Can You Score 20/20? Hardcore Western Movie Trivia Quiz Challenge

Answers Below – No Peeking!

Put your cowboy boots to the test with this hardcore Western movie trivia quiz! From John Ford classics and spaghetti masterpieces to gritty revisionist gems, these 20 questions span the genre’s deepest cuts. Ranging from straightforward to fiendishly tough, only true aficionados will conquer them all.

20 Trivia Questions on Hardcore Western Movies

Question 1: In The Searchers (1956), what is the name of the Comanche chief who abducted Debbie Edwards?

A. Cicatrice
B. Big Bear
C. Yellow Knife
D. Scar

Question 2: Which Akira Kurosawa film was remade as The Magnificent Seven (1960)?

A. Yojimbo
B. Rashomon
C. Throne of Blood
D. Seven Samurai

Question 3: What is the name of the harmonica-playing gunslinger played by Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)?

A. Cheyenne
B. Frank
C. The Man with the Harmonica
D. The Stranger

Question 4: Which film features the line: “There are two kinds of people in the world, my friend: Those who have loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.”?

A. For a Few Dollars More
B. A Fistful of Dollars
C. Once Upon a Time in the West
D. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Question 5: In Unforgiven (1992), what is the name of the Wyoming town where the main events unfold?

A. Redemption
B. Lago
C. Absolution
D. Big Whiskey

Question 6: Who directed Rio Bravo (1959), starring John Wayne and Dean Martin?

A. John Ford
B. Sergio Leone
C. Sam Peckinpah
D. Howard Hawks

Question 7: In Stagecoach (1939), what is the name of the drunken doctor played by Thomas Mitchell?

A. Doc Holliday
B. Doc Boone
C. Doc Peabody
D. Dr. Wilkins

Question 8: Shane (1953) is based on a novel by which author?

A. Zane Grey
B. Owen Wister
C. Larry McMurtry
D. Jack Schaefer

Question 9: For which Western did John Wayne win his only Academy Award for Best Actor?

A. The Searchers
B. Red River
C. The Cowboys
D. True Grit

Question 10: In The Wild Bunch (1969), what is the name of the gang leader played by William Holden?

A. Dutch Engstrom
B. Tector Gorch
C. Angel
D. Pike Bishop

Question 11: Who composed the original score for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)?

A. Ennio Morricone
B. Elmer Bernstein
C. Jerry Goldsmith
D. Bob Dylan

Question 12: In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), what Burt Bacharach song plays during the bicycle scene?

A. South America
B. The Sundance Kid
C. Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head
D. Bicycle Built for Two

Question 13: Who directed The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), starring Clint Eastwood?

A. Sam Peckinpah
B. Sergio Leone
C. Michael Cimino
D. Clint Eastwood

Question 14: In Dances with Wolves (1990), what Sioux name is given to Lieutenant John Dunbar?

A. Wind In His Hair
B. Stands With A Fist
C. Dances with Wolves
D. Kicking Bird

Question 15: Which actor played the villain Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), in his first screen role as a heavy?

A. Charles Bronson
B. Jack Elam
C. Jason Robards
D. Henry Fonda

Question 16: Who directed Red River (1948), starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift?

A. John Ford
B. King Vidor
C. Raoul Walsh
D. Howard Hawks

Question 17: My Darling Clementine (1946) dramatises which historical event?

A. The Battle of Little Bighorn
B. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
C. The Johnson County War
D. The Lincoln County War

Question 18: Who directed McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie?

A. Sam Peckinpah
B. Arthur Penn
C. Robert Altman
D. John Frankenheimer

Question 19: In No Country for Old Men (2007), what is the name of the sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones?

A. Carson Wells
B. Anton Chigurh
C. Llewelyn Moss
D. Ed Tom Bell

Question 20: Who directed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)?

A. Sam Mendes
B. Andrew Dominik
C. David Milch
D. Walter Hill

Answers

  1. D. Scar – The Comanche leader is named Scar in John Ford’s The Searchers; Cicatrice is French for scar (a red herring), while the others are fictional chiefs from different Westerns.
  2. D. Seven Samurai – The Magnificent Seven directly adapts Kurosawa’s 1954 samurai epic; Yojimbo inspired A Fistful of Dollars.
  3. C. The Man with the Harmonica – Bronson’s character is credited simply as “Harmonica” but referred to as such in dialogue.
  4. D. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Spoken by Clint Eastwood’s Blondie in Leone’s Dollars Trilogy finale; similar themes but not in the other listed films.
  5. D. Big Whiskey – The Wyoming town is Big Whiskey, site of the brothel incident; others are towns from Eastwood’s other Westerns.
  6. D. Howard Hawks – Hawks directed this response to High Noon, with Wayne as sheriff John T. Chance.
  7. B. Doc Boone – Mitchell won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role; others are doctors from different Westerns.
  8. D. Jack Schaefer – Schaefer’s 1949 novel was adapted into George Stevens’ film starring Alan Ladd.
  9. D. True Grit – Wayne won Best Actor for Rooster Cogburn in the 1969 adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel.
  10. D. Pike Bishop – Holden leads the ageing outlaws in Peckinpah’s violent masterpiece.
  11. D. Bob Dylan – Dylan wrote and performed the soundtrack, including “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” for Peckinpah’s film.
  12. C. Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head – The Oscar-winning song underscores Butch and Etta’s playful bike ride.
  13. D. Clint Eastwood – Eastwood made his directorial debut on this Civil War-era revenge tale.
  14. C. Dances with Wolves – The Lakota name reflects Dunbar’s affinity with wolves, as given by the tribe.
  15. D. Henry Fonda – Fonda’s chilling portrayal of sadistic killer Frank was a shocking heel turn for the star.
  16. D. Howard Hawks – Hawks’ cattle-drive epic pitted Wayne’s Tom Dunson against son Montgomery Clift.
  17. B. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral – Ford’s film stars Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp in the 1881 Tombstone showdown.
  18. C. Robert Altman – Altman’s anti-Western subverts genre tropes with its muddy, realistic portrayal of frontier life.
  19. D. Ed Tom Bell – Jones’ weary sheriff narrates the Coen brothers’ neo-Western adaptation of McCarthy’s novel.
  20. B. Andrew Dominik – The New Zealand director helmed the meditative Brad Pitt-led Western.

How did you fare, partner? Drop your score in the comments and dare your friends to outdraw you! True Western experts demand perfection.