BEST MOVIES OF HISTORY!
BEST MOVIES OF HISTORY!
BEST MOVIES OF HISTORY!
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1.
Saving Private Ryan
(1998)
Following the Normandy Landings, a group
of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose
brothers have been killed in action. (169 mins.)
Director: Steven Spielberg
2.
Gladiator
(2000)
When a Roman general is betrayed and his
family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a
gladiator to seek revenge. (155 mins.)
Director: Ridley Scott
3.
Braveheart
(1995)
When his secret bride is executed for
assaulting an English soldier whom tried to rape her, a commoner begins a
revolt and leads Scottish warriors against the cruel English tyrant who
rules Scotland with an iron-fist. (177 mins.)
Director: Mel Gibson
4.
Blood Diamond
(2006)
A fisherman, a smuggler, and a syndicate of businessmen match wits over the possession of a priceless diamond. (143 mins.)
Director: Edward Zwick
5.
Schindler's List
(1993)
In Poland during World War II, Oskar
Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after
witnessing their persecution by the Nazis. (195 mins.)
Director: Steven Spielberg
6.
Ben-Hur
(1959)
When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge. (212 mins.)
Director: William Wyler
7.
Apollo 13
(1995)
Three astronauts must devise a strategy to return to Earth safely after their spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage. (140 mins.)
Director: Ron Howard
8.
Black Hawk Down
(2001)
123 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia
to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves
in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis. (144 mins.)
Director: Ridley Scott
9.
The Last of the Mohicans
(1992)
Three trappers protect a British Colonel's daughters in the midst of the French and Indian War. (112 mins.)
Director: Michael Mann
10.
Joyeux Noel
(2005)
On Christmas Eve during world War I, the
Germans, French, and Scottish fraternize and get to know the men who
live on the opposite side of a brutal war, in what became a true lesson
of humanity. (116 mins.)
Director: Christian Carion
11.
Hotel Rwanda
(2004)
The true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a
hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their
struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda. (121 mins.)
Director: Terry George
12.
The Great Debaters
(2007)
A drama based on the true story of Melvin
B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired
students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to
challenge Harvard in the national championship. (126 mins.)
Director: Denzel Washington
13.
The Last Samurai
(2003)
An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle. (154 mins.)
Director: Edward Zwick
14.
Lawrence of Arabia
(1962)
A flamboyant and controversial British military figure and his conflicted loyalties during his World War I service in Arabia. (216 mins.)
Director: David Lean
15.
Rudy
(1993)
Rudy has always been told that he was too
small to play college football. But he is determined to overcome the
odds and fulfill his dream of playing for Notre Dame. (114 mins.)
Director: David Anspaugh
16.
Glory
(1989)
Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's
first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own
Union army and the Confederates. (122 mins.)
Director: Edward Zwick
17.
The Right Stuff
(1983)
The original US Mercury 7 astronauts and their macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program. (193 mins.)
Director: Philip Kaufman
18.
Cinderella Man
(2005)
The story of James Braddock, a supposedly washed up boxer who came back to become a champion and an inspiration in the 1930s. (144 mins.)
Director: Ron Howard
19.
Les Misérables
(1998)
Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for
stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit
consumes both men's lives... (134 mins.)
Director: Bille August
20.
The Pianist
(2002)
A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II. (150 mins.)
Director: Roman Polanski
21.
Amazing Grace
(2006)
The idealist William Wilberforce maneuvers
his way through Parliament, endeavoring to end the British
transatlantic slave trade. (117 mins.)
Director: Michael Apted
22.
The Hurt Locker
(2008)
Forced to play a dangerous game of
cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must
come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every
object could be a deadly bomb. (131 mins.)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
23.
Henry V
(1989)
The gritty adaption of William Shakespeare's play about the English King's bloody conquest of France. (137 mins.)
Director: Kenneth Branagh
24.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
(2003)
During the Napoleonic Wars, a brash
British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a
formidable French war vessel around South America. (138 mins.)
Director: Peter Weir
25.
Saints and Soldiers
(2003)
Four American soldiers and one Brit
fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied
territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic
Malmedy Massacre. (90 mins.)
Director: Ryan Little
26.
Enemy at the Gates
(2001)
A Russian sniper and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad. (131 mins.)
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
27.
Rob Roy
(1995)
In the highlands of Scotland in the 1700s, Rob Roy tries to lead his small town to a better future,... (139 mins.)
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
28.
Defiance
(2008)
Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern
Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join Russian
resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect
themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants. (137 mins.)
Director: Edward Zwick
29.
The Patriot
(2000)
Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven
to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a
sadistic British officer murders his son. (165 mins.)
Director: Roland Emmerich
30.
We Are Marshall
(2006)
When a plane crash claims the lives of
members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans,
the team's new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football
program alive. (131 mins.)
Director: McG
31.
Titanic
(1997)
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat, expecting
to be married to a rich claimant by her mother, falls in love with a
kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic. (194 mins.)
Director: James Cameron
32.
Sometimes in April
(2005 TV Movie)
Debra Winger, Oris Erhuero and Idris Elba star in this drama framed by the Rwandan genocide. (140 mins.)
Director: Raoul Peck
33.
Mississippi Burning
(1988)
Two FBI agents with wildly different
styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some
civil rights activists. (128 mins.)
Director: Alan Parker
34.
Kingdom of Heaven
(2005)
Balian 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. (144 mins.)
Director: Ridley Scott
35.
Zulu
(1964)
Outnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift. (138 mins.)
Director: Cy Endfield
36.
Valkyrie
(2008)
Based on actual events, a plot to assassinate Hitler is unfurled during the height of WWII. (121 mins.)
Director: Bryan Singer
37.
Freedom Writers
(2007)
A young teacher inspires her class of
at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue
education beyond high school. (123 mins.)
Director: Richard LaGravenese
38.
Spartacus
(1960)
The slave Spartacus leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic. (197 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
39.
Jeremiah Johnson
(1972)
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta... (108 mins.)
Director: Sydney Pollack
40.
Apocalypto
(2006)
As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline,
the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and
offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice,
flees to avoid his fate. (139 mins.)
Director: Mel Gibson
41.
U-571
(2000)
A German submarine is boarded by disguised American submariners trying to capture their Enigma cipher machine. (116 mins.)
Director: Jonathan Mostow
42.
Patton
(1970)
The World War II phase of the controversial American general's career is depicted. (172 mins.)
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
43.
Rescue Dawn
(2006)
A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War. (126 mins.)
Director: Werner Herzog
44.
Anna and the King
(1999)
The story of the romance between the King of Siam and the widowed British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens during the 1860's. (148 mins.)
Director: Andy Tennant
45.
Hidalgo
(2004)
In 1890, a down-and-out cowboy and his horse travel to Arabia to compete in a deadly cross desert horse race. (136 mins.)
Director: Joe Johnston
46.
The Young Victoria
(2009)
A dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert. (105 mins.)
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
47.
Elizabeth
(1998)
A film of the early years of the reign of
Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is
necessary to be a monarch. (124 mins.)
Director: Shekhar Kapur
48.
Flyboys
(2006)
The adventures of the Lafayette
Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military
before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first
fighter pilots. (140 mins.)
Director: Tony Bill
49.
Joan of Arc
(1999 TV Movie)
Ten years before her death, Joan hears
voices. Six years later, from the village of Domremy, she begins her
mission to unite France under King Charles... (140 mins.)
Director: Christian Duguay
50.
The Alamo
(2004)
Based on the 1836 standoff between a group
of Texan and Tejano men, led by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and
Mexican dictator Santa Anna's forces at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
(137 mins.)
Director: John Lee Hancock