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Best History Movies of All Time

Every history film with 500 or more TMDB votes, ranked by user rating.

📊 A century of movies in numbers 442 titlesavg ★ 7.17 avg 130 min History Drama War Action

By decade:1950s 8 1960s 13 1970s 15 1980s 23 1990s 39 2000s 85 2010s 170 2020s 80

#1 Schindler's List (1993) · ★ 8.6 · 17,970 votes · 3h 15m · drama, history, war
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.…
#2 Michael (2026) · ★ 8.6 · 4,476 votes · 2h 8m · drama, history, music
The story of Michael Jackson, one of the most influential artists the world has ever known, and his life beyond the music. His journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talen…
#3 Harakiri (1962) · ★ 8.4 · 1,233 votes · 2h 15m · action, drama, history
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a wort…
#4 Paths of Glory (1957) · ★ 8.3 · 3,391 votes · 1h 28m · drama, history, war
A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.…
#5 Night and Fog (1956) · ★ 8.3 · 590 votes · 0h 32m · history, war, documentary
Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.…
#6 I Swear (2025) · ★ 8.3 · 590 votes · 2h 1m · drama, history
Diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at 15, John Davidson navigates his way against the odds through troubled teenage years and into adulthood, finding inspiration in the kindness of o…
#7 Saving Private Ryan (1998) · ★ 8.2 · 17,802 votes · 2h 49m · drama, history, war
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tas…
#8 Hacksaw Ridge (2016) · ★ 8.2 · 15,346 votes · 2h 19m · drama, history, war
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receiv…
#9 Green Book (2018) · ★ 8.2 · 13,301 votes · 2h 10m · comedy, drama, history
Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and…
#10 Come and See (1985) · ★ 8.2 · 1,977 votes · 2h 22m · drama, horror, history
The invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Flyora into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl,…
#11 The Elephant Man (1980) · ★ 8.1 · 4,063 votes · 2h 4m · drama, history
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intellig…
#12 Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) · ★ 8.1 · 3,030 votes · 2h 1m · romance, drama, history
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.…
#13 Das Boot (1981) · ★ 8.1 · 2,651 votes · 2h 30m · drama, history, war
A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and t…
#14 Togo (2019) · ★ 8.1 · 2,354 votes · 1h 53m · adventure, drama, family
The untold true story set in the winter of 1925 that takes you across the treacherous terrain of the Alaskan tundra for an exhilarating and uplifting adventure that will test the s…
#15 There's Still Tomorrow (2023) · ★ 8.1 · 1,557 votes · 1h 58m · comedy, drama, history
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 a…
#16 Senna (2010) · ★ 8.1 · 1,242 votes · 1h 46m · history, documentary
The remarkable story of Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna, charting his physical and spiritual achievements on the track and off, his quest for perfection, and the mythical stat…
#17 Prayers for Bobby (2009) · ★ 8.1 · 653 votes · 1h 29m · tv-movie, drama, history
Bobby Griffith was his mother's favorite son, the perfect all-American boy growing up under deeply religious influences in Walnut Creek, California. Bobby was also gay. Struggling…
#18 The Imitation Game (2014) · ★ 8.0 · 18,461 votes · 1h 53m · thriller, drama, history
Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain…
#19 1917 (2019) · ★ 8.0 · 13,954 votes · 1h 59m · action, thriller, drama
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.…
#20 Oppenheimer (2023) · ★ 8.0 · 12,539 votes · 3h 1m · drama, history
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.…
#21 Hidden Figures (2016) · ★ 8.0 · 10,671 votes · 2h 7m · drama, history
The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest o…
#22 Ford v Ferrari (2019) · ★ 8.0 · 9,331 votes · 2h 33m · action, drama, history
American car designer Carroll Shelby and the British-born driver Ken Miles work together to battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to bui…
#23 Casino (1995) · ★ 8.0 · 6,758 votes · 2h 59m · drama, history, crime
In Las Vegas, two best friends--a casino executive and a Mafia enforcer--compete for a gambling empire and a fast-living, fast-loving socialite.…
#24 Amadeus (1984) · ★ 8.0 · 4,937 votes · 2h 40m · drama, history, music
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus M…
#25 Society of the Snow (2023) · ★ 8.0 · 3,650 votes · 2h 23m · drama, history
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.…
#26 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) · ★ 8.0 · 3,591 votes · 3h 48m · adventure, history, war
During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.…
#27 Barry Lyndon (1975) · ★ 8.0 · 3,284 votes · 3h 8m · romance, drama, history
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 Lyndo…
#28 Loving Vincent (2017) · ★ 8.0 · 2,663 votes · 1h 35m · drama, animation, history
A young man arrives at the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.…
#29 Ran (1985) · ★ 8.0 · 1,921 votes · 2h 40m · action, drama, history
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.…
#30 A Taxi Driver (2017) · ★ 8.0 · 1,235 votes · 2h 18m · action, drama, history
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…
#31 The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) · ★ 8.0 · 1,136 votes · 1h 21m · drama, history
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc…
#32 Rome, Open City (1945) · ★ 8.0 · 996 votes · 1h 44m · drama, history, war
During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.…
#33 Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) · ★ 8.0 · 990 votes · 3h 11m · drama, history, war
In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears eviden…
#34 Flamin' Hot (2023) · ★ 8.0 · 871 votes · 1h 39m · comedy, drama, history
The inspiring true story of Richard Montañez, the Frito Lay janitor who channeled his Mexican American heritage and upbringing to turn the iconic Flamin' Hot Cheetos into a snack t…
#35 Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004) · ★ 8.0 · 794 votes · 2h 28m · action, adventure, drama
When two brothers are forced to fight in the Korean War, the elder decides to take the riskiest missions if it will help shield the younger from battle.…
#36 The Best of Youth (2003) · ★ 8.0 · 620 votes · 6h 7m · romance, drama, history
After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of po…
#37 Paris Is Burning (1991) · ★ 8.0 · 571 votes · 1h 18m · history, documentary
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African A…
#38 12 Years a Slave (2013) · ★ 7.9 · 12,250 votes · 2h 14m · drama, history
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solo…
#39 Braveheart (1995) · ★ 7.9 · 11,460 votes · 2h 58m · action, drama, history
Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village…
#40 Dallas Buyers Club (2013) · ★ 7.9 · 9,297 votes · 1h 57m · drama, history
Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.…