Colonial Adventures
Most interesting films about colonialism as a subgenre of adventure films
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- DirectorJohn FordStarsVictor McLaglenMyrna LoyDavid TorrenceCaptain Donald King of the British Army goes to India just as World War I breaks out, convincing his comrades that he is a coward. In reality, he is on a secret mission to rescue British soldiers held prisoner there.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsVictor McLaglenBoris KarloffWallace FordA dozen British soldiers, lost in a Mesopotamian desert during World War I, are menaced by unseen Arab enemies.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsGary CooperFranchot ToneRichard CromwellThree British soldiers on the Northwest Frontier of India struggle against the enemy - and themselves.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandPatric KnowlesA major countermands orders and attacks to avenge a previous massacre of men, women, and children.
- DirectorFrank LloydStarsRonald ColmanClaudette ColbertVictor McLaglenSergeant Victor comes to the French Foreign Legion after taking the blame for his brother's crime. Cigarette falls in love with him though Major Doyle is in love with her. Doyle sends Victor on dangerous assignments to be rid of him. He falls in love with Lady Venetia Cunningham, a visitor to the garrison.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyZoltan KordaStarsSabuW.E. HollowayWalter HuddThis black and white movie is based on Rudyard Kipling's "Toomai, of the Elephants", in which a small native lad claims he knows the congregating place of the elephant hordes.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsSabuRaymond MasseyRoger LiveseyDuring the British Raj, Captain Carruthers works under cover to track smuggled shipments of arms on the restless Northwest Frontier of India. He fears a full-scale rebellion is brewing. To forestall this, the British governor signs a treaty with the friendly, peace-loving ruler of Tokot, a key kingdom in the region, which is described as four days' march northward from Peshawar. Meanwhile, the king's son, Prince Azim, befriends Carruthers and a British drummer boy, Bill Holder, who teaches him how to play the instrument.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsCary GrantJoan FontaineVictor McLaglenIn 19th century India, three British soldiers and a native waterbearer must stop a secret mass revival of the murderous Thuggee cult before it can rampage across the land.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsGary CooperDavid NivenAndrea LeedsA small American contingent tries to train rural tribesmen to defend themselves against fanatical Muslim radicals in 1906 Philippines.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsGary CooperRay MillandRobert PrestonThree adopted English brothers join the French Foreign Legion in North Africa after one of them steals their adoptive family's famous heirloom sapphire.
- DirectorAntonio RománStarsArmando CalvoJosé NietoGuillermo MarínDuring the time of the Spanish-American War, the commandant of a Spanish detachment in Baler, in the Philippines, realizes that the native people of his district are planning an insurrection. He orders his troops to entrench in the village church. During their stay, which is prolonged for nearly a year, there are several incidents which show the tenacity and heroism of the Spanish.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsGary CooperPaulette GoddardHoward Da SilvaIntrepid frontiersman Chris Holden foils the political and personal ambitions of renegade Martin Garth in the Ohio Valley following the French and Indian War.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsTyrone PowerJean PetersCesar RomeroThe invasion of Mexico by Cortez, as seen by a young Spanish officer fleeing the Inquisition.
- DirectorVictor SavilleStarsErrol FlynnDean StockwellPaul LukasDuring the British Raj, the orphan of a British soldier poses as a Hindu and is torn between his loyalty to a Buddhist mystic and aiding the English secret service.
- DirectorTay GarnettStarsStewart GrangerWalter PidgeonDavid NivenRetired British general Brunswick reminisces about the days when he was a colonel in charge of a British Army battalion fighting against native rebels in colonial India during the late 1800s.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsTyrone PowerTerry MooreMichael RennieA half-caste British officer in 19th-century India battles the prejudices of both his Army colleagues and the local populace while trying to help put down a rebellion led by a greedy local ruler.
- DirectorLaslo BenedekStarsRock HudsonArlene DahlUrsula ThiessSet during British India 1857, Captain Clayboune (Rock Hudson) is faced with restoring his reputation after being harshly disciplined for disobeying orders.
- DirectorBrian Desmond HurstStarsDirk BogardeVirginia McKennaBasil SydneyA European family in East Africa finds itself caught up in an uprising by local black Africans against their white colonial masters. Based on the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya in the early 1950s.
- DirectorRudolph MatéStarsFred MacMurrayCharlton HestonDonna ReedAfter purchasing Louisiana from France, the USA sends surveyors Lewis and Clark, assisted by a Shoshone guide, to chart the new territory.
- DirectorJ. Lee ThompsonStarsKenneth MoreLauren BacallHerbert LomSet on the North West Frontier of colonial India in 1905. A British Army Officer, Captain Scott is sent to rescue a five year old Indian Prince and his American governess, Catherine Wyatt from certain death at the hands of rebel tribesman.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe 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.
- DirectorNicholas RayGuy GreenAndrew MartonStarsCharlton HestonAva GardnerDavid NivenDuring the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, U.S. marine, Maj. Matt Lewis, along with British consul, Sir Arthur Robertson, develop a plan to keep the rebels at bay until an international military relief force can arrive.
- DirectorJohn GuillerminStarsRichard AttenboroughJack HawkinsFlora RobsonAnachronistic strict Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale (Sir Richard Attenborough), on a remote colonial African army caught in a local coup d'etat, must use his experience to defend those in his care.
- DirectorCy EndfieldStarsStanley BakerJack HawkinsUlla JacobssonOutnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsPeter O'TooleJames MasonCurd JürgensAfter being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself.
- DirectorJohn GillingStarsRonald LewisOliver ReedDuncan LamontThe British army fights off rampaging locals in 1850s India.
- DirectorBasil DeardenEliot ElisofonStarsCharlton HestonLaurence OlivierRichard JohnsonIn the Sudan, in 1884 to 1885, Egyptian forces led by British General Charles "Chinese" Gordon (Charlton Heston) defend Khartoum against an invading Muslim Army led by a religious fanatic, Mohammed Ahmed el Mahdi (Sir Laurence Olivier).
- DirectorKen AnnakinStarsYul BrynnerTrevor HowardHarry AndrewsTo protest against British oppression and tyranny a tribal leader becomes a bandit.
- DirectorTony RichardsonStarsTrevor HowardVanessa RedgraveJohn GielgudIn 1854, during the Crimean War, poor planning leads to the British Light Brigade openly charging a Russian artillery position with tragic consequences.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsSean ConneryMichael CaineChristopher PlummerIn 1880s India, two former British soldiers decide to set themselves up as Kings in Kafiristan, a land where no white man has set foot since Alexander the Great.
- DirectorJohn MiliusStarsSean ConneryCandice BergenBrian KeithA Berber chieftain triggers an international incident, drawing the involvement of Theodore Roosevelt, when he kidnaps an American widow and her children in 1900s Morocco.
- DirectorDick RichardsStarsGene HackmanTerence HillCatherine DeneuveDuring the 1920s, French Foreign Legion Major William Foster's (Gene Hackman's) unit is protecting an archaeological dig, but the discovery of an Arab sacred burial site prompts the angry Arab tribes to attack Foster's small garrison.
- DirectorDouglas HickoxStarsBurt LancasterPeter O'TooleSimon WardA dramatization of the Battle of Isandlwana, where the British Army met its match against the Zulu nation.
- DirectorAlain CorneauStarsGérard DepardieuPhilippe NoiretCatherine DeneuveYoung army officer of peasant origin becomes a war hero battling in the Sahara while seducing a young woman from the aristocratic class.
- DirectorRoland JofféStarsRobert De NiroJeremy IronsRay McAnallyEighteenth-century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal.
- DirectorCarlos SauraStarsOmero AntonuttiEusebio PoncelaLambert WilsonThe film tells the epic story of an expedition that took place between 1560 and 1561, headed by Pedro de Ursúa, in search of "El Dorado." The territory they explored subsequently became Colombia. Three hundred men sold their property and souls to travel down the biggest and least known river in the world. After the rebellion of Lope de Aguirre (who took over command) against Philip II, the king of Spain, this expedition became one of the best-known episodes in the conquest of "The New World." Accompanied by a team of all types, Lope de Aguirre's adventure will end in tragedy, exposing the full range of human miseries.
- DirectorMichael MannStarsDaniel Day-LewisMadeleine StoweRussell MeansThree trappers protect the daughters of a British Colonel in the midst of the French and Indian War.
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsLeonardo DiCaprioTom HardyWill PoulterA frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
- DirectorJames GrayStarsCharlie HunnamRobert PattinsonSienna MillerA true-life drama, centering on British explorer Major Percival Fawcett, who disappeared whilst searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s.
- DirectorAgustín Díaz YanesStarsRaúl ArévaloBárbara LennieÓscar JaenadaLove, ambition, treason and death clash in a neverending search for a city built with gold.