Historical films

by andreasmperu | created - 13 Jun 2021 | updated - 9 months ago | Public

Films set in historical times

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1. 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: 375,184 | Gross: $5.51M

2. Harakiri (1962)

Not Rated | 133 min | Action, Drama, Mystery

85 Metascore

When a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity.

Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsurô Tanba

Votes: 68,639

3. Braveheart (1995)

R | 178 min | Biography, Drama, War

68 Metascore

Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.

Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen

Votes: 1,091,264 | Gross: $75.60M

4. Amadeus (1984)

R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music

87 Metascore

The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.

Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice

Votes: 428,001 | Gross: $51.97M

5. Lion of the Desert (1980)

PG | 173 min | Biography, Drama, History

In 1929, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini appoints General Rodolfo Graziani as colonial governor to Italian Libya with orders to stamp-out all resistance from Libyan nationalists led by rebel guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar.

Director: Moustapha Akkad | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger, Irene Papas

Votes: 17,372 | Gross: $3.27M

6. The Great Escape (1963)

Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller

86 Metascore

Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.

Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson

Votes: 258,880 | Gross: $12.10M

7. The Message (1976)

PG | 177 min | Biography, Drama, History

This epic historical drama chronicles the life and times of Prophet Muhammad and serves as an introduction to early Islamic history.

Director: Moustapha Akkad | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara, Johnny Sekka

Votes: 50,833

8. 12 Years a Slave (2013)

R | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History

96 Metascore

In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt

Votes: 741,222 | Gross: $56.67M

9. Gone with the Wind (1939)

Passed | 238 min | Drama, Romance, War

97 Metascore

A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil

Votes: 334,248 | Gross: $198.68M

10. Barry Lyndon (1975)

PG | 185 min | Adventure, Drama, War

89 Metascore

An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger

Votes: 183,046

11. Ben-Hur (1959)

G | 212 min | Adventure, Drama

90 Metascore

After a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.

Director: William Wyler | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet

Votes: 253,635 | Gross: $74.70M

12. Hotel Rwanda (2004)

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

79 Metascore

Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa.

Director: Terry George | Stars: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Xolani Mali

Votes: 372,231 | Gross: $23.53M

13. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Passed | 129 min | Drama

96 Metascore

An Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.

Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin

Votes: 99,938 | Gross: $0.06M

14. 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: 169,896 | Gross: $70.41M

15. 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: 126,035 | Gross: $70.60M

16. 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: 143,175 | Gross: $30.00M

17. The Leopard (1963)

PG | 186 min | Drama, History

100 Metascore

The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.

Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa

Votes: 28,814

18. Hero (2002)

PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

85 Metascore

A defense officer, Nameless, was summoned by the King of Qin regarding his success of terminating three warriors.

Director: Yimou Zhang | Stars: Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang

Votes: 187,633 | Gross: $53.71M

19. The Lion in Winter (1968)

PG | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History

1183 A.D.: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. When he allows his imprisoned wife Eleanor of Aquitaine out for a Christmas visit, they all variously plot to force him into a decision.

Director: Anthony Harvey | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle

Votes: 34,209 | Gross: $22.28M

20. In Cold Blood (1967)

R | 134 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

89 Metascore

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: 29,142

21. Hidden Figures (2016)

PG | 127 min | Biography, Drama, History

74 Metascore

The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.

Director: Theodore Melfi | Stars: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner

Votes: 255,240 | Gross: $169.61M

22. Glory (1989)

R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History

78 Metascore

Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.

Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman

Votes: 144,417 | Gross: $26.83M

23. Mississippi Burning (1988)

R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

65 Metascore

Two F.B.I. Agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.

Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif

Votes: 110,991 | Gross: $34.60M

24. The White Ribbon (2009)

R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

84 Metascore

Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?

Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur

Votes: 77,642 | Gross: $2.22M

25. Black Hawk Down (2001)

R | 144 min | Action, Drama, History

74 Metascore

The story of 160 elite U.S. soldiers who dropped into Mogadishu in October 1993 to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord, but found themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily armed Somalis.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana

Votes: 423,547 | Gross: $108.64M

26. Malcolm X (1992)

PG-13 | 202 min | Biography, Drama, History

73 Metascore

Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.

Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee

Votes: 102,013 | Gross: $48.17M

27. 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: 134,298 | Gross: $22.24M

28. The Last Emperor (1987)

PG-13 | 163 min | Biography, Drama, History

76 Metascore

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

29. 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: 27,281

30. A Man for All Seasons (1966)

G | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History

72 Metascore

The story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarry.

Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Leo McKern

Votes: 37,153 | Gross: $28.35M

31. 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: 112,463 | Gross: $18.59M

32. Missing (1982)

PG | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History

78 Metascore

When an idealistic American writer disappears during the Chilean coup d'état in September 1973, his wife and father try to find him.

Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea

Votes: 23,360 | Gross: $14.00M

33. The Confession (1970)

GP | 139 min | Drama, Thriller

A high-ranking official is forced to confess to high treason.

Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Gabriele Ferzetti, Michel Vitold

Votes: 4,812 | Gross: $0.33M

34. Apollo 13 (I) (1995)

PG | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, History

78 Metascore

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

35. Bridge of Spies (2015)

PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, History, Thriller

81 Metascore

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan

Votes: 327,723 | Gross: $72.31M

36. Z (1969)

M/PG | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

86 Metascore

The public murder of a prominent politician and doctor amid a violent demonstration is covered up by military and government officials. A tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get away with it.

Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, François Périer

Votes: 31,344 | Gross: $0.08M

37. 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: 25,755 | Gross: $0.77M

38. The Favourite (2018)

R | 119 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama

91 Metascore

In early 18th-century England, the status quo at the court is upset when a new servant arrives and endears herself to a frail Queen Anne.

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos | Stars: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult

Votes: 233,411 | Gross: $34.37M

39. 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: 238,264 | Gross: $47.40M

40. Lincoln (2012)

PG-13 | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History

87 Metascore

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

41. The Post (2017)

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

83 Metascore

A cover-up spanning four U.S. Presidents pushes the country's first female newspaper publisher and her editor to join an unprecedented battle between press and government.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk

Votes: 162,249 | Gross: $81.90M

42. Muhammad: The Messenger of God (2015)

162 min | Biography, Drama, History

The events, trials and tribulations of the city of Makkah in 7th century AD.

Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Mahdi Pakdel, Sareh Bayat, Mina Sadati, Ali Reza Shoja'noori

Votes: 12,043

43. Elizabeth (1998)

R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, History

75 Metascore

The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.

Director: Shekhar Kapur | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson, Paul Fox

Votes: 105,108 | Gross: $30.08M

44. Red Cliff (2008)

R | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

73 Metascore

The first chapter of a two-part story centered on a battle fought in China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.).

Director: John Woo | Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang, Chang Chen

Votes: 48,492 | Gross: $0.63M

45. Red Cliff II (2009)

142 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Second and final part of epic tale about a legendary battle that changed the course of China history.

Director: John Woo | Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang, Chang Chen

Votes: 25,354 | Gross: $0.63M

46. 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: 12,462

47. 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: 12,875

48. On the Waterfront (1954)

Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

91 Metascore

An ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.

Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger

Votes: 164,868 | Gross: $9.60M

49. Invictus (2009)

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

74 Metascore

Nelson Mandela, in his first term as President of South Africa, initiates a unique venture to unite the Apartheid-torn land: enlist the national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng

Votes: 167,877 | Gross: $37.49M

50. Changeling (2008)

R | 141 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

63 Metascore

After Christine's son goes missing, she reaches out to the LAPD to find him. But when they try to pass off an impostor as her son to quieten public protests, she refuses to accept him or give up hope.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Angelina Jolie, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, Gattlin Griffith

Votes: 265,257 | Gross: $35.74M

51. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Passed | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Western

98 Metascore

Two down-on-their-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett

Votes: 132,411 | Gross: $5.01M

52. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War

88 Metascore

British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.

Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa

Votes: 233,272 | Gross: $44.91M

53. Amistad (1997)

R | 155 min | Biography, Drama, History

64 Metascore

In 1839, the revolt of Mende captives aboard a Spanish owned ship causes a major controversy in the United States when the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island. The courts must decide whether the Mende are slaves or legally free.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman

Votes: 82,774 | Gross: $44.18M

54. Thirteen Days (2000)

PG-13 | 145 min | Drama, History, Thriller

67 Metascore

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

55. The Patriot (2000)

R | 165 min | Action, Drama, History

63 Metascore

Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murders his son.

Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs

Votes: 293,466 | Gross: $113.33M

56. Silence (I) (2016)

R | 161 min | Drama, History

79 Metascore

In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano

Votes: 122,969 | Gross: $7.10M

57. A Passage to India (1984)

PG | 164 min | Adventure, Drama, History

78 Metascore

Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.

Director: David Lean | Stars: Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox

Votes: 20,853 | Gross: $27.19M

58. Agora (2009)

R | 127 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

55 Metascore

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

59. The Physician (2013)

R | 155 min | Adventure, Drama, History

In 11th-century Persia, a surgeon's apprentice disguises himself as a Jew to study at a school that does not admit Christians.

Director: Philipp Stölzl | Stars: Tom Payne, Stellan Skarsgård, Olivier Martinez, Emma Rigby

Votes: 41,939

60. The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

R | 126 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

75 Metascore

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, popularly known as Che, along with his friend Alberto Granado, decides to take a road trip across South America. His experiences on the journey transform him.

Director: Walter Salles | Stars: Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mía Maestro, Mercedes Morán

Votes: 104,773 | Gross: $16.78M

61. No (I) (2012)

R | 118 min | Drama, History

81 Metascore

An advertising executive comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum.

Director: Pablo Larraín | Stars: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Luis Gnecco

Votes: 26,219 | Gross: $2.34M

62. The Official Story (1985)

Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, History

During the final months of Argentinian Military Dictatorship in 1983, a high school teacher sets out to find out who the mother of her adopted daughter is.

Director: Luis Puenzo | Stars: Norma Aleandro, Héctor Alterio, Chunchuna Villafañe, Hugo Arana

Votes: 10,859 | Gross: $0.03M

63. 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: 124,888 | Gross: $66.66M

64. Cleopatra (1963)

G | 192 min | Biography, Drama, History

60 Metascore

Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt experiences both triumph and tragedy as she attempts to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.

Directors: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Pamela Brown

Votes: 37,401 | Gross: $57.78M

65. 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: 15,677 | Gross: $26.62M

66. Quo Vadis (1951)

Not Rated | 171 min | Biography, Drama, Romance

65 Metascore

After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.

Directors: Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann | Stars: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn, Peter Ustinov

Votes: 16,739 | Gross: $24.29M

67. King of Kings (1961)

PG-13 | 168 min | Biography, Drama

The temporary physical life of the Biblical Savior, Jesus Christ.

Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhan McKenna, Hurd Hatfield, Ron Randell

Votes: 9,023 | Gross: $14.48M

68. The Night of the Pencils (1986)

105 min | Crime, Drama, History

This films tells the true story of seven teenagers who agitated for reduced student bus fares under two different regimes in Argentina, with tragic results. At first succeeding under the ... See full summary »

Director: Héctor Olivera | Stars: Alejo García Pintos, Vita Escardó, Pablo Novak, Leonardo Sbaraglia

Votes: 2,278

69. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Passed | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History

98 Metascore

In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz

Votes: 60,658 | Gross: $0.02M

70. Sugar Cane Alley (1983)

PG | 103 min | Drama, History

Set in 1931, Sugar Cane Alley paints a rich impasto of native life under French colonial rules, filtered through the coming-of-age of a bright, sweetly opportunistic boy.

Director: Euzhan Palcy | Stars: Garry Cadenat, Darling Légitimus, Douta Seck, Joby Bernabé

Votes: 1,021

71. Danton (1983)

PG | 136 min | Biography, Drama, History

In 1793, as the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people, returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party.

Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Wojciech Pszoniak, Anne Alvaro, Roland Blanche

Votes: 7,774

72. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

Not Rated | 110 min | Biography, Drama, History

A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.

Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Willy Semmelrogge

Votes: 18,898

73. The Devils (1971)

R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, History

49 Metascore

In 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier's protection of the city of Loudun from the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu is undermined by a sexually repressed nun's accusation of witchcraft.

Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Reed, Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian

Votes: 18,664 | Gross: $1.13M

74. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

Approved | 179 min | Drama, War

60 Metascore

In 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.

Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich

Votes: 85,485

75. 84 Charing Cross Road (1987)

PG | 100 min | Biography, Drama, Romance

True story of a transatlantic business correspondence about used books that developed into a close friendship.

Director: David Hugh Jones | Stars: Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Jean De Baer

Votes: 11,224 | Gross: $1.08M

76. The Unknown Soldier (2017)

132 min | Drama, War

A film adaptation of Väinö Linna's best selling novel The Unknown Soldier (1954) and the novel's unedited manuscript version, Sotaromaani.

Director: Aku Louhimies | Stars: Eero Aho, Johannes Holopainen, Jussi Vatanen, Aku Hirviniemi

Votes: 12,909

77. Full Metal Jacket (1987)

R | 116 min | Drama, War

78 Metascore

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin

Votes: 790,325 | Gross: $46.36M

78. The Lives of Others (2006)

R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

89 Metascore

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

79. Two Lives (2012)

Unrated | 97 min | Drama, Thriller

62 Metascore

As the Berlin Wall crumbles, Katrine, the daughter of a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier, finds her idyllic life disrupted as she refuses to testify a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of her fellow "war children."

Directors: Georg Maas, Judith Kaufmann | Stars: Juliane Köhler, Liv Ullmann, Sven Nordin, Ken Duken

Votes: 3,257 | Gross: $0.00M

80. Labyrinth of Lies (2014)

R | 124 min | Drama, History

62 Metascore

A story that exposes the conspiracy of prominent German institutions and government branches to cover up the crimes of Nazis during World War II.

Director: Giulio Ricciarelli | Stars: André Szymanski, Alexander Fehling, Friederike Becht, Johannes Krisch

Votes: 13,996 | Gross: $0.79M

81. The People Vs. Fritz Bauer (2015)

R | 105 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller

61 Metascore

The story of the man who brought high-ranking German Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann to justice.

Director: Lars Kraume | Stars: Burghart Klaußner, Ronald Zehrfeld, Lilith Stangenberg, Jörg Schüttauf

Votes: 6,118 | Gross: $0.28M

82. Never Look Away (2018)

R | 189 min | Biography, Drama, Romance

68 Metascore

German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl

Votes: 25,342 | Gross: $1.30M

83. Frantz (2016)

PG-13 | 113 min | Drama, History, Romance

73 Metascore

In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious Frenchman who visits the fiancé's grave to lay flowers.

Director: François Ozon | Stars: Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber

Votes: 17,445 | Gross: $0.88M

84. The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

R | 150 min | Action, Biography, Crime

76 Metascore

A look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.

Director: Uli Edel | Stars: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Bruno Ganz

Votes: 40,118 | Gross: $0.48M

85. Persepolis (2007)

PG-13 | 96 min | Animation, Biography, Drama

90 Metascore

A precocious and outspoken Iranian girl grows up during the Islamic Revolution.

Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi | Stars: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Gena Rowlands, Danielle Darrieux

Votes: 100,166 | Gross: $4.45M

86. East/West (1999)

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

61 Metascore

In June 1946, Stalin invites the Russian exiled from the 1917 Revolution to return home. When the ships comes ashore in Odessa, the passengers are divided in two groups and one of them is ... See full summary »

Director: Régis Wargnier | Stars: Oleg Menshikov, Sandrine Bonnaire, Catherine Deneuve, Sergey Bodrov

Votes: 5,142 | Gross: $2.78M

87. The Exam (2011)

R | 89 min | Drama, History, Thriller

1957, Budapest. A young defense officer's loyalty is tested by his mentor in a highly deceptive spy game.

Director: Péter Bergendy | Stars: János Kulka, Zsolt Nagy, Péter Scherer, Gabriella Hámori

Votes: 2,330

88. Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998)

Not Rated | 147 min | Comedy, Drama

Late winter 1953. The lives of nearly half the planet are in Stalin's hands.

Director: Aleksey German | Stars: Yuriy Tsurilo, Nina Ruslanova, Jüri Järvet Jr., Mikhail Dementev

Votes: 2,263

89. Le souper (1992)

90 min | Drama, History

France, 1815. After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon heads for exile. Royalists occupy Paris and attempt to restore the monarchy. However, the battle doesn't seem to be over. On July 6, ... See full summary »

Director: Édouard Molinaro | Stars: Michel Piccoli, Claude Brasseur, Claude Rich, Ticky Holgado

Votes: 639

90. The Death of Stalin (2017)

R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, History

88 Metascore

Moscow, 1953. After being in power for nearly 30 years, Soviet dictator, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, takes ill and quickly dies. Now the members of the Council of Ministers scramble for power.

Director: Armando Iannucci | Stars: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor, Andrea Riseborough

Votes: 113,418 | Gross: $8.05M

91. Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

GP | 183 min | Biography, Drama, History

57 Metascore

Tsar Nicholas II, the inept last monarch of Russia, insensitive to the needs of his people, is overthrown and exiled to Siberia with his family.

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman, Roderic Noble, Ania Marson

Votes: 5,563 | Gross: $3.96M

92. Romero (1989)

PG-13 | 102 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

The life and work of Archbishop Oscar Romero who opposed, at great personal risk, the tyrannical repression in El Salvador.

Director: John Duigan | Stars: Raul Julia, Richard Jordan, Ana Alicia, Eddie Velez

Votes: 2,448 | Gross: $1.32M

93. Chronicle of an Escape (2006)

R | 103 min | Crime, Thriller

The goalkeeper of a little-known soccer team is kidnapped by a Argentinean government squad and sent to a detention center. After months of torture, he plots his escape with three other young men.

Director: Israel Adrián Caetano | Stars: Rodrigo de la Serna, Pablo Echarri, Nazareno Casero, Lautaro Delgado

Votes: 3,704 | Gross: $0.00M

94. Garage Olimpo (1999)

R | 98 min | Drama

In the 70's, eighteen year-old Maria Fabiani lives with her French mother Diane in an old house in Buenos Aires, subletting rooms and giving classes to illiterate adults in the slums. One ... See full summary »

Director: Marco Bechis | Stars: Antonella Costa, Carlos Echevarría, Enrique Piñeyro, Pablo Razuk

Votes: 2,870

95. Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Not Rated | 66 min | Drama, History, Thriller

97 Metascore

In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.

Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov

Votes: 61,437 | Gross: $0.05M

96. October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1927)

95 min | Drama, History

A large-scale view on the events of 1917 in Russia, when the monarchy was overthrown.

Directors: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Boris Livanov, Nikolay Popov, Vasili Nikandrov, Layaschenko

Votes: 8,447

97. 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: 10,865

98. Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot (1958)

Not Rated | 88 min | Biography, Drama, History

As Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate their Tsar.

Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Nikolay Cherkasov, Serafima Birman, Pavel Kadochnikov, Mikhail Zharov

Votes: 8,054

99. Ivan the Terrible, Part III (1988)

4 min | Short, Biography, Drama

Eisenstein began work on this third Ivan the Terrible film in 1946, but production was halted when the decision was made not to release the second. More than 20 minutes was filmed, but only a fragment lasting less than 5 minutes exists.

Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Nikolay Cherkasov, Mikhail Romm, Oleg Zhakov

Votes: 398

100. The Danish Girl (2015)

R | 119 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

66 Metascore

A fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda's marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili's groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

Director: Tom Hooper | Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Ben Whishaw

Votes: 199,246 | Gross: $11.11M



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