Browse Movies : Historical (Page #5)

Against the backdrop of the deadliest natural disaster in American history, the story follows a pair of young lovers on the verge of being separated, a struggle for power among various bureaucracies and a bitter love triangle involving two brothers.

In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America. With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to FDR for support. But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as wife, mother, and mistresses all conspire to make the royal weekend an unforgettable one. Seen through the eyes of Margaret "Daisy" Suckley (Laura Linney), Franklin’s neighbor and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations, but, for Daisy – and through her, for us all – a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.

The film follows 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain (Romola Garai), and the fortunes of her eccentric family, struggling to survive in a decaying English castle. Her father (Bill Nighy) is desperate to repeat the spectacular success of his first novel, but hasn't written a word for 12 years; her exquisite sister Rose (Rose Byrne) can only rail against their fate, and their bohemian step-mother Topaz (Tara FitzGerald) is a nudist and no help at all. Salvation comes in the form of their American landlord Simon Cotton (Henry Thomas) and his brother Neil (Marc Blucas).

Set right after WWII, Otto Frank struggles to find a publisher for the diary written by his daughter Anne Frank before she perished in the Holocaust. He is aided by an ambitious young woman who, fresh out of the Doubleday typing pool, becomes a junior editor trying to find her way by combing through the slush pile for publishable manuscripts. She and Otto Frank find each other and their perseverance leads to the publication of one of the most enduring documents of the Holocaust. The woman, Barbara Zimmerman, becomes a publishing legend at Doubleday and is the founder of the New York Review of Books.

Set during the 12th century in the holy city of Jerusalem, a young Muslim peasant and blacksmith, Salaq Ul-Hul (Orlando Bloom), becomes a knight so that he may help repel the Crusaders who took control of the city in 1099. Meanwhile, the young knight also falls in love with the city's beautiful princess...

The true story of a dying river town in Indiana, which in 1971 succeeded in becoming the host for the Gold Cup of hydroplane boat racing. Competing on the racing circuit requires deep-pocketed sponsorships and top-of-the-line technology and equipment. Jim McCormick, even though he's now a father with a family to support and has a steady job, has never abandoned his dream of piloting the community-owned Miss Madison to victory in the sport's biggest event. Alas, the economic struggles of this trade-diminished municipality have severely crimped its level of support. But faced with the opportunity to welcome the prestigious championship, McCormick wins, or more correctly hustles, the town's backing and, despite the misgivings of his wife and a sizable percentage of his neighbors, undertakes to race Miss Madison and compete with the big boys.

Benjamin Franklin Gates is a third generation treasure hunter. All his life, Gates has been searching for a treasure no one believed existed: amassed through the ages, moved across continents, to become the greatest treasure the world has ever known. Hidden by our Founding Fathers, they left clues to the Treasure's location right before our eyes--from our nation's birthplace, to the nation's capitol, to clues buried within the symbols on the dollar bill. Gates' life-long journey leads him to the last place anyone thought to look: a map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence. But what he thought was the final clue is only the beginning. Gates realizes in order to protect the world's greatest treasure, he must now do the unthinkable: steal the most revered, best guarded document in American history before it falls into the wrong hands. In a race against time, Gates must elude the authorities, stay one step ahead of his ruthless adversary, decipher the remaining clues and unlock the 2000 year-old mystery behind our greatest national treasure.

1944. As the war in Europe continues to take its toll on Allied forces, the Pentagon brass has no recourse but to consider unorthodox options -- including the untried and untested African-American pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program. Just as the young Tuskegee men are on the brink of being shut down and shipped back home, they are given the ultimate chance to show their courage. Against all the odds, with something to prove and everything to lose, these intrepid young airmen take to the skies to fight for their country -- and the fate of the free world.

It's been five years since the end of the American Civil War. Somewhere deep within the snowy mountains of the American West a lone figure - Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) sits in front of a fire, lost in thought. Abruptly, he is pulled out of his reverie by the echo of a Henry rifle and a bullet puffing into the snow inches from his head.

With no time to react another shot rings out. It connects with Gideon's shoulder and whips him to the ground. Instantly Gideon calculates his one chance of survival. To leave everything he owns and run for the cover of the nearby fir trees – his blood leaving a crimson trail in the snow…

So begins the thrilling first act of "Seraphim Falls", and the final stage of Colonel Morsman Carver's (Liam Neeson) terrible revenge - to hunt down and kill Gideon, no matter what it takes. There will be many men dead before these two meet face to face, and only then will Carver fully comprehend the full cost of his undertaking.

Launched by a gunshot and propelled by rage, the relentless pursuit will take them both far from the comforts and codes of civilization and into the unforgiving wilderness. The emotional conclusion to this odyssey comes after a bloody climax in which both men are forced to confront their past and travel deep within the recesses of their souls.

The roads cross at San Antonio de Bexar at a small, ruined mission called The Alamo—a place where myth meets history and legend meets reality. In the spring of 1836 nearly 200 Texans—men of all races who believed in the future of Texas—held the fort for thirteen days under siege by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, ruler of Mexico and commander of its forces. Led by three men—the young, brash Colonel William Travis; the violent, passionate James Bowie; and the larger-than-life living legend Davy Crockett—the Texans and their deeds at the Alamo would pass into history as General Sam Houston's rallying cry for Texas independence. As well, their actions would become legend for their symbolic significance.

When visionary architect László Toth (Brody) and his wife Erzsébet (Jones) flee post-war Europe to rebuild their legacy in America, a mysterious and wealthy client (Pearce) ends up changing their lives forever.

In the midst of the Great War, Colonel "Hellfire Jack" Norton-Griffiths hatches a daring plan to break the deadly stalemate at the Battle of Messines. He recruits a group of local miners to dig a tunnel underneath no man's land, from the allied trenches to the German trenches, in hopes of successfully setting off bombs from below the German line and saving the allied war effort.

Langston Whitfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is a "Washington Post" journalist. His editor provocatively sends him to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, in which the perpetrators of murder and torture on both sides during the Apartheid era are invited to come forward and confront their victims. By telling the unvarnished truth and expressing contrition, they may be granted amnesty. Can the deep wounds of Apartheid be healed through reconciliation? Langston is deeply sceptical. He tracks down Col. De Jager, the most notorious torturer in the SA Police and tries to penetrate the mind of a monster, an experience that obliges him to confront his own demons. Anna Malan (Juliette Binoche), is an Afrikaans poet who is covering the hearings for radio. As a white South African she is shattered by the accounts of the cruelty and depravity committed by her fellow countrymen. Anna and Langston must both question their sense of identity. Where do they each belong? How responsible are they for what is done in the name of their respective countries? The moving testimony of the victims affects them deeply. In different ways they are both estranged from their families, and their shared experience draws them ever closer to each other. It is a story charting the unfathomable depths of human cruelty and the redeeming power of forgiveness and love.

Set in Detroit, Michigan, a number of devastating riots take place over five summer days in 1967.

Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late 16th century Europe, Queen Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II -- with his powerful army and sea-dominating armada -- determined to restore England to Catholicism. Preparing to go to war to defend her empire, Elizabeth struggles to balance ancient royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability in her love for Sir Walter Raleigh. But he remains forbidden for a queen who has sworn body and soul to her country. Unable and unwilling to pursue her love, Elizabeth encourages her favorite lady-in-waiting, Bess, to befriend Raleigh to keep him near. But this strategy forces Elizabeth to observe their growing intimacy. As she charts her course abroad, her trusted advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham, continues his masterful puppetry of Elizabeth's court at home -- and her campaign to solidify absolute power. Through an intricate spy network, Walsingham uncovers an assassination plot that could topple the throne. But as he unmasks traitors that may include Elizabeth's own cousin Mary Stuart, he unknowingly sets England up for destruction.

In 1924, George Mallory makes an ascent of Mount Everest. But he and Andrew Irvine mysteriously never return from their climb. His legacy involves the possibility that he, and not Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, was the first man to reach the summit.

Unfolding over the span of 36 hoursin three separate wars–The American Civil War, World War I, and Iraq–Foxhole follows a small group of soldiers trapped in a confinedspace as they grapple with morality, futility, and an increasingly volatile combatsituation

At the end of World War II, April 1945, the Allies make their final push in the European Theater, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and his five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their attempt to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.

Set at a moment when European countries are racing to find ways to carve up the natural resources of Africa, Belgium's King Leopold II becomes the world's richest man with billions stashed in secret bank accounts by gaining private ownership of the Congo Free State, and inserts a mercenary army to cruelly plunder rubber and ivory. He forces the locals to harvest it. Those who refused are dismembered or worse, and as many as 8 million are killed in this ruthless pursuit. The Congolese defy Leopold II and fight back. Their heroic plight sparks a daring and unlikely alliance between a black American missionary, an English investigative journalist and an Irish spy that shine a light on the horrors and give birth to the first human rights movement.

The heart-wrenching journey of Lady Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad. Separated by 1400 years, an Iraqi child, in the midst of a war-torn country, learns the importance and power of patience. After losing his mother, the child finds himself in a new home, where a loving grandmother narrates the historical story of The Lady and how her suffering as the first victim of terrorism spun out of control into the 21st century.