40 Films & TV Shows Set In South Dakota
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Thunderheart
South Dakota District of Columbia The 1970sTwo men from different worlds. Two cops after the same killer. Together they must uncover the secrets. Together they must discover the truth. — An FBI man with Sioux background is sent to a reservation to help with a murder investigation, where he has to come to terms with his heritage.
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Incident at Oglala
South Dakota The 1970sOn June 26, 1975, during a period of high tensions on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, two FBI agents were killed in a shootout with a group of Indians. Although several men were charged with killing the agents, only one, Leonard Peltier, was found guilty. This film describes the events surrounding the shootout and suggests that Peltier was unjustly convicted.
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Dances with Wolves
Kansas Tennessee South Dakota The 1860s The 1850s The 1840sInside everyone is a frontier waiting to be discovered. — Wounded Civil War soldier, John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.
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The White Buffalo
South Dakota The 1870sTwo legendary enemies unite to fight the charging white beast!! — In this strange western version of Moby Dick, Wild Bill Hickok hunts a white buffalo he has seen in a dream. Hickok moves through a variety of uniquely authentic western locations - dim, filthy, makeshift taverns; freezing, slaughterhouse-like frontier towns and beautifully desolate high country - before improbably teaming up with a young Crazy Horse to pursue the creature.
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Badlands
Montana South Dakota The 1950sIn 1959, a lot of people were killing time. Kit and Holly were killing people. — A dramatization of the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1950s, in which a teenage girl and her twenty-something boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands.
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Journey Through Rosebud
South DakotaDanny's concept of the American Indian was like a Hollywood movie... until he made his journey through Rosebud, South Dakota! — A young draft dodger helps militant Native Americans in their protest against the government at Wounded Knee.
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Man in the Wilderness
Montana North Dakota South Dakota Wyoming The 1820sHe was left for dead. He would not forget. — In the early 1800s, a group of fur trappers and Indian traders are returning with their goods to civilization and are making a desperate attempt to beat the oncoming winter. When guide Zachary Bass is injured in a bear attack, they decide he's a goner and leave him behind to die. When he recovers instead, he swears revenge on them and tracks them and their paranoiac expedition leader down.
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Little Big Man
Montana South Dakota Oklahoma The 1970s The 1850s The 1870s The 1860sEither the most neglected hero in history or a liar of insane proportion! — Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer.
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A Man Called Horse
South Dakota The 1820sIn 1825, English peer Lord John Morgan is cast adrift in the American West. Captured by Sioux Indians, Morgan is at first targeted for quick extinction, but the tribesmen sense that he is worthy of survival. He eventually passes the many necessary tests that will permit him to become a member of the tribe.
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The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band
North Dakota South Dakota The 1880sThe Family That Plays Together, Stays Together — The Bower Family Band petitions the Democratic National Committee to sing a Grover Cleveland rally song at the 1888 convention, but decide instead to move to the Dakota territory on the urging of a suitor to their eldest daughter. There, Grampa Bower causes trouble with his pro-Cleveland ideas, as Dakota residents are overwhelmingly Republican, and hope to get the territory admitted as two states (North and South Dakota) rather than one in order to send four Republican senators to Washington. Cleveland opposed this plan, refusing to refer to Congress the plan to organize the Dakotas this way. When Cleveland wins the popular vote, but Harrison the presidency due to the electoral college votes, the Dakotans (particularly the feuding young couple) resolve to live together in peace, and Cleveland grants statehood to the two Dakotas before he leaves office (along with two Democrat-voting states, evening the gains for both parties).
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Custer of the West
South Dakota The 1870s The 1860sBiopic of General George Armstrong Custer from his rise to prominence in the Civil War through to his "last stand" at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
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The Sons of Great Bear
South Dakota The 1870sFirst DEFA "western" establishing Gojko Mitić's stardom portraying Native Americans.
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North by Northwest
New York Illinois South DakotaIt's a deadly game of 'tag' and Cary Grant is 'it'... — Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
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Calamity Jane
South DakotaWarner Bros.' sky highest, smile widest, wild and woolliest Western of 'em all! — Sharpshooter Calamity Jane takes it upon herself to recruit a famous actress and bring her back to the local saloon, but jealousy soon gets in the way.