Back to trending
The Kentuckian

The Kentuckian

Western · 1955

A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.

Movie details

The Kentuckian

“Hunter...Frontiersman...Adventurer!”

1955 Western 1h 44m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

5.8 / 10

Community rating

A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Kentuckian?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Three Violent People

Three Violent People

Western · 1956

A rancher, his shady bride and his one-armed brother fight amid carpetbaggers in Texas.

Decision at Sundown

Decision at Sundown

Western · 1957

A man and his partner arrive at a small Western town to kill its most powerful man because the former blames him for his wife's death.

Flaming Star

Flaming Star

Western · 1960

Pacer Burton, a young man of mixed Kiowa and white heritage, is caught between two worlds as conflict erupts between Native Americans and white settlers in Texas.

Buchanan Rides Alone

Buchanan Rides Alone

Western · 1958

Passing through a border town, a man is caught up in a Mexican's murder of a member of the town's most powerful family.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

Western · 1972

Outlaw and self-appointed lawmaker Judge Roy Bean rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving town, while dispensing his his own quirky brand of frontier justice upon strangers passing by.

The Comancheros

The Comancheros

Western · 1961

Texas Ranger Jake Cutter arrests gambler Paul Regret, but soon finds himself teamed with his prisoner in an undercover effort to defeat a band of renegade arms merchants and thieves known as Comancheros.

Support Your Local Gunfighter

Support Your Local Gunfighter

Comedy · 1971

A con artist arrives in a mining town controlled by two competing companies. Both companies think he's a famous gunfighter and try to hire him to drive the other out of town.

Rio Grande

Rio Grande

Western · 1950

Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment.

Frontera

Frontera

Western · 2014

After crossing the border illegally for work, Miguel, a hard-working father and devoted husband, finds himself wrongfully accused of murdering a former sheriff’s wife. After learning of his imprisonment, Miguel’s pregnant wife tries to come to his aid and lands in the hands of corrupt coyotes who hold her for ransom. Dissatisfied with the police department’s investigation, the former sheriff tries to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and discovers disturbing evidence that will destroy one family’s future, or tear another’s apart.

Forty Guns

Forty Guns

Western · 1957

An authoritarian rancher rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new Marshal arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunman enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Burt Lancaster

Written by

A.B. Guthrie Jr.

Burt Lancaster

Burt Lancaster

Elias Wakefield

Dianne Foster

Dianne Foster

Hannah Bolen

Walter Matthau

Walter Matthau

Stan Bodine

Diana Lynn

Diana Lynn

Susie Spann

D

Donald MacDonald

Little Eli Wakefield

John McIntire

John McIntire

Zack Wakefield

Una Merkel

Una Merkel

Sophie Wakefield

Court is in session

Put The Kentuckian on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Auteur Devotee

“Patience is part of the point.”

Duration becomes texture. The film asks you to inhabit its world instead of merely processing its plot.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“A test of endurance, your honour.”

Stillness keeps submitting itself as meaning. At some point, contemplation needs something worth contemplating.