Top Historical Movies


The Top Historical Movies List is calculated by overall movie ratings and members' "Top Historical List". Lists are calculated daily.

71. Human Condition I, The ( Ningen no joken I )

Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Ineko Arima, Chikage Awashima, Keiji Sada, Sô Yamamura
Plot: In the first part of a trilogy, a man named Kaji, hoping to avoid military service during WWII instead supervises a Manchurain POW camp, which functions as an iron ore mine. He treats the prisoners with respect and, in turn, improves production. But the influx of a large group of prisoners exposes the corrupt system, and when a foreman organizes an escape attempt, it ultimately leads to Kaji being accused of helping the rebels, being labeled a Red and sent to war after all.

72. American Hustle

Year of Release: 2013
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: R
Director: David O. Russell
Actors: Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams, Robert De Niro
Plot: A con artist and his partner are forced into an alliance with a federal agent where they work against people just like them - all in a bid to bring down the corrupt, volatile mayor of Camden, New Jersey.

73. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Year of Release: 2020
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Actors: Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

74. 1900 ( Novecento )

Year of Release: 1977
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Italian
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Actors: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini, Laura Betti, Sterling Hayden
Plot: The lives of two Italian men - one a bastard born to a peasant, the other to a land-owner from 1900 - 1945 - the rise of Fascism and Communism and how the two men are shaped by the social and political times.

75. Thirteen Days

Year of Release: 2001
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Roger Donaldson
Actors: Shawn Driscoll, Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Frank Wood, Steven Culp, Dylan Baker
Plot: The Cuban Missile Crisis is chronicled here, as the film's title references to the 13 days in October of 1962 when the world was brought to the brink of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

76. Flowers of War, The ( Jin líng shí san chai )

Year of Release: 2011
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Mandarin
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Yimou Zhang
Actors: Christian Bale, Paul Schneider, Shigeo Kobayashi, Atsurô Watabe, Xinyi Zhang, Bai Xue
Plot: Based on the novel The 13 Women of Nanjing, from Chinese author Yan Gelin, it tells the story of the massacre of Nanjing, when thousands of women were raped and killed by the Japanese troops during and invasion in 1937. Christian Bale plays a priest who helps a group of prostitutes and students in a church during the invasion.

77. Human Condition II: Road to Eternity, The ( Ningen no joken II )

Year of Release: 1961
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Minoru Chiaki, Keiji Sada, Izumi Hara, Ryohei Uchida
Plot: Continuing the story of Kaji - the soldier finds himself in a unit where the veterans berate him and mistreatment leads one man to suicide and another to defect. With cruelty the order of the day, it ends at the front where his unit is pitted against a Russian tank division - with no hope of winning.

78. Viva Zapata!

Year of Release: 1952
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Historical/Western
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Elia Kazan
Actors: Marlon Brando, Jean Peters, Anthony Quinn, Joseph Wiseman, Arnold Moss, Alan Reed

79. Intolerance

Year of Release: 1916
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: D.W. Griffith
Actors: Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Sam De Grasse, Vera Lewis, F.A. Turner
Plot: A young, poor woman must live her live with intolerance as she is separated from her family due to prejudice.

80. Leopard, The ( gattopardo, Il )

Year of Release: 1963
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: Italian
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Luchino Visconti
Actors: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Romolo Valli
Plot: Follows the ebb and flow of aristocracy in 1860s Sicily.

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