, epic, sincere, emotional, period piece, inspirational, melancholic
Best tv shows and movies like Dances with Wolves (1990):
Similar in 79%
The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1980)
Plot Summary:
Walks Far Woman is a squaw of the Blackfoot tribe. She takes revenge on two men who killed her husband and then she is ostracized by her tribe. She then is adopted by the Sioux, the tribe of her mother, and there she tries to start a new life.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 247
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Stolen Women, Captured Hearts (1997)
Plot Summary:
Kansas, 1868. A wagon train is attacked by a band of Lakota Sioux led by the young and athletic warrior Tokalah. The attractive, red haired Anna Brewster-Morgan and her friend Sarah White are on this wagon train too. When Tokalah noticed a terrified Anna with a Bible, he thinks this is an omen. Despite killing the other passengers of the wagon train, only Anna and Sarah may continue their voyage. The next day Anna and Sarah are kidnapped by Tokalah. At first terrified of her captors, the unhappily married Anna eventually falls in love with the noble, honorable Tokalah. After a year's captivity, Sarah is returned to her own people. Anna now must choose between her new life with T.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, touching, captivating, serious, period drama
Similar in 90%
Ulzana's Raid (1972)
Plot Summary:
Report reaches the US cavalry that the Apache leader Ulzana has left his reservation with a band of followers. A compassionate young officer, Lieutenant DeBuin, is given a small company to find him and bring him back; accompanying the troop is McIntosh, an experienced scout, and Ke-Ni-Tay, an Apache guide. Ulzana massacres, rapes and loots across the countryside; and as DeBuin encounters the remains of his victims, he is compelled to learn from McIntosh and to confront his own naivity and hidden prejudices.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: brutal, spaghetti western, exciting, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, wild, cult film
Similar in 79%
Last of the Dogmen (1995)
Plot Summary:
A Montana bounty hunter is sent into the wilderness to track three escaped prisoners. Instead he sees something that puzzles him. Later with a female Native Indian history professor, he returns to find some answers.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Adventure, Western
Country: USA, Mexico, Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, anamorphic, serious, independent film, black comedy, neo western
Similar in 79%
Grayeagle (1977)
Plot Summary:
A young Cheyenne warrior, who goes by the name Grayeagle, kidnaps the daughter of a grizzled frontier man John Colter who goes on an epic search for his daughter Beth, aided by a friendly native.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 688
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, sincere, atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 79%
Shenandoah (1965)
Plot Summary:
Charlie Anderson, a farmer in Shenandoah, Virginia, finds himself and his family in the middle of the Civil War he wants nothing to do with. When his youngest boy is taken prisoner by the North the Civil War is forced upon him.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, War, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: retro, black and white, sincere, rough, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, technicolor, tense
Similar in 76%
Quigley Down Under (1990)
Plot Summary:
American Matt Quigley answers Australian land baron Elliott Marston's ad for a sharpshooter to kill the dingoes on his property. But when Quigley finds out that Marston's real target is the aborigines, Quigley hits the road. Now, even American expatriate Crazy Cora can't keep Quigley safe in his cat-and-mouse game with the homicidal Marston.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance, Western
Country: Australia, USA, France
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: suspense, entertaining, exciting, harsh, rough, realistic, serious, period piece, spaghetti western, funny
Similar in 77%
Major Dundee (1965)
Plot Summary:
During the last winter of the Civil War, cavalry officer Amos Dundee leads a contentious troop of Army regulars, Confederate prisoners and scouts on an expedition into Mexico to destroy a band of Apaches who have been raiding U.S. bases in Texas.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, sad, perverse, cult classic, rough, epic
Similar in 79%
The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976)
Plot Summary:
Lord John Morgan has returned to civilized life in England, but finds he has nothing but disdain for that life. Yearning to embrace the simplicity of the American West-and the Yellow Hands Sioux tribe he left behind, Morgan returns to the tribe's land only to discover that they've been decimated by ruthless, government-backed fur traders. They must regain their land, led by Horse.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: Mexico, USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, rough, serious, realistic, spaghetti western, light, inspirational, sexy, enigmatic
Similar in 88%
A Man Called Horse (1970)
Plot Summary:
In 1825 an English aristocrat is captured by Indians. He lives with them and begins to understand/accept their lifestyles. Eventually he is accepted as part of the tribe and becomes their leader.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: suspense, scenic, intense, exciting, serious, captivating, epic, realistic, historical drama, independent film
Similar in 81%
Windwalker (1980)
Plot Summary:
An ancient Indian warrior who has reached the end of his life is brought back from his 'death' to save his family from a raiding party of enemy Indians in this unique story of 'Indians without a single cowboy.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
Into the West (2005)
Plot Summary:
Steven Spielberg executive produced this TNT miniseries about American Westward expansion during the 19th century. Told from both the perspective of the white Wheeler family and the Native American Lakota tribe, the 12-hour epic follows the clans as they struggle to find their place in a country confounded by turmoil and change.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 552 min
Plot tags: epic, sincere, realistic, atmospheric, serious, educational, historical drama, contemplative, period drama, wild
Similar in 84%
Little Big Man (1970)
Plot Summary:
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: epic, humorous, sentimental, captivating, disturbing, breathtaking, realistic, scenic, picaresque, parody
Similar in 81%
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Plot Summary:
An epic tale of three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of 1900s USA and how their lives are affected by nature, history, war, and love.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 179000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, serious, scenic, sentimental, captivating, touching, romantic, epic, sad
Similar in 87%
Australia (2008)
Plot Summary:
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by Japanese forces firsthand.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 129000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance, War, Western
Country: UK, Australia, USA
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: scenic, emotional, epic, romantic, period piece, captivating, stylized, breathtaking, romantic drama, sentimental
Similar in 86%
Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
Plot Summary:
Austrian mountaineer, Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas without his family to head an expedition in 1939. But when World War II breaks out, the arrogant Harrer falls into Allied forces' hands as a prisoner of war. He escapes with a fellow detainee and makes his way to Llaso, Tibet, where he meets the 14-year-old Dalai Lama, whose friendship ultimately transforms his outlook on life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 153000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: inspirational, captivating, epic, breathtaking, dramatic, scenic, uplifting, serious, philosophical, realistic
Similar in 83%
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Plot Summary:
Aging outlaw Pike Bishop (William Holden) prepares to retire after one final robbery. Joined by his gang, which includes Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine) and brothers Lyle (Warren Oates) and Tector Gorch (Ben Johnson), Bishop discovers the heist is a setup orchestrated in part by his old partner, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan). As the remaining gang takes refuge in Mexican territory, Thornton trails them, resulting in fierce gunfights with plenty of casualties.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 89000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: controversial, intense, cult classic, brutal, bloody, suspense, disturbing, epic, atmospheric, bleak
Similar in 82%
Open Range (2003)
Plot Summary:
A former gunslinger is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 77000
Genere: Action, Drama, Romance, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, stylized, intense, realistic, captivating, contemplative, period piece, funny, sexy, epic
Similar in 85%
The Last Samurai (2003)
Plot Summary:
Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 463000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA, New Zealand, Japan
Duration: 154 min
Plot tags: epic, breathtaking, serious, exciting, captivating, period piece, realistic, stylized, dramatic, suspense
Similar in 81%
Dead Man (1995)
Plot Summary:
On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange North American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 102000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Western
Country: USA, Germany, Japan
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: bleak, atmospheric, black and white, gloomy, captivating, offbeat, art house, surreal, tense, melancholic
Similar in 85%
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 78%
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 85%
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Plot Summary:
As the English and French soldiers battle for control of the American colonies in the 18th century, the settlers and native Americans are forced to take sides. Cora and her sister Alice unwittingly walk into trouble but are reluctantly saved by Hawkeye, an orphaned settler adopted by the last of the Mohicans.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 183000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: epic, exciting, period piece, costume drama, historical drama, dramatic, visually appealing, visually stunning, cult classic, realistic
Similar in 79%
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Plot Summary:
During a shootout in a saloon, Sheriff Hunt injures a suspicious stranger. One of the villagers takes care of him in prison. One day they both disappear – only the spear of a cannibal tribe is found. Hunt and a few of his men go in search of the prisoner and his nurse.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 114000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Western
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: scary, brutal, suspense, bleak, dark, suspenseful, disturbing, creepy, psychological, splatter
Similar in 81%
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Plot Summary:
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by Indians when he proves to be the match of their warriors in one-to-one combat on the early frontier.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, epic, realistic, scenic, meditative, factual, serious, bleak, existential, spaghetti western
Similar in 80%
Apocalypto (2006)
Plot Summary:
Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 326000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, suspense, brutal, visually stunning, suspenseful, disturbing, bloody, intense, motivational
Similar in 90%
Far and Away (1992)
Plot Summary:
A young man (Cruise) leaves Ireland with his landlord's daughter (Kidman) after some trouble with her father, and they dream of owning land at the big giveaway in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local barehands 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 America to find her and take her back.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 67000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, period piece, sentimental, epic, intense, serious, romantic, entertaining, romantic comedy
Similar in 81%
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
Similar in 89%
Gladiator (2000)
Plot Summary:
In the year 180, the death of emperor Marcus Aurelius throws the Roman Empire into chaos. Maximus is one of the Roman army's most capable and trusted generals and a key advisor to the emperor. As Marcus' devious son Commodus ascends to the throne, Maximus is set to be executed. He escapes, but is captured by slave traders. Renamed Spaniard and forced to become a gladiator, Maximus must battle to the death with other men for the amusement of paying audiences.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 16000000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA, UK, Malta, Morocco
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: epic, captivating, breathtaking, suspense, emotional, exciting, rough, realistic, atmospheric, period piece
Similar in 76%
The Revenant (2015)
Plot Summary:
In the 1820s, a frontiersman, Hugh Glass, sets out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 854000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: breathtaking, atmospheric, scenic, exciting, visually stunning, suspenseful, harsh, rough, realistic, serious