Whats the best way to teach history to kids? For a film fan, the answer is best Historical Movies. Though not all historical movies are accurate. In fact there is a long list of most historically inaccurate movies. But there are many films that are historically accurate and could be referred to other people for learning history. The use of historical events in movies begin with the very first popular film “The Birth of Nation” in 1915. The success of the film led film makers to try more hands in this genre. The good thing was that many historical events that were needed to be documented in movies were already available in books and papers. So there was not much of a need of plot and characters. Plus there was so much scope of this genre as one can document historical events of a specific place or specific person and will get no competition from other film makers. Other good thing was that people were interested in the History genre.
Historical movies had more than average budget due to the cost of props used and to create a real set. Historical movies mainly chronicles the event of Pre historic times (The Dinosaur and cave man era), Medieval times, early ages (Based on Greek and Roman Mythologies and Jesus Christ), Middle ages (Based on Arthurian Legends), Modern Ages (Based on World War 1 and 2 and recent historical events).
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Time Period Movies
Historical movies are popular since the 50s decade. At that time events of roman era were more depicted. The decade of 60s had historical movies based on World war. The 70s decade had historical movies based on world war II. While the 80s decade showed the recent vietnam war. The decade of 90s once again turned back to the middle ages and early ages. The decade of 00s chronicled the events of recent history such as September 11 attacks.
Here is a list of 100 Most Popular Historical Movies ranging from Old historical movies to the most recent movies on History:
100. Troy
Director – Wolfgang Petersen
Cast – Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eric Bana, Brendan Gleeson, Peter O’Toole, Brian Cox, Orlando Bloom
IMDB Rating – 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes – 54%
Release Date – 9 May 2004
Box Office – $497.4 million
Genre – Drama, History
Awards – Nopne
Plot –
99. History of the World: Part 1
Director – Mel Brooks
Cast – Dom DeLuise, Mel Brooks, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman
IMDB Rating – 6.9
Rotten Tomatoes – 62%
Release Date – 12 June 1981
Box Office – $31.7 million
Genre – Comedy, History
Awards – None
Plot –
98. The Diary of Anne Frank
Director – George Stevens
Cast – Richard Beymer, Joseph Schildkraut, Richard Beymer, Millie Perkins, Diane Baker, Ed Wynn, Shelley Winters
IMDB Rating – 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes – 76%
Release Date – 18 March 1959
Box Office – $2.3 million
Genre – Biography, Drama, Family
Awards – Won 3 Oscars
Plot –
97. The Leopard
Director – Luchino Visconti
Cast – Claudia Cardinale, Serge Reggiani, Alain Delon, Burt Lancaster, Pierre Clementi, Mario Girotti
IMDB Rating – 8.1
Rotten Tomatoes – 100%
Release Date – 27 March 1963
Box Office – $1,800,000
Genre – Drama, History
Awards – None
Plot –
96. Sergeant York
Director – Howard Hawks
Cast – Joan Leslie, Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan
IMDB Rating – 7.8
Rotten Tomatoes – 85%
Release Date – 2 July 1941
Box Office – $8,259,000
Genre – Biography, Drama, History
Awards – Won 2 Oscars
Plot –
95. The Greatest Game ever Played
Director – Bill Paxton
Cast – Stephen Dillane, Luke Askew, Elias Koteas, Peter Firth, Shia LaBeouf
IMDB Rating – 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes – 63%
Release Date – 30 September 2005
Box Office – $15.4 million
Genre – Biography, Drama, History
Awards – None
Plot –
94. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Director – Marc Rothemund
Cast – Fabian Hinrichs, Julia Jentsch
IMDB Rating – 7.6
Rotten Tomatoes – 87%
Release Date – 24 February 2005
Box Office – $13.9 million
Genre – Biography, Crime, Drama
Awards – None
Plot –
93. Amazing Grace
Director – Michael Apted
Cast – Benedict Cumberbatch, Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Romola Garai
IMDB Rating – 7.5
Rotten Tomatoes – 68%
Release Date – 16 September 2006
Box Office – $32,120,360
Genre – Biography, Drama, History
Awards – None
Plot –
92. Max Manus: Man Of War
Director – John M. Jacobsen, Sveinung Golimo, Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg
Cast – Nicolai Cleve Broch, Aksel Hennie, Ken Duken, Petter Næss, Agnes Kittelsen
IMDB Rating – 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes – 79%
Release Date – 19 December 2008
Box Office – $15.3 million
Genre – Action, Biography, Drama
Awards – None
Plot –
91. Burnt by the Sun
Director – Nikita Mikhalkov
Cast – Nadezhda Mikhalkova, Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė, Oleg Menshikov, Nikita Mikhalkov
IMDB Rating – 7.9
Rotten Tomatoes – 80%
Release Date – 31 August 1994
Box Office – $2.3 million
Genre – Drama, History, War
Awards – Won 1 Oscar
Plot –
90. Quest for Fire
Director – Jean-Jacques Annaud
Cast – Ron Perlman, Everett McGill, Rae Dawn Chong, Nameer El-Kadi
IMDB Rating – 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes – 84%
Release Date – 16 December 1981
Box Office – $55.2 million
Genre – Adventure, Drama, History
Awards – Won 1 Oscar
Plot –
89. Russian Ark
Director – Alexander Sokurov
Cast – Sergei Dreiden
IMDB Rating – 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes – 89%
Release Date – 22 May 2002
Box Office – $6,685,748
Genre – Drama, Fantasy, History
Awards – None
Plot –
88. The Count of Monte Cristo
Director – Kevin Reynolds
Cast – Dagmara Dominczyk, Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Luis Guzmán, James Frain
IMDB Rating – 7.8
Rotten Tomatoes – 74%
Release Date – 25 January 2002
Box Office – $75.4 million
Genre – Action, Adventure, Drama
Awards – None
Plot –
87. Europa Europa
Director – Agnieszka Holland
Cast – Hanns Zischler, Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy
IMDB Rating – 7.6
Rotten Tomatoes – 94%
Release Date – 14 November 1990
Box Office – $5,575,738
Genre – Drama, History, War
Awards – None
Plot –
86. Eight Men Out
Director – John Sayles
Cast – Michael Lerner, John Cusack, Clifton James, Charlie Sheen, D. B. Sweeney, Christopher Lloyd
IMDB Rating – 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes – 86%
Release Date – 2 September 1988
Box Office – $5.7 million
Genre – Drama, History, Sport
Awards – None
Plot –
85. The Madness of King George
Director – Nicholas Hytner
Cast – Helen Mirren, Nigel Hawthorne, Rupert Everett, Rupert Graves, Ian Holm
IMDB Rating – 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes – 93%
Release Date – 28 December 1994
Box Office – $15.2 million
Genre – Biography, Comedy, Drama
Awards – Won 1 Oscar
Plot –
84. A Passage to India
Director – David Lean
Cast – Nigel Havers, Judy Davis, Peggy Ashcroft, Alec Guinness, Roshan Seth, Victor Banerjee, James Fox
IMDB Rating – 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes – 86%
Release Date – 14 December 1984
Box Office – $27.2 million
Genre – Adventure, Drama, History
Awards – Won 2 Oscars
Plot –
83. Amistad
Director – Steven Spielberg
Cast – Djimon Hounsou, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, David Paymer, Matthew McConaughey, Nigel Hawthorne
IMDB Rating – 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes – 77%
Release Date – 10 December 1997
Box Office – $44.2 million
Genre – Drama, History
Awards – None
Plot –
82. We Were Soldiers
Director – Randall Wallace
Cast – Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Keri Russell, Barry Pepper, Chris Klein
IMDB Rating – 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes – 63%
Release Date – 25 February 2002
Box Office – $114.7 million
Genre – Action, Drama, History
Awards – None
Plot –
81. Bloody Sunday
Director – Paul Greengrass
Cast – Kathy Kiera Clarke, James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Gerard McSorley
IMDB Rating – 7.7
Rotten Tomatoes – 92%
Release Date – 25 January 2002
Box Office – £482,117
Genre – Drama, History, War
Awards – None
Plot –
