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Best History Movies of the 1980s
#1 Come and See (1985) · ★ 8.2 · 1,977 votes · 2h 22m · drama, horror, historyThe 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,…
#2 The Elephant Man (1980) · ★ 8.1 · 4,063 votes · 2h 4m · drama, historyA 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…
#3 Das Boot (1981) · ★ 8.1 · 2,651 votes · 2h 30m · drama, history, warA 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…
#4 Amadeus (1984) · ★ 8.0 · 4,937 votes · 2h 40m · drama, history, musicDisciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus M…
#5 Ran (1985) · ★ 8.0 · 1,921 votes · 2h 40m · action, drama, historyShakespeare'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.…
#6 Raging Bull (1980) · ★ 7.9 · 4,905 votes · 2h 9m · drama, historyThe life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.…
#7 The Untouchables (1987) · ★ 7.8 · 6,345 votes · 1h 59m · thriller, drama, historyElliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.…
#8 Kagemusha (1980) · ★ 7.8 · 772 votes · 3h 0m · action, drama, historyAkira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When…
#9 The Color Purple (1985) · ★ 7.7 · 2,041 votes · 2h 34m · drama, history, crimeAn epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marrie…
#10 Gandhi (1982) · ★ 7.6 · 2,580 votes · 3h 12m · drama, historyIn the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed…
#11 The Last Emperor (1987) · ★ 7.6 · 1,994 votes · 2h 43m · drama, historyA 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…
#12 Empire of the Sun (1987) · ★ 7.5 · 2,213 votes · 2h 33m · drama, history, warJamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who lo…
#13 Glory (1989) · ★ 7.5 · 1,882 votes · 2h 2m · drama, history, warRobert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.…
#14 The Killing Fields (1984) · ★ 7.5 · 866 votes · 2h 22m · drama, history, warNew York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. Wh…
#15 The Mission (1986) · ★ 7.4 · 1,607 votes · 2h 5m · action, adventure, dramaWhen a Spanish Jesuit goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region, a slave hunter is converted and joins his miss…
#16 The Right Stuff (1983) · ★ 7.4 · 975 votes · 3h 13m · adventure, drama, historyAt the dawn of the Space Race, seven test pilots set out to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings momentous challenges.…
#17 Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) · ★ 7.3 · 549 votes · 2h 4m · drama, history, warIsland of Java, 1942, during World War II. British Major Jack Celliers arrives at a Japanese prison camp, run by the strict Captain Yonoi. Colonel John Lawrence, who has a profound…
#18 Casualties of War (1989) · ★ 7.2 · 1,050 votes · 1h 53m · drama, history, warDuring the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.…
#19 Out of Africa (1985) · ★ 7.1 · 1,584 votes · 2h 41m · romance, drama, historyTells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The film is based on her 1937 autobiog…
#20 Gallipoli (1981) · ★ 7.1 · 575 votes · 1h 52m · drama, history, warTwo Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.…
#21 Gorillas in the Mist (1988) · ★ 7.0 · 679 votes · 2h 9m · drama, historyThe story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.…
#22 Chariots of Fire (1981) · ★ 6.8 · 1,077 votes · 2h 3m · drama, historyIn the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scotti…
#23 The Bounty (1984) · ★ 6.8 · 663 votes · 2h 12m · action, drama, historyAn idyllic voyage to Tahiti in 1789 turns a crew aboard the H.M.S. Bounty against its captain when they find a tropical paradise.…