best history/fictional history movies

by helechoanarquista | created - 13 Aug 2012 | updated - 15 Jul 2018 | Public
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1. Torn Curtain (1966)

PG | 128 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller

55 Metascore

An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin before planning an escape back to the West.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjörg Felmy

Votes: 29,270

2. I Served the King of England (2006)

R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

72 Metascore

A look at the glamorous life at an old-world Prague hotel.

Director: Jirí Menzel | Stars: Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Marián Labuda

Votes: 8,194 | Gross: $0.62M

3. Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)

PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, History, Western

58 Metascore

The story of the Apache chief and his armed resistance to the U.S. Government's subjugation of his people.

Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Jason Patric, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Wes Studi

Votes: 13,499 | Gross: $18.64M

4. Hamburger Hill (1987)

R | 110 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

64 Metascore

A very realistic interpretation of one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.

Director: John Irvin | Stars: Anthony Barrile, Michael Boatman, Don Cheadle, Michael Dolan

Votes: 27,966 | Gross: $13.84M

5. The Elephant Man (1980)

PG | 124 min | Biography, Drama

78 Metascore

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.

Director: David Lynch | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud

Votes: 258,597

6. Into the Storm (2009 TV Movie)

TV-PG | 99 min | Biography, Drama, History

Continuing the storyline of The Gathering Storm (2002), Churchill at War is a look at the former British prime minister's life and career at the end of WWII.

Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan | Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Clive Mantle, Adrian Scarborough, Jack Shepherd

Votes: 5,866

7. Valkyrie (2008)

PG-13 | 121 min | Drama, History, Thriller

56 Metascore

A dramatization of the July 20, 1944 assassination and political coup plot by desperate renegade German Army officers against Adolf Hitler during World War II.

Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Carice van Houten, Kenneth Branagh

Votes: 259,378 | Gross: $83.08M

8. The King's Speech (2010)

R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History

88 Metascore

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: 708,184 | Gross: $138.80M

9. The Flowers of War (2011)

R | 146 min | Drama, History, Romance

46 Metascore

An American finds refuge during the 1937 Japanese invasion of Nanking in a church with a group of women. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.

Director: Yimou Zhang | Stars: Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Xinyi Zhang, Tianyuan Huang

Votes: 55,739 | Gross: $0.01M

10. Enemy at the Gates (2001)

R | 131 min | Action, Drama, War

53 Metascore

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz

Votes: 277,722 | Gross: $51.40M

11. Defiance (I) (2008)

R | 137 min | Action, Drama, History

58 Metascore

Jewish brothers in German-occupied Eastern Europe escape into a Belorussian forest, where they join Russian resistance fighters, and endeavor to build a village, in order to protect themselves and about one thousand Jewish non-combatants.

Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, Alexa Davalos

Votes: 155,720 | Gross: $28.64M

12. Munich (2005)

R | 164 min | Action, Drama, History

74 Metascore

After the Black September capture and massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, five men are chosen to eliminate the people responsible for that fateful day.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Marie-Josée Croze, Ciarán Hinds

Votes: 238,378 | Gross: $47.40M

13. Goodbye Bafana (2007)

R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History

Goodbye Bafana is the true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's name was Nelson Mandela.

Director: Bille August | Stars: Joseph Fiennes, Dennis Haysbert, Diane Kruger, Patrick Lyster

Votes: 12,237

14. Charlotte Gray (2001)

PG-13 | 121 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller

48 Metascore

A young Scottish woman joins the French Resistance during World War II to rescue her Royal Air Force boyfriend who is lost in France.

Director: Gillian Armstrong | Stars: Cate Blanchett, James Fleet, Abigail Cruttenden, Charlotte McDougall

Votes: 13,186 | Gross: $0.67M

15. Meek's Cutoff (2010)

PG | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller

85 Metascore

Settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.

Director: Kelly Reichardt | Stars: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano, Will Patton

Votes: 15,228 | Gross: $0.98M

16. Legends of the Fall (1994)

R | 133 min | Drama, Romance, War

45 Metascore

In the early 1900s, three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of Montana are affected by betrayal, history, love, nature, and war.

Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond

Votes: 183,220 | Gross: $66.64M

17. The Believer (2001)

R | 98 min | Drama

75 Metascore

A young Jewish man develops a fiercely anti-Semitic philosophy. Based on the factual story of a K.K.K. member in the 1960s who was revealed to be Jewish by a New York Times reporter.

Director: Henry Bean | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Peter Meadows, Garret Dillahunt

Votes: 41,142 | Gross: $0.41M

18. Frost/Nixon (2008)

R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History

80 Metascore

A dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon.

Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell

Votes: 112,498 | Gross: $18.59M

19. Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

R | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

79 Metascore

The life stories of the six men who raised the flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in World War II.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Barry Pepper, Joseph Cross, Jesse Bradford

Votes: 129,294 | Gross: $33.60M

20. Man in the Wilderness (1971)

GP | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Western

Left for dead after a bear attack, a fur-trapper recuperates and pursues his former companions through dangerous Indian territory.

Director: Richard C. Sarafian | Stars: Richard Harris, John Huston, Henry Wilcoxon, Percy Herbert

Votes: 3,478

21. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

R | 141 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

89 Metascore

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryô Kase

Votes: 170,113 | Gross: $13.76M

22. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

R | 169 min | Drama, War

91 Metascore

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns

Votes: 1,497,357 | Gross: $216.54M

23. United 93 (2006)

R | 111 min | Action, Drama, History

90 Metascore

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: 110,963 | Gross: $31.57M

24. Manderlay (2005)

Not Rated | 139 min | Drama

46 Metascore

A story of slavery, set in the southern U.S. in the 1930s.

Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach De Bankolé, Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe

Votes: 25,189 | Gross: $0.08M

25. Lebanon (2009)

R | 93 min | Drama, War

85 Metascore

During the First Lebanon War in 1982, a lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town.

Director: Samuel Maoz | Stars: Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen, Michael Moshonov

Votes: 11,968 | Gross: $0.37M

26. The Children of Huang Shi (2008)

R | 125 min | Drama, War

49 Metascore

About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.

Director: Roger Spottiswoode | Stars: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh

Votes: 9,985 | Gross: $1.03M

27. Che: Part One (2008)

Not Rated | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History

In 1956, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and a band of Castro-led Cuban exiles mobilize an army to topple the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Julia Ormond, Benicio Del Toro, Oscar Isaac, Pablo Guevara

Votes: 47,965 | Gross: $1.80M

28. W. (I) (2008)

PG-13 | 129 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama

56 Metascore

A chronicle of the life and Presidency of George W. Bush.

Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Ioan Gruffudd, Colin Hanks

Votes: 50,049 | Gross: $25.53M

29. Waltz with Bashir (2008)

R | 90 min | Documentary, Animation, Biography

91 Metascore

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

Director: Ari Folman | Stars: Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, Ori Sivan

Votes: 60,427 | Gross: $2.28M

30. The Killing Fields (1984)

R | 141 min | Biography, Drama, History

76 Metascore

A journalist is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot's bloody 'Year Zero' cleansing campaign, which claimed the lives of two million 'undesirable' civilians.

Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands

Votes: 59,259 | Gross: $34.70M

31. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Biography

In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.

Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Del Negro

Votes: 62,334

32. All the President's Men (1976)

PG | 138 min | Drama, History, Thriller

84 Metascore

"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.

Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam

Votes: 126,119 | Gross: $70.60M

33. How the West Was Won (1962)

G | 164 min | Adventure, War, Western

56 Metascore

A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the 19th century, including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.

Directors: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe | Stars: James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda

Votes: 23,346 | Gross: $46.50M

34. Stalingrad (1993)

Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, War

The story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.

Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph

Votes: 37,747 | Gross: $0.08M

35. Soldier of Orange (1977)

R | 165 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller

During World War II, Dutch students join the resistance movement against the German occupation of the Netherlands.

Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé, Susan Penhaligon, Edward Fox

Votes: 13,881

36. Days of Glory (1944)

Approved | 86 min | Drama, Romance, War

A heroic guerrilla group fights back against impossible odds during the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Gregory Peck, Tamara Toumanova, Alan Reed, Maria Palmer

Votes: 1,441

37. Helen of Troy (1956)

Approved | 118 min | Drama, History, Romance

The Iliad's story of the Trojan war, told from the Trojan viewpoint.

Directors: Robert Wise, Raoul Walsh | Stars: Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Brigitte Bardot, Jacques Sernas

Votes: 2,508 | Gross: $6.98M

38. Escape from Sobibor (1987 TV Movie)

Not Rated | 143 min | Drama, History, War

German death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.

Director: Jack Gold | Stars: Alan Arkin, Joanna Pacula, Rutger Hauer, Hartmut Becker

Votes: 9,832

39. Villa Rides (1968)

R | 125 min | Drama, War, Western

Mexican rebel Pancho Villa leads a revolution helped by an American aviator imprisoned in Mexico.

Director: Buzz Kulik | Stars: Yul Brynner, Robert Mitchum, Maria Grazia Buccella, Herbert Lom

Votes: 2,327 | Gross: $2.64M

40. The Battle of Austerlitz (1960)

122 min | Drama, History, War

Another of Napoleon's adventures in this epic reconstruction of the battle of Austerlitz, where he had the greatest victory of his career, over the Russians.

Director: Abel Gance | Stars: Pierre Mondy, Martine Carol, Claudia Cardinale, Leslie Caron

Votes: 980

41. The Dam Busters (1955)

Approved | 105 min | Drama, History, War

Drama based on the attempt by the RAF to destroy six dams in Germany during World War II.

Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydney

Votes: 11,375

42. Patton (1970)

GP | 172 min | Biography, Drama, War

86 Metascore

The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong

Votes: 108,001 | Gross: $61.70M

43. Downfall (2004)

R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History

82 Metascore

Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler

Votes: 375,424 | Gross: $5.51M

44. The Heineken Kidnapping (2011)

Not Rated | 127 min | Crime, History, Thriller

A bold, amateur kidnapping goes wildly awry in this fictionalized account of beer magnate Alfred Heineken's 1983 abduction, which would go on to become one of The Netherlands' most infamous crimes.

Director: Maarten Treurniet | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Reinout Scholten van Aschat, Gijs Naber, Teun Kuilboer

Votes: 5,977

45. The Good Shepherd (2006)

R | 167 min | Drama, History, Thriller

61 Metascore

The tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life.

Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin

Votes: 108,616 | Gross: $59.95M

46. We Were Soldiers (2002)

R | 138 min | Action, Drama, History

65 Metascore

The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War, and the soldiers on both sides that fought it, while their wives wait nervously and anxiously at home for the good news or the bad news.

Director: Randall Wallace | Stars: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott

Votes: 151,327 | Gross: $78.12M

47. Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944)

Not Rated | 95 min | Biography, Drama, History

During the early part of his reign, Ivan the Terrible faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people.

Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Nikolay Cherkasov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman, Mikhail Nazvanov

Votes: 10,868

48. The Conspirator (2010)

PG-13 | 122 min | Crime, Drama, History

55 Metascore

Mary Surratt is the lone female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln. As the whole nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her reluctant lawyer to uncover the truth and save her life.

Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline

Votes: 30,016 | Gross: $11.54M

49. Spartacus (1960)

PG-13 | 197 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

87 Metascore

The 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.

Directors: Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Mann | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton

Votes: 143,285 | Gross: $30.00M

50. Kon-Tiki (2012)

PG-13 | 118 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

62 Metascore

Legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl's epic 4,300-mile crossing of the Pacific on a balsawood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove that it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.

Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Stars: Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo, Gustaf Skarsgård, Odd-Magnus Williamson

Votes: 51,993 | Gross: $1.52M

51. Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

R | 102 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama

67 Metascore

A drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.

Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Votes: 124,937 | Gross: $66.66M

52. Empire of the Sun (1987)

PG | 153 min | Drama, War

62 Metascore

A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers

Votes: 134,368 | Gross: $22.24M

53. Hunger (2008)

Not Rated | 96 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

82 Metascore

Irish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.

Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Laine Megaw

Votes: 73,576 | Gross: $0.15M

54. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

PG | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History

80 Metascore

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: 101,319 | Gross: $31.56M

55. JFK (1991)

R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller

72 Metascore

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: 170,000 | Gross: $70.41M

56. 1911 (2011)

R | 99 min | Drama, History, War

37 Metascore

A historical drama based on the founding of the Republic of China when nationalist forces led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty.

Directors: Tao Hai, Wei Li, Guoqiang Tang, Li Zhang, Jackie Chan | Stars: Jackie Chan, Winston Chao, Bingbing Li, Chun Sun

Votes: 6,528 | Gross: $0.13M

57. Bobby (I) (2006)

R | 117 min | Biography, Drama, History

54 Metascore

The destinies of 22 people of different races, sexes, beliefs and social classes are intertwined on the night that politician Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated.

Director: Emilio Estevez | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Harry Belafonte

Votes: 42,809 | Gross: $11.24M

58. Air Force (1943)

Approved | 124 min | Action, Drama, History

The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.

Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy

Votes: 3,816

59. Sergeant York (1941)

Passed | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History

A Tennessee farmer and marksman is drafted in World War I, and struggles with his pacifist inclinations before becoming one of the most celebrated war heroes.

Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias

Votes: 19,795 | Gross: $16.40M

60. Salvador (1986)

R | 122 min | Drama, History, Thriller

69 Metascore

A burnt-out photojournalist becomes involved in a Central American revolution.

Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: James Woods, Jim Belushi, Michael Murphy, John Savage

Votes: 23,165

61. Nixon (1995)

R | 192 min | Biography, Drama, History

66 Metascore

A biographical story of former U.S. President Richard Nixon, from his days as a young boy, to his eventual Presidency, which ended in shame.

Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Powers Boothe, Ed Harris

Votes: 32,745 | Gross: $13.56M

62. Cross of Iron (1977)

R | 119 min | Drama, War

64 Metascore

German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.

Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner

Votes: 29,194

63. Battle of the Bulge (1965)

Not Rated | 167 min | Drama, History, War

A dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II.

Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews

Votes: 17,814 | Gross: $11.12M

64. Little Big Man (1970)

PG-13 | 139 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

63 Metascore

Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Native Americans and fighting with General Custer.

Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam

Votes: 37,915 | Gross: $31.56M

65. Viva Zapata! (1952)

Approved | 113 min | Biography, Drama, History

The story of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who led a rebellion against the corrupt, oppressive dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz in the early 20th century.

Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Jean Peters, Anthony Quinn, Joseph Wiseman

Votes: 12,469

66. Zulu (1964)

Not Rated | 138 min | Drama, History, War

77 Metascore

Outnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift.

Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth

Votes: 42,768

67. Gallipoli (1981)

PG | 110 min | Adventure, Drama, History

65 Metascore

Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.

Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Bill Kerr, Harold Hopkins

Votes: 41,991 | Gross: $5.73M

68. Bloody Sunday (2002)

R | 111 min | Drama, History, War

90 Metascore

A dramatization of the Irish civil rights protest march and subsequent massacre by British troops on January 30, 1972.

Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell, Allan Gildea

Votes: 25,764 | Gross: $0.77M

69. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History

46 Metascore

The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.

Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten

Votes: 37,242 | Gross: $29.55M

70. Rescue Dawn (2006)

PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Biography, War

77 Metascore

A U.S. fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.

Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies, Zach Grenier

Votes: 110,838 | Gross: $5.49M

71. El Cid (1961)

Approved | 182 min | Biography, Drama, History

79 Metascore

The fabled Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (a.k.a. El Cid) overcomes a family vendetta and court intrigue to defend Christian Spain against the Moors.

Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, Geneviève Page

Votes: 15,712 | Gross: $26.62M

72. Seven Years in Tibet (1997)

PG-13 | 136 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

55 Metascore

Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian climber, breaks out of prison and travels to the holy city of Lhasa. He is employed as an instructor to the 14th Dalai Lama and soon becomes his close confidante.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, BD Wong, Mako

Votes: 156,044 | Gross: $37.96M

73. Kundun (1997)

PG-13 | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History

74 Metascore

From childhood to adulthood, Tibet's fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, Gyurme Tethong, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin, Tenzin Yeshi Paichang

Votes: 30,513 | Gross: $5.53M

74. The Mission (1986)

PG | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, History

55 Metascore

Eighteenth-century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal.

Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Aidan Quinn

Votes: 65,724 | Gross: $17.22M

75. The Longest Day (1962)

G | 178 min | Action, Drama, History

75 Metascore

The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.

Directors: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, Bernhard Wicki, Darryl F. Zanuck | Stars: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda

Votes: 59,088 | Gross: $39.10M

76. The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Not Rated | 121 min | Drama, War

96 Metascore

In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo | Stars: Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Samia Kerbash

Votes: 65,705 | Gross: $0.06M

77. A Bridge Too Far (1977)

PG | 175 min | Drama, History, War

63 Metascore

Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.

Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier

Votes: 61,586 | Gross: $50.80M

78. Michael the Brave (1971)

203 min | Action, Biography, Drama

At the end of the 16th century Wallachian ruler Prince Michael the Brave overcame the adversity of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires to unite Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania into one country.

Director: Sergiu Nicolaescu | Stars: Amza Pellea, Ion Besoiu, Olga Tudorache, Irina Gardescu

Votes: 6,566

79. Gettysburg (1993)

PG | 271 min | Drama, History, War

In 1863, the Northern and Southern forces fight at Gettysburg in the decisive battle of the American Civil War.

Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Stephen Lang, Richard Jordan

Votes: 31,319 | Gross: $10.77M

80. 1900 (1976)

Unrated | 317 min | Drama, History

70 Metascore

The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth-century Italy as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini

Votes: 27,290

81. Joyeux Noel (2005)

PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, History, Music

70 Metascore

In December 1914, an unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front allows soldiers from opposing sides of the First World War to gain insight into each other's way of life.

Director: Christian Carion | Stars: Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Natalie Dessay

Votes: 32,003 | Gross: $1.05M

82. Gods and Generals (2003)

PG-13 | 219 min | Biography, Drama, History

30 Metascore

The rise and fall of confederate general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, as he meets with military success against the Union from 1861 to 1863, when he is accidentally killed by his own soldiers.

Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: Stephen Lang, Robert Duvall, Jeff Daniels, Donzaleigh Abernathy

Votes: 17,214 | Gross: $12.87M

83. Breaker Morant (1980)

PG | 107 min | Drama, History, War

72 Metascore

Three Australian lieutenants are court martialed for executing prisoners as a way of deflecting attention from war crimes committed by their superior officers.

Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Edward Woodward, Jack Thompson, John Waters, Bryan Brown

Votes: 14,441 | Gross: $7.14M

84. Sunshine (1999)

R | 181 min | Drama, History, Romance

71 Metascore

The fate of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.

Director: István Szabó | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle

Votes: 15,802 | Gross: $5.10M

85. The Beast of War (1988)

R | 111 min | Adventure, Drama, War

A Soviet tank and its warring crew become separated from their patrol and lost in an Afghan valley with a group of vengeance-seeking rebels on their tracks.

Director: Kevin Reynolds | Stars: George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer, Stephen Baldwin

Votes: 10,694 | Gross: $0.16M

86. Notorious (2009)

R | 122 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

60 Metascore

The life and death story of The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace), who came straight out of Brooklyn to take the world of rap music by storm.

Director: George Tillman Jr. | Stars: Jamal Woolard, Anthony Mackie, Derek Luke, Momo Dione

Votes: 46,079 | Gross: $36.84M

87. Amazing Grace (2006)

PG | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History

65 Metascore

The idealist William Wilberforce maneuvers his way through Parliament, endeavoring to end the British transatlantic slave trade.

Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Romola Garai

Votes: 25,700 | Gross: $21.21M

88. Exodus (1960)

Approved | 208 min | Action, Drama, War

70 Metascore

The State of Israel is created in 1948, resulting in war with its Arab neighbors.

Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford

Votes: 11,399 | Gross: $18.97M

89. The Ten Commandments (1956)

G | 220 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

Moses, raised as a prince of Egypt in the Pharaoh's household, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people from slavery.

Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson

Votes: 77,921 | Gross: $93.74M

90. Julius Caesar (1953)

Not Rated | 120 min | Drama, History

The 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.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Louis Calhern, Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud

Votes: 12,894

91. Bound for Glory (1976)

PG | 147 min | Biography, Drama, Music

70 Metascore

The early life of Woody Guthrie as a vagabond folk singer.

Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland

Votes: 5,593

92. George Washington (1984)

480 min | Biography, Drama, History

The early life and career of the American General and President through his participation in the Revolutionary War.

Stars: Barry Bostwick, Patty Duke, David Dukes, Jaclyn Smith

Votes: 526

93. Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

Approved | 100 min | Action, Drama, Romance

75 Metascore

Haunted by personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker is hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker's rigid form of discipline.

Director: Allan Dwan | Stars: John Wayne, John Agar, Adele Mara, Forrest Tucker

Votes: 11,415

94. They Were Expendable (1945)

Approved | 135 min | Drama, War

86 Metascore

A Navy commander fights to prove the battle-worthiness of the PT boat at the start of World War II.

Directors: John Ford, Robert Montgomery | Stars: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed, Jack Holt

Votes: 9,263

95. PT 109 (1963)

Approved | 140 min | Biography, Drama, War

President John F. Kennedy kept a unique inauguration gift on his desk: a plastic-encased coconut. The tale of that coconut is the heroic story of PT 109.

Director: Leslie H. Martinson | Stars: Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, Ty Hardin, James Gregory

Votes: 2,994

96. Sink the Bismarck! (1960)

Approved | 97 min | Action, Drama, History

The World War II story of the Royal Navy's effort to defeat Nazi Germany's most powerful warship.

Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Kenneth More, Dana Wynter, Carl Möhner, Laurence Naismith

Votes: 8,316 | Gross: $6.54M

97. The Man Who Never Was (1956)

Approved | 103 min | Drama, War

In order to fool the Germans into thinking the Allied invasion of Sicily will take place elsewhere, British Military Intelligence comes up with a cunning ruse.

Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin

Votes: 5,786

98. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

100 Metascore

The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.

Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins

Votes: 314,560 | Gross: $44.82M

99. Lenin in October (1937)

Approved | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History

The movie about events of October revolution of 1917 and Lenin's role in the organization of revolt of Bolsheviks.

Directors: Mikhail Romm, Dmitriy Vasilev | Stars: Boris Shchukin, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Vasili Vanin, Nikolai Svobodin

Votes: 413

100. Fall of Eagles (1974)

50 min | Drama, History, War

The collapse of three great European dynasties: the Romanovs, the Habsburgs, and the Hohenzollerns.

Stars: Michael Hordern, Charles Kay, Barry Foster, Gayle Hunnicutt

Votes: 667



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