Best movies like The Plow That Broke the Plains

Wind power... It's green... It's good... It reduces our dependency on foreign oil... That's what the people of Meredith, in upstate New York first thought when a wind developer looked to supplement this farm town's failing economy with a farm of their own — that of 40 industrial wind turbines. Attracted at first to the financial incentives, residents grow increasingly alarmed as they discover side effects they never dreamed of, as well as the potential for disturbing financial scams. With wind development growing rapidly at 39% annually in the US, WINDFALL is an eye-opener for anyone concerned about the future of renewable energy.

The Three Mesquiteers convince a group of settlers to exchange their present property for some which, unbeknownst to our goodguys, is going to be worthless. They are captured before they can warn the ranchers.

This joyous celebration of frontier life combines tender romance and violent passion in the Oklahoma Territory of the 1900s with a timeless score filled with unforgettable songs. Rodgers and Hammerstein's hit Broadway musical.

In 1876 Wyoming, the gun is the only law. And for Duncan and Suzanna McKaskel, newly arrived settlers beset by outlaws, rugged frontiersman Con Vallian is the only hope.

Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane help a Texas rancher against the railroad.

When her husband dies en route to America, Martha Price and her daughter Hilary are left to carry out his dream: the introduction of Hereford cattle into the American West. They enlist Sam "Bulldog" Burnett in their efforts to transport their lone bull, a Hereford named Vindicator, to a breeder in Texas, but the trail is fraught with danger and even Burnett doubts the survival potential of this "rare breed" of cattle.

Headstrong Thomas Dunson starts a thriving Texas cattle ranch with the help of his faithful trail hand, Groot, and his protégé, Matthew Garth, an orphan Dunson took under his wing when Matt was a boy. In need of money following the Civil War, Dunson and Matt lead a cattle drive to Missouri, where they will get a better price than locally, but the crotchety older man and his willful young partner begin to butt heads on the exhausting journey.

Ranchers in New Mexico have to face Indians and bandits.

Three cowboys, mistaken for members of an outlaw gang, are relentlessly pursued by a posse.

This short Depression-era documentary describes the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States and laments the environmental destruction committed in the name of progress, particularly farming and timber practices and their impact on impoverished farmers.

A biography of Woody Guthrie, one of America's greatest folk singers. He left his dust-devastated Texas home in the 1930s to find work, discovering the suffering and strength of America's working class.

Three New York businessmen decide to take a "Wild West" vacation that turns out not to be the relaxing vacation they had envisioned.

In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.

Joseph "Doc" Frail is a doctor with a past he's trying to outrun. While in Montana, he comes across a mining camp with a hanging tree and rescues a man named Rune from the noose. With Rune as his servant, Frail decides to settle down, and he takes over as town doctor. He meets Elizabeth, who is suffering from shock, and the two soon fall in love. But when Elizabeth is attacked, Frail's attempt to help her lands them both in trouble.

When a deadly Nitron ray strikes Earth, Flash Gordon and his friends travel to Mars to battle Ming the Merciless and his new ally Queen Azura.

Working as an assistant on a long cattle drive, the young Ben Mockridge contends between his dream of being a cowboy and the harsh truth of the Old West.

A young girl with a special gift comes of age during one of the most desolate periods in American history in this dark Dust Bowl fantasy inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid."

The spoilt young son of a wealthy railroad owner manages to get himself lost in the middle of nowhere. He is found by a cowboy on a cattle drive and the lad must start learning the hard lessons of working in a team if he wants to make it to San Diego.

Back home in Texas following the Civil War, former Confederate officer Chad Morgan (Alan Ladd) leads a cattle drive to Missouri, assuring fellow ranchers that their stock will bring $10 a head at auction. Instead, ruthless cattle baron Brog (Anthony Caruso) has scared off all competition and offers much less.

Sierra Nevada Jones must fight a villainous rancher to regain the land that is rightfully hers.

In a small Amish community, three barns are burnt down almost simultaneously. FBI agent Sally Russwell is sent in to investigate this possible hate crime. What she finds however is a community that little trust for outsiders or "The English" as they call them. However, in her investigations, Agent Russell makes friends with one entrepreneurial widow, Annie Beiler who has her own curiosity about this stranger. Together, Annie introduces Russell in-depth to this close knit community bearing many appealing attributes. However, as Sally's investigations continue, she discovers secrets that reveal uncomfortable truths about the religious community that are linked to the arson attacks.

While moving a group of Apaches to a Native American reservation in Arizona, an American scout named Sam Varner is surprised to find a white woman, Sarah Carver, living with the tribe. When Sam learns that she was taken captive by an Indian named Salvaje ten years ago, he attempts to escort Sarah and her half-Native American son to his home in New Mexico. However, it soon becomes clear that Salvaje is hot on their trail.

An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana's breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.

William S. Hart stars in this 1925 silent film as a cowboy intent on claiming land during the 1889 land rush in the Oklahoma Territory. Though hardened from years of taming the new frontier, he falls in love with a beautiful woman. Before he settles down, however, he must contend with men who wish to bring him harm. In the prologue of the 1939 Astor Pictures revival of this film, Hart gives a moving eight-minute introduction-- the first and only time he appeared in a film accompanied by his striking voice.

Generational saga tracing the events in the lives of the midwest pioneering Nordholm family, as seen through the eyes of businessman Orin Nordholm Jr., who ages from a youth to an elderly grandfather.

Composed of intimate and unencumbered moments of people in a community, this film is constructed in a form that allows the viewer an emotive impression of the Historic South - trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously a testament to dreaming.

Viennese surgeon Dr. Braun and his daughter Leni come to a small town in North Dakota as refugees from Hitler. When the winds of the Dust Bowl threaten the town, John Phillips leads the townsfolk in moving to greener pastures in Oregon. He falls for Leni, but she is betrothed to the man who helped her and her father escape from the Third Reich. She must decide between the two men.

When a young girl is injured by a riding accident, she overcomes her injury with the help of her family and her beloved horse.

With the increasing popularity of Republic's sagebrush crooner Gene Autry, rival company Columbia found it necessary to add a musical element to this Charles Starrett Western released in early 1937. As Starrett himself was no singer, the studio hired Donald Grayson to warble Lonesome River, Out in the Cow Country and Pancho's Widow, all by Ned Washington and Sam H. Stept.

A young widower named Sam Crockett returns from Kansas City to his small hometown in rural Texas, bringing with him his feisty grandfather and two young sons, Steve and Yoyo. He tries to make a go of the old family homestead but faces financial problems and pressures from his well-to-do neighbor, Rod Marshall. He also begins an on-again-off-again romance with Rod's sister-in-law, even though she's engaged to wed the town's doctor. Events come to head when Sam's grandfather suffers a stroke.

After his cattle rancher boss dies, right-hand man Pike is given the job of returning $86,000 to some families who live across the border in Senora, Mexico. Honest Pike is joined on the trip through the wilderness by a dishonest gambler named Tyree.

Monte Walsh and Chet Rollins are long-time cowhands, working whatever ranch work comes their way, but "nothing they can't do from a horse." Their lives are divided between months on the range and the occasional trip into town. Monte has a long-term relationship with prostitute Martine Bernard, while Chet has fallen under the spell of the widow who owns the hardware store. Camaraderie and competition with the other cowboys fill their days, until one of the hands, Shorty Austin, loses his job and gets involved in rustling and killing. Then Monte and Chet find that their lives on the range are inexorably redirected.

A group of young adults struggle to run the biggest cattle ranch in the world amidst World War II.

The spoiled, hard-partying son of a senator runs away from home after being reprimanded by his father, finds himself down-on-his luck in a tiny western town, and is rehabilitated through the friendship and wisdom of a kind and patient rancher.

A documentary about the major events of the first fifty years of the Twentieth Century.

The Goss family live on a farm they call the dust bowl where the wind blows during the day and the coyotes howl at night. When the train is robbed, everyone thinks that Cotton and Violet were the ones that did the job, but no one has any proof. US Marshal Lloyd Richland comes into town in disguise to find the truth and he finds that the sheriff is corrupt and that the Goss family is gosh darn nice. They take in Richland and a stranded woman named Mary without any questions. Cotton believes that Sheriff Tatum shot their pa in the back, and the sheriff is now trying to plug the boys. Richland is looking for the train robbers, and at the same time is keeping an eye on Tatum and the lovely young Mary.

In this pilot Western produced for Canadian television, two brothers and their cousin become bandits to rescue their ranch from a greedy land developer.

The fourth of 12 singing Westerns starring the "Silvery-Voiced Baritone," Fred Scott, Melody of the Plains begins peacefully enough with Scott, as cowboy Steve Condon, warbling Don Swander and June Hershey's "Albuquerque." The story quickly takes a rather grim turn when one of Steve's colleagues is shot and killed after selling out to a gang of rustlers. Mistakenly believing he fired the deadly shot, a dejected Steve, along with sidekick Fuzzy, goes to work for Bud's father, a rancher nearly forced into bankruptcy by a crooked land developer.

Remake of the 1948 John Wayne feature about a man who rebels against his tyrannical guardian during a crucial cattle drive.

When Montana cowpuncher Larry Benson, riding his horse Starlight and accompanied by his dog Rex, tied up at the hitching post in front of McAvoy's hotel in Dam, Texas, he had little idea of the extraordinary series of adventures that were in store for him, Starlight and Rex.

Wisecracking showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself trapped in a Wyoming town when her new employer closes the show prematurely. She meets ranch foreman Charles "Slim" Martin when he accuses her of lifting his wallet and ends up being hired as a maid for ranch owners Cliff and Sybil, who are attempting to mend their rocky marriage after Sybil's infidelity with a cowboy.

Joe is the head of an itinerant combine crew, working the harvests against rival crew boss Alperson. Joe's buddy Jim joins the crew with startup money. Farmer's niece Fay falls for Joe. He puts her off. To get back she marries Jim whom she prods into high-grading the grain (skimming off some for private sale). The last payment on Joe's machinery is due just as he discover's what his buddy has been doing.

A cowpoke buys Billy the Kid's horse and, upon riding it, becomes an incorrigible outlaw himself.

The Hurley's own a lumber mill and want to harvest all the timber in the valley. They kill the Forester and substitute their brother Dusty in his place. Dusty then says all the trees are infected and must be cut down. But Rex Allen is suspicious and writes to the Forestry Department and gets involved with the murders.

Not long after the Civil War, Texas cattle ranchers realize they have a problem--the Union Pacific railroad is bypassing their state and make it near impossible to get their cattle to market. Many ranchers are being forced to sell their land, and crooked state treasure Marvin Fletcher buys up the land at pennies on the dollar. However, Laguna del Sol Ranch owner Taisie Lockhart and her ranch hands are holding out. Cowboy Dan McMasters returns to the ranch and tries to rekindle his romance with Taisie, but she rejects him because he fought for the North during the war. But what she doesn't know is that Dan is on an undercover mission from the President to investigate Fletcher, and in order to do that he has to pretend to be sympathetic to Fletcher and goes to work for him, angering Taisie even more. Complications ensue.

One-time cavalry officer Rex Allen, between jobs as a star rodeo rider, is asked by his former commanding officer, Colonel Bigelow, to help settle a dispute between the army and local ranchers. The cavalry has commandeered a large parcel of land needed to test their newly-designed tank and prominent rancher Jenson has encited the locals to rebel at this intrusion. It is up to Rex and his sidekick, Slim, to thwart Jenson and convince the residents that these army tests are essential.

Deputies Gene Autry and Frog go up against modern cattle rustlers. These rustlers use technology such as, airplanes, radios and refrigerated trucks to steal the cows, butcher them in the field and ship them out before getting caught. This causes the town to bring in a modern NYC detective to catch the crooks, but will Autry and Frog be permanently out of a job?

A rich landowner of Wyoming fights to prevent the Texas herds from trampling his rich meadows.

When his well-meaning sidekick (Smiley Burnette) buys a cow farm instead of a cattle ranch, singing cowpoke Gene Autry prepares to embrace the dairy business. But with a corrupt association bent on driving up milk prices, it's up to newly elected Sheriff Gene to clean up the mess. Country music icon Patsy Montana sings "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart," while radio crooners the Texas Rangers perform alongside Autry.

Just after Kramer goes to Wyoming to start his protection racket, cowboy actor Jeff Carson finishes a picture and goes camping. Attracted to Joyce Butler, he hires on at her ranch and quickly gets caught up in Butler's conflict with Kramer. When the Butlers refuse to buy his service, he has their cattle stampeded.