Great historical movies and tv series
Great historical movies and tv-series (the list isn't finished). Movies that are both good movies and do at least to some extend leave the watcher with a better understanding of history when they leave the theatre/screen than when they sat down. Despite the many historical mistakes most films and tv-series have.
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- CreatorMichael HirstStarsKatheryn WinnickGustaf SkarsgårdAlexander LudwigVikings transports us to the brutal and mysterious world of Ragnar Lothbrok, a Viking warrior and farmer who yearns to explore--and raid--the distant shores across the ocean.
- DirectorPeter FlinthStarsJoakim NätterqvistSofia HelinStellan SkarsgårdArn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman, is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Land as a knight templar to do penance for a forbidden love.
- StarsJoakim NätterqvistSofia HelinStellan SkarsgårdArn must endure a great ordeal before he can get the love of his life Cecile, who has been confined to a monastery.
- DirectorPeter FlinthStarsJoakim NätterqvistSofia HelinStellan SkarsgårdThe Knight Arn is sent on a last mission against Saladin. He has to win this battle, before he can go home to Sweden, and finally marry his Cecilia and start a family. But the peace back home is threatened by the Danes.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsOrlando BloomEva GreenLiam NeesonBalian of Ibelin travels to Jerusalem during the Crusades of the 12th century, and there he finds himself as the defender of the city and its people.
- DirectorKevin ReynoldsStarsKevin CostnerMorgan FreemanMary Elizabeth MastrantonioRobin Hood decides to fight back as an outlaw when faced with the tyranny of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
- DirectorJean-Jacques AnnaudStarsSean ConneryChristian SlaterHelmut QualtingerAn intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.
- DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsKevin CostnerSean ConneryRobert De NiroDuring Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.
- DirectorRoland EmmerichStarsMel GibsonHeath LedgerJoely RichardsonPeaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murders his son.
- DirectorJean-Jacques AnnaudStarsJude LawEd HarrisJoseph FiennesA Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanMichael CrichtonStarsAntonio BanderasDiane VenoraDennis StorhøiA man, having fallen in love with the wrong woman, is sent by the sultan himself on a diplomatic mission to a distant land as an ambassador. Stopping at a Viking village port to restock on supplies, he finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a quest to banish a mysterious threat in a distant Viking land.
- DirectorStanley KubrickAnthony MannStarsKirk DouglasLaurence OlivierJean SimmonsThe 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.
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsMilla JovovichJohn MalkovichRab AffleckA young girl receives a vision that drives her to rid France of its oppressors.
- DirectorMichael Caton-JonesStarsLiam NeesonJessica LangeJohn HurtIn 1713 Scotland, Rob Roy MacGregor is wronged by a nobleman and his nephew, becomes an outlaw in search of revenge while fleeing the Redcoats, and faces charges of being a Jacobite.
- DirectorDouglas HickoxStarsBurt LancasterPeter O'TooleSimon WardA dramatization of the Battle of Isandlwana, where the British Army met its match against the Zulu nation.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsDjimon HounsouMatthew McConaugheyAnthony HopkinsIn 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.
- DirectorMel GibsonStarsMel GibsonSophie MarceauPatrick McGoohanScottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom HanksMatt DamonTom SizemoreFollowing the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsRussell CroweJoaquin PhoenixConnie NielsenA former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsIan HartRosana PastorIcíar BollaínDavid is an unemployed communist that comes to Spain in 1937 during the civil war to enroll the republicans and defend the democracy against the fascists. He makes friends between the soldiers.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsCillian MurphyPádraic DelaneyLiam CunninghamAgainst the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.
- DirectorNeil JordanStarsLiam NeesonAidan QuinnJulia RobertsNeil Jordan's historical biopic of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, the man who led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War.
- DirectorPaul GreengrassStarsJames NesbittTim Pigott-SmithNicholas FarrellA dramatization of the Irish civil rights protest march and subsequent massacre by British troops on January 30, 1972.
- DirectorBrian G. HuttonStarsRichard BurtonClint EastwoodMary UreAllied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMatthew ModineR. Lee ErmeyVincent D'OnofrioA 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.
- DirectorEdward ZwickStarsMatthew BroderickDenzel WashingtonCary ElwesRobert 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.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDenzel WashingtonAngela BassettDelroy LindoBiographical 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.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
- StarsJames Badge DaleJoseph MazzelloJon SedaThe Pacific Theatre of World War II, as seen through the eyes of several young Marines.
- StarsPaul GiamattiLaura LinneyJohn DossettThe life of one of the USA's Founding Fathers, its second President, and his role in the nation's first 50 years.
- DirectorCarlos SauraStarsCarmen MauraAndrés PajaresGabino DiegoDuring the Spanish Civil War, a group of comics lightens the days of the Republican troops. Tired of life in the front lines, they make their way to Valencia, accidentally entering enemy land and falling prisoner.
- StarsNis Bank-MikkelsenFrits HelmuthJens Jørn SpottagStory of the development of the Carlsberg brewery.
- StarsRose ByrneDavid TennantPeter O'TooleAfter a life spent seeking pleasure and decadence, Casanova seeks his one true love, Henriette.
- StarsBen ChaplinCharlotte RileyNora WaldstättenThe English town of Kingsbridge works to survive as the King leads the nation into the Hundred Years' War with France while Europe deals with the outbreak of the Black Death.
- StarsIan McShaneMatthew MacfadyenEddie RedmayneSet against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles which tears lives and families apart.
- StarsChristian ClavierIsabella RosselliniGérard DepardieuA masterful soldier, tactician, and statesmen, Napoleon Bonaparte, with courage and love for his country, rises from an unpaid general consumed with ambition to the most powerful man in Europe. But his life ends with a fall and exile.
- StarsJørgen BuckhøjBuster LarsenGhita NørbyA man comes to Korsbæk, Denmark, in 1929, opens a women's clothing store in competition with an established one - bringing him up against the conservative establishment including the bank manager. We follow the families until after WWII.
- CreatorGeorge LucasStarsSean Patrick FlaneryGeorge HallCorey CarrierThe adventures of the archaeological treasure hunter in his youth as related by an elderly Indiana Jones.
- StarsAnne Louise HassingAnders W. BerthelsenMaibritt SaerensStarting in 1949, the series follows four young Danes through 25 years of history and personal developments in a story about finding yourself in a world of changes.
- CreatorMichael HirstStarsJonathan Rhys MeyersHenry CavillAnthony BrophyEpic series reveals the scandalous life of a young king whose affairs and obsession with producing a male heir changed marriage, the church, and the world.
- CreatorBeth SullivanStarsJane SeymourJoe LandoShawn TooveyThe trials and adventures of a female doctor in a small Wild West town.
- CreatorTom FontanaStarsMark RyderIsolda DychaukDiarmuid NoyesStory of the rise and the fall of the Renaissance dynasty.
- DirectorJoachim RønningEspen SandbergStarsLorenzo RichelmyBenedict WongJoan ChenMarco learns more about the culture that surrounds him and things of trade like linen, spices etc while also learning more on Asian combat which he puts to good use.
- DirectorDaniel DencikStarsJakob OftebroDanica CurcicJohn AggreyIn 1836 the Danish romantic visionary Wulff travels to Africa to create plantations on the Gold Coast, but his best intentions and belief is soon confronted with a harsh reality dominated by slave trade and unbelievable brutality.
- DirectorMick JacksonStarsRachel WeiszTom WilkinsonTimothy SpallAcclaimed writer and historian Deborah E. Lipstadt must battle for historical truth to prove the Holocaust actually occurred when David Irving, a renowned denier, sues her for libel.
- DirectorMartin ZandvlietStarsRoland MøllerLouis HofmannJoel BasmanIn post-World War II Denmark, a group of young German POWs are forced to clear a beach of thousands of land mines under the watch of a Danish Sergeant who slowly learns to appreciate their plight.
- CreatorNicholas MeyerFrank SpotnitzStarsDaniel SharmanAlessandra MastronardiSynnove KarlsenA political family drama set in Florence in the early fifteenth century. Cosimo de Medici finds himself at the helm of his banking dynasty when his father, Giovanni, dies suddenly.
- DirectorAaron SorkinStarsEddie RedmayneAlex SharpSacha Baron CohenThe story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
- DirectorAndrew GrieveStarsIoan GruffuddRobert LindsayDorian HealyHoratio Hornblower begins his naval career, but a deadly feud with a despicable mate is causing complications.
- DirectorMichael CrichtonStarsSean ConneryDonald SutherlandLesley-Anne DownEngland, 1850s. A master criminal aims to rob a train of a large sum of gold. Security is incredibly tight and the task seems an impossible one. However, he has a plan and just the right people to carry it out.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKirk DouglasRalph MeekerAdolphe MenjouAfter a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.