Best History Movies
These are the 60 best history movies, ranked by the iRank Score — our composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb ratings, weighted by each source's reliability. No single-critic bias: the order reflects broad critical and audience consensus. Pick any title to see its full breakdown and similar recommendations.
Best history movies: classics up to the 70s
- 1
Harakiri (切腹, 1962)
Kobayashi's 1962 masterpiece begins with a destitute ronin requesting a place to commit ritual suicide — then peels back a devastating story that turns the samurai code's honour inside out. Coldly beautiful and quietly furious, it's a slow-burning indictment of hypocrisy and cruelty masquerading as tradition. If its measured tension and moral weight gripped you, seek out classic samurai dramas that wield restraint and a single, shattering swordfight to indict an entire system.
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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
David Lean's 1962 epic charts T.E. Lawrence's transformation from eccentric British officer to messianic leader of the Arab revolt, across deserts shot with unmatched widescreen grandeur. Both a sweeping adventure and a troubled study of identity and hubris, it's the gold standard of the historical epic. If its scale and ambiguity gripped you, the great historical epics — Spartacus and beyond — share its monumental landscapes and larger-than-life figures.
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Mirror (Зеркало, 1975)
Tarkovsky's 1975 autobiographical poem drifts through a dying man's memories, dreams and Soviet history with no conventional plot — only image, feeling and the deep currents of a life. Hypnotic and demanding, it's cinema as memory itself. If its meditative, associative spell held you, seek out contemplative art films that trade narrative for the texture of consciousness, time and longing.
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Ben-Hur (1959)
William Wyler's 1959 epic unfolds in Roman-occupied Judea, where a Jewish aristocrat opposed to the occupation is reunited with his childhood friend, now a Roman commander. That reunion sets off a sweeping saga of betrayal, adventure, tragedy, revenge and faith, tracing one man's fall and long road back across a canvas of empire and personal reckoning. Grand in scale and running long, it's classic large-format Hollywood storytelling built on spectacle, moral struggle and the collision of loyalty and conviction. Best suited to viewers who savor stately historical epics and don't mind a substantial runtime, it rewards patience with genuine dramatic weight and the ambition of old-school filmmaking.
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Spartacus (1960)
The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other
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Barry Lyndon (1975)
An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.
See movies like Barry Lyndon → - 7
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liber
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
George Roy Hill's 1969 adventure, set in 1890s Wyoming, follows a pair of outlaws whose world is closing in as the West rapidly becomes civilized. Hunted by a relentless posse they cannot seem to shake, the two decide to flee to South America in hopes of outrunning the law and starting over. Built on the easy rapport between its two leads, it mixes crime and history with wry humor and a wistful sense of an era passing. It suits viewers who love the Western as elegy rather than shoot-out, and who enjoy charismatic banter, open landscapes and outlaws you root for even as the noose tightens. Expect charm shaded by melancholy.
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Best history movies: from the 80s and 90s
- 9
Schindler's List (1993)
Spielberg's stark, black-and-white account of Oskar Schindler — a profiteer who came to spend his fortune saving over a thousand Jewish workers from the Holocaust — is among cinema's most harrowing and humane historical dramas. Unflinching yet never exploitative, it finds grace inside atrocity. If its moral weight and historical gravity stayed with you, seek out serious wartime dramas that confront real horror while honouring the people who resisted it.
See movies like Schindler's List → - 10
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Spielberg's 1998 war film opens with a viscerally unflinching restaging of the D-Day landings, then follows a squad sent behind enemy lines to bring one soldier home. Brutal, intimate and morally searching, it redefined how cinema depicts combat and its cost. If its harrowing realism and questions of sacrifice stayed with you, seek out unflinching war dramas — from Downfall to The Zone of Interest — that confront the human price of conflict.
See movies like Saving Private Ryan → - 15
Ran (乱, 1985)
Kurosawa's 1985 epic reimagines Shakespeare's King Lear in sixteenth-century Japan, as an aging warlord divides his realm among three sons and reaps catastrophe. Staged with painterly colour and vast, anguished battle, it's a thunderous meditation on pride, betrayal and a world descending into chaos. If its tragic grandeur gripped you, The Last Samurai and Gladiator share its sweeping scale and its fall-of-a-great-man tragedy.
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Das Boot (1981)
Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 epic crams you inside a German U-boat in WWII, where the hunters quickly become the hunted in suffocating metal corridors. Tense, sweaty and morally complex, it humanises its crew while never glorifying the war that traps them — a benchmark of claustrophobic realism. If its unbearable submarine tension gripped you, seek out confined-space war dramas and survival thrillers where the enemy is the dark, the depth and the wait.
See movies like Das Boot → - 17
Amadeus (1984)
Miloš Forman's 1984 epic frames the genius of Mozart through the envious eyes of rival composer Salieri, who is tormented by a talent he can recognise but never match. Lavish, witty and tragic, it turns music history into operatic drama. If its blend of beauty and bitter rivalry gripped you, seek out grand period dramas and artist biopics about genius, jealousy and the agony of mediocrity.
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Raging Bull (1980)
Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece charts boxer Jake LaMotta, whose ferocity in the ring mirrors the jealousy and rage that destroy his life outside it. Shot in stark black-and-white with brutal, beautiful fights, it's a towering character study of self-destruction. If its raw power and tragic intensity gripped you, seek out boxing dramas and unflinching portraits of violent men consumed from within.
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The Elephant Man (1980)
David Lynch's 1980 drama tells the true story of Joseph Merrick, a severely disfigured man in Victorian London, rescued from a sideshow by a surgeon who discovers the intelligent, gentle person behind the frightening exterior. Shot in stark black and white, it trades Lynch's usual surrealism for restrained, deeply humane storytelling about dignity, cruelty and the way society treats those it finds monstrous. This is a slow, emotionally weighty film that rewards patience rather than delivering easy uplift. It suits viewers drawn to period drama and character study, and to anyone moved by quiet portraits of compassion. Expect sadness, tenderness, and a lingering meditation on what makes someone truly human.
See movies like The Elephant Man → - 20
Glory (1989)
Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.
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Apollo 13 (1995)
Ron Howard's 1995 drama recounts the true 1970 Apollo 13 mission, when technical failures scuttled the planned Moon landing and turned a routine flight into a desperate fight for survival. Stranded more than 200,000 miles from Earth, astronaut Jim Lovell and his crew work furiously alongside the ground team to jury-rig solutions and steer the crippled craft home. Howard emphasizes procedure, ingenuity and collective nerve over melodrama, drawing tension from real constraints rather than invention. It suits viewers who like grounded historical thrillers about problem-solving under pressure and teamwork against long odds. Methodical and absorbing, it finds its heroism in competence rather than spectacle.
See movies like Apollo 13 → - 22
The Untouchables (1987)
Brian De Palma turns the Prohibition-era pursuit of Al Capone into a stately, operatic crime picture. Following agent Eliot Ness as he assembles the incorruptible team nicknamed the Untouchables, the 1987 film pairs gangland brutality with a strong moral spine, favoring grand set pieces and old-fashioned heroism over gritty realism. It suits viewers who enjoy classic cops-and-mobsters storytelling, period detail, and De Palma's flair for tension built through composition and pacing rather than shock. If you like your crime dramas polished, character-driven, and unashamedly larger than life, this delivers a satisfying clash between duty and corruption, with history and thriller instincts working hand in hand.
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JFK (1991)
Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.
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Malcolm X (1992)
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nati
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The Last Emperor (1987)
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his
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The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a British Colonel and her party are captured by a gro
See movies like The Last of the Mohicans → - 27
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalc
See movies like The Thin Red Line → - 28
Braveheart (1995)
Mel Gibson's 1995 historical epic follows Scottish warrior William Wallace, whose grief over the killing of his bride and childhood love hardens into open rebellion. After he cuts down a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers, his village rises up, and soon the anger spreads until the whole country is in revolt against English rule. Sweeping across action, drama, history and war, the film pairs large-scale medieval battles with a personal story of loss and defiance. Grand in scale and unabashedly emotional, it suits viewers who want stirring, blood-and-mud historical spectacle. Approach it as rousing myth-making rather than a careful history lesson.
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Best history movies: from the 2000s and 2010s
- 11
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Steve McQueen's 2013 Oscar winner tells the true story of Solomon Northup, a free Black man kidnapped and sold into Southern slavery, and his decade-long fight to survive and return home. Unflinching and beautifully composed, it confronts American history's cruelty without looking away. If its harrowing power and moral force gripped you, seek out historical dramas that reckon honestly with injustice and the will to endure.
See movies like 12 Years a Slave → - 12
The King's Speech (2010)
Tom Hooper's 2010 Oscar winner follows the future King George VI as he fights a crippling stammer with the help of an unorthodox speech therapist on the eve of war. Warm, witty and quietly stirring about friendship and courage, it turns a private struggle into stirring drama. If its restraint and uplift moved you, seek out humane historical dramas about overcoming personal adversity under public pressure.
See movies like The King's Speech → - 29
Downfall (Der Untergang, 2004)
Oliver Hirschbiegel's war drama plunges into Berlin in April 1945, as the Third Reich collapses with Soviet forces advancing from the east and the Allies from the west. Inside Hitler's bunker, he still proclaims victory and orders his generals to fight to the last man, until his suicide leaves his shattered command to end the killing and surrender. Claustrophobic and unflinching, it observes the final days of a regime from the inside, dwelling on delusion, loyalty and moral collapse rather than battlefield spectacle. Demanding and grim, it rewards viewers drawn to serious historical cinema and character study. Not for those seeking comfort or easy answers, but powerful for anyone ready to sit with hard history.
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Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Jean-Marc Vallée directs this 2013 drama loosely based on the true story of Ron Woodroof, a hard-living Texan diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1986 and told he had thirty days to live. What follows is a portrait of a man reckoning with his own prejudices and mortality as illness reshapes his world. Vallée keeps the storytelling lean and grounded rather than sentimental, favoring intimacy over spectacle. It suits viewers drawn to character studies rooted in a specific historical moment, and to fact-inspired dramas about ordinary people pushed to fight. If you value performances and quiet human transformation over plot machinery, this measured, unglamorous film gives you plenty to sit with.
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The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, 2013)
A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.
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The Imitation Game (2014)
Morten Tyldum's 2014 drama dramatizes the real life of cryptanalyst Alan Turing and the race against time to break German codes during the darkest days of World War II. Working at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Turing and his team of brilliant code-breakers labour under enormous pressure, knowing lives hang on every intercepted message. The film blends wartime tension with a portrait of a difficult, singular mind at odds with those around him. It suits viewers who appreciate historical drama grounded in intellect and quiet stakes rather than combat. A thoughtful entry point into a pivotal, long-secret chapter of the war.
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Hero (英雄, 2002)
During China's Warring States period, a district prefect arrives at the palace of Qin Shi Huang, claiming to have killed the three assassins who had made an attempt on the king's life three years ago.
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Lincoln (2012)
Steven Spielberg's 2012 historical drama narrows in on the sixteenth US President's turbulent final months, as a nation divided by war and change hangs in the balance. Rather than a sweeping biography, it's a chamber piece about political maneuvering: Lincoln pursues a course meant to end the war, hold the country together and abolish slavery, and the film finds its tension in backroom persuasion and the moral cost of getting difficult things done. It rewards patient viewers who relish dense, dialogue-driven storytelling and the machinery of principle meeting compromise. If you want thoughtful, talky history over spectacle, Lincoln is absorbing; those seeking action or brisk pacing may find it demanding.
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Best history movies: recent
- 13
Spotlight (2015)
Tom McCarthy's 2015 Oscar winner reconstructs how the Boston Globe's investigative team exposed the Catholic Church's cover-up of child abuse. Understated and rigorous, it makes the patient grind of real journalism quietly gripping, trusting facts over heroics. If its procedural restraint and moral urgency gripped you, seek out journalism and investigation dramas that find suspense in the slow uncovering of truth.
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Oppenheimer (2023)
Christopher Nolan's 2023 epic dramatises the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, and the triumph and torment of building a weapon that could end the world. Sprawling, propulsive and morally fraught, it turns physics and politics into towering tragedy. If its scale and ethical weight gripped you, seek out ambitious historical dramas and biopics about genius, consequence and the price of world-changing power.
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The Irishman (2019)
Scorsese's 2019 epic follows hitman Frank Sheeran across decades of mob loyalty and the vanishing of Jimmy Hoffa, in an elegiac meditation on violence, time and regret. Long, patient and quietly mournful, it's a gangster saga in autumn. If its reflective grandeur and moral weight gripped you, seek out late-career crime epics about old men reckoning with the lives they took.
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Ford v Ferrari (2019)
James Mangold's 2019 drama chronicles how American designer Carroll Shelby and British driver Ken Miles fought corporate meddling, the laws of physics, and their own demons to build a car capable of beating Enzo Ferrari's dominant machines at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. The film is as much about friendship and stubborn craftsmanship as horsepower, pitting engineers and drivers against the suits who sign the checks. Mangold stages the racing with clarity and thunder while keeping the human stakes front and center. Handsome, sturdy, and emotionally direct, it's ideal for viewers who love underdog stories, period detail, and a sports drama that respects both the machinery and the men.
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The Favourite (2018)
Yorgos Lanthimos's 2018 period piece sets its knives in early-eighteenth-century England, where the intimate bond between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill is upended by the arrival of Sarah's ambitious cousin, Abigail Hill. The two women wage a caustic campaign to become the Queen's favourite, and the court becomes a stage for manipulation, wit and shifting power. Lanthimos brings his signature acid humour and off-kilter formalism to a story about vulnerability, control and who gets to survive at the top. It rewards viewers who savour barbed dialogue, moral murkiness and unconventional style over tidy costume drama. Cool, cruel and very funny, it lingers uncomfortably.
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1917 (2019)
Sam Mendes's 2019 war drama follows two young British soldiers at the height of the First World War, sent across enemy territory to deliver a message that could halt a deadly attack on hundreds of men. Built around an urgent, ground-level journey, it turns a single mission into a study of exhaustion, chance and quiet courage rather than sweeping battle spectacle. The immersive, near-real-time approach keeps the focus tight on two ordinary soldiers under impossible pressure, favoring immediacy over grand strategy. It suits viewers who want a tense, human-scaled account of the war and its cost. Those seeking a broad historical panorama or heavy exposition may find it deliberately narrow.
See movies like 1917 → - 39
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Martin Scorsese's 2023 crime drama draws on real history: when oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma beneath Osage Nation land, sudden wealth arrives, and with it a wave of murders that picks off the Osage one by one, until the FBI intervenes to unravel who is behind them. Working in the register of history and true crime, Scorsese frames this as a story about greed, betrayal, and the machinery of dispossession rather than a conventional whodunit. Expect deliberate pacing and moral weight over easy thrills. It rewards viewers who want serious, historically grounded American cinema and are willing to sit with an unhurried, disquieting account of exploitation and complicity.
See movies like Killers of the Flower Moon → - 40
I'm Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui, 2024)
A woman married to a former politician during the 1971 military dictatorship in Brazil is forced to reinvent herself and chart a new course for her family after a violent and arbitrary act.
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Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (るろうに剣心 最終章 The Final, 2021)
In 1879, Kenshin and his allies face their strongest enemy yet: his former brother-in-law Enishi Yukishiro and his minions, who've vowed their revenge.
See movies like Rurouni Kenshin: The Final → - 42
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Spike Lee's 2018 mix of comedy, crime, drama and history unfolds in Colorado Springs in the late 1970s, where Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer, and Flip Zimmerman, his Jewish colleague, run an undercover operation to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. The premise is almost too outrageous to be true, and Lee mines it for both sharp satire and genuine tension as the two men divide one identity between them. It's provocative, funny and pointed, using a period story to speak plainly about race and hatred. Best for viewers who like political filmmaking with bite, tonal boldness, and a director unafraid to connect past and present.
See movies like BlacKkKlansman → - 43
A Taxi Driver (택시운전사, 2017)
May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwa
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The Zone of Interest (2023)
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
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Hamnet (2025)
The powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
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Hidden Figures (2016)
Theodore Melfi's 2016 historical drama tells the long-overlooked story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, three brilliant African-American women whose mathematical work at NASA helped launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit. Set against the barriers of race and gender in their era, it foregrounds intellect, dignity and quiet determination as the trio push past discrimination to shape a landmark moment in space history. Warm, uplifting and accessible, it favors inspiration and clarity over grit, making it ideal for viewers who want a rousing true-story drama the whole family can share. Those seeking hard-edged realism may find it polished, but its celebration of overlooked heroines resonates.
See movies like Hidden Figures → - 47
Society of the Snow (La sociedad de la nieve, 2023)
On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to take a rugby team to Chile, crashes into a glacier in the heart of the Andes.
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Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Mel Gibson's 2016 war drama tells the true-inspired story of Desmond T. Doss, an American Army medic who served at the Battle of Okinawa yet refused to carry a weapon, becoming the first conscientious objector to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. The film splits cleanly between his convictions being tested at home and in training, and the harrowing intensity of combat. Gibson stages battle with unflinching, visceral brutality, throwing Doss's quiet faith into sharp relief. It suits viewers who can stomach graphic violence in service of a story about courage without killing. Watch it for a stirring portrait of conviction holding firm amid horror.
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Straight Outta Compton (2015)
F. Gary Gray's 2015 drama tells the true story of five young men who turned their anger about life in one of America's most dangerous neighborhoods into raw, brutally honest music, forming the group N.W.A in 1987. Tracing their rise from Compton streets to national controversy, it charts how their lyrics, swagger and talent let them speak truths about life in the hood that no one had aired so openly, defying the authorities that meant to silence them. This music-driven biographical drama suits viewers interested in hip-hop history, systemic injustice and the cost of a defiant voice. Expect energy, period detail and a story about art as protest.
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King Richard (2021)
The story of how Richard Williams served as a coach to his daughters Venus and Serena, who will soon become two of the most legendary tennis players in history.
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Air (2023)
Discover the game-changing partnership between a then undiscovered Michael Jordan and Nike's fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and culture with the Air Jordan bran
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The Iron Claw (2023)
The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of
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First Man (2018)
A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
See movies like First Man → - 54
The Post (2017)
A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired
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Green Book (2018)
Peter Farrelly's 2018 film blends comedy, drama and history to follow Tony Lip, a rough-edged bouncer hired in 1962 to drive pianist Don Shirley on a concert tour through the segregated Deep South, guided by a travel book for Black motorists. The odd-couple dynamic between the brash driver and the refined musician anchors a road movie about prejudice, dignity and unlikely friendship. Warm and accessible, it favors gentle humor and human connection over hard edges. It suits viewers who want a feel-good period drama with a social conscience. Watch it for two contrasting men reshaping each other's view of the world, mile by mile.
See movies like Green Book → - 56
The Woman King (2022)
The story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen, and General Nan
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Only the Brave (2017)
Members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots battle deadly wildfires to save an Arizona town.
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Thirteen Lives (2022)
Based on the true nail-biting mission that captivated the world. Twelve boys and the coach of a Thai soccer team explore the Tham Luang cave when an unexpected rainstorm traps them in a chamber inside
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There's Still Tomorrow (C'è ancora domani, 2023)
In postwar Rome, a working-class woman dreams of a better future for herself and her daughter while facing abuse at the hands of her domineering husband. When a mysterious letter arrives, she discover
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)
Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.
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Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026MethodologyData sources