The Sunflower State Movies
by Hoekkie | created - 22 Jan 2018 | updated - 13 Apr 2018 | PublicThe Sunflower State is the official nickname of Kansas. In 1861 it became the 34th state of the United States of America. These movies have a connection with Kansas. It's a topic in the story or they are (partially) filmed in Kansas.
Which movie (or movie poster) do you associate the most with Kansas?
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1. Kansas (1988)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A young man returning home to attend a wedding hooks up with a drifter who turns out to be a violent bank robber. Before he knows it, the man finds himself involved in the robber's plans.
Director: David Stevens | Stars: Matt Dillon, Andrew McCarthy, Leslie Hope, Alan Toy
Votes: 1,298 | Gross: $2.43M
2. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.
Directors: Victor Fleming, King Vidor | Stars: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr
Votes: 428,218 | Gross: $2.08M
3. Superman (1978)
PG | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
An alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest superhero.
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando
Votes: 187,360 | Gross: $134.22M
4. Dodge City (1939)
Approved | 104 min | Western
A Texas cattle agent witnesses first hand, the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City and takes the job of sheriff to clean the town up.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot
Votes: 5,760
5. In Cold Blood (1967)
R | 134 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Two ex-cons murder a family in a robbery attempt, before going on the run from the authorities. The police try to piece together the details of the murder in an attempt to track down the killers.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart
Votes: 29,114
6. Critters (1986)
PG-13 | 86 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A group of small but vicious alien creatures called Crites escape from an alien prison transport vessel and land near a small farm town on earth, pursued by two shape-shifting bounty hunters.
Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Dee Wallace, M. Emmet Walsh, Billy Green Bush, Scott Grimes
Votes: 39,265 | Gross: $13.17M
7. Paper Moon (1973)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman
Votes: 52,385 | Gross: $30.93M
8. Picnic (1955)
Approved | 115 min | Drama, Romance
Emotions are ignited among the complacent townsfolk when a handsome drifter arrives in a small Kansas community on the morning of the Labor Day picnic.
Director: Joshua Logan | Stars: William Holden, Kim Novak, Betty Field, Susan Strasberg
Votes: 9,827
9. Twister (1989)
PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy, Drama
Delusional and spoiled Maureen and her eccentric brother Howdy decide to track down and meet their estranged mother, all while the drama of dysfunctional relationships, disastrous weather conditions and a dark family secret ensue.
Director: Michael Almereyda | Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Suzy Amis, Crispin Glover, Dylan McDermott
Votes: 2,268
10. The Gypsy Moths (1969)
R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Romance
Three skydivers and their travelling thrill show barnstorm through a small midwestern town one Fourth of July weekend.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Gene Hackman, Scott Wilson
Votes: 2,462
11. City Heat (1984)
PG | 97 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Slick Private Investigator Mike Murphy (Burt Reynolds) and tough Police Lieutenant Speer (Clint Eastwood), once partners, now bitter enemies, reluctantly team up to investigate a murder.
Director: Richard Benjamin | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn
Votes: 10,793 | Gross: $38.35M
12. Wichita (1955)
Passed | 81 min | Drama, Western
In 1874, after noticing the total lawlessness in Wichita, Wyatt Earp reluctantly accepts the Marshal's job and runs into the worst local troublemakers.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford
Votes: 2,341
13. Dark Command (1940)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Romance, War
In Kansas during the Civil War, opposing pro-Union and pro-Confederate camps clash and visiting Texan Bob Seton runs afoul of William Cantrell's Raiders.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Walter Pidgeon, Roy Rogers
Votes: 3,031
14. The Rainmaker (1956)
Approved | 121 min | Romance, Western
During the Depression, a con-man promises rain to a desperate drought-ridden Kansas town and marriage to a local desperate spinster.
Director: Joseph Anthony | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 4,278
15. Capote (2005)
R | 114 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
Director: Bennett Miller | Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Clifton Collins Jr., Catherine Keener, Allie Mickelson
Votes: 140,660 | Gross: $28.75M
16. Ride with the Devil (I) (1999)
R | 138 min | Drama, Romance, War
During the American Civil War, two friends join the Bushwhackers, a militant group loyal to the Confederacy.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel, Jeremy W. Auman
Votes: 14,551 | Gross: $0.63M
17. Kansas Pacific (1953)
Approved | 73 min | Western
With the Civil War about to begin, Southern saboteurs attack frontier railroad construction.
Director: Ray Nazarro | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Eve Miller, Barton MacLane, Harry Shannon
Votes: 800
18. Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama
A Chicago advertising man must struggle to travel home from New York for Thanksgiving, with a lovable oaf of a shower-curtain-ring salesman as his only companion.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins, Michael McKean
Votes: 160,072 | Gross: $49.53M
19. Abilene Town (1946)
Approved | 89 min | Western
A sheriff tries to stop homesteader conflicts in the West after the Civil War.
Director: Edwin L. Marin | Stars: Randolph Scott, Ann Dvorak, Edgar Buchanan, Rhonda Fleming
Votes: 1,307
20. Trail Street (1947)
Approved | 84 min | Western
Bat Masterson's old friend Billy Burns convinces him to become marshal of Liberal, Kansas and help the residents fight drought and a destructive range war.
Director: Ray Enright | Stars: Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Jeffreys, George 'Gabby' Hayes
Votes: 826
21. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama, Romance
The love of high school sweethearts Deanie and Bud is weighed down by the oppressive expectations of their parents and society in smalltown Kansas in 1928, threatening the future of their relationship.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle, Audrey Christie
Votes: 22,628 | Gross: $8.72M
22. Winchester '73 (1950)
Passed | 92 min | Action, Drama, Western
A cowboy's obsession with a stolen rifle leads to a bullet-ridden odyssey through the American West.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally
Votes: 21,961
23. Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, War, Western
In 1854, Jeb Stuart, George Custer and other graduates from West Point are posted to Kansas to help pacify the territory before railroad construction to Santa Fe can resume.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan
Votes: 4,153
24. Rolling Kansas (2003)
R | 89 min | Comedy
One evening the Murphy brothers inadvertently discover something quite amazing: The Map. They are shocked to find that their long lost parents, the Hippies Murphy, have bequeathed to them a map to a mythical field of pot.
Director: Thomas Haden Church | Stars: James Roday Rodriguez, Sam Huntington, Jay Paulson, Charlie Finn
Votes: 2,457
25. Seven Angry Men (1955)
Passed | 90 min | Biography, History, Western
Rise, fall and execution of John Brown, fanatic abolitionist.
Director: Charles Marquis Warren | Stars: Raymond Massey, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter, Larry Pennell
Votes: 396
26. The Jayhawkers! (1959)
Approved | 100 min | Western
Before the U.S. Civil War rebel leader Luke Darcy sees himself as leader of a new independent Republic of Kansas but the military governor sends an ex-raider to capture Darcy.
Director: Melvin Frank | Stars: Jeff Chandler, Fess Parker, Nicole Maurey, Henry Silva
Votes: 747
27. Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
PG | 130 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A small-time magician is swept away to an enchanted land and is forced into a power struggle between three witches.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis
Votes: 214,213 | Gross: $234.91M
28. Mars Attacks! (1996)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Annette Bening
Votes: 243,258 | Gross: $37.77M
29. The Day After (1983 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 127 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
The effects of a devastating nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of eastern Kansas.
Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum
Votes: 18,115
30. The Learning Tree (1969)
PG | 107 min | Drama
A bittersweet, idyllic story about a year in the life of 14-year-old Newt Winger, born into a poor Black family in Kansas, who learns about love, fear, racial injustice, and immorality.
Director: Gordon Parks | Stars: Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, Estelle Evans, Dana Elcar
Votes: 1,621
31. Dark Places (2015)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Libby Day was only eight years old when her family was brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. Almost thirty years later, she reluctantly agrees to revisit the crime and uncovers the wrenching truths that led up to that tragic night.
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner | Stars: Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Christina Hendricks, Chloë Grace Moretz
Votes: 47,771
32. Americana (1981)
PG | 91 min | Drama
In a small town in rural Kansas, a troubled veteran attempts to restore an old merry-go-round ride.
Director: David Carradine | Stars: David Carradine, Barbara Hershey, Michael Greene, Arnold Herzstein
Votes: 315
33. My Own Love Song (2010)
PG-13 | 102 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A wheelchair-bound former singer and her best friend embark on a road trip from Kansas to New Orleans, Louisiana.
Director: Olivier Dahan | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Madeline Zima, Forest Whitaker, Elias Koteas
Votes: 1,845
34. The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959)
Approved | 81 min | Western
After his brother the sheriff is murdered, Bat Masterson is elected to the job and is determined to find the killer and make Dodge City safe.
Director: Joseph M. Newman | Stars: Joel McCrea, Julie Adams, John McIntire, Nancy Gates
Votes: 1,069
35. The Proud Ones (1956)
Approved | 94 min | Western
Marshal Cass Silver has to deal with his old nemesis, a corrupt gambler, and his hired guns come to town as well as recurring bouts of blindness.
Director: Robert D. Webb | Stars: Robert Ryan, Virginia Mayo, Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Middleton
Votes: 1,626
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