Movies like The Sons of Great Bear (1966)
The best movies like The Sons of Great Bear (1966) are The Mountain Men (1980), True Grit (2010) and Butcher's Crossing (2023). If The Sons of Great Bear hooked you with its drama and western, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hateful Eight (2015)7.8/10 from 15,823 votes
- NewestThe Unholy Trinity (2025)Released 2025
- In GermanThe Desperado Trail (1965)Also in German
The Mountain Men (1980)
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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & western
SnoozefestMovies like thisTrue Grit (2010)
Following the murder of her father by a hired hand, a 14-year-old farm girl sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find—a man with 'true grit'—Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisButcher's Crossing (2023)
In the 1870s, a young Harvard dropout seeks his destiny out West by tying his fate to a team of buffalo hunters led by a man named Miller. Together, they embark on a harrowing journey risking life and sanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Desperado Trail (1965)
Rollins' gang wants to grab land by inciting the settlers in a war against the Indians but Winnetou and Old Shatterhand try to keep the peace, until Rollins frames Winnetou up for the murder of Jicarilla Chief's son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMackenna's Gold (1969)
A bandit kidnaps a Marshal who has seen a map showing a gold vein on Indian lands, but other groups are looking for it too, while the Apache try to keep the secret location undisturbed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane Got a Gun (2015)
After her outlaw husband returns home shot with eight bullets and barely alive, Jane reluctantly reaches out to an ex-lover who she hasn't seen in over ten years to help her defend her farm when the time comes that her husband's gang eventually tracks him down to finish the job.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Warrior's Way (2010)
A warrior-assassin is forced to hide in a small town in the American Badlands after refusing a mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeadwood: The Movie (2019)
Follow the 10-year reunion of the Deadwood camp to celebrate South Dakota's statehood. Former rivalries are reignited, alliances are tested and old wounds are reopened, as all are left to navigate the inevitable changes that modernity and time have wrought.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Stand of Ellen Cole (2024)
When an evil contractor goes to extreme measures to evict a testy tenant who is standing in the way of his new project, he fails to take into account that this seemingly harmless old woman is a trained killer and will do anything to protect her beloved home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & western
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHigh Ground (2021)
In a remote corner of the wild country, a bloody war rages. Travis is a bounty hunter with one last hope of redemption. Gutjuk is a young Indigenous man trying to save the last of his family. Together they embark on a manhunt, which unravels a secret that ultimately pits them against each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quick and the Dead (1987)
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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unholy Trinity (2025)
Set against the turbulent backdrop of 1870s Montana, in the moments before the execution of Isaac Broadway, he gives his estranged son, Henry, an impossible task: murder the man who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Intent on fulfilling his promise, Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, where an unexpected turn of events traps him in town and leaves him caught between Gabriel Dove, the town’s upstanding new sheriff, and a mysterious figure named St. Christopher.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn a Valley of Violence (2016)
The story of a drifter named Paul who arrives in a small town seeking revenge on the thugs who murdered his friend. Sisters Mary Anne and Ellen, who run the town's hotel, help Paul in his quest for vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBroke (2025)
A bronc rider in denial about his fading rodeo career battles against brain injury and a sudden blizzard while reflecting on how it became so difficult to achieve his dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Warrior (2001)
In feudal India, a warrior who renounces his role as the longtime enforcer to a local lord becomes the prey in a murderous hunt through the Himalayan mountains.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Gringo (2012)
A man crossing into Mexico with a satchel of $2,000,000—and a bloody past—finds himself under sudden attack in the sleepy town of El Fronteras.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEchoes of War (2015)
A Civil War veteran returns home to the quiet countryside, only to find himself embroiled in a conflict between his family and the brutish cattle rancher harassing them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRust (2024)
Infamous outlaw Harland Rust breaks his estranged grandson Lucas out of prison, after Lucas is convicted to hang for an accidental murder. The two must outrun legendary U.S Marshal Wood Helm and bounty hunter Fenton "Preacher" Lang who are hot on their tails. Deeply buried secrets rise from the ashes and an unexpected familial bond begins to form as the mismatched duo tries to survive the merciless American Frontier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackthorn (2011)
In Bolivia, Butch Cassidy (now calling himself James Blackthorn) pines for one last sight of home, an adventure that aligns him with a young robber and makes the duo a target for gangs and lawmen alike.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hateful Eight (2015)
Bounty hunters seek shelter from a raging blizzard and get caught up in a plot of betrayal and deception.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShanghai Noon (2000)
Chon Wang, a clumsy imperial guard, trails Princess Pei Pei when she's kidnapped from the Forbidden City and transported to America. Wang follows her captors to Nevada, where he teams up with an unlikely partner, outcast outlaw Roy O'Bannon, and tries to spring the princess from her imprisonment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisManitou's Shoe (2001)
Abahachi, Chief of the Apache Indians, and his blood brother Ranger maintain peace and justice in the Wild West. One day, Abahachi needs to take up a credit from the Shoshone Indians to finance his tribe's new saloon. Unfortunately Santa Maria, who sold the saloon, betrays Abahachi, takes the money and leaves. Soon, the Shoshones are on the warpath to get their money back, and Abahachi is forced to organize it quickly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Valley of Death (1968)
An army gold shipment and its escort vanish in the Ozarks, prompting accusations of theft and desertion but frontiersman Old Shatterhand and Apache chief Winnetou help solve the mystery of the missing army gold.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)
Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastman, a young, white-educated Sioux doctor held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation, and Sitting Bull the proud Lakota chief whose tribe won the American Indians’ last major victory at Little Big Horn.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDesert Kickboxer (1992)
A kickboxing cop abandons the violent life after he accidentally kills his opponent during a match. After quitting, he heads for the Arizona desert to live alone and occasionally work tracking drug runners for the area sheriff. One particularly wily Mexican drug lord, Santos, has been a real thorn in tracker Joe Highhawk's side, so when he encounters the beautiful Claudia and her simpleton brother Anthony running for their lives because she, an accountant, embezzled $20 million from Santos, he decides to help them. This actioner follows what happens next. Along the way, they encounter all sorts of danger, and double cross until the exciting final standoff between the kickboxer and the villain.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & western
Revolution (1985)
New York trapper Tom Dobb becomes an unwilling participant in the American Revolution after his son Ned is drafted into the Army by the villainous Sergeant Major Peasy. Tom attempts to find his son, and eventually becomes convinced that he must take a stand and fight for the freedom of the Colonies, alongside the aristocratic rebel Daisy McConnahay. As Tom undergoes his change of heart, the events of the war unfold in large-scale grandeur.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisPyramid of the Sun God (1965)
Mexico, 1864. The country is divided by the struggle against the French occupation and emperor Maximilian. The German doctor Karl Sternau and his friend Andreas Hasenpfeffer come to love the country and support the cause of the proud Mexicans.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & western
The Torture of Cuauhtémoc (1910)
Lost short film about the death of the last Aztec Emperor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pocahontas (1995)
Pocahontas, daughter of a Native American tribe chief, falls in love with an English soldier as colonists invade 17th century Virginia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNurse Betty (2000)
What happens when a person decides that life is merely a state of mind? If you're Betty, a small-town waitress and soap opera fan from Fair Oaks, Kansas, you refuse to believe that you can't be with the love of your life just because he doesn't really exist. After all, life is no excuse for not living. Traumatized by a savage event, Betty enters into a fugue state that allows -- even encourages -- her to keep functioning... in a kind of alternate reality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Sons of Great Bear?
The closest matches to The Sons of Great Bear are The Mountain Men (1980), True Grit (2010) and Butcher's Crossing (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Sons of Great Bear?
Start with The Mountain Men (1980), the closest match to The Sons of Great Bear.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Sons of Great Bear?
The Hateful Eight (2015), rated 7.8/10 by 15,823 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Sons of Great Bear?
The Unholy Trinity (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like The Sons of Great Bear?
Yes: The Desperado Trail (1965), Manitou's Shoe (2001) and The Valley of Death (1968).
How are movies similar to The Sons of Great Bear chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Sons of Great Bear, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.