HISTORY Movies

Matewan (1987) Mingo County, West Virginia, 1920. Coal miners, struggling to form a union, are up against company operators and the gun thugs of the notorious Baldwin-Felts detective agency. Black and Italian miners, brought in by the company to break the strike, are caught between the two forces. U

Solomon and Sheba (1959) Shortly before his death in ancient Israel King David has a vision from God telling him that his younger son Solomon should succeed him as king. His other son Adonijah is unhappy and vows to attain the throne. Meanwhile the Egyptian Pharoah agrees to cede a Red Sea port to t

The Long Ships (1964) There is a legend about a great bell, called "The Mother of Voices," made of pure gold, three times the size of a man, made by monks many years ago... This is the story told in the marketplace by a Viking called Rolfe. This information finds its way to the Islamic rul

Though I like costume period movies with lavish sets and all the extravaganza, I often wondered if the stories in those movies could be told in another way, if they could be told in a minimalist style, using shoestring budget, if the visual element of those movies really has to be breathtakingly bea

Marvels Captain America: 75 Heroic Years (2016) Marvel celebrates the history of Captain America, both in the comics and on TV and film, and examines the character as a reflection of American culture throughout the years.

The Seventh Seal (1957) A Knight and his squire are home from the crusades. Black Death is sweeping their country. As they approach home, Death appears to the knight and tells him it is his time. The knight challenges Death to a chess game for his life. The Knight and Death play as the cultural turm

Bent (1997) Max is gay and as such is sent to Dachau concentration camp under the Nazi regime. He tries to deny he is gay, and gets a yellow label (the one for Jews) instead of pink (the one for gays). In camp, he falls in love with fellow prisoner Horst, who wears his pink label with pride.

Darwin (2011) Darwin is a documentary feature about an isolated community at the end of a weathered road in Death Valley, California. Propelled from society by tragic turns, the people of Darwin (population 35) must now find ways to coexist in a place without a government, a church, jobs, or childre

Nixon (1995) Director Oliver Stone's exploration of former president Richard Nixon's strict Quaker upbringing, his nascent political strivings in law school, and his strangely self-effacing courtship of his wife, Pat. The contradictions in his character are revealed early, in the vicious campaign ag

Genghis: The Legend of the Ten (2012) A little known fact is that Chinggis Khaan, better known as Genghis Khan, would collect orphans from his bloody battlefields and have his own mother raise them. These adopted brothers grew up to become his most loyal officials and advisers. Khaan organised his M

The Last Play at Shea (2010) A documentary feature chronicling the history of two New York icons and the journey that brought them together for the last musical performance at Shea Stadium.

Escape from Sobibor (1987) During WWII, the death camp at Treblinka had an escape, causing the Commandant at a similar camp in Sobibor to vow that his camp would never experience the same thing. But those who were its captives, the Jewish laborers that had been spared from the ovens, knew that they

An Empress and the Warriors (2008) Can a kingdom change its nature? Yan, one of the Ten Kingdoms, is constantly at war. Yan's emperor dies from a battle wound and a general's treachery. His successor is unclear: his daughter Feier, who would be the kingdom's first empress; his favorite, Xuehu, a war

Downfall (2004) In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Soviet Armies closing in from the west and south. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his Generals and advisers to fight to the last man.

Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) In real life, Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific head of the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built. General Leslie Groves was in overall command of it. This film reenacts the project with an e

The Assault (2010) Based on a true story, a SWAT team is tasked with storming a high-jacked Air France plane to save its passengers.

The 300 Spartans (1962) Essentially true story of how Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of Greek Soldiers (300 of them his personal body guards from Sparta) to hold off an invading Persian army now thought to have numbered 250,000. The actual heroism of those who stood (and ultimatel

The Lady (2011) THE LADY is an epic love story about how an extraordinary couple and family sacrifice their happiness at great human cost for a higher cause. This is the story of Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband, Michael Aris. Despite distance, long separations, and a dangerously hostile regime, the

The Pendle Witch Child (2011) Simon Armitage presents the extraordinary story of the most disturbing witch trial in British history and the key role played in it by one nine-year-old girl. Jennet Device, a beggar-girl from Pendle in Lancashire, was the star witness in the trial in 1612 of her own mo

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010) Seven years after the apparent death of Chen Zhen, who was shot after discovering who was responsible for his teacher's death (Huo Yuanjia) in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. A mysterious stranger arrives from overseas and befriends a local mafia boss.

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) Based on a concept album project written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and the subsequent long-running Broadway performance, this film tells the story of the final 6 days in the life of Jesus Christ through the troubled eyes of Judas Iscariot. Too often mis-label

Midway (1976) The summer of 1942 brought Naval stalemate to the Pacific as the American and Japanese fleets stood at even numbers each waiting for the other to begin a renewed offensive.

Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) Capitalism: A Love Story examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). The film moves from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan. Wit

The Laramie Project (2002) Moisés Kaufman and members of New York's Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of Matthew Shepard. This is a film version of the play they wrote based on more than 200 interviews they conducted in Laramie. It follows and in some cases re-ena

A chronicle of the life of Lena Baker, the first woman to be sent to the electric chair in Georgia for the murder of her employer, who forced her into sexual slavery

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) This is a semi-humorous biographical film about the men who made the world of technology what it is today, their struggles during college, the founding of their companies, and the ingenious actions they took to build up the global corporate empires of Apple Computer

The Thin Red Line (1998) U.S. Army Private Witt (AWOL) is found and imprisoned on a troop carrier by his company First Sergeant, Welsh.The men of C Company,1st Battalion,27th Infantry Regiment,25th Infantry Division have been brought to Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henders

Andersonville (1996) Sort of Civil War version of "Schindler's List" looks at the atrocities that occurred in the 1864 prisoner-of-war camp run by the Confederacy in Georgia. The prison originally planned to house 8000, eventually swelled to 33,000 which left little shelter, food or water

Hitlers Children (2011) Bettina Göring is the great-niece of Nazi official Hermann Göring. Katrin Himmler is the great-niece of Heinrich Himmler, second in command of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler. Rainer Höß is the grandson of Rudolf Hoess, creator and commandant of the Auschwitz Co

A Viking Saga: Son of Thor (2008) Drama set in the viking age, Helgi witnesses the destruction of his village and narrowly escapes to his uncle Rurik who raises him like his son. Many years later he meets the people responsible for his parents death and someone he never expected to see again.

Killer Legends (2014) Four timeless urban legends continue to haunt the psyche of the American public. This documentary follows filmmakers Joshua Zeman and Rachel Mills as they investigate the true crimes that may have spawned these urban legends, while exploring how these myths evolved and why we c

Korengal (2014) Picks up where Restrepo left off. Once again we meet the men of Battle Company, 2nd Battalion, 503nd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in 2007-8. They are deployed at one of the most dangerous places on earth - certainly the most dangerous place, at the time, for

The Last September (1999) In 1920s Ireland, an elderly couple reside over a tired country estate. Living with them are their high-spirited niece, their Oxford student nephew, and married house guests, who are trying to cover up that they are presently homeless. The niece enjoys romantic frolics with

Hell and Back Again (2011) What does it mean to lead men in war? What does it mean to come home? Hell and Back Again is a cinematically revolutionary film that asks and answers these questions with a power and intimacy no previous film about the conflict in Afghanistan has been able to achieve. It i

Incident at Oglala (1992) On June 26, 1975, during a period of high tensions on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, two FBI agents were killed in a shootout with a group of Indians. Although several men were charged with killing the agents, only one, Leonard Peltier, was found guilty. This f

The Assassins (2012) Set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, the story focuses on Cao Cao in his old age, exploring the areas of military tactics, love, and the relationship between father and son.

The Ghost Army (2013) During World War II, a hand-picked group of American GI's undertook a bizarre mission: create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops used inflatable rubber tanks, sound truck

Spartacus (2004) Sentenced to spend out the rest of his adult life laboring in the harsh deserts of Egypt, the Thracian slave Spartacus gets a new lease on life when he is purchased by the obese owner of a Roman gladiator school. Moved by the defiance of an Ethiopian warrior, Draba, Spartacus leads

Restrepo (2010) Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's year dug in with the Second Platoon in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial valleys reveals extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of back breaking labor, deadly firefights, and camaraderie as the soldiers painfully push

A Mighty Heart (2007) On January 23, 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is to fly from Karachi to Dubai with his pregnant wife, Mariane, also a reporter. On the day before, with great care, he has arranged an interview in a café with an Islamic fundamentalist cleric. When Danny doesn

Einstein and Eddington (2008) Sir Arthur Eddington is a renowned physicist at Cambridge University and an expert in the measurement of the physical world. He along with all of his colleagues are also avowed Newtonians. Sir Oliver Lodge suggests that he read a new thesis put forward by a German-Swiss

Miracle (2004) The inspiring story of the team that transcended its sport and united a nation with a new feeling of hope. Based on the true story of one of the greatest moments in sports history, the tale captures a time and place where differences could be settled by games and a cold war could be p

Bloody Sunday (2002) Documentary-style drama showing the events that led up to the tragic incident on January 30, 1972 in the Northern Ireland town of Derry when a protest march led by civil rights activist Ivan Cooper was fired upon by British troops, killing 13 protesters and wounding 14 more.

Doomsday Gun (1994) Dr Gerald Bull was a genius at designing and building superguns. (Very large long range guns capable of shooting more than 100 Miles.) When a plan by the CIA to export restricted material using him was exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge and he went to jail. He was later releas

The Surprising History of Egypt (2002) Bringing to life the everyday details of the ancients Egyptians - bizarre, hilarious or shocking - this wonderfully entertaining and factually revealing film is packed full of surprises. With Jones throwing informed yet sometimes crazed light on the subject, a

Warsaw 44 (2014) A story of love, friendship and the pursuit of adventure during the bloody and brutal reality of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

The Grey Zone (2001) The true story of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew chosen by Josef Mengele to be the head pathologist at Auschwitz. Nyiszli was one of Auschwitz's Sonderkommandos - Special Squads of Jewish prisoners placed by the Nazis in the excruciating moral dilemma of helping to extermin

April 9th (2015) In the early morning of April 9th 1940 the Danish army is alerted. The Germans have crossed the border; Denmark is at war against Europe's strongest army. In Southern Jutland Danish bicycle- and motorcycle companies are ordered out, to against all odds, hold back the forces until th