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Top History Films

The best history films as defined by the IMDb.

Rank Title Year Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 Schindler's List 1993 Steven Spielberg 21
2 The Battleship Potemkin 1925 Sergei M. Eisenstein 77
3 Braveheart 1995 Mel Gibson 111
4 Gladiator 2000 Ridley Scott 127
5 Ben-Hur 1959 William Wyler 129
6 The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 Carl Theodor Dreyer 142
7 The Birth of a Nation 1915 D.W. Griffith 145
8 Intolerance 1916 D.W. Griffith 160
9 The Great Escape 1963 John Sturges 170
10 Spartacus 1960 Stanley Kubrick 197
11 Aguirre: The Wrath of God 1972 Werner Herzog 221
12 Napoléon 1927 Abel Gance 227
13 Das Boot 1981 Wolfgang Petersen 231
14 Andrei Rublev 1966 Andrei Tarkovsky 234
15 Gandhi 1982 Richard Attenborough 240
16 The Battle of Algiers 1966 Gillo Pontecorvo 253
17 All the President's Men 1976 Alan J. Pakula 269
18 Chariots of Fire 1981 Hugh Hudson 319
19 The Leopard 1963 Luchino Visconti 343
20 The Right Stuff 1983 Philip Kaufman 345
21 Glory 1989 Edward Zwick 359
22 Henry V 1944 Laurence Olivier 364
23 Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 Frank Lloyd 371
24 Apollo 13 1995 Ron Howard 383
25 The Untouchables 1987 Brian De Palma 395
26 The Elephant Man 1980 David Lynch 431
27 JFK 1991 Oliver Stone 445
28 Alexander Nevsky 1938 Sergei M. Eisenstein and Dmitri Vasilyev 466
29 Z 1969 Costa-Gavras 487
30 Zulu 1964 Cy Endfield 504
31 The Last Emperor 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci 524
32 The Scarlet Empress 1934 Josef von Sternberg 547
33 The Sorrow and the Pity 1969 Marcel Ophüls 556
34 The Killing Fields 1984 Roland Joffé 572
35 The Longest Day 1962 Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki 607
36 Malcolm X 1992 Spike Lee 621
37 The Tin Drum 1979 Volker Schlöndorff 631
38 The Gospel According to St. Matthew 1964 Pier Paolo Pasolini 632
39 Gallipoli 1981 Peter Weir 650
40 When We Were Kings 1996 Leon Gast 653
41 Downfall 2004 Oliver Hirschbiegel 689
42 Little Big Man 1970 Arthur Penn 727
43 Cyrano de Bergerac 1990 Jean-Paul Rappeneau 736
44 Queen Christina 1933 Rouben Mamoulian 740
45 Gimme Shelter 1970 Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin 769
46 October 1928 Grigori Aleksandrov and Sergei M. Eisenstein 779
47 Eight Men Out 1988 John Sayles 791
48 The Mirror 1975 Andrei Tarkovsky 809
49 Night and Fog 1955 Alain Resnais 819
50 The Lion in Winter 1968 Anthony Harvey 833
51 The Tree of Wooden Clogs 1978 Ermanno Olmi 850
52 The Travelling Players 1975 Theodoros Angelopoulos 860
53 In Cold Blood 1967 Richard Brooks 874
54 Ivan the Terrible, Part II 1958 Sergei M. Eisenstein and M. Filimonova 876
55 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 1973 Sam Peckinpah 896
56 Sergeant York 1941 Howard Hawks 910
57 Woodstock 1970 Michael Wadleigh 914
58 The Mystery of Kaspar Hausar 1974 Werner Herzog 917
59 1900 1976 Bernardo Bertolucci 934
60 Elizabeth 1998 Shekhar Kapur 937
61 Bowling for Columbine 2002 Michael Moore 938
62 Quiz Show 1994 Robert Redford 940
63 Roger & Me 1989 Michael Moore 993
64 Henry V 1989 Kenneth Branagh 996
65 War and Peace 1967 Sergei Bondarchuk 997
66 The Conqueror Worm 1968 Michael Reeves 1003
67 Hotel Rwanda 2004 Terry George 1028
68 Judgment at Nuremberg 1961 Stanley Kramer 1033
69 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis 1970 Vittorio De Sica 1049
70 Kagemusha 1980 Akira Kurosawa 1138
71 The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939 William Dieterle 1151
72 The Diary of Anne Frank 1959 George Stevens 1208
73 Rabbit-Proof Fence 2002 Phillip Noyce 1212
74 Gangs of New York 2002 Martin Scorsese 1258
75 Letters from Iwo Jima 2006 Clint Eastwood 1263
76 Senso 1954 Luchino Visconti 1303
77 Burnt by the Sun 1994 Nikita Mikhalkov 1308
78 Heaven's Gate 1980 Michael Cimino 1314
79 The Mission 1986 Roland Joffé 1317
80 The Official Story 1985 Luis Puenzo 1331
81 Richard III 1955 Laurence Olivier 1349
82 United 93 2006 Paul Greengrass 1365
83 Cleopatra 1963 Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1372
84 The Dam Busters 1955 Michael Anderson 1378
85 Inherit the Wind 1960 Stanley Kramer 1436
86 Tombstone 1993 George P. Cosmatos 1442
87 Salt of the Earth 1954 Herbert J. Biberman 1463
88 Matewan 1987 John Sayles 1469
89 Land and Freedom 1995 Ken Loach 1473
90 Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 1964 Sergei Parajanov 1490
91 Missing 1982 Costa-Gavras 1501
92 Europa Europa 1990 Agnieszka Holland 1512
93 Gettysburg 1993 Ronald F. Maxwell 1570
94 The Rise of Louis XIV 1966 Roberto Rossellini 1600
95 Miracle 2004 Gavin O'Connor 1614
96 Salvatore Giuliano 1962 Francesco Rosi 1652
97 The Nasty Girl 1990 Michael Verhoeven 1675
98 The Private Life of Henry VIII 1933 Alexander Korda 1677
99 One Day in September 1999 Kevin Macdonald 1688
100 Russian Ark 2002 Aleksandr Sokurov 1693
101 A Night to Remember 1958 Roy Ward Baker 1718
102 The Crucible 1996 Nicholas Hytner 1774
103 Seabiscuit 2003 Gary Ross 1785
104 Tora! Tora! Tora! 1970 Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda 1801
105 Quo Vadis 1951 Mervyn LeRoy 1804
106 The Last Samurai 2003 Edward Zwick 1837
107 Band of Brothers 2001 David Frankel, Mikael Salomon, Tom Hanks, David Leland, Richard Loncraine, David Nutter, Phil Alden Robinson, and Tony To 1857
108 For Whom the Bell Tolls 1943 Sam Wood 1871
109 The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith 1978 Fred Schepisi 1902
110 Queen Margot 1994 Patrice Chéreau 1912
111 The Madness of King George 1994 Nicholas Hytner 1920
112 Fahrenheit 9/11 2004 Michael Moore 1925
113 Storm over Asia 1928 Vsevolod Pudovkin 1927
114 Good Night, and Good Luck. 2005 George Clooney 1949
115 A Passage to India 1984 David Lean 1961
116 Munich 2005 Steven Spielberg 1976
117 Battle of Britain 1969 Guy Hamilton 1980
118 The Story of Adele H. 1975 François Truffaut 1998
119 Thirty Seconds over Tokyo 1944 Mervyn LeRoy 2018
120 The Night of the Shooting Stars 1982 Paolo and Vittorio Taviani 2020
121 The Devils 1971 Ken Russell 2036
122 A Bridge Too Far 1977 Richard Attenborough 2043
123 The Hour of the Furnaces 1968 Octavio Getino, Fernando E. Solanas, and Santiago Álvarez 2048
124 Platform 2000 Zhang Ke Jia 2071
125 Carnival in Flanders 1935 Jacques Feyder 2075
126 The Times of Harvey Milk 1984 Rob Epstein 2115
127 Jesus Christ Superstar 1973 Norman Jewison 2125
128 Becket 1964 Peter Glenville 2149
129 The Three Musketeers 1973 Richard Lester 2150
130 Bloody Sunday 2002 Paul Greengrass 2154
131 Les Misérables 1995 Claude Lelouch 2167
132 The Alamo 1960 John Wayne 2173
133 Samson and Delilah 1949 Cecil B. DeMille 2179
134 The Devil and Daniel Webster 1941 William Dieterle 2198
135 Why We Fight 1: Prelude to War 1943 Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak 2217
136 Once Upon a Time in China 1991 Hark Tsui 2221
137 Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto 1954 Hiroshi Inagaki 2262
This page was last modified on June 13, 2010