Essential Female-Led Westerns
by ufaz-ka | created - 07 Jan 2017 | updated - 2 months ago | PublicTaken from http://www.indiewire.com/2016/01/13-essential-female-led-westerns-86126/
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. The Furies (1950)
Passed | 109 min | Western
A firebrand heiress clashes with her tyrannical father, a cattle rancher who fancies himself a Napoleon, but their relationship turns ugly only when he finds himself a new woman.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Walter Huston, Judith Anderson
Votes: 3,904
2. Meek's Cutoff (2010)
PG | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.
Director: Kelly Reichardt | Stars: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano, Will Patton
Votes: 15,222 | Gross: $0.98M
3. Hannie Caulder (1971)
R | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Western
After she is raped and her husband murdered, a woman hires a bounty hunter to instruct her in the use of a gun so she can get her revenge on the three outlaws responsible.
Director: Burt Kennedy | Stars: Raquel Welch, Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam
Votes: 4,173 | Gross: $0.46M
4. Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Passed | 107 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
The story of the great sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who rose to fame while dealing with her love/professional rival, Frank Butler.
Directors: George Sidney, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish
Votes: 5,276 | Gross: $8.00M
5. The Belle Star Story (1968)
Not Rated | 103 min | Western
Abused and dominated by men in her youth, Belle Starr now out-rides, out-smokes, out-shoots, and out-gambles them as she makes her way around the Old West, usually wearing male garb. One ... See full summary »
Directors: Piero Cristofani, Lina Wertmüller | Stars: Elsa Martinelli, Robert Woods, George Eastman, Francesca Righini
Votes: 378
6. The Quick and the Dead (1995)
R | 108 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A female gunfighter returns to a frontier town where a dueling tournament is being held, which she enters in an effort to avenge her father's death.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio
Votes: 102,856 | Gross: $18.64M
7. Cat Ballou (1965)
Not Rated | 97 min | Western
A young schoolteacher turns into an outlaw to avenge her murdered father.
Director: Elliot Silverstein | Stars: Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman
Votes: 16,196 | Gross: $20.67M
8. The Missing (I) (2003)
R | 137 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
In 1885 New Mexico, a frontier medicine woman forms an uneasy alliance with her estranged father when her daughter is kidnapped by an Apache brujo.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd
Votes: 38,232 | Gross: $26.90M
9. Calamity Jane (1953)
Passed | 101 min | Musical, Romance, Western
The story of Calamity Jane, her saloon, and her romance with Wild Bill Hickok.
Director: David Butler | Stars: Doris Day, Howard Keel, Allyn Ann McLerie, Philip Carey
Votes: 10,849
10. The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)
R | 121 min | Drama, Romance, Western
After being thrown out of her home, a young woman decides to disguise herself as a man to survive the ruthless Wild West.
Director: Maggie Greenwald | Stars: Suzy Amis, Bo Hopkins, Ian McKellen, David Chung
Votes: 1,769 | Gross: $0.54M
11. Johnny Guitar (1954)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, Western
After helping a wounded gang member, a strong-willed female saloon owner is wrongly suspected of murder and bank robbery by a lynch mob.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady
Votes: 19,743
12. The Homesman (2014)
R | 122 min | Drama, Western
Three women who have been driven mad by pioneer life are to be transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs to assist her.
Director: Tommy Lee Jones | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto
Votes: 35,733 | Gross: $2.43M
13. 7 Women (1965)
Passed | 87 min | Drama
In 1935 China, seven dedicated missionary women try to protect themselves from the advances of a barbaric Mongolian warlord and his cut-throat gang of warriors.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Anne Bancroft, Sue Lyon, Margaret Leighton, Flora Robson
Votes: 2,664
14. Ramona (1936)
Approved | 84 min | Drama, Romance
Half-Indian girl brought up in a wealthy household is loved by the son of the house against his family's wishes and loves another Indian employed by the household.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Loretta Young, Don Ameche, Kent Taylor, Pauline Frederick
Votes: 366
15. Ramona (1910)
17 min | Short, Drama, Romance
Ramona is a little orphan of the great Spanish household of Moreno. Alessandro, the Indian, arrives at the Camulos ranch with his sheep-shearers, showing his first meeting with Ramona. ... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Mary Pickford, Henry B. Walthall, Francis J. Grandon, Kate Bruce
Votes: 442
16. The Moonlighter (1953)
Approved | 78 min | Western
A cattle herder turned rustler runs from a lynch mob and falls, again, for an ex-lover.
Director: Roy Rowland | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Ward Bond, William Ching
Votes: 693
17. Alias Jesse James (1959)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Western
Outlaw T.J. "Jesse" James tries to kill insurance agent Milford Farnsworth, who has been mistaken for him in order to collect on a big policy.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey, Gloria Talbott
Votes: 1,600
18. Cattle King (1963)
Passed | 88 min | Western
A rich landowner of Wyoming fights to prevent the Texas herds from trampling his rich meadows.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Robert Taylor, Robert Loggia, Joan Caulfield, Robert Middleton
Votes: 581
19. The Sheepman (1958)
Passed | 85 min | Western
A brash stranger and his sheep arrive in a small town, but not soon after, the townspeople decide they've seen enough of him.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Shaughnessy
Votes: 3,019
20. The Unforgiven (1960)
Approved | 125 min | Drama, Romance, Western
The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their adopted daughter was stolen from the local Kiowa tribe.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, John Saxon
Votes: 9,734
21. Heller in Pink Tights (1960)
Passed | 100 min | Western
Story of theatrical troupe that travels through the Old West.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, Margaret O'Brien, Steve Forrest
Votes: 1,515
22. Destry Rides Again (1939)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Western
Deputy sheriff Destry tames the town of Bottle Neck, including saloon singer Frenchy.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger
Votes: 12,551 | Gross: $0.35M
23. The Tall Men (1955)
Approved | 122 min | Western
Two brothers discharged from the Confederate Army join a businessman for a cattle drive from Texas to Montana where they run into raiding Jayhawkers, angry Sioux, rough terrain and bad weather.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Clark Gable, Jane Russell, Robert Ryan, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 3,225 | Gross: $12.00M
24. The Second Time Around (1961)
Approved | 99 min | Comedy, Romance, Western
In 1911, a widow with two children leaves New York City for territorial Arizona and becomes a ranch hand and later gets herself elected sheriff. A gambler and a rancher become rivals for her affections.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, Andy Griffith, Juliet Prowse
Votes: 870
25. Bite the Bullet (1975)
PG | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A pair of ex-Rough Riders, a former prostitute, a gunfighter, an aging cowboy and an English gentleman enter a 700-mile horse race through the Southwest desert in 1908.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, James Coburn, Ben Johnson
Votes: 5,868
26. Hooded Angels (2002)
R | 102 min | Action, Western
A gang of beautiful but deadly women unleashes vengeance upon the society that failed them, robbing banks and destroying everything in their path. A posse is sent after them, not knowing whom they are chasing nor the fate that will awaits.
Director: Paul Matthews | Stars: Amanda Donohoe, Steven Bauer, Paul Johansson, Gary Busey
Votes: 365
27. A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
R | 116 min | Comedy, Western
As a cowardly farmer begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town, he must put his newly found courage to the test when her husband, a notorious gun-slinger, announces his arrival.
Director: Seth MacFarlane | Stars: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried
Votes: 198,511 | Gross: $43.14M
28. Forty Guns (1957)
Not Rated | 80 min | Western
Showdown in Arizona between the Bonnell brothers, U.S.Marshals, and Jessica Drummond, the iron-fist rancher who controls the territory.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Dean Jagger, John Ericson
Votes: 6,215
29. Bad Girls (1994)
R | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Four prostitutes join together to travel the Old West.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, Drew Barrymore
Votes: 13,554 | Gross: $15.24M
30. Jane Got a Gun (2015)
R | 98 min | Action, Drama, Western
A woman asks her ex-lover for help in order to save her outlaw husband from a gang out to kill him.
Director: Gavin O'Connor | Stars: Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor, Rodrigo Santoro
Votes: 23,842 | Gross: $1.51M
Tell Your Friends