#1. Crazy Horse (1996)
The legendary Native American chieftain refuses to go with his people peacefully to the reservation and starts a rebellion.
🤠 Western Movie Guide
Best 1990s Western Movies Ranked
The definitive ranking of the greatest Western films released in the 1990s. Curated classics and forgotten gems.
#2. Unforgiven (1992)
William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff.
#3. Dances with Wolves (1990)
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.
#4. Stolen Women, Captured Hearts (1997)
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.
#5. Tombstone (1993)
Legendary marshal Wyatt Earp, now a weary gunfighter, joins his brothers Morgan and Virgil to pursue their collective fortune in the thriving mining town of Tombstone. But Earp is forced to don a badge again and get help from his notorious pal Doc Holliday when a gang of renegade brigands and rustlers begins terrorizing the town.
#6. Legends of the Fall (1994)
In early 20th-century Montana, Col. William Ludlow lives on a ranch in the wilderness with his sons, Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel. Eventually, the unconventional but close-knit family are bound by loyalty, tested by war, and torn apart by love, as told over the course of several decades in this epic saga.
#7. Cheyenne Warrior (1994)
An interracial love story, set in the turbulent wild west, stirs up tensions between the Indians and the settlers.
#8. Dead Man (1995)
On the run after committing murder, an accountant encounters a strange Native American man who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.
#9. Purgatory (1999)
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.
#10. 8 Seconds (1994)
This film chronicles the life of Lane Frost, 1987 PRCA Bull Riding World Champion, his marriage and his friendships with Tuff Hedeman (three-time World Champion) and Cody Lambert.
#11. Lone Star (1996)
When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.
#12. Secret of Giving (1999)
As Christmas approaches, a single mother struggles to raise her son and keep up the payments on her Oregon ranch, which is difficult since she's heavily in debt. But she's a tough cookie and proves that a steadfast attitude and an open heart go a long way in surviving the cold hearts and greed of the Scrooges around her.
#13. Legacy (1993)
A portrayal of the early Latter-day Saints' joys, sacrifices, hopes, and trials; their epic journey to the Salt Lake Valley; and their legacy of faith in Jesus Christ.
#14. The Last of His Tribe (1992)
Ishi, the last Yahi Indian of California, must leave his homeland and learn to navigate the world of the white man in order to survive.
#15. Gunsmoke: The Last Apache (1990)
James Arness rides again as Matt Dillon, the US Marshal he made popular in the 1955-75 TV series. In this movie he goes after a renegade Apache named Wolf who has taken his daughter captive. As a bargaining chip, Dillon helps two sons of Apache chief Geronimo out of the fort stockade and offers them in trade. Dillon is aided by an Army scout, Chalk Brighton.
#16. Maverick (1994)
Bret Maverick is a gambler who would rather con someone than fight them, and needs an additional $3k in order to enter a winner-takes-all poker game beginning in a few days. He joins forces with a woman with a marvelous Southern accent, and the two try and enter the game.
#17. Clearcut (1991)
A white lawyer finds his values shaken when he is paired with an angry Indigenous activist who insists on kidnapping the head of a logging company to teach him the price of his destruction.
#18. Ravenous (1999)
After arriving at his new, remote Army outpost, Capt. John Boyd and his regiment aid a wounded frontiersman who recounts a horrifying tale of a wagon train murdered by its supposed guide – a vicious U.S. Army colonel gone rogue. Fearing the worst, the regiment heads out into the wilderness to verify the gruesome claims.
#19. Thousand Pieces of Gold (1991)
In 1880s China, young Lalu is sold into marriage by her impoverished father. Rather than becoming a bride, Lalu ends up in an Idaho gold-mining town, the property of a saloon owner who renames her, China Polly, and plans to sell her as entertainment for the locals. Refusing to become a whore, Lalu ultimately finds her own way in this strange country filled with white demons.
#20. Wyatt Earp (1994)
From Wichita to Dodge City, to the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Wyatt Earp is taught that nothing matters more than family and the law. Joined by his brothers and Doc Holliday, Earp wages war on the dreaded Clanton and McLaury gangs.
#21. Last of the Dogmen (1995)
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.
#22. Far and Away (1992)
A young free-spirited Irish woman from an affluent Protestant family spontaneously befriends a street-smart commoner cheated by her family’s hostile land takeovers. They escape to America, ready to take advantage of the 19th century Oklahoma land rush.
#23. Geronimo (1993)
The story of the greatest Native American warrior who, together with the rest of his Apache tribesmen, defied American and Mexican Armies in 1867. Finally caught and sent to a reservation camp, he eluded a military force of 5000 for 18 months before finally surrendering to the government.
#24. El Mariachi (1993)
El Mariachi just wants to play his guitar and carry on the family tradition. Unfortunately, the town he tries to find work in has another visitor, a killer who carries his guns in a guitar case. The drug lord and his henchmen mistake el Mariachi for the killer, Azul, and chase him around town trying to kill him and get his guitar case.
#25. Quigley Down Under (1990)
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.
#26. Bonanza: Under Attack (1995)
After a rogue band of Pinkerton detectives led by ruthless Charley Siringo bushwhacks reformed outlaw Frank James, he seeks sanctuary on the Ponderosa with the next generation of Cartwrights and his former Civil War compatriots. Will Frank's comrades come to his aid or turn their backs on him? Richard Roundtree also stars in this made-for-TV sequel to the popular Western series.
#27. China Gate (1998)
After witnessing the brutal slaying of her Forest Officer father, Sunder Rajan, at the hands of dreaded dacoit Jageera, Sandhya goes to Colonel Krishnakant Puri and asks for his assistance in bringing an end to Jageera's rule in the Devdurg region. Krishnakant agrees to assist her, and summons about a dozen of his fellow officers and subordinates to assist him. They all assemble at Devdurg with all the necessary ammunitions and arms to combat Jageera, not realizing that Jageera has influence over the local police detachment, who will prevent Puri and his men to possess any guns and weapons. This does not deter Puri and his men, and they continue to stay on in Devdurg and gain the confidence of the villagers. What the villagers do not know that Krishnakant and his men had all been dishonorably discharged from the army for cowardice and retreating when attacked by the enemy. Will Puri and his men abandon Devdurg and let history repeat itself?
#28. The Good Old Boys (1995)
An aging cowboy must choose between his desire to remain free and the responsibilities of maintaining a family.
#29. Conagher (1991)
Mrs. Evie Teale is struggling to stay alive while raising her two children alone on a remote homestead. Conn Conagher is an honest, hardworking cowboy. Their lives are intertwined as they fight the elements, indians, outlaws, and loneliness.
#30. Oklahoma! (1999)
A dark-themed and redesigned West End production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's seminal Broadway musical tells the story of farm girl Laurey and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud.
#31. Last Stand at Saber River (1997)
As America recovers from the Civil War, one man tries to put the pieces of his life back together but finds himself fighting a new battle on the frontier. Cable is an embittered Confederate soldier who returns from the war to reclaim his Arizona homestead from rebel pioneers who sympathize with the Union war effort.
#32. The Quick and the Dead (1995)
A mysterious woman comes to compete in a quick-draw elimination tournament, in a town taken over by a notorious gunman.
#33. Rose Hill (1997)
Four orphan boys running from the law in New York stumble upon a baby in a carriage. They decide to head west and take the baby which they name Mary Rose with them. Eventually they set up a ranch which they name Rose Hill. Mary Rose grows up to be a beautiful woman and gets involved with a man who kills one of her brothers. Her brothers then explain to her that they found her in New York and she returns to find her real family. During this time Rose Hill is falling apart since her oldest brother has fallen ill and her other two brothers have gone their separate ways.
#34. Young Guns II (1990)
Three of the original five "young guns" — Billy the Kid, Jose Chavez y Chavez, and Doc Scurlock — return in Young Guns, Part 2, which is the story of Billy the Kid and his race to safety in Old Mexico while being trailed by a group of government agents led by Pat Garrett.
#35. Bonanza: The Return (1993)
A man with a grudge against the late Little Joe seeks revenge on the Cartwrights and attempts to take over the Ponderosa.
#36. Buffalo Girls (1995)
The bold escapades of tough-talking Calamity Jane Canary and her illustrious cohorts. It's the waning days of the Wild West and Jane, the rough 'n' rugged cowgirl, is searching not only for her long-lost daughter, but the Wild West she once knew. Jane traverses plains, mountains and continents until she finally discovers the answer to her problems: Dora, the vivacious, gold-hearted madam who's been her one true friend all along.
#37. City Slickers (1991)
Three New York businessmen decide to take a "Wild West" vacation that turns out not to be the relaxing vacation they had envisioned.
#38. The Jack Bull (1999)
When the law fails to punish a fellow rancher that has abused his horses, a Wyoming horse trader sacrifices it all in a quest for justice.
#39. Outlaw Justice (1999)
In the tradition of THE WILD BUNCH and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN comes this fast paced, action filled western with unforgettable performances by an all star cast: Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Travis Tritt and Waylon Jennings. All hell breaks loose in this riveting story when a group of former outlaws with bad attitudes teams up to catch a killer with murder and revenge on his mind. After Tobey(Jennings), a retired member of the group, is brutally gunned down by a former member and killer, Clinton Reese, our band of reformed gunslingers, Lee (Nelson, Tarence (Kristofferson), and Dalton (Tritt), sets out on Clinton's Trail. They are joined by Tobeys reluctatant young son Bryce (Willett).
#40. The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1990)
A mountain man is falsely accused of the murder of his parents.
#41. Last Man Standing (1996)
John Smith is a mysterious stranger who is drawn into a vicious war between two Prohibition-era gangs. In a dangerous game, he switches allegiances from one to another, offering his services to the highest bidder. As the death toll mounts, Smith takes the law into his own hands in a deadly race to stay alive.
#42. Buck at the Edge of Heaven (1991)
Loosely based upon Jack London's novels, this is a canine adventure set in the wilderness of the far North, amidst gold diggers, outlaws and children-in-distress.
#43. Cannibal! The Musical (1996)
Heading through Colorado Territory in search of gold and women, Alferd Packer and his group of bemused companions find themselves lost, starving and musically inspired by the obstacles they confront along the way, including a die-hard Confederate cyclops, a trio of surly trappers, a tribe of Japanese-speaking "Indians," and ultimately, each other.
#44. Into the West (1992)
Accused of a crime they didn't commit, two city kids and a magical horse are about to become the coolest outlaws ever to ride Into The West.
#45. My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1991)
H.D. Dalton is a champion rodeo rider whose career is ruined after being gored by a bull. He returns home to discover things have drastically changed -- the family farm has been abandoned, his old girlfriend Jolie is a now a widowed mother, and his sister Cheryl has put his father in a nursing home.
#46. Ride with the Devil (1999)
Friends Jake and Jack Bull join up with Civil War guerrilla fighters, yet after the realities of war set in, they must decide what honor truly means.
#47. An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)
Some time after the Mousekewitz's have settled in America, they find that they are still having problems with the threat of cats. That makes them eager to try another home out in the west, where they are promised that mice and cats live in peace. Unfortunately, the one making this claim is an oily con artist named Cat R. Waul who is intent on his own sinister plan.
#48. Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
The Apache Indians have reluctantly agreed to settle on a US Government approved reservation. Not all the Apaches are able to adapt to the life of corn farmers. One in particular, Geronimo, is restless. Pushed over the edge by broken promises and necessary actions by the government, Geronimo and thirty or so other warriors form an attack team which humiliates the government by evading capture, while reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.
#49. Cremaster 2 (1999)
CREMASTER 2 is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. On the biological level it corresponds to the phase of fetal development during which sexual division begins. In Matthew Barney's abstraction of this process, the system resists partition and tries to remain in the state of equilibrium imagined in Cremaster 1.
#50. Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventure (1995)
A young boy draws on the inspiration of legendary western characters to find the strength to fight an evil land baron in the old west who wants to steal his family's farm and destroy their idyllic community. When Daniel Hackett sees his father Jonas gravely wounded by the villainous Stiles, his first urge is for his family to flee the danger, and give up their life on a farm which Daniel has come to despise anyway. Going alone to a lake to try to decide what to do, he falls asleep on a boat and wakes to find himself in the wild west, in the company of such "tall tale" legends as Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Calamity Jane. Together, they battle the same villains Daniel is facing in his "real" world, ending with a heroic confrontation in which the boy stands up to Stiles and his henchmen, and rallies his neighbors to fight back against land grabbers who want to destroy their town.