New Nation, Expansion & Reform America (1783 - 1860)
Films & series set at a time when America was establishing its government and expanding its borders. This period also includes the Antebellum Era (1781-1860).
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- StarsJoseph M. MarshallIrene BedardGil BirminghamTales from the American West in the 19th century, told from the perspective of two families, one of white settlers and one of Native Americans.
- CreatorDavid MilchStarsTimothy OlyphantIan McShaneMolly ParkerA show set in the late 1800s, revolving around the characters of Deadwood, South Dakota; a town of deep corruption and crime.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsDjimon HounsouMatthew McConaugheyAnthony HopkinsIn 1839, the revolt of Mende captives aboard a Spanish owned ship causes a major controversy in the United States when the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island. The courts must decide whether the Mende are slaves or legally free.
- DirectorCharles BurnettStarsBeau BridgesCarl LumblyBill CobbsFacing a life of servitude in the Antebellum South, a young slave named Sarny meets Nightjohn. He teaches her to read and write, and together they set to free other slaves - until one planned escape is discovered.
- DirectorDon McBreartyStarsFalconer AbrahamDwight BacquieJanet BaileyA number of slaves risk their lives to escape their masters with their only help coming from the famous secret slave escape network.
- StarsAnn-MargretPatricia ClarksonTim DalyThe son of a plantation owner has a daughter named Queen, with a slave. As Queen grows, she is faced with the struggle of trying to fit in with the troubled world around her.
- DirectorAllan EastmanStarsHugh GrantMegan GallagherMegan FollowsThis is the story of the Charles Heidsieck who opened the market for Champagne sales in America just prior to the American Civil War. He is a reluctant French spy and is captured and spends time in a Union prison. There are two parallel love stories (he is French) and some battles with his uncle for control of the family vineyard (because his father married his mother who the uncle also loved).
- DirectorGlen PitreStarsArmand AssanteGail YoungsMichael SchoefflingA Cajun man attempts to save his town.
- DirectorGeorge Roy HillArthur HillerStarsJulie AndrewsMax von SydowRichard HarrisAn American missionary and his wife travel to the exotic island kingdom of Hawaii, intent on converting the natives. But the clash between the two cultures is too great and instead of understanding there comes tragedy.
- DirectorMichael CurtizJohn WayneStarsJohn WayneStuart WhitmanIna BalinTexas 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 dealing with the Comanches known as Comancheros.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsBurt LancasterAudrey HepburnAudie MurphyThe neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their adopted daughter was stolen from the local Kiowa tribe.
- DirectorStanley DonenStarsJane PowellHoward KeelJeff RichardsWhen a backwoodsman in 1850s Oregon brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too.
- DirectorFelix E. FeistStarsRandolph ScottPatrice WymoreDick WessonAn undercover government agent battles insurrectionists whose want Southern California to secede and become a slave state.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsMarlene DietrichBruce CabotRoland YoungIn old New Orleans, a beautiful adventuress juggles the attentions of a rich banker and a dashing sea captain.
- DirectorLeslie GoodwinsBernard VorhausStarsBobby BreenAlan MowbrayRalph MorganIn the pre-Civil War South, a plantation owner dies and leaves all his possessions, including his slaves, to his young son. While the deceased treated his slaves decently, his corrupt executor abuses them unmercifully, beating them without provocation, and he is planning to sell off the father'e estate--including the slaves--at the earliest opportunity so he and his mistress can steal the money and move to France. The young boy doesn't want to sell his father's estate or break up an of the slave families, and he has to find someone to help him thwart the crooked executor's plans.
- DirectorGordon DouglasStarsOliver HardyHarry LangdonBillie BurkeA visiting circus man calls on a Southern country doctor to cure his sick elephant; afterwards, the grateful beast becomes so attached to the doctor that it starts to follow him everywhere.
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsLuise RainerMelvyn DouglasRobert YoungThe beautiful, frivolous wife of a plantation owner in antebellum Louisiana proves unsatisfactory at running the household, leading her serious-minded husband to enlist the help of her unmarried sister.
- DirectorLuther ReedStarsBebe DanielsEverett MarshallBert WheelerIn antebellum New Orleans, two men vie for the affections of a beautiful young girl during Mardi Gras.
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsRobert RedfordWill GeerDelle BoltonA mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by the Crow tribe and proves to be a match for their warriors in single combat on the early frontier.
- DirectorJohn DuiganStarsJason PatricThandiwe NewtonLarry DrakeA multi-dimensional drama about a North Carolina farmer in April 1815. August King, a widower, is on his way home after selling his produce and purchasing the stock and goods he will need for the coming year. On his journey, he comes upon a 17-year-old runaway slave and he he must decided to violate the law and help her get to freedom or leave her to be hunted down and ultimately returned to her master. But the drama turns into a question of whether either soul will gain freedom.
- DirectorYves SimoneauStarsAidan QuinnAdam BeachAugust SchellenbergA historic chronicle based on the book by Dee Brown explains how Native Americans were displaced as the United States expanded west.
- StarsF. Murray AbrahamKeith CarradinePatricia ChildressIn this prequel to "Lonesome Dove", two young men join the Texas Rangers unit that's on a mission to annex Santa Fe.
- DirectorLarry ElikannStarsJesse BorregoDavid ClennonTantoo CardinalThis western began in 1812 when the settlers tried to take away more and more territories from the indians. Tecumseh, who is the leader of the Shawnee indians, tries to do something. He plans a big indian state, and tries to win the English settlers over to this plan...
- DirectorKari SkoglandStarsVanessa WilliamsGil BellowsKaren WilliamsIn 19th century New Orleans creole Henriette must choose between love and devotion to the church. Neither choice is going to be easy, as there is great opposition to her ideas of breaking traditions.
- DirectorPeter WernerStarsFarrah FawcettLea ThompsonPeter WellerIn Nebraska, in pioneer days, a woman who knows she is going to die asks a prostitute to replace her with her husband and four children in order to make it possible for them to keep their family farm.
- DirectorJohn Lee HancockStarsDennis QuaidBilly Bob ThorntonEmilio EchevarríaBased on the 1836 standoff between a group of Texan and Tejano men, led by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna's forces at the Alamo in San Antonio Texas.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsDana AndrewsBrian DonlevySusan HaywardBusinessman Logan Stuart is torn between his love of two very different women in 1850's Oregon and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the line.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsGary CooperMari AldonRichard WebbAfter destroying a Seminole fort, American soldiers and their rescued companions must face the dangerous Everglades and hostile Indians in order to reach safety.
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsJoel McCreaBetty FieldHarry CareyThe biography of Dr. W. T. Morgan, a 19th century Boston dentist, during his quest to have anesthesia, in the form of ether, accepted by the public and the medical and dental establishment.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsGregory PeckAnn BlythAnthony QuinnIn 1850 San Francisco, a Russian Countess runs away from an arranged marriage to a Russian Prince and falls into the arms of an American sea captain who occasionally poaches seals in Russian Alaska.
- StarsSarah GadonEdward HolcroftRebecca LiddiardGrace, an Irish immigrant in 19th-century Canada, is convicted of the murder of her employer. However, things take a different turn when a psychiatrist arrives to analyze her mental state.
- DirectorRon OrmondStarsCindy CarsonLance FullerAnn KellyTennessee, 1838. Polly Crockett, the daughter of the legendary hero Davy Crockett of Alamo, and makes a living from hunting in the forests. These forests are still inhabited by the Indians. Most of them live in peace but some of them are negatively affected by white traders. One day Polly, who is accompanied by her faithful Indian friend Neshoba, goes to the town to sell her hides. Polly meets Catawampus Jones. Jones and his father fought in the Alamo too. Indians influenced by Prewitt, an employee of a hide company, and Redbud, are killing settlers and burning down their homes. Polly's house is destroyed too and her maid Birdie, Neshoba's mother, is killed.
- DirectorMartin KoolhovenStarsGuy PearceDakota FanningEmilia JonesFrom the moment the new Reverend climbs the pulpit, Liz knows that she and her family are in great danger.
- DirectorSteve McQueenStarsChiwetel EjioforMichael Kenneth WilliamsMichael FassbenderIn the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsHenry FondaCharles BronsonClaudia CardinaleA mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
- DirectorRon HowardStarsChris HemsworthCillian MurphyBrendan GleesonA recounting of a New England whaling ship's sinking by a giant whale in 1820, an experience that later inspired the great novel Moby-Dick.
- DirectorJames IvoryStarsLee RemickRobin EllisWesley AddyIt's the fall of 1850, a few miles outside Boston. The household of the dour Mr. Wentworth receives two unannounced visitors from Europe, Eugenia and Felix, the daughter and son of his half sister. Gertrude, one of Wentworth's two daughters, is instantly infatuated with her cousins, thinking them sophisticated and worldly. She turns her back on the local Unitarian minister, Mr. Brand, who has been calling on her, to delight in the pleasure and amusement Felix offers. Another wealthy neighbor, Mr. Acton, is attracted to Eugenia, who is going through a divorce with a European aristocrat. Are the Americans being used by the penniless Europeans? Or is there real affection?
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsLeonardo DiCaprioTom HardyWill PoulterA frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
- CreatorRob BlackiePeter BlackieStarsJason MomoaLandon LiboironZoe BoyleFollows Declan Harp, a half-Irish/half Cree Native-Canadian outlaw who is campaigning to breach the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly on the fur trade in Canada.
- DirectorHoward HawksArthur RossonStarsJohn WayneMontgomery CliftJoanne DruDunson leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, to its destination in Missouri. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted son.
- DirectorCharles B. PierceStarsBen JohnsonIron Eyes CodyLana WoodIn this variant of The Searchers (1956), a tough frontier trapper tracks the young Cheyenne warrior who kidnapped his daughter.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsKatharine HepburnFranchot ToneEric BloreIn the 1810s, an old maid poses as her own niece in order to teach her onetime beau a lesson.
- DirectorKelly ReichardtStarsAlia ShawkatJohn MagaroDylan SmithA skilled cook has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant also seeking his fortune. Soon the two collaborate on a successful business.
- DirectorKasi LemmonsStarsCynthia ErivoJanelle MonáeLeslie Odom Jr.The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
- DirectorJoshua LoganStarsLee MarvinClint EastwoodJean SebergTwo unlikely prospector partners share the same wife in a California gold rush mining town.
- CreatorJason FilardiPeter FilardiStarsAdrien BrodyEmily HampshireJennifer EnsIn the 1850s, Captain Charles Boone relocates his family to his ancestral home in the small, sleepy town of Preacher's Corners. Charles will soon have to confront the secrets of his family's history and fight to end the darkness.