Historical / Costume Dramas I've Watched
by froynlaventje | created - 07 Nov 2018 | updated - 30 Mar 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Amistad (1997)
R | 155 min | Biography, Drama, History
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: 82,817 | Gross: $44.18M
2. Defiance (I) (2008)
R | 137 min | Action, Drama, History
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: 155,700 | Gross: $28.64M
3. The Duchess (2008)
PG-13 | 110 min | Biography, Drama, History
A chronicle of the life of 18th-century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was revered for her extravagant political and personal life.
Director: Saul Dibb | Stars: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, Charlotte Rampling
Votes: 87,298 | Gross: $13.82M
4. Coco Before Chanel (2009)
PG-13 | 105 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Coco Chanel's rise from obscure beginnings to the heights of the fashion world.
Director: Anne Fontaine | Stars: Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain
Votes: 42,113 | Gross: $6.11M
5. Braveheart (1995)
R | 178 min | Biography, Drama, War
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: 1,091,626 | Gross: $75.60M
6. Effi Briest (1974)
Not Rated | 135 min | Drama, History
In the nineteenth century, seventeen year old Effi Briest is married to the older Baron von Instetten and moves into a house, that she believes has a ghost, in a small isolated Baltic town.... See full summary »
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Wolfgang Schenck, Ulli Lommel, Karlheinz Böhm
Votes: 2,700
7. Elizabeth (1998)
R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, History
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: 105,146 | Gross: $30.08M
8. Elizabeth I (2005)
TV-MA | 112 min | Biography, Drama, History
Mini-series about the the public and private lives of the later years of Queen Elizabeth I.
Stars: Helen Mirren, Toby Jones, Hugh Dancy, Patrick Malahide
Votes: 7,032
9. Joan of Arc (1999)
TV-PG | 90 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Spurred by divine voices and visions, fifteenth century teen Joan d'Arc leads French forces against the English.
Stars: Leelee Sobieski, Chad Willett, Peter O'Toole, Neil Patrick Harris
Votes: 6,336
10. Hero (2002)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
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: 187,680 | Gross: $53.71M
11. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
PG-13 | 121 min | Biography, Drama, History
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: 372,326 | Gross: $23.53M
12. The Last King of Scotland (2006)
R | 123 min | Biography, Drama, History
Based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s.
Director: Kevin Macdonald | Stars: James McAvoy, Forest Whitaker, Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington
Votes: 196,062 | Gross: $17.61M
13. 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: 708,073 | Gross: $138.80M
14. Nova Zembla (2011)
108 min | Drama, History
A Dutch exploration team sets sail to find the North East passage to the Indies. The weather had other ideas for them.
Director: Reinout Oerlemans | Stars: Robert de Hoog, Victor Reinier, Jan Decleir, Juda Goslinga
Votes: 4,623
15. Mary Bryant (2005–2007)
R | 62 min | Adventure, Drama
A young woman is transported to the New South Wales penal colony in 1788.
Stars: Romola Garai, Jack Davenport, Alex O'Loughlin, Sam Neill
Votes: 2,579
16. A Room with a View (1985)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Romance
Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands
Votes: 47,884 | Gross: $20.97M
17. The Patriot (2000)
R | 165 min | Action, Drama, History
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: 293,565 | Gross: $113.33M
18. De storm (2009)
96 min | Action, Drama, History
During the devastating North Sea flood of 1953, a young woman and a naval officer search for her lost infant son.
Director: Ben Sombogaart | Stars: Sylvia Hoeks, Barry Atsma, Dirk Roofthooft, Monic Hendrickx
Votes: 3,180
19. Sonny Boy (2011)
130 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A Dutch woman and a young man 17 years her junior from Suriname, struggle to make their relationship work in spite of the social and economic obstacles they face.
Director: Maria Peters | Stars: Ricky Koole, Sergio Hasselbaink, Angelo Arnhem, Eliyha Altena
Votes: 3,420
20. Schindler's List (1993)
R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 1,451,267 | Gross: $96.90M
21. True Women (1997)
PG-13 | 85 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
Covering nearly fifty years of mid-19th-century turmoil, from the tumultuous Texas Revolution to the early women's suffrage movement, "True Women" is a gripping tale of endurance, love, and above all, gritty female determination.
Stars: Dana Delany, Annabeth Gish, Angelina Jolie, Michael York
Votes: 2,508
22. Vanity Fair (2004)
PG-13 | 141 min | Drama
Growing up poor in London, Becky Sharp defies her poverty-stricken background and ascends the social ladder alongside her best friend, Amelia Sedley.
Director: Mira Nair | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Romola Garai, James Purefoy, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Votes: 23,506 | Gross: $16.14M
23. Alias Grace (2017)
TV-MA | 45 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Grace, an Irish immigrant in 19th-century Canada, is convicted of the murder of her employer. However, things take a different turn when a psychiatrist arrives to analyze her mental state.
Stars: Sarah Gadon, Edward Holcroft, Rebecca Liddiard, Zachary Levi
Votes: 37,838
24. The Favourite (2018)
R | 119 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
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: 233,648 | Gross: $34.37M
25. Anna Karenina (I) (2012)
R | 129 min | Drama, Romance
In late-19th-century Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Alexei Vronsky.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen
Votes: 106,564 | Gross: $12.82M
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