Epic /history
by ni-sp | created - 28 Jul 2011 | updated - 3 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 314,467 | Gross: $44.82M
2. Becket (1964)
PG-13 | 148 min | Biography, Drama, History
King Henry II of England comes to terms with his affection for his close friend and confidant Thomas Becket, who finds his true honor by observing God's divine will rather than the King's.
Director: Peter Glenville | Stars: Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud, Gino Cervi
Votes: 15,850
3. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
PG-13 | 166 min | Western
A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Votes: 349,168 | Gross: $5.32M
4. The Last Emperor (1987)
PG-13 | 163 min | Biography, Drama, History
Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-winning dramatisation of the life story of China's last emperor, Pu Yi.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ruocheng Ying
Votes: 111,535 | Gross: $43.98M
5. Elizabeth (1998)
R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, History
The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
Director: Shekhar Kapur | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson, Paul Fox
Votes: 105,146 | Gross: $30.08M
6. Gandhi (1982)
PG | 191 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth
Votes: 240,224 | Gross: $52.77M
7. The Message (1976)
PG | 177 min | Biography, Drama, History
This epic historical drama chronicles the life and times of Prophet Muhammad and serves as an introduction to early Islamic history.
Director: Moustapha Akkad | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara, Johnny Sekka
Votes: 50,854
8. Agora (2009)
R | 127 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his mistress, the philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom
Votes: 73,066 | Gross: $0.62M
9. Nanook of the North (1922)
Passed | 78 min | Documentary
In this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
Director: Robert J. Flaherty | Stars: Allakariallak, Alice Nevalinga, Cunayou, Allegoo
Votes: 13,455
10. Amen. (2002)
Not Rated | 132 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
During WWII SS officer Kurt Gerstein tries to inform Pope Pius XII about Jews being sent to extermination camps. Young Jesuit priest Riccardo Fontana helps him in the difficult mission to inform the world.
Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Kassovitz, Ulrich Mühe, Michel Duchaussoy
Votes: 14,981 | Gross: $0.27M
11. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
Not Rated | 120 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
Director: Marc Rothemund | Stars: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf
Votes: 28,674 | Gross: $0.68M
12. Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
PG-13 | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History
A mature Queen Elizabeth endures multiple crises late in her reign including court intrigues, an assassination plot, the Spanish Armada, and romantic disappointments.
Director: Shekhar Kapur | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Jordi Mollà
Votes: 75,076 | Gross: $16.29M
13. Robin Hood (2010)
PG-13 | 140 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In twelfth-century England, Robin Longstride and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Matthew Macfadyen, Max von Sydow
Votes: 283,219 | Gross: $105.27M
14. The New World (2005)
PG-13 | 135 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of the English exploration of Virginia, and of the changing world and loves of Pocahontas.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Colin Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale
Votes: 89,908 | Gross: $12.71M
15. John Rabe (2009)
134 min | Biography, Drama, History
A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.
Director: Florian Gallenberger | Stars: Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Brühl, Steve Buscemi, Anne Consigny
Votes: 6,744 | Gross: $0.07M
16. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
R | 141 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryô Kase
Votes: 170,078 | Gross: $13.76M
17. The Great Escape (1963)
Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson
Votes: 258,983 | Gross: $12.10M
18. The Way Back (I) (2010)
PG-13 | 133 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Siberian gulag escapees travel four thousand miles by foot to freedom in India.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Dragos Bucur
Votes: 122,027 | Gross: $2.70M
19. Papillon (1973)
R | 151 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon
Votes: 138,409 | Gross: $53.27M
20. Rome (2005–2007)
TV-MA | 60 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.
Stars: Kevin McKidd, Ray Stevenson, Polly Walker, Kerry Condon
Votes: 185,439
21. Downton Abbey (2010–2015)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Romance
A chronicle of the lives of the British aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the early twentieth century.
Stars: Hugh Bonneville, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Brendan Coyle
Votes: 224,979
22. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
PG-13 | 197 min | Drama, Romance, War
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger
Votes: 82,100 | Gross: $111.72M
23. Pope Joan (2009)
149 min | Drama, History, Romance
A woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim in the ninth century disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.
Director: Sönke Wortmann | Stars: Johanna Wokalek, David Wenham, John Goodman, Iain Glen
Votes: 9,113
24. Testament of Youth (2014)
PG-13 | 129 min | Biography, Drama, History
A British woman recalls coming of age during World War I - a story of young love, the futility of war, and how to make sense of the darkest times.
Director: James Kent | Stars: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Taron Egerton, Dominic West
Votes: 30,508 | Gross: $1.82M
25. The Admiral (2015)
TV-PG | 151 min | Action, Biography, Drama
When the young republic of The Netherlands is attacked by England, France, and Germany, and the country is on the brink of civil war, only one man can lead the country's strongest weapon, the Dutch fleet: Michiel de Ruyter.
Director: Roel Reiné | Stars: Frank Lammers, Sanne Langelaar, Barry Atsma, Lieke van Lexmond
Votes: 10,427
26. War & Peace (2016)
TV-14 | 63 min | Drama, History, Romance
As the Russian conflict with Napoleon reaches its peak, five aristocratic families face the possibility of their lives being changed forever.
Stars: Paul Dano, James Norton, Lily James, Adrian Edmondson
Votes: 26,640
27. Victoria (2016–2019)
TV-PG | 60 min | Biography, Drama, History
The early life of Queen Victoria, from her ascension to the throne at the tender age of 18 to her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert.
Stars: Jenna Coleman, Adrian Schiller, Tommy Knight, Jordan Waller
Votes: 30,895
28. Ali and Nino (2016)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Romance, War
Love story of a Muslim Azerbaijani boy and Christian Georgian girl in Baku from 1918 to 1920.
Director: Asif Kapadia | Stars: Adam Bakri, María Valverde, Mandy Patinkin, Riccardo Scamarcio
Votes: 5,550
29. Deutschland 83 (2015)
TV-MA | 42 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
Martin Rauch is recruited by the HVA to infiltrate the West Germany army. As a rookie spy, his decisions constantly put his cover at risk and force his agency to take extreme measures.
Stars: Jonas Nay, Maria Schrader, Ulrich Noethen, Sylvester Groth
Votes: 15,027
30. Ryan's Daughter (1970)
R | 200 min | Drama, Romance
Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married woman in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Christopher Jones
Votes: 10,686 | Gross: $30.85M
31. The Physician (2013)
R | 155 min | Adventure, Drama, History
In 11th-century Persia, a surgeon's apprentice disguises himself as a Jew to study at a school that does not admit Christians.
Director: Philipp Stölzl | Stars: Tom Payne, Stellan Skarsgård, Olivier Martinez, Emma Rigby
Votes: 41,954
32. Mr. Sunshine (2018)
TV-MA | 80 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A young boy who ends up in the U.S. after the 1871 Shinmiyangyo incident returns to Korea at a historical turning point and falls for a noblewoman.
Stars: Lee Byung-hun, Kim Tae-ri, Yoo Yeon-Seok, Byun Yo-han
Votes: 10,280
33. The Crowned Clown (2019)
80 min | Drama, History, Romance
The story takes place in Joseon period, when power struggles surrounding the throne had reached extreme levels. In order to escape those who plan to assassinate him, the King puts a clown, who looks exactly like him, on the throne.
Stars: Yeo Jin-goo, Lee Se-yeong, Kim Sang-kyung, Kwon Hae-hyo
Votes: 1,487
34. The Tale of Nokdu (2019)
30 min | Action, Comedy, History
During the Joseon period, a man named Jeon Nok-du disguises himself as a woman to escape into a village of widows. There, he meets Dong Dong-ju, a kisaeng trainee who is more fond of crafts than singing or dancing.
Stars: Jang Dong-yoon, Kim So-hyun, Kang Tae-oh, Jeong Jun-ho
Votes: 1,974
35. The Empress Ki (2013–2014)
Action, Drama, Romance
A Korea-born warrior girl had to be a servant at the Mongol Yuan court but somehow overcame her low status to become an empress in another land.
Stars: Ha Ji-Won, Ji Chang-wook, Oh Gwang-Rok, Choi Jung-Won
Votes: 3,595
36. Dong Yi (2010– )
TV-Y | 60 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Story a simple maid that rises high in the royal harem as a consort and, ultimately, mother of the Korean king.
Stars: Han Hyo-joo, Lee So-yeon, Kim So-yi, Julia Lim
Votes: 2,127
38. Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007)
R | 126 min | Action, Biography, Drama
The story recounts the early life of Genghis Khan who was a slave before going on to conquer half the world in 1206.
Director: Sergei Bodrov | Stars: Tadanobu Asano, Amadu Mamadakov, Khulan Chuluun, Honglei Sun
Votes: 49,196 | Gross: $5.70M
39. Six Flying Dragons (2015–2016)
Action, Drama, History
Story of the the foundation of the Joseon Dynasty in Korea and ambition, success and fall of several real and fictional characters.
Stars: Kim Hyun-bin, Yoo Ah-in, Byun Yo-han, Kim Myung-min
Votes: 1,203
40. Queen Marie of Romania (2019)
110 min | Drama
Devastated by the First World War and plunged into political controversy, Romania's every hope accompanies its queen on her mission to Paris to lobby for international recognition of its great unification at the 1919 peace talks.
Directors: Alexis Cahill, Brigitte Drodtloff | Stars: Roxana Lupu, Daniel Plier, Richard Elfyn, Patrick Drury
Votes: 2,388
41. Seven Samurai (1954)
Not Rated | 207 min | Action, Drama
Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki
Votes: 366,937 | Gross: $0.27M
42. The Great Queen Seondeok (2009)
60 min | Biography, Drama, History
Story of Queen Seondeok who was born a princess, brought up among commoners and overcame many trials to become the ruler of Silla.
Stars: Jeong Woong-in, Kim Jung-hyun, Ryu Dam, Lee Yo-won
Votes: 1,413
43. The Chosen (2017– )
TV-PG | 54 min | Drama, History
The Chosen is a historical drama based on the life of Jesus and those who knew him. Set against the backdrop of Roman oppression in first-century Israel, the series shares an authentic look at Jesus' revolutionary life and teachings.
Stars: Elizabeth Tabish, Jonathan Roumie, Shahar Isaac, Nick Shakoour
Votes: 46,932
44. The Magnificent Century (2011–2014)
90 min | Biography, Drama, History
From 1520, follows Suleiman the Magnificent and his relatives from his great conquests to the "Battle of Szigetvár".
Stars: Halit Ergenç, Nur Fettahoglu, Selim Bayraktar, Selen Öztürk
Votes: 19,145
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