Movies Similar to The Spirit of the West

The Misfits(1961)

While filing for a divorce, beautiful ex-stripper Roslyn Taber ends up meeting aging cowboy-turned-gambler Gay Langland and former World War II aviator Guido Racanelli. The two men instantly become infatuated with Roslyn and, on a whim, the three decide to move into Guido's half-finished desert home together. When grizzled ex-rodeo rider Perce Howland arrives, the unlikely foursome strike up a business capturing wild horses.

7.0

The Electric Horseman(1979)

A former champion rodeo rider is reduced to using his saddle skills to promote a breakfast cereal in a gaudy Las Vegas show. When he's asked to perform with a $12 million horse, he discovers it is being doped to remain docile. He flees into the desert astride the beast in an act of defiance. A story-hungry female reporter gives chase.

6.1

Junior Bonner(1972)

With his bronco-busting career on its last legs, Junior Bonner heads to his hometown to try his luck in the annual rodeo. But his fond childhood memories are shattered when he finds his family torn apart by his greedy brother and hard-drinking father.

6.1

When the Legends Die(1972)

An elderly rodeo rider becomes mentor to a young man attempting to make his own name in the business.

4.9

The Saddle Buster(1932)

A rodeo rider can't face the game after he's almost killed by a wild bronco

7.0

Northwest Stampede(1948)

In this romantic western, the real stars are a mustang and a police dog. The human aspect of the story centers on a rodeo rider whose late father bequeathed him a ranch in Calgary, Canada. The rider really tries to settle down to ranching, but finds himself pining for the rodeo. His forewoman, also a former rodeo performer, thinks her employer is shirking his duties and needs to forget about broncos, and bull-riding and settle down. Meanwhile, the fellow also longs to catch the white stallion running wild. The dog helps out.

1.5

Hud(1963)

Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."

7.3

The Rounders(1965)

Ben (Glenn Ford) and Marion (Henry Fonda) are two cowboys who make a meager living breaking wild horses. Their frequent employer Jim (Chill Wills), who always gets the better of them, talks them into taking a nondescript horse in lieu of some of their wages. Ben finds that the horse is un-rideable, he comes up with the idea of taking it to a rodeo and betting other cowhands they cannot ride it.

5.6

The Cowboy Way(1994)

Two championship rodeo partners travel to New York to find their missing friend, Nacho Salazar who went missing there.

5.7

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.

6.3

Ride 'Em Cowboy(1942)

Two peanut vendors at a rodeo show get in trouble with their boss and hide out on a railroad train heading west. They get jobs as cowboys on a dude ranch, despite the fact that neither of them knows anything about cowboys, horses, or anything else.

5.8

The Rider(2018)

Once a rising star of the rodeo circuit, and a gifted horse trainer, young cowboy Brady is warned that his riding days are over after a horse crushed his skull at a rodeo. In an attempt to regain control of his own fate, Brady undertakes a search for a new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of the United States.

7.3

The Lusty Men(1952)

Retired rodeo champion Jeff McCloud agrees to mentor novice rodeo contestant Wes Merritt against the wishes of Merritt's wife who fears the dangers of this rough sport.

6.6

Wild Horses(1985)

An over-the-hill rodeo champion gets fired from his assembly line job in Texas. He and a buddy then decide to head to Wyoming to get a job herding mustangs. His wife gives him her his blessing, knowing he needs to find something which satisfies his spirit. They sign up for a roundup headed by a veteran cowboy. With the job, he finds himself cross-wise of a corrupt government official, who is making big profits on the illegal sale of wild horses.

5.0

Bells of Capistrano(1942)

America's favorite singing cowboy Gene Autry stars in this vintage tale as an up-and-coming rodeo singer caught in the middle of two rival companies, both angling to ride the talented crooner to riches. Featuring several memorable musical performances from Autry, including renditions of "Forgive Me" and "In Old Capistrano," this rousing Western co-stars Smiley Burnette, Virginia Grey and Lucien Littlefield.

6.0

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.

7.2

Stay Away, Joe(1968)

Joe Lightcloud persuades his Congressman to give him 20 heifers and a prize bull so he and his father, Charlie, can prove that the Navajos can successfully raise cattle on the reservation. If their experiment is successful, then the government will help all the Navajo people. But Joe's friend, Bronc Hoverty, accidentally barbecues the prize bull, while Joe sells the heifers to buy plumbing and other home improvements for his stepmother.

5.3

Cotter(1973)

A rodeo rider is killed because Cotter is too drunk to distract the raging bull.

1.0

Lights of Old Santa Fe(1944)

Sandwiched in between the numerous musical numbers, the Gabby Whittaker and Madden rodeo's are competing for bookings. When Gabby gets a date in Albuquerque, Madden has his man destroy his equipment. Roy finds a broken rawhide rope at the scene and uses it to bring Madden to justice.

5.2

National Anthem(2024)

A 21-year old construction worker in rural New Mexico joins a community of queer ranchers and rodeo performers in search of their own version of the American dream.

6.2