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Top History Films

Rank Title Year Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 David Lean 19
2 Schindler's List 1993 Steven Spielberg 28
3 Gone with the Wind 1939 Victor Fleming 32
4 The Battleship Potemkin 1925 Sergei M. Eisenstein 90
5 The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 Carl Theodor Dreyer 123
6 Aguirre: The Wrath of God 1972 Werner Herzog 151
7 Ben-Hur 1959 William Wyler 159
8 Andrei Rublev 1966 Andrei Tarkovsky 160
9 Amadeus 1984 Milos Forman 163
10 Braveheart 1995 Mel Gibson 185
11 The Grapes of Wrath 1940 John Ford 209
12 Barry Lyndon 1975 Stanley Kubrick 231
13 The Great Escape 1963 John Sturges 234
14 Shoah 1985 Claude Lanzmann 243
15 Spartacus 1960 Stanley Kubrick 254
16 All the President's Men 1976 Alan J. Pakula 290
17 The Leopard 1963 Luchino Visconti 293
18 The Birth of a Nation 1915 D.W. Griffith 312
19 Intolerance 1916 D.W. Griffith 314
20 Night and Fog 1956 Alain Resnais 390
21 Waltz with Bashir 2008 Ari Folman 400
22 Downfall 2004 Oliver Hirschbiegel 424
23 Raise the Red Lantern 1991 Yimou Zhang 454
24 Persepolis 2007 Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi 472
25 Gandhi 1982 Richard Attenborough 482
26 Napoléon 1927 Abel Gance 500
27 Throne of Blood 1957 Akira Kurosawa 507
28 JFK 1991 Oliver Stone 529
29 12 Years a Slave 2013 Steve McQueen 543
30 The Gospel According to St. Matthew 1964 Pier Paolo Pasolini 557
31 Z 1969 Costa-Gavras 584
32 Triumph of the Will 1935 Leni Riefenstahl 590
33 Shakespeare in Love 1998 John Madden 592
34 The Right Stuff 1983 Philip Kaufman 603
35 Day of Wrath 1943 Carl Theodor Dreyer 610
36 Ivan the Terrible 1944 Sergei M. Eisenstein 618
37 Glory 1989 Edward Zwick 625
38 The Last Emperor 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci 651
39 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 2007 Andrew Dominik 681
40 Man on Wire 2008 James Marsh 689
41 The King's Speech 2010 Tom Hooper 696
42 The Sorrow and the Pity 1969 Marcel Ophüls 709
43 Malcolm X 1992 Spike Lee 746
44 Letters from Iwo Jima 2006 Clint Eastwood 748
45 Harakiri 1962 Masaki Kobayashi 754
46 Alexander Nevsky 1938 Sergei M. Eisenstein and Dmitriy Vasilyev 760
47 The Man Who Would be King 1975 John Huston 764
48 Apollo 13 1995 Ron Howard 776
49 Hotel Rwanda 2004 Terry George 789
50 Woodstock 1970 Michael Wadleigh 805
51 Empire of the Sun 1987 Steven Spielberg 812
52 Zulu 1964 Cy Endfield 825
53 A Man for All Seasons 1966 Fred Zinnemann 838
54 Chimes at Midnight 1965 Orson Welles 858
55 Hero 2002 Yimou Zhang 898
56 The Scarlet Empress 1934 Josef von Sternberg 913
57 The Longest Day 1962 Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki 923
58 The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara 2003 Errol Morris 929
59 The White Ribbon 2009 Michael Haneke 946
60 Black Hawk Down 2001 Ridley Scott 947
61 Henry V 1944 Laurence Olivier 960
62 I Am Cuba 1964 Mikheil Kalatozishvili 965
63 Young Mr. Lincoln 1939 John Ford 975
64 Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages 1922 Benjamin Christensen 994
65 United 93 2006 Paul Greengrass 1012
66 Tombstone 1993 George P. Cosmatos 1023
67 The Travelling Players 1975 Theodoros Angelopoulos 1024
68 Eight Men Out 1988 John Sayles 1032
69 Tom Jones 1963 Tony Richardson 1043
70 Topsy-Turvy 1999 Mike Leigh 1048
71 Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 Frank Lloyd 1074
72 The Devils 1971 Ken Russell 1082
73 The Killing Fields 1984 Roland Joffé 1085
74 The Tree of Wooden Clogs 1978 Ermanno Olmi 1096
75 The Draughtsman's Contract 1982 Peter Greenaway 1116
76 The Color of Pomegranates 1969 Sergei Parajanov 1125
77 Cinderella Man 2005 Ron Howard 1126
78 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World 2003 Peter Weir 1130
79 Sergeant York 1941 Howard Hawks 1133
80 Gallipoli 1981 Peter Weir 1135
81 The Mystery of Kaspar Hausar 1974 Werner Herzog 1141
82 Miracle 2004 Gavin O'Connor 1172
83 Reds 1981 Warren Beatty 1204
84 October 1927 Grigoriy Aleksandrov and Sergei M. Eisenstein 1217
85 The Times of Harvey Milk 1984 Rob Epstein 1220
86 Elizabeth 1998 Shekhar Kapur 1240
87 In Cold Blood 1967 Richard Brooks 1250
88 Ivan the Terrible, Part II 1958 Sergei M. Eisenstein and M. Filimonova 1251
89 Russian Ark 2002 Aleksandr Sokurov 1325
90 The Act of Killing 2012 Joshua Oppenheimer 1332
91 Hearts and Minds 1974 Peter Davis 1346
92 Senso 1954 Luchino Visconti 1364
93 Cool Runnings 1993 Jon Turteltaub 1370
94 Capote 2005 Bennett Miller 1386
95 Henry V 1989 Kenneth Branagh 1397
96 Kagemusha 1980 Akira Kurosawa 1416
97 Dunkirk 2017 Christopher Nolan 1439
98 Daughters of the Dust 1991 Julie Dash 1442
99 The Mission 1986 Roland Joffé 1451
100 Queen Christina 1933 Rouben Mamoulian 1462
101 Seabiscuit 2003 Gary Ross 1474
102 The New World 2005 Terrence Malick 1494
103 The Queen 2006 Stephen Frears 1498
104 The Revenant 2015 Alejandro G. Iñárritu 1550
105 The Lion in Winter 1968 Anthony Harvey 1568
106 Selma 2014 Ava DuVernay 1589
107 Ip Man 2008 Wilson Yip 1594
108 1900 1976 Bernardo Bertolucci 1600
109 Munich 2005 Steven Spielberg 1624
110 Cyrano de Bergerac 1990 Jean-Paul Rappeneau 1641
111 Cleopatra 1963 Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1654
112 The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer 1961 Masaki Kobayashi 1669
113 Europa Europa 1990 Agnieszka Holland 1708
114 Exit through the Gift Shop 2010 Banksy 1723
115 Hacksaw Ridge 2016 Mel Gibson 1727
116 The Dam Busters 1955 Michael Anderson 1736
117 Burnt by the Sun 1994 Nikita Mikhalkov 1743
118 Matewan 1987 John Sayles 1768
119 War and Peace 1966 Sergey Bondarchuk 1776
120 Platform 2000 Zhangke Jia 1780
121 Edvard Munch 1974 Peter Watkins 1787
122 Lincoln 2012 Steven Spielberg 1814
123 Marketa Lazarová 1967 Frantisek Vlácil 1818
124 Salvador 1986 Oliver Stone 1820
125 Mississippi Burning 1988 Alan Parker 1833
126 Changeling 2008 Clint Eastwood 1848
127 Good Night, and Good Luck. 2005 George Clooney 1854
128 Inherit the Wind 1960 Stanley Kramer 1859
129 Heimat 1984 Edgar Reitz 1895
130 Othello 1951 Orson Welles 1917
131 Silkwood 1983 Mike Nichols 1924
132 Nixon 1995 Oliver Stone 1946
133 The Iron Horse 1924 John Ford 1956
134 Cabiria 1914 Giovanni Pastrone 1974
135 The Crucified Lovers 1954 Kenji Mizoguchi 2021
136 Fellini Satyricon 1969 Federico Fellini 2023
137 Gettysburg 1993 Ronald F. Maxwell 2033
138 The Last Command 1928 Josef von Sternberg 2036
139 'Breaker' Morant 1980 Bruce Beresford 2038
140 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis 1970 Vittorio De Sica 2042
141 The Look of Silence 2014 Joshua Oppenheimer 2057
142 Evita 1996 Alan Parker 2058
143 The Robe 1953 Henry Koster 2065
144 Les Misérables 2012 Tom Hooper 2067
145 Salvatore Giuliano 1962 Francesco Rosi 2068
146 She Done Him Wrong 1933 Lowell Sherman 2069
147 Yellow Earth 1984 Kaige Chen 2079
148 A Bridge Too Far 1977 Richard Attenborough 2099
149 The Last King of Scotland 2006 Kevin Macdonald 2128
150 Battleground 1949 William A. Wellman 2137
151 Flags of Our Fathers 2006 Clint Eastwood 2149
152 Los Angeles Plays Itself 2003 Thom Andersen 2163
153 Invictus 2009 Clint Eastwood 2215
154 Lust, Caution 2007 Ang Lee 2218
155 The Decline of Western Civilization 1981 Penelope Spheeris 2258
156 Battle of Britain 1969 Guy Hamilton 2262
157 Quiz Show 1994 Robert Redford 2265
158 In the Shadow of the Moon 2007 David Sington 2271
159 The Celluloid Closet 1995 Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman 2284
160 Missing 1982 Costa-Gavras 2295
161 Red Sorghum 1988 Yimou Zhang 2323
162 The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity 1959 Masaki Kobayashi 2367
163 Becket 1964 Peter Glenville 2409
164 The Wind Rises 2013 Hayao Miyazaki 2422
165 The Official Story 1985 Luis Puenzo 2438
166 The Private Life of Henry VIII 1933 Alexander Korda 2445
167 Enemy at the Gates 2001 Jean-Jacques Annaud 2456
168 The Rise of Louis XIV 1966 Roberto Rossellini 2477
169 Marie Antoinette 2006 Sofia Coppola 2479
170 The Corporation 2003 Jennifer Abbott and Mark Achbar 2504
171 Rabbit-Proof Fence 2002 Phillip Noyce 2510
172 Once Upon a Time in China 1991 Hark Tsui 2524
173 El Cid 1961 Anthony Mann 2544
174 The Patriot 2000 Roland Emmerich 2557
175 Salt of the Earth 1954 Herbert J. Biberman 2572
176 Band of Brothers 2001 David Frankel, Mikael Salomon, Tom Hanks, David Leland, Richard Loncraine, David Nutter, Phil Alden Robinson, and Tony To 2591
177 Across the Universe 2007 Julie Taymor 2604
178 Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie 1988 Marcel Ophüls 2610
179 Jesus Christ Superstar 1973 Norman Jewison 2622
180 My Winnipeg 2007 Guy Maddin 2627
181 61* 2001 Billy Crystal 2638
182 Caravaggio 1986 Derek Jarman 2663
183 Monterey Pop 1968 D.A. Pennebaker 2680
184 Frost/Nixon 2008 Ron Howard 2692
185 Wild River 1960 Elia Kazan 2696
186 A Night to Remember 1958 Roy Ward Baker 2697
187 How to Survive a Plague 2012 David France 2729
188 The Illusionist 2006 Neil Burger 2771
189 The Sea Hawk 1940 Michael Curtiz 2778
190 O.J.: Made in America 2016 Ezra Edelman 2780
191 Bloody Sunday 2002 Paul Greengrass 2784
This page was last modified on March 19, 2020