Top Historical Movies


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

61. The Reader

Year of Release: 2008
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Stephen Daldry
Actors: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz
Plot: A teenager in post WWII Germany is nursed back to health by Hanna, a woman twice his age. He discovers she like to be read to, and as their bond and passion deepen, they begin an affair until she suddenly disappears. Years later as a law student at the Nazi criminal trials, Hanna comes back into his life, as a defendant at the proceedings.

62. The Beast, The aka Beast of War

Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Actors: George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer, Stephen Baldwin
Plot: During the war in Afghanistan a Soviet tank crew commanded by a tyrannical officer find themselves lost and in a struggle against a band of Mujahadeen guerrillas in the mountains. A unique look at the Soviet 'Vietnam' experience sympathetically told for both sides.

63. Night and Fog ( Nuit et brouillard )

Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Alain Resnais
Actors: Michel Bouquet, Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Julius Streicher
Plot: Alain Resnais presents a chilling history lesson - the horrors of Nazi Concentration Camps. With color footage and vintage news reel, and allies' footage as well - it's not just about the camps, but a reminder of how inhumane humanity can be.

64. Woodstock

Year of Release: 1970
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Michael Wadleigh
Actors: Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Arlo Guthrie, Jimi Hendrix
Plot: Filmmakers document the1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, NY featuring musical performances and a candid look at some of the 500,000 concertgoers, the organizers and townspeople who were all a part of the historic event.

65. Why We Fight

Year of Release: 2006
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Eugene Jarecki
Actors: Dan Rather, Gore Vidal, Richard Perle, John McCain
Plot: A documentary detailing the rise of the military-industrial complex.

66. The Young Victoria

Year of Release: 2009
Overall Rating: 2.8 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Actors: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson
Plot: The film follows on the life of the young Queen Victoria, focusing on her early reign and romance with Prince Albert in the 1830s.

67. How to Survive a Plague

Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: David France
Actors: Peter Staley, Mark Harrington, David Barr, Larry Kramer
Plot: As the AIDS epidemic reached a fever point, two coalitions -ACT UP and TAG combined activism and innovation to turn something to fear into something to control.

68. The Tuskegee Airmen

Year of Release: 1995
Overall Rating: 2.8 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Robert Markowitz
Actors: Laurence Fishburne, Allen Payne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney B. Vance
Plot: HBO film about the WWII African American fighter pilot group the "Tuskegee Airman" who overcame the harassment and prejudice of the time to prove themselves in combat and shatter racial barriers in the process.

69. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

Year of Release: 2006
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Stanley Nelson
Actors: Rebecca Moore, Janet Shular, Tim Carter, Stanley Clayton

70. American Hustle

Year of Release: 2013
Overall Rating: 3.0 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
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.

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