Revisionist Western Movies

Dodge City bounty hunter Hannah Beaumont (Sara Canning) sets out to capture the gang that murdered her family, and receives some much-needed help from Wild West icons Stagecoach Mary (Kimberly Elise), Wyatt Earp (Greyson Holt), and Doc Holliday in this western co-starring Billy Zane and Danny Glover. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The sole survivor of the original gang teams with three fearless female outlaws for a daring robbery, but cross a band of ruthless bandits with some violent plans of their own. Sweltering behind bars in a sun-scorched Mexican jail, Cassie may be down, but she certainly isn't out. She alone holds the code to a safe owned by the U.S. military, and the moment she gets out the heist is on. With the help of Kate, (Rocsi Diaz), Cassie and her fellow inmate Collette (Eurika Pratts) stage a daring escape. Later, Collette, Kate, Candi (Teyana Taylor) and Mimi (Claudia Jordan) hatch an audacious plan to rob San Juevo church, but find their heist foiled by the trigger-happy Lee (Gabriel Casseus) and his gang of outlaws. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A U.S. marshal on a mission to reunite his family finds nothing but trouble after settling in a small Texas town. It's been years since U.S. Marshal Luke Canfield's ex-wife ran away from their Tennessee home, and it's beginning to look like he'll never see her nor his young son again. Defeated after years of searching, Luke begins a new life in the quiet town of Sand Prairie, accepting a job in law enforcement and falling for pretty saloon dancer Dixie Johnson. Trouble is, local villain Asa Brown has his eye on Dixie, too. Asa leads a violent gang of horse thieves, and the Sand Prairie locals live in mortal fear of his wrath. When Asa assaults Dixie, Luke sends him running from town in a hail of hot lead. Later, Canfield ventures out into the desert in search of Asa and his brothers, inadvertently putting Daisy and two young boys in danger as the unpredictable criminal plots bitter revenge. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

"If they move, kill 'em!" Beginning and ending with two of the bloodiest battles in screen history, Sam Peckinpah's classic revisionist Western ruthlessly takes apart the myths of the West. Released in the late '60s discord over Vietnam, in the wake of the controversial Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and the brutal "spaghetti westerns" of Sergio Leone, The Wild Bunch polarized critics and audiences over its ferocious bloodshed. One side hailed it as a classic appropriately pitched to the violence and nihilism of the times, while the other reviled it as depraved. After a failed payroll robbery, the outlaw Bunch, led by aging Pike Bishop (William Holden) and including Dutch (Ernest Borgnine), Angel (Jaime Sanchez), and Lyle and Tector Gorch (Warren Oates and Ben Johnson), heads for Mexico pursued by the gang of Pike's friend-turned-nemesis Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan). Ultimately caught between the corruption of railroad fat cat Harrigan (Albert Dekker) and federale general Mapache (Emilio Fernandez), and without a frontier for escape, the Bunch opts for a final Pyrrhic victory, striding purposefully to confront Mapache and avenge their friend Angel. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

It's hard to discern the filmmakers' true point of view on Hannie Caulder. On one hand, you've got the heavily somber story of Raquel Welch's efforts to exact vengeance on the men who raped her and killed her husband. On the other hand, you've got the leisurely-paced, lightly amusing sequences in which saddle-tramp Robert Culp tries to teach Welch how to be a gunslinger in her own right. And on the third hand (and who's got one of those?), you are offered the goofy Three-Stooges-like antics of the principle villains: Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin and Jack Elam. This British-financed western features one-time sexpot Diana Dors as a zoftic madam and an uncredited Stephen Boyd as an ineffectual preacher. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The premise of John Ford's seminal 1956 western The Searchers is by now iconic - it details the attempts of racist and psychologically beleaguered Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) to hunt down his kidnapped daughter, Debbie) (Natalie Wood), whom he initially intends to kill given the racial "defilement" that her perceives in her. The motion picture influenced a panoply of American films, from Taxi Driver to Hardcore, and receives an official update in this independently-produced effort by tyro director Jason Wulfsohn. Tracing Cowboys brings audiences a new Ethan (Sacha Grunpeter), this one a Briton with musical ambitions. He nurtures dreams of country and western superstardom, but gets waylaid by his search for his girlfriend Debbie, who apparently sought refuge and asylum in a Mexican small town. Thus begins a cross-country odyssey for Ethan that witnesses him journeying to the said village - a trip that enables Wulfsohn's film to reflect on such themes as betrayal, romantic devotion, obsession and self-myth. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

This Western presents a fictionalized account of the ways in which the Gatling gun was created. Also chronicled are its tremendous effects on the great frontier. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Director Robert Conway crafts this genre busting western set in a lawless town where outlaws and marked-men go to elude justice and live out the rest of their days in peace. Somewhere along the Mexico border exists an old mining town called Redemption. Founded by Quakers in the mid-1800s, Redemption quickly gained a reputation as being the place to go if you're looking to escape the long arm of the law. Frank Hardin (Dustin James) is just such a man. A former cattle rustler who relied on dishonesty and a six-shooter in order to get by, Frank arrives in Redemption and witnesses a deed so abominable that it shakes him to his very core. Repulsed that he was advertently a part of the transgression and fearing for his immortal soul, the man who once cast the law aside attempts to summon deliverance by righting that terrible wrong before his number comes up. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Spaghetti western style meets rock-and-roll hipster sensibility in first time feature filmmaker Mike Bruce's flashy tale of blazing six-shooters under the scorching desert sun. Featuring a story that's jam-packed with lust, greed, revenge, and mysticism, and a soundtrack by Spindthrift, this is one western that truly exists in a universe all its own. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Senator William J. Tadlock (Kirk Douglas) enlists the help of veteran scout Dick Summers (Robert Mitchum) to lead a wagon train of settlers from Missouri to Oregon in this plodding, routine western. A scared settler accidently shoots an Indian boy who is mistaken for a wolf, prompting Summers to order newlywed triggerman Johnny Mack (Michael Witney) to be hanged to avoid an Indian attack. Sally Field appears in her first big-screen role as the slatternly Mercy McBee. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A man of the cloth takes up arms to avenge the violent murder of his wife and child in this made for television western starring Kevin Sorbo, Wings Hauser, and Cynthia Watros. Preacher (Sorbo) has just watched helplessly as his wife and child are brutally gunned down by ruthless land baron Colonel Cusack (Hauser) and his murderous henchmen. Later, when the holy man-turned-bounty hunter runs into head thug Quinn (Nick Chinlund), he rents a room from a lonely single mother (Watros) and methodically sets about plotting his revenge. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director Tim Hunter and co-screenwriter James Crumley go back to the basics for this rough and tumble western that proves the ladies can shoot just as straight as the men. The deadliest gang in the west has been captured and strung up. Now the law is desperate to find out where the recently departed had hidden their substantial plunder, and they're dead sure that the men's widows have the answer to that question. With the corrupt sheriff (Patrick Bergin) closing in on one side, a homicidal preacher (James Gammon) fast gaining ground on the other, and scores of hostile Indians, Pinkerton agents, and even a few gruff ghosts to contend with in between, these three desperate women (Judith Bernett, Suzanne Andrews, and Lissa Negrin) will have to keep on their toes if they have any hope of living to find the treasure and escape to freedom. John Diehl and C. Thomas Howell co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi