Best historical drama
by thingadonta | created - 23 Oct 2011 | updated - 15 Apr 2017 | PublicNo particular order
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1. Agora (2009)
R | 127 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his mistress, the philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom
Votes: 73,049 | Gross: $0.62M
The burning of the ancient world
2. Dances with Wolves (1990)
PG-13 | 181 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.
Director: Kevin Costner | Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Votes: 290,605 | Gross: $184.21M
Romanticised yes, but it wasnt far from the truth.
3. Gladiator (2000)
R | 155 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed
Votes: 1,619,913 | Gross: $187.71M
The best roman film
4. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
PG-13 | 197 min | Drama, Romance, War
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger
Votes: 82,073 | Gross: $111.72M
A Russian friend told me it is full of propaganda against the history of Russia, which means its probably close to the truth
5. Quiz Show (1994)
PG-13 | 133 min | Biography, Drama, History
A young lawyer, Richard Goodwin, investigates a potentially fixed game show. Charles Van Doren, a big time show winner, is under Goodwin's investigation.
Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, John Turturro, Rob Morrow, Paul Scofield
Votes: 73,334 | Gross: $24.82M
Really, cheating on a quiz show. "I thought we were going to get television, but television is going to get us" Nice quote.
6. Thirteen Days (2000)
PG-13 | 145 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In October 1962, the Kennedy administration struggles to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Shawn Driscoll, Drake Cook
Votes: 62,691 | Gross: $34.59M
Really well done.
7. JFK (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Votes: 169,896 | Gross: $70.41M
A bit over the top from Oliver Stone as usual, but I think he is basically right. More than 3 shots that day.
8. The Quiet American (2002)
R | 101 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
An old British reporter vies with a young U.S. doctor for the affections of a beautiful Vietnamese woman.
Director: Phillip Noyce | Stars: Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Yen, Rade Serbedzija
Votes: 29,738 | Gross: $12.99M
Some historical truth here.
9. Alive (1993)
R | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
After crash-landing in the snowswept Andes, a Uruguayan rugby team has no choice but to turn to desperate measures in order to survive.
Director: Frank Marshall | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton, Bruce Ramsay
Votes: 64,423 | Gross: $36.73M
Best survival story
10. Titanic (1997)
PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Votes: 1,280,277 | Gross: $659.33M
Just a wee bit over the top, but the historical aspects were true enough.
11. United 93 (2006)
R | 111 min | Action, Drama, History
A real-time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on September 11th, 2001 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: David Alan Basche, Olivia Thirlby, Liza Colón-Zayas, J.J. Johnson
Votes: 110,937 | Gross: $31.57M
True to events
12. 9/11 (2002 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 112 min | Documentary
A real life documentary following the events of September 11 from an insider's view, through the lens of James Hanlon and two French filmmakers who were in Manhattan that one day.
Directors: James Hanlon, Gédéon Naudet, Jules Naudet | Stars: Tony Benatatos, Yusuf Baran Bilgic, Jamal Braithwaite, Steve Buscemi
Votes: 8,643
The best 9/11 film
13. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
R | 145 min | Biography, Drama, War
The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country for which he fought.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava
Votes: 115,930 | Gross: $70.00M
Vietnam in all its nastiness
14. Ned Kelly (2003)
R | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
An innocent man becomes one of the most wanted criminals the world has ever known.
Director: Gregor Jordan | Stars: Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts
Votes: 28,091 | Gross: $0.07M
A bit over-romaticised, but contained elements of truth about the disadvantages of the poor Irish in colonial Australia.
15. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas
Votes: 152,636 | Gross: $4.06M
And Lenin, close the door on your way out.
16. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 410,440 | Gross: $11.29M
Not many movies about the other side of the iron curtain
17. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
PG | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History
Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels
Votes: 101,300 | Gross: $31.56M
Well crafted
18. Rogue Trader (1999)
R | 101 min | Crime, Drama, History
The story of Nick Leeson, an ambitious investment broker who singlehandedly bankrupted one of the oldest and most important banks in Britain.
Director: James Dearden | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Anna Friel, Cristian Solimeno, Lorna Pegler
Votes: 10,664
Just a matter of time really
19. The Last Emperor (1987)
PG-13 | 163 min | Biography, Drama, History
Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-winning dramatisation of the life story of China's last emperor, Pu Yi.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ruocheng Ying
Votes: 111,503 | Gross: $43.98M
China's communist revolution. "That was my chair"
20. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
R | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Three trappers protect the daughters of a British Colonel in the midst of the French and Indian War.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig
Votes: 187,619 | Gross: $75.51M
21. Apollo 13 (I) (1995)
PG | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, History
NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise
Votes: 315,545 | Gross: $173.84M
The space race
22. Lincoln (2012)
PG-13 | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
As the Civil War rages on, U.S President Abraham Lincoln struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on his decision to emancipate the slaves.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Votes: 272,623 | Gross: $182.21M
23. The Imitation Game (2014)
PG-13 | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.
Director: Morten Tyldum | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech
Votes: 824,963 | Gross: $91.13M
Excellent WW2 drama. Hidden information for years. Changed the course of the war. Slightly creative with the historical facts (check the net for a few minor changes to the history), but overall fine.
24. The King's Speech (2010)
R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
Director: Tom Hooper | Stars: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi
Votes: 707,890 | Gross: $138.80M
Excellent story behind the England King's Speech at the start of WW2. The irony of the German Beethoven's music playing in the background, who would have been aghast at the Nazis, is irreplaceable.
25. Sully (2016)
PG-13 | 96 min | Biography, Drama
When pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger lands his damaged plane on the Hudson River in order to save the flight's passengers and crew, some consider him a hero while others think he was reckless.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Valerie Mahaffey
Votes: 298,067 | Gross: $125.07M
26. Spotlight (I) (2015)
R | 129 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Director: Tom McCarthy | Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 502,106 | Gross: $45.06M
27. The Big Short (2015)
R | 130 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
In 2006-2007 a group of investors bet against the United States mortgage market. In their research, they discover how flawed and corrupt the market is.
Director: Adam McKay | Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
Votes: 484,481 | Gross: $70.26M
28. A Cry in the Dark (1988)
PG-13 | 120 min | Biography, Drama
A mother whose child was killed in a dingo attack in the Australian Outback fights to prove her innocence when she is accused of murder.
Director: Fred Schepisi | Stars: Meryl Streep, Sam Neill, Dale Reeves, David Hoflin
Votes: 11,205 | Gross: $6.91M
29. Argo (2012)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.
Director: Ben Affleck | Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin
Votes: 639,079 | Gross: $136.03M
30. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
R | 157 min | Drama, History, Thriller
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong
Votes: 318,902 | Gross: $95.72M
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