"Based on a True Story": The Ancient World
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- StarsRob BrydonKevin EldonJames SaitoThe story of some of the most remembered characters who transformed the world. Produced by the BBC, based in true facts, with the support of modern historians. This documentary tells how Napoleon, Spartacus, Richard Lionhearth, Atila, Shogun and Cortes printed their names in the books of history.
- DirectorJack GoldStarsJohn BennettDavid CalderOliver Ford DaviesThe Peloponnesian Wars (Athens versus Sparta for twenty-seven years) told in the format of news broadcast-like monologues by Thucydides, Plato, and others.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsColin FarrellAnthony HopkinsRosario DawsonAlexander, the King of Macedonia and one of the greatest army leaders in the history of warfare, conquers much of the known world.
- DirectorNic YoungStarsYu-Beng LimGerald ChewGeorge ChanChannel 4 docudrama following the history of the Great Wall of China, from the earliest building of simple mud walls to the construction of the series of stone fortresses built during the 16th Century in response to continued Mongol invasion.
- StarsLyall B. WatsonMichael SheenJames D'ArcyA docu-drama covering the rise and the fall of the Roman world, including the establishment of strong individual rule by Julius Caesar and the rebuilding of Rome under Nero.
- DirectorStanley KubrickAnthony MannStarsKirk DouglasLaurence OlivierJean SimmonsThe slave Spartacus survives brutal training as a gladiator and leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic, as the ambitious Crassus seeks to gain power by crushing the uprising.
- DirectorGabriel PascalStarsClaude RainsVivien LeighStewart GrangerAt the height of the Roman Civil War, a young Cleopatra (Vivien Leigh) meets a middle-aged Julius Caesar (Claude Rains), who teaches her how to rule Egypt.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczRouben MamoulianStarsElizabeth TaylorRichard BurtonRex HarrisonQueen Cleopatra VII of Egypt experiences both triumph and tragedy as she attempts to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.
- StarsBilly ZaneTimothy DaltonRupert GravesPrincess Cleopatra becomes Egypt's Queen and has an out-of-wedlock son with the son-less Roman ruler Julius Caesar. Through two romances, she strives to protect Egypt from the Romans, and make her son the heir to Caesar's Roman Empire.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsLouis CalhernMarlon BrandoJames MasonThe growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
- DirectorTinto BrassStarsMalcolm McDowellPeter O'TooleHelen MirrenA dramatization of the ascent to Caesar and subsequent reign of Caligula, one of the most notorious leaders of ancient Rome. We see his ambition, his scheming, his perversion and decadence, his brutality and his lunacy.
- StarsDerek JacobiJohn HurtSiân PhillipsThe personal and governmental affairs of the Julio-Claudian dynasty at the beginning of the Roman Empire, as recalled by one of its rulers.
- StarsAnthony AndrewsColleen DewhurstAva GardnerSet just after the death of Jesus Christ, this mini-series chronicles the life & adventures of Jesus's disciples, and events in Rome during the reigns of the Emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.
- StarsPeter O'ToolePeter StraussBarbara CarreraAfter the destruction of the Second Temple, nine hundred Jewish zealots hold out against a five thousand man Roman legion on the mountaintop fortress of Masada.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsSophia LorenStephen BoydAlec GuinnessThe death of Marcus Aurelius leads to a succession crisis, in which the deceased emperor's son, Commodus, demonstrates that he is unwilling to let anything undermine his claim to the Roman Empire.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiTakeshi KaneshiroFengyi ZhangThe first chapter of a two-part story centered on a battle fought in China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.).
- DirectorJohn WooStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiTakeshi KaneshiroFengyi ZhangSecond and final part of epic tale about a legendary battle that changed the course of China history.