Do You Know These Dark Western Films? 20-Question Trivia Quiz Challenge!

Answers Below – No Peeking!

Step into the shadowy frontiers of cinema with this ultimate trivia quiz on dark Western films. From gritty revisionist tales to morally ambiguous anti-hero epics, these 20 questions range from easy warm-ups to devilishly tough challenges. Grab your six-shooter and see if you can score 20/20!

20 Trivia Questions on Dark Western Films

Question 1: Who directed the 1992 dark Western Unforgiven?

A. Sam Peckinpah
B. Sergio Leone
C. Clint Eastwood
D. Robert Altman

Question 2: In No Country for Old Men (2007), which actor plays the chilling hitman Anton Chigurh?

A. Tommy Lee Jones
B. Josh Brolin
C. Javier Bardem
D. Woody Harrelson

Question 3: What year was Paul Thomas Anderson’s oil baron epic There Will Be Blood released?

A. 2005
B. 2007
C. 2009
D. 2011

Question 4: In The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), who plays the titular Robert Ford?

A. Brad Pitt
B. Sam Rockwell
C. Jeremy Renner
D. Casey Affleck

Question 5: In Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 psychedelic Western Dead Man, what is the protagonist’s name?

A. Nobody
B. William Blake
C. The Kid
D. Ghost Dog

Question 6: Which film, set in 1880s Australia, features Guy Pearce as outlaw Charlie Burns in a dark tale of frontier justice?

A. The Nightingale
B. The Proposition
C. Red Hill
D. Outback

Question 7: In Bone Tomahawk (2015), which actor plays Sheriff Franklin Hunt?

A. Patrick Wilson
B. Matthew Fox
C. Kurt Russell
D. Richard Jenkins

Question 8: What is the primary horror element in the 1999 dark Western Ravenous?

A. Vampirism
B. Wendigo cannibalism
C. Ghostly apparitions
D. Zombie outbreak

Question 9: Who directed The Hateful Eight (2015), a blizzard-bound mystery Western?

A. The Coen Brothers
B. Quentin Tarantino
C. Robert Rodriguez
D. Kevin Costner

Question 10: In Django Unchained (2012), which actor won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Dr. King Schultz?

A. Leonardo DiCaprio
B. Jamie Foxx
C. Samuel L. Jackson
D. Christoph Waltz

Question 11: Sam Peckinpah’s ultra-violent 1969 Western masterpiece is titled what?

A. The Getaway
B. Straw Dogs
C. The Wild Bunch
D. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Question 12: In Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), who plays the sadistic gunman Frank?

A. Charles Bronson
B. Jason Robards
C. Henry Fonda
D. Claudia Cardinale

Question 13: Clint Eastwood’s ghostly revenge tale High Plains Drifter was released in which year?

A. 1971
B. 1973
C. 1975
D. 1977

Question 14: Robert Altman’s atmospheric 1971 anti-Western McCabe & Mrs. Miller stars Warren Beatty opposite whom?

A. Faye Dunaway
B. Shelley Duvall
C. Julie Christie
D. Sissy Spacek

Question 15: In Jane Campion’s 2021 psychological Western The Power of the Dog, who plays the brooding rancher Phil Burbank?

A. Jesse Plemons
B. Kodi Smit-McPhee
C. Benedict Cumberbatch
D. Thomasin McKenzie

Question 16: Hell or High Water (2016), a modern dark Western about bank-robbing brothers, was directed by whom?

A. Taylor Sheridan
B. David Mackenzie
C. Denis Villeneuve
D. Craig Johnson

Question 17: In Wind River (2017), which actress plays FBI agent Jane Banner?

A. Elizabeth Olsen
B. Jeremy Renner
C. Jon Bernthal
D. Julia Jones

Question 18: Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 nomadic vampire Western is called what?

A. The Lost Boys
B. Near Dark
C. Vampires
D. 30 Days of Night

Question 19: In the 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma, who plays the outlaw Ben Wade?

A. Christian Bale
B. Russell Crowe
C. Ben Foster
D. Logan Lerman

Question 20: What is the name of the ghostly Preacher in Clint Eastwood’s 1985 supernatural Western Pale Rider?

A. The Stranger
B. No name given
C. Hull Barret
D. Marshal Stockburn

Answers

  1. C. Clint Eastwood – Eastwood both directed and starred as William Munny in this Best Picture Oscar winner; Peckinpah and Leone made earlier violent Westerns, Altman directed McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
  2. C. Javier Bardem – Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for his coin-flipping psychopath; the others play Sheriff Bell, Llewelyn Moss, and Carson Wells respectively.
  3. B. 2007 – The film earned Daniel Day-Lewis a Best Actor Oscar; other years are nearby releases like No Country for Old Men.
  4. D. Casey Affleck – Affleck earned an Oscar nomination for the betrayer; Pitt plays Jesse, Rockwell is Charley Ford, Renner is Wood Hite.
  5. B. William Blake – Depp’s accountant-turned-outlaw shares a name with the poet; Nobody is his Native American guide.
  6. B. The Proposition – Directed by John Hillcoat, it’s a brutal Aussie Western; the others are later Australian genre films.
  7. C. Kurt Russell – Russell leads the rescue party against troglodytes; others play injured characters or the professor.
  8. B. Wendigo cannibalism – The film mixes dark humour with Native American legend; not traditional vampires or zombies.
  9. B. Quentin Tarantino – Tarantino wrote and directed this star-studded whodunit; Coens did No Country.
  10. D. Christoph Waltz – Waltz won for his bounty hunter; DiCaprio is Calvin Candie, Foxx is Django.
  11. C. The Wild Bunch – Peckinpah’s bloody elegy redefined the genre; others are his later films.
  12. C. Henry Fonda – Fonda’s rare villain role shocked audiences; Bronson is Harmonica.
  13. B. 1973 – Eastwood’s second directorial effort features supernatural elements; other years flank his filmography.
  14. C. Julie Christie – Christie plays the madam in this hazy, anti-romantic tale; others starred in Altman’s later works.
  15. C. Benedict Cumberbatch – Cumberbatch was Oscar-nominated for the toxic Phil; Plemons is his brother George.
  16. B. David Mackenzie – Mackenzie directed from Sheridan’s script, earning Oscar nods; Sheridan wrote it.
  17. A. Elizabeth Olsen – Olsen’s rookie agent teams with tracker Cory Lambert (Renner); others are supporting roles.
  18. B. Near Dark – Bigelow’s film blends horror and Western nomadism; The Lost Boys is beach vampires.
  19. B. Russell Crowe – Crowe’s charismatic bandit is captured by Bale’s rancher; Foster plays his deputy.
  20. B. No name given – The mysterious figure is simply “the Preacher”; Stockburn is his foe.

How many did you get right? Share your score in the comments and challenge your fellow cinephiles to ride into this dark Western trivia!