Best movies like The Way West
Cracking Like a Whip From Here to Excitement!
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Way West Starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Lola Albright, and more. If you liked The Way West then you may also like: Wagon Wheels, Wagons East!, Westward Ho, The Wagons!, Winterhawk, Nevada Smith and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
In the mid-19th century, Senator William J. Tadlock leads a group of settlers overland in a quest to start a new settlement in the Western US. Tadlock is a highly principled and demanding taskmaster who is as hard on himself as he is on those who have joined his wagon train. He clashes with one of the new settlers, Lije Evans, who doesn't quite appreciate Tadlock's ways. Along the way, the families must face death and heartbreak and a sampling of frontier justice when one of them accidentally kills a young Indian boy.
The Way West
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Wagons East!
After the 1860s Wild West, a group of misfit settlers - including ex-doctor Phil Taylor, prostitute Belle, and homosexual bookseller Julian - decide they cannot live in their current situation in the west. They hire a grizzled alcoholic wagon master by the name of James Harlow to take them on a journey back to their hometowns in the East.
Westward Ho, The Wagons!
The pioneering trail to Oregon was littered with constant danger. Yet, the hope of the "promised land" keeps American families westward bound despite overwhelming odds. A calm, clear-thinking pioneer attempts to lead a wagon train through territory occupied by Pawnees and Sioux. Along the way, the hardy settlers face horse thieves, kidnappers, and unpredictable Indian attacks in their push to establish a new life in the rugged West.
Winterhawk
Smallpox plagues Chief Winterhawk's tribe. He seeks cure from the white men, who in turn, in fear of getting the smallpox, kill two of his companions. Winterhawk comes back to kidnap a girl and her brother from the white men's settlement, and thus begins the chase...
Nevada Smith
Nevada Smith is the young son of an Indian mother and white father. When his father is killed by three men over gold, Nevada sets out to find them and kill them. The boy is taken in by a gun merchant. The gun merchant shows him how to shoot and to shoot on time and correct.
The Oregon Trail
In 1846, a reporter for the New York Herald joins a wagon train bound for the Oregon Territory. He hopes to confirm a rumor that President Polk is sending in soldiers disguised as settlers in order to strengthen American claims to the Territory.
The Quick and the Dead
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.
The Return of a Man Called Horse
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. Led by Horse, they fight to repossess their land.
Bend of the River
Two men with questionable pasts, Glyn McLyntock and his friend Cole, lead a wagon-train load of homesteaders from Missouri to the Oregon territory...
Buck and the Preacher
A wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West.
Little Big Man
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer.
The War Wagon
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.
Run of the Arrow
When the South loses the war, Confederate veteran O'Meara goes West, joins the Sioux, takes a wife and refuses to be an American but he must choose a side when the Sioux go to war against the U.S. Army.
The Indian Fighter
A scout leading a wagon train through hostile Indian country gets involved with a Sioux chief's daughter.
The Mountain Men
The story concerns two grizzled mountain men -- Bill Tyler and Henry Frapp -- during the dying days of the fur-trapping era. The plot begins when Running Moon runs away from her abusive husband Heavy Eagle and comes across the two seedy fur trappers. The mountain men take her in, unaware that Heavy Eagle has dispatched an army of Indian braves to reclaim her.
The Glory Guys
Though a fictionalized Western based on George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the film is almost a generic war story covering the enlistment, training, and operational deployment of a group of recruits that could take place in any time period.
The Great Sioux Massacre
Colonel Custer (Philip Carey), an outspoken believer in fair treatment for the Indians, is ousted from his post and forced into retirement. Fueled by ambition when a Senator Blaine (Don Haggerty) convinces him to run for President, Custer decides to upstage General Terry (Frank Ferguson) at Little Big Horn.
A Man Called Horse
In 1825, English peer Lord John Morgan is cast adrift in the American West. Captured by Sioux Indians, Morgan is at first targeted for quick extinction, but the tribesmen sense that he is worthy of survival. He eventually passes the many necessary tests that will permit him to become a member of the tribe.
Meek's Cutoff
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.
Daniel Boone
In 1775, Daniel Boone settles Kentucky, despite menacing Indians and renegade whites.
Triumphs of a Man Called Horse
Shunka Wakan, formerly Lord John, helps his Dakota son defend their tribe against gold rushers.
Two Rode Together
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
Santa Fe Passage
A disgraced Indian scout and his partner are hired to escort a wagonload of guns through Indian territory.
The Big Trail
Young scout Breck Coleman leads a wagon train along the dangerous trail to Oregon as he tries to get the affection of the beautiful pioneer Ruth Cameron and plans his revenge on the harsh scoundrels who murdered a friend of his in the past.
The Prairie
The Prairie is set at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Hoping to find their destiny in the new territory, the Bush Family heads southward in a covered wagon. Sharing the family's numerous dangers and hardships are Ellen Wade (Lenore Aubert), sole survivor of an Indian attack, and army mapmaker Paul Hover (Alan Baxter). Cousins Abiram (Russ Vincent) and Asa (Jack Mitchum) duke it out over Ellen's affections
The Tall Stranger
A Union soldier returns to his western home at the end of the Civil War and finds himself caught in the middle of a land war between his greedy half-brother and a wagon train of Confederate homesteaders.
Stolen Women, Captured Hearts
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 Tokalah and her previous existence as the wife of farmer Daniel Morgan.
Pioneer Woman
A homesteading family in 1867 Wyoming faces a crisis when the husband is killed and the wife must decide whether to remain or take her son and daughter back East.
The Quest
Eight years ago, Cheyenne Indians attacked the Baudine Family wagon and captured Morgan (Kurt Russell), whom they renamed Two Persons. Now Two Persons, raised in the ways of the Indians, has been reunited with his brother Quentin (Tim Matheson), a doctor and a stranger to frontier ways. Together the brothers set out in search of their sister Patricia, who was also captured and who Two Persons believes is still alive.
40 Guns to Apache Pass
The Apaches are on the warpath and the Army must defend them. Murphy's mission is to get a shipment of rifles, but it's stolen by greedy white traders with the help of mutinous soldiers
Kentucky Rifle
A man escorts a wagon load of Kentucky rifles through Indian territory and must find a way to get through without losing the rifles to the Indians. Unfortunately the Indians know about it, and give the occupants an ultimatum: either the rifles or their lives.
Frontier Uprising
Not having heard that war has erupted between the U.S. and Mexico, a wagon train heads west, only to find itself threatened by the Mexicans who have teamed up with hostile Indians.
The Wild Dakotas
When Aaron Baring signs on as wagon master for a group of settlers headed to Montana's Powder River Valley, his dictatorial style soon creates problems. When the settlers reach their destination, Baring unwisely declares war on the local Indians. When savvy frontier scout Jim Henry tries to promote cooperation between the natives and the newly arrived settlers, Baring responds by having Williams whipped.
Wagon Wheels
A wagon train heads west from Independence, Mo., along the Oregon Trail, led by proud cowboy Clint Belmet. On board are feisty young widow Nancy Wellington and her toddler, Sonny, as well as the older Abby Masters, who begins a romance with scout Jim Burch. Along the way, the wagon train battles Indians led by Kenneth Murdock, a trapper who doesn't welcome competition for Oregon's lucrative fur trade. Wagon Wheels is a 1934 remake of 1931's Fighting Caravans, using stock footage from the original.