Director: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

Main Cast: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper

Release Date: 14 December 2010 

Main Plot: Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old farm girl, sets out to find the perpetrator after her father is murdered by hired worker Tom Chaney. To help her, she employs the hardest US marshal she can locate, Reuben J., a man with “real grit.” Cogburn, “Rooster.” Mattie continues to join Cogburn, whose drinking, laziness, and general aversion weaken her confidence in him. Against his inclinations, she accompanies him in his quest for Chaney in the Indian Nations. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf joins them and wants Chaney for his own reasons. On their voyage, the odd three encounter danger and shocks, and everyone is tested in terms of “grit.”

Director: Hal Needham

Main Cast: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Mike Henry, Paul Williams, and Pat McCormick

Release Date: 19 May 1977

Main Plot: Bo Darville, sometimes known as The Bandit, is a semi-retired trucker legend who works in a trucking rodeo. A nefarious father-and-son tycoon combination (Lavish and Little Enos Burdett) approaches him about throwing a big party. The only problem was that due to antiquated liquor rules in 1978 America, it was illegal to ship Coors beer east of Texas. And the Burdetts’ needed some for their Atlanta, Georgia event. There are 400 of them. The Burdetts pay The Bandit $80,000 to transport the beers from Texarkana, Texas, to Atlanta in 28 hours. Bandit convinces Cledus Snow, “The Snowman,” to drive the beer truck while he runs blocker—distracting Smokey, just like they used to.

Director: Penelope Spheeris

Main Cast: Diedrich Bader, Erika Eleniak, Jim Varney, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin, and Lea Thompson

Release Date: 15 October 1993

Main Plot: Poor mountaineer Jedediah “Jed” Clampett inadvertently strikes a $1 billion oil well while hunting in the Arkansas backwoods. That evening, Aunt Pearl and Cousin Jethro Bodine persuade Jed to sign a contract with Ozark Mountain Oil and relocate to a more opulent location, such as Beverly Hills, California. Jethro, Jed, and daughter Elly May Clampett pack their possessions in Jethro’s old jalopy, tying their obstinate Granny, Daisy May Moses, to her wooden chair on top of the car. Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills President Milburn Drysdale anticipates the newcomers to be cultured and sophisticated once they arrive in California. Mr. Drysdale, as personal overseer of their account, finds them a home in his rich neighborhood and persuades his slacker son, Morgan, to tour Elly May about the local high school. Meanwhile, Woodrow Tyler, a cunning but dimwitted bank employee, attempts to extort the Clampetts with the help of his money-grubbing lady buddy Laura Jackson.

Director: Henry Hathaway

Main Cast: John Wayne, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Jeremy Slate, and Robert Duvall

Release Date: 11 June 1969

Main Plot: In 1880, Dardanelle, Yell County, farmer Frank Ross traveled to Fort Smith with his assistant Tom Chaney to purchase some horses. He is assassinated by Chaney, who steals his money and flees to the Indian Territory. Frank’s teenage daughter Mattie, a bookkeeper for the family firm, travels with one of their employees to retrieve her father’s body. They watch the hangings of three men convicted by the severe Judge Parker before meeting the undertaker. Stubborn Mattie approaches the sheriff, who informs her that he has no jurisdiction in the Indian Territory when she inquires about the best Marshal. He advises Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn, a large elderly man with an eyepatch with the tenacity to bring offenders from Indian Territory.

Director: Billy Bob Thornton

Main Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter, and Lucas Black

Release Date: 30 August 1996 

Main Plot: Karl, a partially disabled guy, gets freed from a psychiatric hospital approximately 20 years after murdering his mother and another person. Karl is frequently asked if he will ever kill again, and he shrugs, stating there is no reason. Karl has left the mental facility and has settled in his old little community, where he keeps himself busy by repairing automobiles. Karl is invited to stay in Frank’s house with his mother, Linda, after meeting a little kid named Frank who befriends him. Linda regards Karl as a peculiar but nice and generous man. However, Linda’s abusive boyfriend, Doyle, has a different perspective on how regulations should be enforced. He frequently disparages Linda’s homosexual buddy Vaughan. And Karl’s handicap and throwing crazy parties with his buddies. As Karl’s relationship with Frank develops, he becomes more aware of Doyle’s nasty actions.

Director: Percy Adlon

Main Cast: Marianne Sägebrecht, Brad Davis, Judge Reinhold, Erika Blumberger, and Willy Harlander

Release Date: 19 May 1989 

Main Plot:

Rosalie enjoys shopping far too much to let anything as insignificant as a lack of funds deter her. When the local merchants refuse to accept her bad checks or credit cards, she is forced to steal from one family member to buy gifts for others. It’s looking gloomy until her daughter forces her to buy a ‘guilt present’ of a PC with a modem. Rosalie is back on top after becoming a skilled shopper and a brilliant hacker.

Rosalie had met Ray when he was a military pilot in Germany; today, he is a crop duster pilot. They live in Stuttgart, the “Rice Capital of the World,” as a road sign in the film proclaims. Rosalie blithely drives around town on shopping sprees and money-juggling adventures in her van while listening to recordings of Bavarian yodeling. 

Director: Robert Milazzo

Main Cast: Brian Dennehy, Mary Kay Place, Mare Winningham, James McDaniel, and Luke Grimes

Release Date: 3 November 2007

Main Plot: Growing up in an Ozark town. Enoch is a high school senior who stutters and has one buddy, Wheels, a child with cerebral palsy. Wheels use a wheelchair and dreams of attending Tennessee college on a baseball scholarship. He is intellectual and enjoys poetry. He lives with his mother and grandfather. Life becomes tougher when he develops feelings for Abby, one of the popular girls. When he starts hanging out with her, even though he wants Wheels to accompany him, partly to help him finish his sentences. It generates conflict between the two friends. It gives Enoch pause about whether he should “leave town to make something of himself.”

Director: Zac Heath

Main Cast: Josh Odor, Craig Luttrell, Jaclyn Friedlander, Craig Morris, and Maurice Mejia

Release Date: 11 September 2009

Main Plot: The story is about Jason; when he returns to his hometown to study for the bar test. His calm summer turns sour after he visits his oldest buddy, a “coulda-been-girlfriend” who is now engaged and a pushy preacher. Throughout his stay, he begins to wonder about life and his role. He quickly realizes that God has different plans for him. He discovers that former pals have changed more than he expected and wonders what could have happened if he had not gone to law school. Jason is first uncomfortable when his previous pastor insists on him leading the youth group. Still, he soon realizes that he enjoys assisting the youth. As Jason learns more about the people around him, he understands what God truly desires for his life.

Director: Derrick Sims

Main Cast: Michael Ray Davis, Thor Wahlestedt, Elise Rovinsky, Blake Logan, and Dean Denton

Release Date: 21 October 2012

Main Plot: Come Morning is the tragic story of D (Thor Wahlestedt) and his grandfather Frank (Michael Ray Davis). They hunt deer and inadvertently shoot a trespassing neighbor. Due to a lengthy history of property conflicts between the two families, it isn’t as simple as calling the authorities and reporting an accident. Frank and D set out to bury the body deep into the woods. A multi-mile walk through the Arkansas woods in the dead of winter is difficult enough for a little child and an elderly man. Still, it’s more difficult because they’re transporting a dead body in a wheelbarrow. Add in a few redneck neighbors who aren’t the smartest but are all the more aggressive as a result, and you’ve got yourself a fairly dramatic journey.

Director: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky

Main Cast: Gary Gitchell, Todd Moore, Dana Moore, Pam Hobbs, and Terry Hobbs

Release Date: 11 September 2011

Main Plot:  A horrifying triple child murder was discovered in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993. Still, the reaction to it triggered its own nightmare. This video continues the story of the three youths known as the West Memphis Three, who were convicted of this crime based on shaky evidence. For years, the boys’ fate generated a large movement dedicated to proving their innocence. Still, the state is equally adamant about not acknowledging it was wrong. Through the whirl of new evidence and suspects, the Three relate their own stories of enduring this injustice against the opinions of the victims’ families in a debate that ultimately resulted in an insufficient resolution.

Director: Charles B. Pierce

Main Cast: Charles B. Pierce, Cindy Butler, Chuck Pierce Jr., Jimmy Clem, and Serene Hedin

Release Date: 16 December 1983

Main Plot: Dr. Brant Lockhart is an anthropology professor at the University of Arkansas. He gets a call from a sheriff who claims to have seen a bigfoot-like creature in a rural town. Lockhart enlists the assistance of his students Tim and Tanya, as well as Tanya’s friend Leslie, to conduct an investigation. When Lockhart speaks with locals, he is faced with resistance and disbelief. He is told to talk to “Old Man Crenshaw,” who lives in a shack on the riverbank. Lockhart rents a boat and sets out to meet Crenshaw. Crenshaw is a tough old man who lives alone on his land. While he is kind to Lockhart and his entourage, he does not want to talk about the creature or why he keeps a succession of bonfires on his property. A violent storm approaches, making it difficult for the Professor and his team to return down the river. Lockhart and his classmates spend the night in Crenshaw’s cabin.

Director: Jesse Hibbs

Main Cast:  Audie Murphy, Gia Scala, Walter Matthau, Henry Silva, and Joanna Moore

Release Date: 23 November 1958

Main Plot: When Murphy stumbles into a town and is questioned by the local judge, Matthau, after robbing a bank, he adopts the identity of his pursuer, a famous US Marshal. Murphy is obliged to continue as Marshal; known as an old flame, Scala. He nearly unmasks him by accident, only to be forced to assume the disguise of Murphy’s wife. The “couple” is given a house and dignity neither has previously possessed. They keep up the act to protect Matthau’s ward, a small orphan child. Scala is torn between her loyalty to her boyfriend, who is planning a bank robbery, and her growing feelings for Murphy.

Director: Jonathan Demme

Main Cast: Cloris Leachman, Stuart Whitman, Ann Sothern, Jim Backus, Dinah Englund, and Don Most

Release Date: 9 July 1975

Main Plot: Crazy Mama begins 26 years earlier, in Jerusalem, Arkansas, in 1932, with a young girl named Melba. She witnesses the local police approaching her father and shooting him dead when he refuses to give up his farm property. Melba went interstate with her mother then and is doing so again. This time with Sheba and her adolescent daughter Cheryl, who is also pregnant. In other words, the damage done to this family has been passed down through generations. It will undoubtedly continue to be passed down in a patriarchal America where ladies are as much made dangerous as they are born hazardous. Much like the Stokes’ modest American dream of owning their own home and running their own business is thwarted. Every time they appear to be getting a foothold, so too in their struggles, they continue to defy. They established conventions and operated by their own rules as a criminal gang and a matriarchal counterforce. They take their seized things from Mr. Albertson, steal his automobile, and drive away.

Director: Billy Bob Thornton

Main Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Kelly Preston, and Andy Griffith

Release Date: 6 June 2001

Main Plot: A dark comedy story of a married couple comes to the aid of an imprisoned uncle. Ruby and Claude Montgomery are an extremely insecure, jealous couple because of their past sentimental lives. Claude had an affair with Ruby’s older sister Rose when Ruby was a young girl, and Ruby has had many muscled boyfriends in the past. When Claude’s uncle Hazel is jailed for attempting to murder a local, Ruby and Claude fly to Arkansas with Rose and Jewel to express their condolences to the Montgomery family. So, while traveling, Jewel constantly recalls several occurrences between Claude and Jewel, which irritates Ruby. 

Director: Matt Glass and Jordan Wayne Long

Main Cast:  Thomas Hobson, Phil Morris, Tara Perry, Tim Blake Nelson, and Angela Bettis

Release Date: 21 October 2021

Main Plot: James McCune (Thomas Hobson) travels to the small village of Norfolk in the Ozark Mountains at the invitation of his brother. The neighborhood requires a new doctor, and Matthew (Phil Morris) believes his brother is the ideal candidate. On his journey, James is attacked by a stranger who believes James has something. Still, the stranger is “taken” by a mysterious crimson mist that emerges from nowhere. James flees and arrives in town, agitated and terrified but unexpectedly safe. Following his traumatic experiences in the Civil War, James is initially taken aback by the community’s seeming tranquility. He sees none of the problems or biases he has encountered outside the town walls. The town is booming under the leadership of his brother Matthew, thanks to their very own source of natural gas.