HISTORICAL MOVIES (HISTORICAL FILMS)
IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION -- I'm watching and writing about these movies as fast as I can, but it is going to take awhile).
Used a lot of Wikipedia, IMDb and amazon.com
email: plc47@optonline.net
Patrick L. Cooney, Ph. D., sociologist, historian, botanist
Copyright © 2006 by Patrick Louis Cooney. All rights reserved.
What do the X's mean? The X's just indicate the ones I either have not watched or I have watched but have no review or a puny review. It's just a way to keep me from buying two copies of the same movie. I buy a bunch at a time and then watch them all. Then I buy another batch, etc. It's hard to remember what I have done and what I have not done, hence the X's. patrick L cooney
Table of Contents
I. ANCIENT MAN (hominids and man some 4 million years old; dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago).
II.1 Egypt (Nile River Valley)
II.2. China (Yellow River Valley)
II.3. India (Indus River Valley)
II.4. Iraq (Tigris-Euphrates River Valley)
III.2.1. Foundation of the Roman Republic.
III.2.2. Foundation of the Roman Empire.
III.2.3. Rise of Christianity.
III.2.4. Fall of the Roman Empire.
III.3. Byzantine Empire (476-1453).
III.4. Islam. (and Spain)
IV. MEDIEVAL AGES (5th c. to early 16th c.).
IV.1.1. England, Scotland, Ireland.
IV.1.4. Russia, Poland, Turkey, Bulgaria.
V. RENAISSANCE, REFORMATION, CATHOLIC COUNTER-REVOLUTION.
V.2. Reformation and Religious Conflict.
V.3. Catholic Counter-Revolution.
V.4. England to the American Revolution.
V.5. France & Holland to the French Revolution.
V.9. Russia & Turkey to the French Revolution.
VI. AGE OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT.
VI.3. United States of America & Canada to American Revolution.
VI.4. Latin and South America.
VII. REVOLUTION AND AFTERMATH.
VII.1. American Revolutionary War, 1775-1782.
VII.2. French Revolution, 1789.
VII.4. Early Years of the United States of America.
VII.5. Victorian England to WWI.
VII.10. Siam (Thailand) & Burma (Myanmar)
VII.11. USA: Post-Civil War Period.
VII.12. Mexico under Juarez (president 1858-1872)
VIII.4. China & French Indo-China.
IX.3. Mexican Revolution/Civil War.
X.2. Russian Revolution, Civil War & the Soviet Union.
X.3. Independence for Ireland.
XI. INTERIM PERIOD BETWEEN WORLD WARS.
XI.3. Great Britain & Australia.
XI.4. Black Experience in USA.
XI.7. Fascism in Another Corner -- Argentina.
XI.9. Pre-War Greece & Macedonia.
XII.1. The Fight against Germany and Italy.
XII.1.3. Germans Kicked out of Africa.
XII.1.4. Allied Invasion of Italy.
XII.1.6. Allied Invasion of France.
XII.1.7. German Counter-Attack (Battle of the Bulge)
XII.1.11 Italy's Last Days of Fascism.
XII.1.12. Holocaust.
XII.2. THE FIGHT
AGAINST JAPAN.
XII.2.1. The War in China and Burma.
XII.2.2. The USA Finally Gets into the War.
XIII.8. POST-WAR GREECE & MACEDONIA.
XIII.9. POST-WAR SPAIN & PORTUGAL.
XIII.10. POST-WAR SOVIET UNION.
XIII.11. POST-WAR INDIA: INDEPENDENCE
XIII.12. POST-WAR ALGERIA: INDEPENDENCE.
XIV. FIGHT AGAINST COMMUNISM I.
XIV.1. USA -- LOSS OF CHINA, KOREAN WAR & MCCARTHYISM DURING COLD WAR
XIV.2. TEEN REBELLION & ROCK AND ROLL
XV. THE FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS.
XV.1. CIVIL RIGHTS -- USA
XV.2. CIVIL RIGHTS -- NORTHERN IRELAND
XV.3. CIVIL RIGHTS -- GREAT BRITAIN
XV.4. CIVIL RIGHTS -- SOUTH AFRICA
XV.5. CIVIL RIGHTS -- CANADA
XV.6. CIVIL RIGHTS -- AUSTRALIA
XVI. THE FIGHT AGAINST COMMUNISM II.
XVI. 1. AMERICAN STRUGGLE TO STOP ALL LEFTISTS IN LATIN & SOUTH AMERICA
XVI.2. VIETNAM WAR
XVI.3. HIPPIE ERA.
XVII. THE TRIUMPH OF THE REACTIONARIES IN THE U.S.A. (1968-2008)
XVII.1. BACKLASH: NIXON & THE 70's (Nixon, the last Keynesian conservative for a long while)
XVII.3. RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENCY, 1979-1987: MORE BACKLASH (and Thatcher in Great Britain)
XVII.4. GEORGE BUSH I PRESIDENCY, 1989-1993
XVII.5. BILL CLINTON PRESIDENCY, 1993-2000: a brief respite from reactionary conservatism
XVII.6. GEORGE BUSH II, 2001-2009: MORE INEQUALITY, BACKLASH, SEMI-FASCISM, ANOTHER
EXPENSIVE WAR AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
XVIII. STIRRINGS OF REVOLT AND FREEDOM IN THE SOVIET BLOC
XXI. AMERICANISM VERSUS RADICAL ISLAM
XXII. REJECTION OF THE SECOND AGE OF THE ROBBER BARONS IN THE U.S.A.
I. ANCIENT MAN Back to Contents
X Quest for Fire (1981)
X One Million Years B.C. (1966) -- Raquel Welch
X When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)
X Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)
II. EARLY CIVILIZATIONS Back to Chapter II Back to Contents
II.1. EGYPT Back to Chapter II Back to Contents
Land of the Pharaohs (1955) -- building of the Pharaoh's Great Pyramid of Giza, 2560 B.C.
X The Egyptian (1954) -- story of physician Sinuhe in Akhenaten's reign, 1352 B.C.
X El Mamalik (Revolt of the Mamalukes) (1965) -- royal bodyguard in the 13th century; in 1250 a Mameluke, Qutuz, came to the Egyptian throne; Mameluke sultans ruled Egypt; conquered by the Ottomans in 1517
X Princess of the Nile (1954) -- an Egyptian princess tries to drive out the Bedouin conquerors.
X Sudan (1945) -- following the murder of her father, Queen Naila of Khemis is enslaved
X The Pharaoh's Women (1960, Giorgio Rivalti) Italy
Nefertiti, regina del Nilo (Queen of the Nile) (1961) -- (1961) -- Queen Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaaten1
II.2. CHINA (UNIFICATION OF CHINA). Back to Chapter II Back to Contents
western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BC)
eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BC)
Warring States period (475-221 BC)
Muk gong (A Battle of Wits) (2006) -- film set amid the Warring States period
Qin Dynasty (221- 207 BC)
The Emperor and the Assassin (1999) - 221 B.C. unification of China
The Emperor's Shadow (Qin Song) (1999) - unification of China
Hero (2004) -- four assassins plot to assassinate the King of Qin (who has the potential to unify the warring states into a nation)
Han Dynasty (206 BC - 8 AD)
X Xi chu bawang (aka The Great Conqueror's Concubine)(1994) -- Xian Yu and Liu Pang depose Qin Dynasty
Xin Dynasty (9-25 AD)
Han Dynasty continuation/Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220)
Chi bi (aka Red Cliff; Battle of Red Cliff) (2009) -- Prime Minister Cao Cao plans to usurp the Han dynasty throne after he defeats any possible allies of the Han Emperor, but that will prove a difficult task (winter of 208/209)
II.3. INDIA. Back to Chapter II Back to Contents
Magadhan Kings (c. 1700 BC - 550 AD)
Shakya Dynasty (c. 650-500 BC)
Nanda Dynasty (424-321 BC)
Mauryan Empire: 321-185 B.C.
X Chandragupta (1945) -- ancient, pre-Islamic India; ruler from 320-298 BC
X Asoka (2001) -- India after the age of Alexander the Great, Emperor Asoka (273-232 B.C.)
Shunga Dynasty (185-73 BC)
Kanva Dynasty (73-26)
Western Kshatrapas
Gupta Dynasty (c. 240-550 AD)
II.4. IRAQ. Back to Chapter II Back to Contents
THE BIBLE - OLD TESTAMENT
X Genesis: The Creation and The Flood (1994, Ermanno Olmi) TV
In the Beginning (2000) -- from creation to Moses
X The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) -- first 22 Books of Genesis (Adam & Eve, Noah, Tower of Babel, Abraham, Sarah and Isaac)
X The Bible (1966) Italian
Abraham (1994) -- Abraham, the founding patriarch of the Israelites, through his son Isaac (some time between 2000 and 1700 B.C.)
X Abraham Our Patriarch (1933, George Roland)
X Noah's Ark - The Story Of The Deluge (1928, Michael Curtiz)
X Noah's Ark (1999, John Irvin) -- TV
X Sodom and Gomorrah (1963) --
X Sodom and Gomorrah (1922, Michael Curtiz)
Jacob (1994) TV
X Jacob, the Man Who Fought With God (1963)
X The Story of Jacob and Joseph (1974) TV -- Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph
Joseph (1995) TV --
X Joseph and His Brethren (1960, Irving Rapper)
X Joseph in the Land of Egypt (1932, George Roland)
X Ten Commandments (1956) -- Charlton Heston as Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt, around 1275 B.C.
X The Ten Commandments (1923, Cecil B. DeMille)
X Moses the Law Giver (1975) --
Moses (1996) TV --
X Prince of Egypt (1998) -- animated version of the story of Moses
Samson and Delilah (1949) -- Cecile B. DeMille with Victor Mature, Hedy Lamarr, somewhere between 1200 and 1000 B.C.
Samson and Delilah (1984) TV -- Delilah betrayed by evil Sidka, governor of Gaza
Samson and Delilah (1996) TV --
The Story of Ruth (1960) -- grandmother of King David
David and Goliath (1960) -- David kills the giant Philistine
X King David (1985) -- King of Israel (ruler from 1000 -960 B.C.)
David (1997) -- David survives King Saul, adultery and internal divisions in his family to bring his son Solomon to be king after him
X Saul e David (aka Saul and David) (1964) -- David's life with King Saul
X David and Batsheba (1951) -- King David steals himself a wife
X The Story of David (1976, David Lowell Rich, Alex Segal) TV
X Solomon and Sheba (1959) -- supposed relationship between King Solomon (960-928) & the Queen of Sheba
X Solomon and Sheba (1995) -- Halle Berry as the Queen of Sheba
La Regina di Saba (Queen of Sheba) (1952) -- Italian black & white that should have been called Rehoboam and Sheba
X Solomon (1997, Roger Young) TV
Giuditta e Oloferne (aka Head of a Tyrant) (1959) -- girl gives herself to cruel Assyrian tyrant who has conquered her city in order to overthrow him
X Cortigiana di Babilonia (Queen of Babylon) (1956) -- Babylonia rebels against the Assyrian empire, 626 B.C.
Jeremiah (1998) TV -- the prophet beginning 628 B.C.
Intolerance (1916) -- first of four stories deals with intolerance in Babylon that leads to its fall to the Persians, 539 B.C.
Esther and the King (1960) -- Esther saves the Jews of 4th c. B.C. Persia
X Esther (1999) -- remake of Esther and the King
X Esther (1985, Amos Gitai)
X One Night With the King (2006, Michael O. Sajbel) -- Esther saves the Jewish nation
X The Thirteenth Day: The Story of Esther (1979) -- ABC one-hour special
III. LATER CIVILIZATIONS. Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
III.1. GREEK CIVILIZATION. Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
X Helen of Troy (2003) -- Troy falls to the Greeks
Helen of Troy (1956)
X The Trojan Horse (1962) -- stars Steve Reeves and John Drew Barrymore
X Trojan Women (1972) -- women after fall of Troy
X Troy (2004) -- Troy VII (1275-1240 B.C.)
X The Odyssey (1977)
X The Odyssey (1997) TV miniseries -- based on the return voyage of the Greeks from Troy
Ulysses (1954)
300 (2006) -- Spartan King Leonidas and a force of 300 men fight the Persians (under King Xerxes) at Thermopylae in 480 B.C.
The 300 Spartans (1962) -- Greeks stand against the Persians at Thermopylae
X Socrates (1970) TV -- last days of Socrates, a philosopher who was a social gadfly in Athens
X Barefoot in Athens (1966) TV -- Socrates
X Alexander the Great -- the great Macedonian empire builder (with Joseph Cotton, John Cassavettes)
X Alexander the Great (1956) --
Alexander the Great (2004) -- ditto
X Sikander (1941) -- Alexander the Great's conquests in North-Western India. 326-225 B.C
III. 2. ROMAN CIVILIZATION. Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
III.2.1. FOUNDATION OF A ROMAN REPUBLIC Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
X Orazi e Curiazi (Duel of Champions) (1961) -- Roman leader challenges forces of Alba Longa
X Hannibal (1960) -- Second Punic War (Carthage vs. Rome), 264-24 B.C.
X Carthage in Flames (1959) Rome-Carthage War of 2nd c. B.C. during Third Punic War, 149-146 B.C.
X Scipione l'africano (Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal) (1937) -- Roman general defeats Hannibal
X Scipione detto anche l'africano (Scipio the African) (1971) -- ancient Roman warrior Scipio Africanus
X Cabiria (1910) -- a young girl's odyssey through ancient Rome at the time of Hannibal
X Spartacus (1960) -- slave revolt in 71 B.C.; with Kirk Douglas
X Spartacus (2004) -- TV mini-series
Spartaco (or Sins of Rome) (1953) -- Italian version of Spartacus
III.2.2. FOUNDATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
X Julius Caesar (1953) -- Shakespeare's play with Marlon Brando about Julius Caesar (48-44 B.C.)
Julius Caesar (2002) -- solid telling of the Caesar tale
X Julius Caesar (1970) -- Charlton Heston as Caesar
X Caesar the Conqueror --
X Rome (2005) -- Julius Caesar & Company
Vercingétorix (Druids) (2001) -- story of the battle of the Gauls against the tyranny of Rome
X Cleopatra -- with Francesca Annis
Cleopatra (1934) -- love affairs with Caesar (to 44 BC) and Mark Antony (second triumvirate, 43-27 BC)
Cleopatra (1963) -- with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
X Cleopatra (1999) -- with Leonor Varela
X Caesar and Cleopatra (1946) British film
X Antony and Cleopatra (1973)
Imperium: Augustus (2003) -- the great emperor of Rome, 27 B.C. to 14 A.D.
X Empire (2005) -- rise of Octavius (Augustus)
X Caligula (1980) -- 37 to 42 A.D., very wicked emperor of Rome after Tiberius, 14-37 AD
X I, Claudius (1976) -- handicapped emperor of Rome after Caligula, 42 to 54 AD
Imperium: Nerone (Nero) (2004) -- 54-68 A.D., emperor of Rome after Caligula
X Titus (1999) – Roman general Titus Andronicus makes war on the northern Goths; he was Roman Emperor 79 to 81(preceded by Vespasian, 69-79, and succeeded by Domitian, 81-96)
III.2.3. RISE OF CHRISTIANITY Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
Erode il grande (Herod the Great) (1959) -- governor of ancient Judea , 37-04 BC
X The Apocalypse (2002) -- the apostle St. John tries to save Christianity from Roman Emperor Domitian, 90 AD
Salome (1953) -- the dancer and John the Baptist, executed 33 AD
X The Passion of the Christ (2004)
X Jesus of Nazareth (1977) -- crucified 30 AD
X Golgotha (1935) -- Jesus
X Jesus (1979)
X King of Kings (1961) -- Jesus
X Mary and Joseph (1979)
X The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
X The Sword and the Cross (1958) -- story of Mary Magalene (prostitute or disciple?)
X The Revolutionary II (1996) -- Jesus of Nazareth
X Barabbas (1961)
X The Robe (1953)
X Peter and Paul (1981) -- Peter may have been the rock, but it was Paul that spread Christianity to the non-Jewish world
The Da Vinci Code (2006) -- the Catholic church fights and murders to prevent the world from knowing that Jesus was mortal and had actually married Mary Magdalene
X Quo Vadis (1951) -- Christian persecution under Emperor Nero
Sign of the Cross (1932) -- Christians in Rome under Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) are blamed and persecuted for the Great Fire of 64 A.D.
Ben-Hur (1959) -- a proud Jew named Ben-Hur and his boyhood Roman friend Messala become in adulthood bitter enemies.
X Gladiator (2000)
Masada (1981) -- 70 A.D. Jewish Revolt against Roman rule
X Last Days of Pompeii (1984) -- Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. and covered (thereby preserving) the Roman village of Pompeii
X Ultimi giorni di Pompei, Gli (Last Days of Pompeii) (1960) -- volcanic eruption (under emperors Vespasian 69-79 & Titus, 79-81 AD)
X The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) -- Mt. Vesuvius erupted 79A.D.
III.2.4. FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (180-476) Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
X Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)-- Sophia Loren; troubles under Emperor Commodus (who ruled from 180 to 192)
X Nel Segno di Roma (Sign of the Gladiator) (1959) -- Queen of Palmyra, Zenobia, revolts against Rome & is captured (under Emperor Aurelian, 270-275)
X Constantine and the Cross (1962) -- early 4th c. A.D. emperor battling Romans
X Ágora (2009)-- a film in production in 2008 about a slave of Hypatia of Alexandria who falls in love with her; she was killed in 415 by a Christian mob involved in anti-Jewish antics
X Agostino d'Ippona (Augustine of Hippo) (1972) Italian -- story of St. Augustine (354-430)
Attila (2001) -- the famous barbarian (died 453)
Attila (1954) -- with Sophia Loren
X Sign of the Pagan (1954) Attila the Hun threatening Rome
III.3. BYZANTINE EMPIRE (476-1453). Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
X Last Roman (1968) -- Gothic kingdom falls to famous Byzantine General Belisarius (under Emperor Justinian, 527-565)
X Teodora Imparatrice Di Bisanzio (Theodora Queen of Byzantium) (1954) Italian -- Teodora (500-548), wife of Emperor Justinian I (483-565)
III.4. RISE OF ISLAM. Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
Mohammed, Messenger of God (1977) -- Mohammed (570-633), founder of the Islamic faith
X Abu Zayd al-Hilali (1947) --- 10th century Islamic Egyptian hero leader Abu Zayd al-Hilali
El valle de las espadas (The Castilian) (1963) -- Spanish film of the first independent Count of Castile, 931-970, who opposed the Moors
El Cid (1961) -- 1094, takes Valencia from the Moors
X La Spada del Cid (Sword of El Cid) (1962) --
X al Massir (aka Destiny) (1997) -- the story of Islamic philosopher Averroes (1126-1198) in Spanish province of Andalusia
X King Conqueror -- Spanish film on James I of Aragon (reign 1213-1287) part of the Reconquista (c. 718 and lasting around 800 years)
IV. MEDIEVAL AGES (5th Century to Early 16th Century) Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
IV.1. EUROPE. Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
IV.1.1. Medieval England, Scotland, Ireland. Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
King Arthur
Boudica (2003) -- Boudica (died 60 or 61 AD) unites the tribes of Briton against the Roman invaders
The Viking Queen (1967) -- Druids battle occupying Romans in ancient Britain/(Boudica-like character)
X King Arthur (2004) -- the legend
X Camelot (1967) -- King Arthur and Court (legend)
X Knights of the Round Table (1953)
X Siege of the Saxons – Arthur repelling an invasion of the Saxons
X Sword of Lancelot (1963)
Lancelot du Lac (Lancelot of the Lake) (1974) -- French film about Lancelot
Excalibur (1981) -- King Arthur and Court (legend)
Merlin (1998) -- Merlin fights Queen Mab who tries to destroy Arthur to save the old ways before the coming of Christianity
X First Knight (1995) -- life at Camelot
X Arthur the King (1985)
X World of Lancelot (1963) -- Cornel Wilde
House of Wessex, 802-1016:
X Alfred the Great (aka A King is Born) (1969) 9th century uniter of most of what became England
X The Saxon Chronicles (2006) -- Alfred has to flee from the Vikings
The Vikings, in England the House of Denmark, 1013-1042:
X The Vikings (1958) -- the scourge of Ireland and England/Scotland as well as elsewhere
Gil Invasori (Erik the Conqueror or The Invaders) (1961) -- 8th-9th century Vikings attack Britain
The Norseman (1978) -- 11th century Viking prince sailed all the way to North America in search of his lost father
The Viking Sagas (1995) -- battles for the chieftainship in Viking Iceland
X White Viking (1998) -- continuation of the Icelandic Sagas around 1,000 AD and the reign of King Olaf, who holds the wife of Askur hostage
The Long Ships (1964) -- Vikings against the Moors in search of a huge pure gold bell
L’ Ultimo dei Vikinghi (The Last Viking ) (1961) -- Norwegian Vikings try to overthrow the tyrant Sveno
Thirteenth Warrior (1999) -- 10th century Arab shocked by Viking behavior in Russia
X I Tartari (The Tartars) (1961) -- after the death of his brother Togrul in a battle with the Slavs, Burundai becomes the Tartar leader ; Vikings capture Togrul's daughter
Utlaginn (The Outlaw) – an Icelandic film about and accurately depicting the peoples involved in a Viking blood feud (based on the Icelanders' Sagas called the Gísla saga)
House of Wessex (restored), 1042-1066:
Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955) -- during reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066); Norman Conquest of England 1066
House of Normandy , 1066-1154:
The War Lord (1965) -- a Norman knight in the 11th century sent to built a defensive castle falls in love with a local maiden which leads to big problems
Wilhelm Cuceritorul (William the Conqueror) (1982) -- Norman Conqueror of England, 1066
House of Plantagenet, 1154-1399 and the Crusades
Angevins: 1154-1399
X The Lion in Winter (1968) -- 1154-1189 Henry II and his estranged wife, Eleanore of Aquitaine
X The Lion in Winter (2003) TV -- ditto
X Becket (1964) -- under Henry II, 1154-1189
Kingdom of Heaven -- the Third Crusade, involving Richard the Lion Hearted, among others
X El Naser Salah el Dine (Saladin)(1963) -- movie about great Kurdish leader of the Arabs, Saladin
Soldier of God (2005) – a Knight Templar must re-examine his life after a disastrous defeat by the Saracens in 1187
Vägen till Jerusalem (The Road to Jerusalem) (1998) – trilogy about a fictional Swedish Knights Templar named Arn Magnusson
Arn – Tempelriddaren (aka Arn – The Knight Templar) (2008) – part of a trilogy
Arn – Riket vid vägens slut (aka Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End) (2008)– part of a trilogy
X Lion-Heart (1987) -- Richard the Lion Hearted, son of Henry II, who ruled 1189-1199
King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) -- Christian Richard I of England faces off with Moslem Saladin
X Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) -- with Errol Flynn
The Crusades (1935) -- historical drama from Cecil B. DeMille
Crusaders (2005) -- two young men swept up in the Crusades
X Prince of Thieves (1948) -- Robin Hood against King John (1199-1216)
X Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952)
X Robin and Marian (1976) -- Robin Hood
X Robin Hood (1991) -- starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman
Scotland
X MacBeth (1948)
X MacBeth (1971) -- 1040 Shakespeare
X Brave Heart (1995) -- story of William Wallace, 1297, Scottish independence leader
X The Bruce (1996) -- story of the Bruce where Braveheart ends
X Edward II (1991) -- 1307-1327, looses Battle of Bannockburn to Scots under Robert the Bruce
X Auld Lang Syne (1937) -- story of Scottish poet Robert Burns
Ireland
St. Patrick: The Irish Legend (2000) (TV) -- English slave who became the founder of Christianity in Ireland, 5th century
House of Lancaster (1399-1471)
X Henry V (1989) -- Henry V (1413-1422) with Kenneth Branagh
X Henry V (1945)
House of York (1471-1485)
Princes in the Tower (2005) -- story of Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be the heir to the British throne during the reign of King Henry VII (ruled, 1485-1509), first monarch of the Tudor dynasty
X Richard III (1955) -- Shakespeare version of King Richard III, 1483-1485
Richard III -- Shakespeare version set in 1930s England
X Looking for Richard (1996) -- Richard III, that is
Tower of London (1939) -- questionable story of Richard III with Boris Karloff and Vincent Price
Tower of London (1962) - remake of the 1939 film
IV.1.2. Medieval France to Age of Discovery Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
Charlemagne, Charles the Prince (1995) -- early unifier of Frankish kingdoms,. ruled 768 to 814
Carolingian Dynasty (843 to 987)
Capetian Dynasty, Direct Capetians (987 to 1328)
Yaroslavna, koroleva Frantsii (Yaroslavna, Queen of France) (1978) – Anna Yaroslavna, a Princess of Kiev, was the queen consort of France as the wife of Henry I (1027-1060) & regent for her son Philip I
X Gates to Paradise (1968) -- 1212, launching of the Children's Crusade; set in France
X Les rois maudits (The Cursed Kings) (2005) -- King Philippe IV (ruled 1285-1314) tries to plunder the Knights Templar and other organizations
Capetian Dynasty, House of Valois (1328-1589)
House of Lancaster (1422-1453)
X The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) -- 1428; under Charles VII (ruled 1422-1461); Hundred Year's War with England (1337-1453)
X Joan of Arc (1999) -- Leelee Sobieski
X Joan of Arc (1948) Ingrid Bergman
X Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) -- French film
X Joan of Arc: Child of War, Soldier of God (2000; released 2006) -- the famous female warrior (starring Anna Paquin)
X Wired Angel (1999) -- very "different" approach to telling the Joan of Arc story
X Beatrice (1988) -- set during the Hundred Year's War (1337-1453), a revisionist view of the noble Knights
X Le Retour de Martin Guerre (The Return of Martin Guerre) (1982) -- fascinating film about Medieval France
X Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) -- 1483 Louis XI Notre Dame de Paris
Capetian Dynasty, Valois-Orléans Branch (1498-1515)
Capetian Dynasty, Valois-Angoulme Branch (1515-1589)
X The Sword and the Rose (1953) -- 1515 Francois
IV.1.3. Medieval Italy Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
The Flame and the Arrow (1950) -- 12 c. Lombardy under German overlord
Der Name der Rose (The Name of the Rose) (1986) -- 1327, not a true story, but a good depiction of monastery life of the time; set in Italy
IV.1.4. Medieval Russia, Poland, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
Russia:
Thirteenth Warrior (1999) -- 10th century Arab shocked by Viking behavior in Russia
X I Tartari (Tartars) (1961) -- Burundai, head of Tartar invasion of Volga River area
Alexander Nevsky (1938) -- 13th century attack of the Teutonic Knights on Russia.
X Aleksandr. Nevskaya bitva (aka Alexander: The Neva Battle) (2008) --
X Andrei Rublev (1969) -- 15th century Russian icon painter (1360?-1430?)
Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1943) -- 1533-1584; Ottoman Empire troubles, among others; by Sergei Eisenstein
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1946) -- Sergei Eisenstein
X Tsar Ivan Grozny (Tsar Ivan the Terrible) (1993) -- Ivan the Terrible
X Szirmok, virágok, koszorúk (1984) -- Russians beat down the 1849 Hungarian revolution; Hungarian soldier wrestles with idea of joining the Austrian army
X Borus Godunov (1986) -- de facto regent of Russia , 1584-1598, and then the first non-Rurikid tsar, 1598 to 1605
Poland:
Stara basn. Kiedy slonce bylo bogiem (An Ancient Tale: When the Sun Was a God) (2003) -- 9th century in what became Poland; inhabited by numerous Slavic tribes
X Boleslaw Smialy (aka King Boleslaus the Bold) (1972) -- 1079, struggle between the king of Poland, Boleslaus the Bold, and the Bishop of Cracow; the Polish Becket
X The Black Lancers (1963) -- set after the Mongol-Tartar invasion of Poland
X Kazimierz Wielki (Casimir the Great) (1976) -- king of Poland from 1333 to 1370 who doubled his country in size (mostly through addition of lands in the Ukraine)
Krzyzacy (Black Cross; Knights of the Teutonic Order) (1960) -- defeat of the Order of Teutonic Knights of Prussia by the Polish and Lithuanians at Battle of Grunwald (1410)
Zelazna reka (The Iron Hand) (1989) -- 16th century Batory-era Poland (Stefan Batory, ruler 1576-1586; of the noble Hungarian Báthory family; one of the greatest elected Kings of Poland)
Romania:
X Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000)-- 1456-1476 Vlad Dracula of Transylvania fights Ottoman Turks; Ottoman Empire (1299-1922)
X Intoarcerea lui voda lapusneanu ((aka The Return of Prince Lapusneanu) (1979) -- 1564, Moldavia, the Prince seeks revenge for his Turkish exile
Mihai Viteazul (aka Michael the Brave) (1970) -- the king who united three provinces into Romania in the 17th century despite opposition from the Ottoman and Austrian Empires
Nemuritorii (1974) -- warriors of Romanian lord Mihai (1611) attacked by Turks while bring the lord's battle flag back from Austria
X Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler: The True Life of Dracula) (1979) --
Bulgaria:
X 681 Величието на хана (681 AD: The Glory of Khan) (1981) -- 681 foundation of Bulgarian medieval state by Khan Asparuh
Aszparuh (aka Khan Asparoukh) (1981) -- first Bulgarian ruler Khan Asparuh
Serbia:
X Boj na Kosovu (translation Battle of Kosovo) – a Serbian film that depicts the historical Battle of Kosovo between Medieval Serbia and the Ottoman Empire, 1389
X Banovic Strahinja (1983) – late 14th century. medieval Serbia. attacked by Ottoman invaders; nobleman Banovic Strahinja searches for his kidnapped wife
X Timocka buna (1983) -- set at the time of the Timok Rebellion, 1883, in Serbia; nationalist peasant anarchism
Other:
X Marketa Lazarová (1967) – Czech film account of the shift from Paganism to Christianity
X The Black Knight (2009) -- General John Hunyadi defends Hungary from the Turks in the mid-15th century
X Bathory (2008) – Countess Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614) of Hungary, accused serial killer, was a modern Renaissance woman
X Suleiman the Conqueror (1961) -- Suleiman the Magnificent, leader of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century
IV.2. CHINA & MONGOLIA. Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
Three Kingdoms Period (220-280)
Saam gwok dzi gin lung se gap (Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon) (2008) -- story of a fantastic warrior of the Shu Kingdom and his less accomplished friend who keep on fighting only to find themselves going around in circles
Jin Dynasty (265-420)
Sixteen Kingdoms Period, 304-439 -- collection of numerous short-lived sovereign states in China and its neighboring areas
Northern Wei Dynasty, 386-534 (not one of the Sixteen Kingdoms)
X Mulan Joins the Army (1939) – during the Northern Wei dynasty, a young woman disguises herself as a man in order to take her father's place in the army
Mulan (1998) -- the Disney version of the Mulan story
Tang Dynasty (618-665)
Zhou Dynasty (665-705)
Empress Wu Zetian (1939) -- Chinese biopic of the empress who interrupted the Tang Dynasty (618-907) with her behind her husband and sons in the First Zhou Dynasty (665-690) and in her own right in the Second Zhou Dynasty (October 690–705)
Tian di ying xiong (Warriors of Heaven and Earth) (2003) -- an imperial agent has to escort a caravan carrying an extremely valuable item to the capital, while fighting off the Turks and their allies; action drama;year 700 in the Göktürk Empire which controlled the lucrative Silk Road trade
Tang Dynasty continuation (710-907)
Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2003) -- an imperial agent has to escort a caravan carrying an extremely valuable item to the capital, while fighting off the Turks and their allies
X Yôkihi (1955) – General An Lushan rebelled against Emperor Xuanzong's rule in 755
Five Dynasties and Six Kingdoms Period
Song Dynasty (960-1279)
X Dun-Huang (The Silk Road) (1988) -- in
western China in 1026, students are shanghaied by crown prince Li Yuanhao of Xi
Xia, who wants to control the Silk Road
960-1125 Song Dynasty (960-1127
Northern Song; 947-1125 Liao Dynasty; 1127-1279 Southern Song) 1125-1234 Jin Dynasty 1234-1279 Transitional Period of
Growing Mongolian Control 1279-1368 Yuan Dynasty (Mongolian
Control)
The Mongol (2007) – Genghis Khan's slow rise to power
X The Fall of Otrar (2002) – Genghis Khan
X Genghis Khan (1998) -- Genghis Khan
Aoki Ôkami: chi hate umi tsukiru (aka Genghis Khan: To the Ends of Earth and Sea; The Blue Wolf: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea) – a Japanese-Mongolian depiction of the life of Genghis Khan
X Genghis Khan (1965) -- 1206-1227
Conqueror (1956) -- Mongols under Genghis Khan vs. Tartars and others
The Mongols (1961) -- Jack Palance plays the role of the son of Genghis Khan with Anita Ekberg as his mistress
X The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) -- 1275, in China
X Marco Polo (1962)
Marco Polo (1998) -- 1295 with Kublai Khan, opening up the east to trade with the west.
Marco Polo (2007) -- the adventures, including love ones, of Marco Polo
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
IV.3. INDIA (Medieval Period: 711-1526) Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
X Pritviraj-Samyukta – Prithviraj Chauhan (1168-1192), second-to-last Hindu to rule Delhi & unifier of Rajputs against Muslim invasions, & his wife Samyukta
Islamic Sultanates (1206-1596)
Vijayanagara Empire (1336-1660)
X Sri Krishnadevaraya (1970) -- Krishnadevaraya (1509-1529); most famous king of Vijayanagara Empire, presided over the empire at zenith
X Joymati – in 17th century an Ahom princess is killed for refusing to betray her husband; film calls for cooperation between hills and plains people
IV.4. JAPAN (Early Medieval Period: 711-1526) Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
Heian period, 794-1185:
Shin heike monogatari (The Taira Clan Saga) (1955) -- an unpaid special forces commander under Emperor Toba who ruled Japan from 1107-1123
Kamakura period, 1185-1333 and Kemmu restoration, 1333-1336:
Muromachi period, 1336-1573:
V. RENAISSANCE, REFORMATION & CATHOLIC COUNTER-REVOLUTION Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
V.1. RENAISSANCE. Italy. Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
X The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci (1972) -- docudrama
X The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) -- Michelangelo (1475-1564) fights with Pope Julius II; based on Irving Stone novel
X Titan -- Story of Michelangelo (1950)
Prince of Foxes (1949) -- Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) plays politics with who his sister will marry
X Il Duca Nero (The Black Duke) (1963) -- Cesare Borgia starring Cameron Mitchell
X Bride of Vengeance (1948) -- Cesare Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (1935) -- good story of the many political marriages of Lucrezia Borgia used by her family as a political pawn
Flesh and Blood (1985) -- 1501 story of Landsknechts (mostly German mercenaries including pikemen & supporting foot soldiers, late 15th to late 16th century)
X Caravaggio (1986) -- Italian Renaissance painter 1593-1610; proto-Baroque style
X Artemisia (1997) -- Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the most accomplished early Baroque painters in the generation influenced by Caravaggio
X Dangerous Beauty -- 16th c. Venice; with Catherine McCormack
X Casanova (2005) -- yes, even Casanova got dumped; 18th century
X Fellini's Casanova (1976) -- not for historians; erotic adventure
X The Amorous Mis-Adventures of Casanova (AKA Casanova & Co.) (1979) -- not for historians; erotic comedy
Galileo (1975) -- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
X Galileo Galilei (1969) -- Italian film
V.2. REFORMATION AND RELIGIOUS CONFLICT Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
X Luther (1973) -- of the Reformation, 1520
Luther (2003) -- of the Reformation
X Martin Luther (1953) -- of the Reformation
X Queen Christina (1933) -- 1654 Queen Christina of Sweden; Greta Garbo
X The Abdication (1974) – Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates
X The Abdication (1974) -- what happened to Queen Christina when she converted to Catholicism
X Barry Lyndon (1976) -- Stanley Kubrik; set against the 7 Year's War 1756-1763
X Amadeus (1984) -- 1762, Mozart, musical genius
Mozart (a.k.a., Life and Loves of Mozart) (1956) -- Mozart and his wife, his former mistress and his new mistress
V.3. CATHOLIC COUNTER REFORMATION Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
X Il Mestiere delle Armi (Profession of Arms) (2000) -- Giovanni de Medici, captain in Charles V's war against the pope & fought the Protestant Reformation
X The Cardinal (1936) -- Cardinal de Medici
X Il Diavolo nero (The Black Devil) (1957) -- Charles V of Spain tries to occupy all of Italy with the help of traitors
X That Lady (1955) -- story of Ana de Mendoza, Princess of Eboli, and Prince Philip (who became Philip II of Spain, 1556-1598)
X Seville, 1640 (2004) --
X Loyola: Soldier Saint (1948) -- founder of the Jesuits
The Last Valley (1971) -- set in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
V.4 ENGLAND TO AMERICAN REVOLUTION Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
Renaissance, Reformation and Religious Conflict
House of Tudors: 1461-1603
Henry VIII
Princes in the Tower (2005) -- story of Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be the heir to the British throne during the reign of King Henry VII (ruled, 1485-1509), first monarch of the Tudor dynasty
X The Tudors -- with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Henry VIII
X Henry VIII and his Six Wives (1973)
X Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) -- of England, 1509-1547
X Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) mini-series --
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) -- struggle between the two Boleyn women to marry King Henry VIII
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) -- Anne Boleyn, 2nd wife of Henry VIII & mother of Queen Elizabeth
X A Man for All Seasons (1966) -- Sir Thomas More won't compromise
X A Man for All Seasons (1988) -- Sir Thomas More (1509-1547) gets in deep trouble with Henry VIII
Lady Jane (1986) -- tragedy of Lady Jane Grey, immediate predecessor of Mary, Queen of England
X Tudor Rose (1936) -- Lady Jane Grey's short life
X The Sword and the Rose (1953) -- Mary Tudor's marriage prospects used as a pawn in international politics
X The Twisted Tale (2008) -- Mary Tudor as tragic figure
X The Peal of York (2007) -- first woman to die for her religious beliefs following the start of the Reformation
Elizabeth I
X Elizabeth (1998) -- Elizabeth I, 1558-1603,daughter of Anne Boleyn and niece of Mary, Queen of England
Elizabeth I -- HBO drama focusing on the private life of the "Virgin" Queen
X Young Bess (1953) Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger
X The Virgin Queen (1955) -- Bette Davis
X The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
X Elizabeth R (1971) -- miniseries about Queen Elizabeth I starring Glenda Jackson
Elizabeth: the Golden Age (2007) -- Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh and the Spanish Armada; starring Cate Blanchett
X Drake of England (or Elizabeth of England) (1935) -- privateer Sir Francis Drake brings lots of money into England
X Seven Seas to Calais (1962) -- Sir Francis Drake
Mary of Scotland (1936) -- with Katherine Hepburn
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) -- executed by Elizabeth for plotting against her
The Sea Hawk (1940) -- Spanish Armada (with Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh)
Fire Over England (1937) -- British-Spanish conflict of 1500s
The Stuarts (1603-1649) and the Commonwealth (1649-1659):
To Kill a King (2003) -- Cromwell, General Fairfax, Mrs. Fairfax and Charles I struggle over the future of England
Cromwell (1970) -- English Puritan leader, 1655
X The Crimson Blade (1963) -- love affair in the time of Cromwell's struggle
X By the Sword Divided -- Lacey family during the English Civil War (BBC series)
X Witchfinder General (aka Conqueror Worm) (1968) -- Matthew Hopkins tours the land searching for and finding witches
X The Moonraker (1958) -- the Moonraker, the Earl of Dawlish, travels to the Windwhistle Inn on the south coast to prepare the escape of the future Charles II
Winstanley (1975) -- Gerard Winstanley leads the religious sect the Diggers to reclaim land for the poor, around 1649
The Stuarts (restored): 1660-1707
X Charles II: The Power and the Passion (2003) -- the restoration of the absolute monarchy for a brief time following the reign of Cromwell
X The Exile (1947) -- story of the restoration of Charles II to the English throne
X Restoration (1995) -- in the reign of Charles II of England 1660-1685
Forever Amber (1947) -- one of the many mistresses of Charles II
Nell Gwyn (1934) -- Charles II loves her irreverent sense of humor
X Stage Beauty (2004) -- first woman to play the role of a woman on the stage and mistress of Charles II
The First Churchills (1969) -- John Churchill and his wife Sarah Jennings, ancestors of Winston Churchill
Libertine (2004) -- 17th century British poet who leads a life of debauchery
Black Swan (1942) -- Captain Morgan in Jamaica
X Captain Blood -- set in the transition between James II and the reign of William and Mary
early years of House of Hanover: 1714-1901
Sarabande for Dead Lovers (1948) -- Sophie Dorothea seeks out Swedish Count Philip Konigsmark when her husband. the future King George I of Great Britain wants nothing to do with her
X The Madness of King George III (1994) -- of American Revolutionary War fame
X Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
Amazing Grace (2006) -- 1807, William Wilberforce is the main force behind the passage of the bill eliminating the slave trade in the British Empire
X The Massacre of Glencoe (1971) -- massacre of the Macdonald Clan by the Campbell Clan, 1692
X Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) -- British film about Prince Charles of 18th century Scotland
X The Battle of Culloden (1964) -- Bonnie Prince Charlie defeated at this 1746 battle
Chasing the Deer (1994) -- last Jacobite uprising; death of the Highland clans at Culloden Moor, 1746
Rob Roy (1995) -- 18th century Scotland
X Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1954)
Blackbeard (2006) -- Lt. Robert Maynard of the Royal navy is sent to the Bahamas to end Blackbeard's reign of terror
X Blackbeard the Pirate (1952)
X Morgan the Pirate (1961) --
X Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) -- 1787 mutiny on trip to get the breadfruit plant
X Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) -- the fictionalized story
X The Bounty (1984) -- the true story with Mel Gibson
In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) -- not only what happened on the Bounty, but what also happened afterwards
X A Royal Scandal (1996) -- King George IV (ruling from 1820-1830) and Princess Caroline of Brunswick weave a tale of infidelity, illegitimacy and mistresses
X Mrs. Fitzherbert (1947) -- married the future George IV in 1785
V.5. FRANCE & HOLLAND TO FRENCH REVOLUTION Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
Reformation & Religious Conflict
Capetian Dynasty, Valois-Angoulme Branch (1515-1589)
X Diane (1956) -- mistress of King Henri II, first emperor of the French Renaissance (rule from 1547 to 1559)
Queen Margot (1994) -- sister of Frances's Charles IX (ruled 1560-1574) weds in 16th c; Isabelle Adjani; subtitled
X Saint-Germain ou La négociation (2003) -- Charles IX sends Catholic Baron to Protestant representatives (includes St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572)
Capetian Dynasty, House of Bourbon (1589-1792)
Louis XIII
X Cardinal Richelieu (1935) -- Cardinal Richelieu oppresses French Protestants, known as Huguenots (under King Louis XIII, 1610-1643)
X Under the Red Robe (1937) -- Cardinal Richelieu
X The Three Musketeers (1935) -- the Musketeers fight against the forces of Cardinal Richelieu.
X The Three Musketeers (1939)
X The Three Musketeers (1948)
X The Three Musketeers (1973) -- King Louis XIII of France, 1610-1643
X The Three Musketeers (1993)
La Kermesse Héroique (aka Carnival in Flanders) (1935) – a French comedy set during the 1616 Spanish invasion of Flanders
X Alatriste (2006) -- heroic Spanish soldier fighting in Flanders in 17th century has to look after a dying friend's son in Madrid
Matka Joanna od aniolów (Mother Joan of the Angels) (1961) -- 1630s; womanizing priest Grandier executed for sorcery & the next priest tries to heal the nuns
The Headsman (Shadow of the Sword) (2005) -- 16th century Tyrol, Austria; of two childhood friends one becomes a friar and the other an executioner, but both are involved in witch hunting
The Devils (1971) -- witchcraft in 17th c. France
Vredens dag (Day of Wrath) (1943) -- accusations of witchcraft in a 17th c. Danish village
Witches' Hammer (1970) -- witch hunting in Czechoslovakia
The Hour of the Pig (aka The Advocate) (1993) -- a lawyer defends animals accused of being involved in witchcraft
Rembrandt (1936) -- 1630 Dutch painter
Nightwatching (2007) -- Rembrandt's romantic and professional life
Girl with a Pearl Earring -- Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, 1665
Louis XIV
X La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (The Rise of Louis XIV) (1966) -- Louis XIV (1643-1715)
X Versailles, le rve d'un roi (2008) – Louis XIV
Vatel (2000) -- in 1671, Prince de Condé hosts Louis XIV for three days of excess
X Saint-Cyr (2000) -- France under the rule of Louis XIV (including his lady friend and his mistress)
X Voltaire (1933)
Louis XV
Cartouche (1962) -- French Robin Hood during the time of the Régence, 1715-1723, the regent part of the reign of King Louis XV (1715-1774)
Que la fête commence... (Let Joy Reign Supreme) (1975) -- the Regent over Louis XV, France
Madame du Barry (aka Passion) (1919) -- mistress of King Louis XV of France
X Madame du Barry (1934) -- 1768 Louis XV and the Countess Du Barry
V.6. SPAIN & PORTUGAL Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
X The Jew (1997) -- the Portugal Inquisition (1497 to l821) tries a converso (i.e., a Jew who had converted to Catholicism)
X Torquemada (1989) -- Spanish Inquisition
X La conjura de El Escorial (2008) -- deceit and betrayal in the court of 16th century King Philip II of Spain who reigned 1556-1598
X Cervantes (a.k.a., The Young Rebel) (1968) -- Cervantes (1547–1616), later author of Don Quixote, persuades Philip of Spain to join the Holy League and then becomes a soldier
X El Greco – a Greek film about the Greek painter (1541–1614) of the Spanish Renaissance
X Esquilache -- Spain under troubled reign of Charles II (1665-1700); (specifically ,the Esquilache Riots of March 1766)
V.7. GERMANY Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
Zwölf Meter ohne Kopf (Pirates of the Baltic Sea) (2009) -- 1401, German sea pirates sea pirates Klaus Störtebeker and Gödeke Michels
Il Principe di Homburg (The Prince of Homburg) (1997) -- Prince disobeys orders and leads a cavalry charge against the Swedes and is court-martialed during 17th century Prusso-Swedish Wars (Hitler's favorite play?)
X Der Choral von Leuthen (The Hymn of Leuthen) (1933) -- German film depicting Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1740–1786) (no subtitles)
V.8. POLAND Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
1612: Khroniki smutnogo vremeni (aka 1612) (2007) – Russian film set in the Time of Troubles and the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618)
Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword) (1961) Cossacks vs. Poles; first part of a trilogy set in mid-17th century
Taras Bulba (1962) -- Cossack life in the Ukraine, once part of Poland
X The Rebel Son (aka The Barbarian and the Lady or The Rebel Son of Taras Bulba) – earlier film of the Taras Bulba story
Potop (The Deluge) (1975) -- second part of the trilogy; Swedish army invades Poland and a warrior fights for the heart of Olenka
Pan Wolodyjowski (Colonel Wolodyjowski) -- third part of the trilogy; Turkish invasion of Poland
X Virtuti Militari (1995) -- the history of Poland's "Virtuti Militari" medal, awarded for bravery since the Polish-Russian war of 1792
Pan Tadeusz (2000) -- Poland's attempt to free itself from Russian rule in Napoleonic times
On the Banks of the Niemen (1986) -- 1863 uprising against Russian occupation
X Wierna rzeka (Faithful River) (1987) – only one survivor of a unit in the 1863 insurgency in Poland take care of by a land steward's daughter
X Wierna rzeka (1936) -- ditto
X The Wedding (1972) -- national drive toward self-determination after the Polish uprisings of 1830 and 1863
X Szwadron (1992) – Russian soldier finds out the little insurrection in 1863 Poland is a lot bigger than he expected
V.9 RUSSIA & TURKEY TO FRENCH REVOLUTION Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
1612: Khroniki smutnogo vremeni (aka 1612) (2007) – Russian film set in the Time of Troubles and the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618)
Peter the Great (1986)-- 1689-1725, Russian Czar; 1710-11 war with Ottoman Empire
Young Catherine (1991) 1762-1796, Catherine the Great of Russia; 1768 war with Turkey
The Scarlet Empress (1934) -- Catherine the Great
X Catherine the Great (1934) -- with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr and Flora Robeson
X Catherine the Great (2000) --
X Great Catherine – Catherine takes a liking to a British military office, but he is busy with several British women
A Royal Scandal (1945) -- love life of Russian Czarina Catherine the Great (with Tallulah Bankhead)
X Tempest (1959) -- Pugachev peasant uprising during the reign of Catherine the Great
X Captain's Daughter (2000) -- during the Pugachev uprising, the love of Masha Mironova and Petr Grinev is threatened.
Nomad (2005) -- a young fellow in 18th-century Kazakhstan unites the country's disunited tribes
V.10. India. Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
The Mughal Period: 1526-1757
Humayun (1945) -- Mughal emperor Humayun (1530-1539), son of emperor Babar
Jodhaa Akbar (2008) -- Akbar the Great (ruled 1556-1619) and his Hindu wife Jodhabai
Mughal-e-Azam (1960) -- 16th century war between crown prince Saleem and his father, the great Moghul emperor Akbar (1556-1605), over a beautiful court dancer named Anarkali
Anarkali (1953) -- Shahenshah Jalaudin Akbar, grandson of Babbar and son of Humayun, rules Hindustan justly, but has big problems with a rebellious son in love with the gypsy Anarkali
X Akbar Saleem Anarkali (1978) -- story of Arnakali and Saleem
Noor Jahan (1931) -- a Mughal empress (1577-1645), 20th and favorite wife of Emperor Jehangir (1605-27)
Taj Mahal (2005) -- Moghul ruler Shah Jahan (1628-1658) builds a monument to eternal love in honor of his deceased wife
Taj Mahal: A Monument to Love (2003) --
X Heart of India – Taj Mahal
X Ranadheera Kanteerava (1960) -- Mysore kingdom was a golden age in Kannada .literature; Mysore royalty’s intrigues & Kannada national chauvinism; King Ranadheera Kanteerava Narasaraja Wodeyar (1638-1659), a devotee of music and literature
Maratha Empire 1674–1818
X Bajirao Mastani (1925) -- prime minister Baji Rao I (1719-17400) to the Maratha Empire; extended the empire
V.11. JAPAN Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
Azuchi-Momoyama period, 1568 to 1603:
Kagemusha (1980) -- Takeda clan, one of three warlord clans, 16th century
Ugetsu (1953) -- two peasants in search of success in war-torn Japan, 16th century
Ran (1985) -- (Akira Kurosawa) Japanese lord finds his kingdom disintegrating as his sons go to war with each other (adaptation of King Lear & life of Mōri Motonari), 16th century
X Mōri Motonari -- NHK's TV drama
Rikyu (1989) -- Buddhist priest and improver of the tea ceremony runs afoul of Lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi
X Sekigahara -- drama set in the time when the Eastern and Western Armies met in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600
Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868):
James Clavell's Shogun (1980) -- based on the achievements of the first Englishman in Japan, early 17th century
Seven Samurai (1954) (Akira Kurosawa) -- wandering ronin (i.e., unemployed samurai) defend a peasant village from bandits, 17th century
X Ako-Jo danzetsu (aka Swords of Vengeance) (1978) -- Ronin revolt against 5th Togukawa shogun (Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, reign 1680-1709)
The Samurai Trilogy (1967) -- based on the novel that has been called Japan's Gone With the Wind, 17th century
Life of Oharu (1952)
Hara-kiri (1962) -- Japanese period film 1630, dealing with the plight of the poor end of the samurai spectrum
Goyokin (1969) -- 1831debts owed by a small province to the Tokugawa Shogunate causes province leaders to stealing goyokin (gold and silver) from mining sites on Sado Island & worse (e.g., massacre)
X Silence (2010) -- Jesuits meet violence and persecution in closed Japan
VI. AGE OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
VI.1. EARLY EXPLORATION. Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
Apocalypto (2006) -- Mayan Rambo just before the arrival of the Spanish
Kings of the Sun (1963) -- Mayans pursued by Toltec invaders
X Retorno a Aztlan (1991) -- an ancient Indian empire in what became Mexico faces a severe drought and the priest prays for relief
X Christopher Columbus (1949) -- discoverer of America, not a short cut to India (with Fredric March and Francis Sullivan)
X Christopher Columbus (1985) -- mini-series starring Gabriel Byrne, Faye Dunaway, Oliver Reed
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) -- with Marlon Brando, Tom Selleck
1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) -- Christopher Columbus
X Alba de América (aka Dawn of America) (1952) -- account of discovery of America
Captain from Castile (1947) -- serves with Cortez in conquest of Mexico
X El juicio de Martin Cortes -- mestizo son of Cortez represents fundamental dilemma of Mexican society
La Otra Conquista (The Other Conquest) (1998) -- Aztec resistance to Christianization by the Spanish under Cortez
Tribu (1935) -- conquest of North America
Cabeza de Vaca (1992) -- 1528, explored parts of the future USA and Mexico
Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969) -- Francisco Pizarro and the conquest of Peru
X Juana la loca (2001) -- Juana's devotion to her husband of an arranged marriage becomes an obsession; remakes of Locura de Amor
Locura de Amor -- Spanish movie about Joanna the Mad or Joanna of Castile (1479-1555)who ruled jointly with her husband Philip the Handsome
VI.2. SETTLEMENT OF MEXICO Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
X Seven Cities of Gold (1955) -- Portola's expedition to California in 1769 for the cities of gold and Father Junipero Serra and the founding of the California missions
Yo, la peor de todas (I the Worst of All) (1990) -- Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz of Mexico is punished for her writings by the Inquisition
X Bells of San Fernando (1947) -- when Old California was a part of Mexico, the virtual rulers of San Fernando Valley
X Zorro marchese di Navarra (Zorro, the Navarra Marquis) (1969) -- Zorro makes sure the exiled King Ferdinand VII (ruled 1808 & 1813-1833 after got rid of Joseph Bonaparte) gets back to Spain
VI.3. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & CANADA TO AMERICAN REVOLUTION Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
Black Robe (1991) Canadian-Australian film about Jesuit in 17th century Quebec among the Indians
X Plymouth Adventure (1945) --- early settlers in America
The New World (2005) -- Pocohontas & Captain John Smith
Pocahontas: The Legend (1955)
Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953)
X Penn of Pennsylvania (or The Courageous Mr. Penn) (1941) -- founds the future state of Pennsylvania
The Crucible (1996) -- 1692 witch hunts in Salem
X Les Sorcières de Salem (The Witches of Salem) (1956) -- French version of Arthur Miller's play about the scandal in Salem, Massachusetts
X The Scarlet Letter (1926) -- bad old American Puritanism
X The Scarlet Letter (1934) --
X The Scarlet Letter (1973) -- German film
The Scarlet Letter (1995) -- evil effects of Puritanism
X The Broken Chain (1993) -- end of the Iroquois Confederacy in the 1700s
X Last of the Mohicans (1936)
Last of the Mohicans (1971) -- Masterpiece Theatre version
X Last of the Mohicans (1992) -- Daniel Day Lewis -- French and Indian War, 1756-1763; best version
X Winners of the Wilderness (1927) -- wilderness fighter loves daughter of the commander of the French forces during the French and Indian War; the Indians, under Pontiac, capture the daughter, under Pontiac, kidnap
Northwest Passage (1940) -- French & Indian War
X Northwest Passage -- adventure series about Roger's Rangers in the French and Indian War
Mohawk (1956) -- Indians attack a frontier outpost; Scott Brady
X Frontier Times (1987) -- swashbuckler set during the French and Indian War
X Young Daniel Boone (1950)
Daniel Boone (1936) -- Daniel Boone leads settlers to the future Boonesborough
Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer (1956)
Battles of Chief Pontiac -- failure to capture Fort Detroit, 1763
X Unconquered (1947) -- Captain Holden and Abbey try to save Fort Pitt (in future Pittsburg) during Pontiac's War
X Captain Kidd (1945)
X Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (1954)
Canada:
Nouvelle France (Battle of the Brave) (2004) -- love story set in period 1758-1761, from the collapse of New France to the British take-over in Canada
Secret Nation (1992) -- search for a possible conspiracy surrounding the referendum by which Newfoundland joined Canada
VI.4. LATIN & SOUTH AMERICA Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
Cuba:
La Última cena (The Last Supper) (1976) -- slavery in Cuba
X Tamango (1958) -- an African slave on a Dutch slave ship heading to Cuba revolts, capturing the captain's mistress, thereby forcing a showdown
X El otro Francisco (The Other Francisco) (1975) -- Cuban abolitionists were not primarily motivated by humanitarianism but had real economic motives & misrepresented the nature of slavery in Cuba
Colombia:
Bolívar soy yo (2002) -- an actor playing the Liberator Simon Bolivar starts working to complete Bolivar's dream of a "Great Colombia"
Simón Bolívar (1942) -- the Great Liberator
Venezuela:
Simón Bolívar (1969) -- the Great Liberator
Brazil:
X O Descobrimento do Brasil (1937) -- old film about the armada of Pedro Álvares Cabral discovering Brazil
The Mission (1986) -- Jesuits in Brazil try to protect natives
X Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) -- a lost 1540s expedition from Peru to the Amazon
X El Dorado -- 1560 expedition down Amazon River by Spanish soldiers searching for the fabled city of gold, El Dorado
Xica (1978) -- slavery in Brazil
X Vendaval Maravilhoso (1949) – Castro Alves, poet of slave liberation in 19th century Brazil
X Desmundo (2002) -- set in 1570 Brazil a young and religious Portuguese woman travels from Portugal to marry a sugar-cane plantation owner
X Quilombo (1984) -- illegal towns composed of renegade slaves and others at the bottom that whites just have to destroy
X Ganga Zumba (1963) -- a runaway slave founds a Quilombo, Palmares, an escaped slave community
VI.5. AUSTRALIA Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
Captain James Cook (1987) -- 1770 voyage discovers east coast of Australia
Against the Wind (1978) -- TV mini-series about the life of a transported convict in the colony of New South Wales, Australia
X Eureka Stockade (a.k.a. Massacre Hill) (1949) -- Australians battle the government during the 1854 miners' revolt
X Botany Bay -- in 1787 prisoners are shipped from Newgate Jail to a new penal colony in Botany Bay, New South Wales, Australia
VII. REVOLUTION AND AFTERMATH. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
VII.1. AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 1775-1782. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
John Adams (2008) -- miniseries of John Adams and the first 50 years of the USA
Adams Chronicles (1976) -- life of 4 generations of the Adams family of Massachusetts
The Howards of Virginia (1940) -- the run-up to the Revolution in Virginia
Allegheny Uprising (1939) – colonials in Pennsylvania have an uprising even before the American Revolution
X The Bastard (1978) -- a man from France gets involved with the events leading up to the American Revolution
X Johnny Tremain (1957) --
X April Morning (1988) -- Battle of Lexington & Concord,1775, war starts before Dec. of Independence
X 1776 -- The Musical -- Declaration of Independence
John Paul Jones (1959) -- Robert Stack as the naval hero
The Crossing (2003) -- Delaware River crossing by George Washington
X George Washington -- 'miniseries with Barry Bostwick as Washington; interesting too because it is Viggo Mortensen's first film
X Lafayette (1962) -- the Frenchman who fought for American independence
X The Buccaneer (1938) -- 1780 Lafayette and the American Revolution
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) -- Mohawk Valley, New York frontier in the Revolution
Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor (2003) -- the infamous American traitor
The Scarlet Coat -- for money Benedict wants to offer up West Point to the British
The Patriot (2000) -- Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina
X Revolution (1985) -- set within the American Revolution, such as at Valley Forge and Yorktown (starring Al Pacino)
X Swamp Fox -- South Carolina revolutionary guerrilla leader
X Yorktown (2006) -- final battle of the Revolutionary War, September-October, 1781
X The World Turned Upside Down (1985) – struggle of a family who supported Britain in the American Revolution; emigration to Canada may be the only answer
X The Rebels (1979) -- American Revolution
Revolution in South America:
Bolívar soy yo (2002) -- an actor playing the Liberator Simon Bolivar starts working to complete Bolivar's dream of a "Great Colombia"
VII.2. FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789 Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Louis XVI
X Ridicule (1966) -- wit proves the key to social success at the court of Louis XVI (1774-1792)
Marie Antoinette (2006)
X Marie Antoinette (1955) -- French film
X Marie Antoinette (1938) -- daughter of Francis II of Austria; wife of Louis XVI
X The Affair of the Necklace (2001) --
The Beloved Rogue (1927) -- French poet-patriot Francois Villon battles wits with King Louis XI
Jefferson in Paris (1995) -- Jefferson's experiences as French ambassador along with his love life
La Marseillaise (1938) -- French Revolution
X La Révolution française (1989) -- the French Revolution
A Tale of Two Cities (1980) -- French Revolution
X A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
X A Tale of Two Cities (1935) -- with Ronald Coleman
X Reign of Terror (1949) -- 1789 French Revolution
Scaramouche (1952) -- only set in the 1789 French Revolution
Danton (1982) -- radical but pragmatic leader in the French Revolution
L' Anglaise et le duc (The Lady and the Duke) (2001) -- Scottish courtesan observes and writes about the French Revolution
X Nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes) (1982) -- French film about stagecoach passengers who get caught up in the arrest of King Louis XVI in the town of Varennes
X The Black Book -- French Revolution (DVD with poor production quality)
X Sade (2000) -- 1794, Marquis de Sade faces execution by Robespierre's regime
Quills (2000) -- Marquis de Sade at the Charenton Mental Asylum
Lady Oscar -- in her youth a female guard to Marie Antoinette love Andre, but they meet again at the assault on the Bastille on opposites sides
Dangerous Exile -- fate of ten year old Louis XVII, who died in 1795, (many though he escaped from his French revolutionary captors
VII.3. AGE OF NAPOLEON. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X Napoleon (2003)
X Napoleon (1956) -- film made by the French
X Napoleon (1927)
X Passion in the Desert – young French officer in Egypt during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign to capture the country
X Adieu Bonaparte (1985) -- reactions of three Egyptian brothers to French Occupation and crushing of Mameluke rule
Kolberg -- defense of the besieged fortress town of Kolberg against French troops (April-July 1807)
X Sangre de mayo (Blood of May) (2008) -- love story set against reign of Fernando VII of Spain
The Pride and the Passion (1957) -- Spanish Revolution Against Napoleon 1810
Goya in Bordeaux (1999) -- Spanish painter Francisco Goya
Volavérunt (1999) -- Goya and the Duchess of Alba, Goya's "Naked Maja"
X Goya's Ghost (2006) -- Goya
X Augustina (2010) -- 1808, Agustina de Aragón fights for Spanish independence from Napoleon
X Agustina de Aragón (1950) -- ditto
X The Battle of Austerlitz (1960) -- Napoleon
War and Peace (1956) -- Napoleon's invasion of Russia, 1812 (from Tolstoy's great novel)
X War and Peace (1972) -- ditto, but with Anthony Hopkins
Война и мир; Vojna i mir (War and Peace) (1968) -- expensive Russian version of War and Peace
X Venere imperiale (Imperial Venus) (1963) -- Italian/French production of story of Paolina Bonaparte, sister of Emperor Napoleon I
Madame Sans-Gene (Madame) (1962) -- wife of Marshal Lefebvre, one of Napoleon's generals and Marshal of France, who constantly gets him into trouble
X Waterloo (1970) -- Napoleon in his second romp defeated in this 1815 battle
Eagle in a Cage (1971) – Napoleon's exile on St. Helena
Monsieur N. (2003) – conjecture that Napoleon did not die on St. Helena
Conquest (1937) -- a Polish countess (played by the great Garbo) becomes the mistress of Napoleon in an attempt to gain freedom for her country
Desiree (1954) -- the future queen and king of Sweden and Napoleon; a seamstress loves Napoleon, but his marriage to aristocrat Josephine spoils her dreams.
Madame Bovary (1991) -- the then scandalous portrait of a bored middle-class married woman engaging in adultery
The Duelists --- two men each committed to kill the other, duel over a period of fifteen years covering the Napoleonic era
English Opponents of Napoleon:
X Sharpe's Waterloo (2006) -- Battle of Waterloo
The Iron Duke (1934) – historical drama about the Duke of Wellington starring George Arliss
X Sea Devils (1953) -- woman working as a double agent for England in France and the English fishermen turned smuggler who loves her
X The Nelson Affair (1973) -- British film on the Lord Nelson-Lady Hamilton affair; Nelson put an end to Napoleon's naval threat
That Hamilton Woman (1941) -- Lord Horatio Nelson and Lady Emma Hart Hamilton 1801
X The Divine Lady (1929) -- Nelson, Lady Hamilton and Emma in a triangle
X A Bequest to the Nation (1973) -- the relationship between Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton
I Remember Nelson (1982) -- TV mini-series presenting Nelson as seen from viewpoints of his wife, his mistress's husband, Captain Hardy and a common seaman
X Master and Commander
Lady Caroline Lamb -- novelist famous for a tempestuous affair with Lord Byron in 1812; (was also involved with the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon)
Shelly (1972) -- famous British author
Becoming Jane (2007) -- early love affair of Jane Austen that affected her later writing
Les Enfants du siecle (Children of the Century) (1999) -- love affair between George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset
Impromptu (1991) -- novelist George Sand and composer Frederic Chopin
Other:
Immortal Beloved (1994) -- speculation on loves of Beethoven (1795-1815)
X Beethoven's Great Love (1936)
X Spring Symphony -- composer Robert Schumann
X Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1969) – biopic of musical composer Johann Sebastian Bach as seen through the eyes of his wife
X Mazeppa (1993) – biography of French Romantic painter Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) who painted the controversial "Raft of the Medusa" (1819)
X The House of Rothschild (1934) -- biography of the Rothschild family of financiers whose fortune was laid during the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars
VII.4. EARLY YEARS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X Alexander Hamilton (1931) George Arliss as first Secretary of the Treasury of the US
Jefferson in Paris (1995) -- Jefferson's experiences as French ambassador along with his love life
The Far Horizons (1955) -- Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the west of the USA
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000)
X Tripoli (1950) -- US Marines battle Barbary pirates in 1805
X The Buccaneer (1938) -- pirate-hero Jean Lafitte, who aids American cause in Battle of New Orleans, War of 1812
X The Buccaneer (1958) Andrew Jackson relies for help in the Battle of New Orleans on Lafitte
X Buccaneer's Girl (1950) New Orleans's singer helps free pirate-friend from prison
X The President's Lady (1953) -- Andrew Jackson criticized for his wife with a past
X The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) -- Andrew Jackson and the innkeeper's daughter results in trouble for both of them
The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) -- trouble for Napoleon exiles in Demopolis, Alabama
X Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
X Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956)
X Western Union (1941) -- building of the first transcontinental telegraph system; Robert Young
X Wells Fargo (1937) -- 1840s development of alternative to the US Post Office
Jeremiah Johnson (1972) -- mountain man who had his own personal war with the Crows
Mountain Men (1980) -- story of mountain men who led many of the settlers into the West
Tomahawk (1951) --- in 1864 mountain man Jim Bridger builds the Bridger Trail from Wyoming to the gold fields in Montana
Mormans:
X The Prophet – Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. the Mormons)
Brigham: Savage Journey (a.k.a. Savage Journey) (1983) -- Brigham Young leads the Mormons (Latter Day Saints) out to today's Salt Lake City, Utah
Brigham Young (1940) -- ditto
September Dawn (2006) -- Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 in which Mormons massacre a wagon train of settlers
Handcart (2002) – man marries a Mormon woman and becomes part of the ill-fated journey of Martin Handcart Company in 1856 heading to Salt Lake valley, in which 150 people died of cold and starvation
The Republic of Texas and the Mexico-America War
X The First Texan (1956) -- based on life of Sam Houston (starring Joel McCrea)
X Gone to Texas (1986) -- story of Sam Houston (including battle at the Alamo and the battle of San Jacinto)
X The Honorable Sam Houston (1975) -- Texas Sam Houston
The Adventures of Jim Bowie (1956) (TV) -- TV series based on the life of Jim Bowie
Texas (1994)-- history of Texas from its settlement via Stephen Austin to statehood
The Alamo (1960) -- 1836
X The Last Command (1955) Jim Bowie and the Alamo
X Alamo: 13 Days to Glory (1987) --
X Heroes of the Alamo
X Travis (1991) -- a teenager watches the courage of Col. Travis at the Alamo
X One Man's Hero (1999) -- Irish Americans mistreated in the US army go over to the Mexican side
Santa Anna: Su alteza serenisima (2001) -- the last three days in the life of Santa Anna (1794-1876)
X The Robin Hood of El Dorado (1936) -- Joaquin Murrieta in California seeks revenge on the men who killed his wife and brother (possible source for Zorro character)
Seminole Wars
X Drums of Destiny (1937) -- American army captain in 1815 Florida (then under Spanish control) must save his brother
Distant Drums (1951) -- Seminole Indians on warpath in early 19th c Florida
Seminole (1953) -- Seminole Indians and help from a cavalry officer
Gold Rush
Roughing It (2002) -- teenaged Mark Twain out West during the "Gold Rush" days
VII.5. VICTORIAN ENGLAND TO WWI. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X The First Gentleman(1948) -- romance between the future King Leopold I of Belgium & the daughter of the Prince of Wales (later George IV), Princess Charlotte
X Victoria the Great (1937) -- Queen Victoria (ruled 1838-1901)
X Sixty Glorious Years (1938) -- Queen Victoria
Victoria and Albert (2001) -- love story of Victoria and Albert
X Network First: Victoria and Albert (1997) -- TV miniseries
X The Young Victoria (2009) -- Queen Victoria
Mädchenjahre einer Königin (Victoria in Dover) (1954) -- Victoria becomes the Queen of England and falls in love in Dover
Mrs. Brown (1997) -- Queen Victoria after death of husband Albert
X The Mudlark (1950) -- Queen Victoria after death of husband Albert
Disraeli (1978) -- the political career of Benjamin Disraeli.
X The Prime Minister (1941) -- story of rise of Benjamin Disraeli who came to be the Prime Minister in 1868 and then from 1874-1880
X Disraeli (1929) -- Conservative Party prime minister
X Little Dorrit (1988) – novelist Charles Dickens' political indictment of early 19th century England
River Queen (2005) -- in the 1860s a young Irish woman and her family find themselves torn between the British and Maori during the British colonization of New Zealand
Utu (1983) -- in the 1870s, Te Kooti's War, a Maori soldier seeks revenge after the British army destroys his home village and kills his uncle
X The Last Stand (1938) -- Maori girl helps her people in a last stand against the British
The Four Feathers (2002) -- man declared a coward has to go to Sudan to fight the Mahdi's forces to prove he is not a coward
X In Desert and Wilderness (1973) -- two kids kidnapped by the rebels during Mahdi's rebellion in Sudan
X Jack the Ripper (1960) -- serial killer in Victorian England 1888
X Jack the Ripper (1988)
X From Hell (2001) – Jack the Ripper
Wilde (1997) -- homosexual writer and brilliant social critic; height of career 1895
X Oscar Wilde (1960)
X The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960)
X Salome's Last Dance (1988)
X Feasting with Panthers (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1974) -- Oscar Wilde in prison
Lillie (1978) (mini) -- story of beautiful British actress Lillie Langtry admired by Prince of Wales and Oscar Wilde
X Topsy-Turvy (2000) -- Gilbert and Sullivan
X Elephant Man (1980) -- John Merrick with terribly disfiguring disease finally treated with some dignity (becoming a favorite of Queen Victoria)
Edward VII (1901-1910)
Edward the Seventh (a.k.a. Edward the King) (1975) -- the life of Queen Victoria's son who became Edward VII
George V (1910-1936):
Carrington (1995) -- love affair between painter Dora Carrington and gay author Lytton Strachey
X Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd (The Flight of the Eagle) (1982) -- Swedish film about S. A. Andrée setting out in hydrogen balloon "The Eagle" to be the first man at the north pole, 1897
Scott of the Antarctic (1948) -- Robert F. Scott's trip to be the first man to reach the South Pole (1910-1912)
Shackleton (2002) -- Shackleton's journey to the South Pole and the crew's harrowing return trip
VII.6. FRANCE. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Capetian Dyanasty, House of Bourbon Restored (1815-1830):
Balzac: A Passionate Life (1999) -- the mother, the work and the loves of a founding father of realism in European literature
Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI, ruled 1815-1824
Charles X -- ruled 1824-1830
Louis-Philippe I of the July Monarchy (1830-1848) -- the last king to rule France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte of the Second Republic (1848-1852) -- became Emperor Napoleon III
Emperor Napoleon III (Louis Bonaparte), the Citizen King, (ruled late 1852 to 1870) -- Second Empire restored
Suez (1938) -- Leon Ames plays Napoleon III, although Loretta Young as Eugenie is much more highlighted
Juarez (1939) -- Claude Rains portrays him as a weak man ready to betray Maximilian in Mexico
The Song of Bernadette (1943) -- Jerome Cowan plays Napoleon III
Maytime (1936) -- Guy Bates Post plays Louis Napoleon
X Spy of Napoleon (1936) -- Napoleon III that is
Edward the Seventh (a.k.a. Edward the King) (1975) -- contains many references to Louie Bonaparte
VII.7. CRIMEAN WAR -- Russia vs. Turkey (Ottoman Empire), England and France Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) -- Crimea, 1854-1856
Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) -- love triangle in India solved by British involvement in the Crimean War
X Charge of the Lancers (1954) -- affairs set against the Crimean War
X Lady with a Lamp (1951) -- nurse-crusader Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (1986) -- the great nurse at work during the Crimean War fighting against prejudice to be of service to the soldiers
X The White Angel (1936) -- Florence Nightingale
X Bronte (1983) -- Irish film
X Les Soeurs Bronte (Bronte Sisters) (1979) French film
X Devotion (1946) -- Bronte sisters
X The Brontes of Haworth (1973)
VII.8. ITALY (1789-1867) Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Ferdinando e Carolina (Ferdinando and Carolina) (1999) -- King Ferdinando I of Naples weds Mary Caroline of Austria, daughter of Empress Mary Theresa, in a political marriage
X Senso (1968) -- Italy 1855, Austrian military occupation
X In nome del papa re (In the Name of the Pope King) (1977) – in 1867 the papal court fights to prevent Garibaldi's forces from taking power and bringing Rome into the Italian kingdom
X Viva l'Italia! (1961) -- about Giuseppe Garibaldi of Italian unification fame (director is Rossillini)
X Noi credevamo (2010) -- Italy's battle for unification in the 19th century
VII.9. AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Prequel:
Adanggaman (2000) -- role of black Africans in supplying the human beings for the European slave trade
X Slavers (1978) -- slave trade in east Africa around 1884
Amistad (1997) -- slave ship rebellion leads to 1839 court room drama
Ill-Gotten Gains (1997) -- slave revolt aboard the ship Argon Miss
X Roots (1977) -- TV mini series on slavery from more of a black perspective
Alex Haley's Queen (1993) -- in this mini-series the writer of Roots tells the story of his paternal grandmother, whose father was a Civil War-era slave owner
A Woman Called Moses (1978) Harriet Tubman
X Uncle Tom's Cabin (1987) -- based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel published in 1852
Race to Freedom: Underground Railroad (1994) TV -- slaves escape to Canada and freedom via the Underground Railroad
X Scarecrow (2009) -- partly about underground railroad
X Stand Up and Fight (1939) -- a northerner and a southerner try to stop the kidnapping of black freemen for reselling
Solomon Northup's Odyssey: "Twelve Years a Slave" (1984) -- a free black man living in Saratoga Springs, New York is kidnapped and taken to Louisiana to work as a slave
Enslavement: The Story of Fanny Kemble (2000) -- artist disturbed by southern slavery
X Dixie (1943) -- composer of Dixie, pioneer minstrel Dan Emmett
I Dream of Jeanie (1952) -- the story of popular song-writer Stephen Foster
X Swanee River -- mostly fictional biopic of Stephen Foster
Bloody Kansas:
X The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) -- for vengeance joins "Bloody Bill" Anderson's gang, a pro-southern gang of "outlaws"
X Quantrill's Raiders (1958) -- psychopath leading outlaws with a pro-southern slant
X Kansas Raiders (1950) -- Jesse James joins Quantrill's Raiders
Dark Command (1940) -- Civil War Kansas; Quantrill's Raiders
Ride with the Devil (1999) -- the war in bloody Kansas and Missouri
The Jayhawkers! (1959) -- a government agent infiltrates the vigilante group the Jayhawkers (bushwhackers were pro-South and Jayhawkers were pro-union, non-military guerilla raiders)
X Seven Angry Men (1955) -- John Brown (Raymond Massey)
Santa Fe Trail (1940) -- on trail of John Brown; 1856 Pottawatomie Creek massacre; 1859 Harper's Ferry
Civil War Begins and Ends:
X Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) -- Raymond Massey as Lincoln
X Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) -- John Ford director
X Abraham Lincoln (1930) -- directed by D. W. Griffith
X The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1976) --
X Tad (1995) -- Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad
Tap Roots – very loosely based on farm owner reacting to the attempt by his Jones County to secede from Mississippi
X Class of '61 (1993) -- graduates of West Point enter the Civil War and Battle of Bull Run
X Journey to Shiloh (1968) --
X Ironclads -- the CSS Virginia versus the USS Monitorin the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862
Gods and Generals (2003) -- pro-Southern film about early Confederate victories: Fredericksburg, Chancelorsville that led to excessive hubris in Gen. Lee
X "Disneyland" Willie and the Yank: The Mosby Raiders (1967) -- pro-Southern film about young boy who joins the pro-Confederate Mosby Raiders -- Mosby captured Union General Stoughton March 1863
The Horse Soldiers (1959) -- set in Vicksburg campaign; John Ford and John Wayne
X Gettysburg (1993) -- 1863 battle, high water mark of the Confederacy
X The Perfect Tribute (1991) (TV) -- young boy and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Wicked Spring (2002) -- Battle of the Wilderness, May 5 - May 7 1864
X The Gangs of New York (2002) -- ethnic tensions between Irish immigrants and native Americans leads to infamous New York City draft riots of 1863
The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) -- during Atlanta campaign, Yanks steal a Reb locomotive and try to tear up the track
Gone With The Wind (1939) -- Battle of Atlanta
True Women (1997) -- lives of three women though the Texas Rebellion the Civil War, Reconstruction and beyond
Glory (1989) --- 54th Massachusetts, first black army unit in the US
X The Hunley (1999) -- 1864 submarine in Charleston, SC for Turner Network
Andersonville (1996) -- made for cable movie about infamous Confederate prison
Lincoln (aka Gore Vidal's Lincoln) (1988) -- reveals more of the inner family problems faced by Lincoln
X The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998) -- assassinated at Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth
X They've Killed President Lincoln (1971) – simulated documentary footage to examine the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
X The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth (2007) --
X Prince of Players – great American stage actor Edwin Booth, brother John Wilkes Booth
X Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)-- Dr. Samuel Mudd unjustly found guilty of helping in the Lincoln assassination
The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd (1980) -- Dr. Mudd accused of helping John Wilkes Booth get away after killing President Lincoln
Hellgate (1955) -- remake of Prisoner of Shark Island
The Blue and the Gray (1982 ) -- the families of two brothers divided between the North and the South fight for different sides
X Cold Mountain (2003) -- interesting question of just how unjust were the civil defense bands in the South
VII.10. SIAM (THAILAND) & BURMA (MYANMAR) Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
The King Maker (2005) -- in 1547 the Portuguese soldier of fortune Fernando De Gama comes to Thailand and finds adventure
The Legend of Suriyothai (2001) -- 1528 Thailand
X The Legend of King Naresuan (2007) -- King Naresuan the Great (1590 to 1605); a follow-up to The Legend of Suriyothai
Bang Rajan (2000) -- Burmese invaders of 18th century Thailand
X Anna and the King (2000) -- Thailand during American Civil War; Jody Foster
X The King and I (1999) -- animated version
X The King and I (1956) --
X Anna and the King of Siam (1946)-- Thailand
X Kyan Sit Min -- Burmese film based on King Kyan Sit Min of Burma
X Tamnaan somdet phra Naresuan maharat: Phaak prakaat itsaraphaap (The Legend of Naresuan: Declaration in Independence) (2007) -- the war for the independence of Siam (Thailand) from Burma
VII.11. USA -- POST-CIVIL WAR PERIOD. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
USA - RECONSTRUCTION & SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
Gone With the Wind (1939)
X Birth of a Nation (1915) -- the Southern version of "truth" by Southerner D. W. Griffith (a great film for racists)
Booker -- youth of Booker T. Washington, later supporter of "separate but equal" racist system (but who also supported the NAACP in secret)
X The Toast of New York (1937) -- story behind the Financial Panic of 1869
USA -- COWBOYS
X Donner Pass -- The Road to Survival (1984) -- some of the settlers stranded in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains near Truckee, California in the winter of 1846 turn to cannibalism to survive
X Lonesome Dove (1989) -- c. 1866, based on cattle drivers Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight
Red River (1948) -- 1867, Chisholm Trail to Abilene, John Wayne
Abilene Town (1946) -- at the end of the Chisholm Trail
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill (1995) -- Hickok that is; 1866-1871, marshal in Kansas cowtowns, including Abilene
Young Bill Hickok (1940) -- B western
X Calamity Jane (1953) -- friend of Hickok
X The Plainsman (1936) -- Wild Bill and Calamity Jane
Jesse James
Jesse James (1939) -- bank and train robber and a very bad man; 1866-1882
X The Great Missouri Raid (1950) -- Jesse James and Youngers
X Bad Men of Missouri (1941) -- the Youngers
X The Great Jesse James Raid (1953)
X The True Story of Jesse James (1957)
X Young Jesse James (1960)
X Jesse James: Legend, Outlaw, Terrorist (2005) --
X The Assassination of Jesse James -- shows James as a bit of a psychopath, but still portrays him somewhat sympathetically
X The Plot to Kill Jesse James (2006) --
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) -- ill-fated 1876 bank robbery by James and Younger gangs
The Long Riders (1980) -- James, Younger, Miller and Ford brothers
X American Outlaws (2001) -- James and Younger gang
X Cole Younger, Gunfighter (1958) -- Frank Lovejoy; revenge, romance and a trial
The Daltons
X When the Daltons Rode (1940) -- Dalton gang in Indian Territory; 1891, first train robbery
The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang (1979) -- Dalton gang
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp (1994) -- 1876-1879 marshal of Dodge City, Kansas
Tombstone (1993) -- Wyatt Earp in Arizona; gunfight at O.K. Corral
X Dodge City (1939) -- composite fictional hero
X Hour of the Gun (1967) -- Earp & Doc Holliday form a posse to hunt Ike Clanton and his gang
Gunfight at O.K. Corral (1957) -- gunfight in 1881 Tombstone
X My Darling Clementine (1946) Henry Fonda
Billy the Kid
X Billy the Kid (1930) -- first kill 1877
X Billy the Kid (1941)
X The Left-Handed Gun (1958) -- Billy the Kid
X Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
X Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid (1989)
Chisum (1970) -- the Lincoln County War, involving Billy the Kid, in what became New Mexico
X Young Guns (1988) -- six boys, including Billy the Kid, are hired as "regulators" for a rancher
X Young Guns 2 (1990) -- Billy the Kid plans an escape from jail
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) -- bank robbers; 1896 forms the Wild Bunch
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979)
Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley
X Buffalo Bill (1944) -- Buffalo Bill Wild West Show formed 1883
Buffalo Bill and the Indian, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)
X Annie Get Your Gun (1950) -- sharpshooter in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show
X Annie Oakley (1935) -- ditto
Others
The Invasion of Johnson County (1976) -- larger ranch cattle men hire a private army to kill or hang the small ranchers, who they consider as "cattle rustlers" in Johnson County, Wyoming
X Belle Starr (1941) -- outlaw; originally from Missouri; marries Sam Starr in 1880
X Montana Belle (1952) -- Jane Russell as Belle Starr, the bandit queen
X The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959) -- sheriff Bat Masterson
X The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) -- c. 1882
X The Westerner (1940) -- Judge Roy Bean of Texas
X Texas Rangers (2001) --
The Story of Jack London (1943) -- Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and the stories that rose from it
Union Pacific (1939) -- first transcontinental railroad, 1869
Ned Kelly (2003) -- Australian gang of bank robbers
X Ned Kelly (1970) -- ditto
X Burke & Wills (1987) -- the 1860 expedition across Australia
& INDIANS
X Kit Carson (1940) -- army scout, guide for explorer Fremont, 1843-1846, and conqueror of the Navajo
X Kit Carson and the Mountain Men (1977) --
Comanche and Cheyenne:
X Rio Grande (1950) -- Col. Ranald Mackenzie's 1873 raid against the Comanche and Kiowa hiding in Mexico; part of John Ford's cavalry triology
X Comancheros (1961) -- fight against outlaws selling guns to the Comanche
X Cheyenne Autumn (1964) -- Cheyenne return from relocation
Centennial (Vols. 1-12) (1978) -- historic development of state of Colorado as seen in the story of one town
Soldier Blue (1970) -- fictionalized account of the Chivington November 1864 Sand Creek Massacre
Custer and the Sioux:
X A Man called Horse (1970) -- English nobleman must prove himself to the Sioux by surviving torturous rituals
X Tomahawk (1951) --- in 1864 mountain man Jim Bridger builds the Bridger Trail from Wyoming to the gold fields in Montana
They Died With Their Boots On (1941) -- Custer, 1876
Little Big Horn (1951) -- Battle of, 1876
X Seventh Cavalry (1956) -- officer must prove he did not desert Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn
X The Great Sioux Massacre (1965) Custer's last stand
X Custer's Last Stand (1937) -- feature version of the Rex Lease serial
X Custer of the West (1968)
X Glory Guys (1965) -- thinly veiled Custer Story (director, Sam Peckinpah)
Little Big Man (1970) -- hero meets Marshall Bill Hickock & General Custer at Battle of Little Big Horn
Son of the Morning Star (1991) -- Custer
X Chief Crazy Horse (1955) --
X Crazy Horse (1996) -- Sioux warrior who fought Custer at Little Big Horn
Crazy Horse and Custer -- no connection with historical truth at all
Sitting Bull (1954) -- Sioux chief at the Battle of Little Big Horn
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) -- bad history, but cavalry movements instructive , part of John Ford's cavalry triology
X Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee (2007) --
Canadians (1961) -- Americans as the bad guys in more peaceful Canada
X Saskatchewan (1954) -- Canadian Mounted Police dealing with the Sioux and many other items
Riel (1979) -- 19th Century Canadian founder of the province of Manitoba and rebel leader Louis Riel
North West Mounted Police (1940) -- Texas Ranger caught up in the Riel rebellion (or Northwest Rebellion)
Apache:
X Broken Arrow (1950) -- fictionalized 1870s Apache Chief Cochise (Jeff Chandler) and ex-Army man (James Stewart)
X Conquest of Cochise (1953) -- 1850s southwest
Fort Apache (1948) -- loosely based on the fight against Cochise and Custer's Last Stand; part of John Ford's cavalry triology
X Taza, Son of Cochise (1954)
X Geronimo (1939) -- 1886 leader of Apache revolt in the southwest
X Valley of the Sun (1942) -- Geronimo
X I Killed Geronimo (1950)
X Outpost (1951) -- Geronimo
X Indian Uprising (1952) -- Geronimo
X The Battle at Apache Pass (1952) -- Geronimo
Walk the Proud Land (1956) -- Indian Agent John P. Culm at Arizona's San Carlos Reservation and Geronimo
X Geronimo (1962)
X Geronimo (1993)
X Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
X Ulzana's Raid (1972) -- Apache raider
Arrowhead (1953) -- partly based on Army Scout Al Sieber
Apache (1954) -- the last Apache warrior, Massai
Major Dundee (1965) -- Dundee on an expedition to hunt down and kill an Apache warrior group raiding in Texas during the Civil War
Other:
Buffalo Soldiers (1997) -- chasing Apaches
Sergeant Rutledge -- buffalo soldier on trial
I Will Fight No More Forever (1975) -- Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
X Dances with Wolves (1990) Kevin Costner's tribute to the Native Americans living on the mid-West plains
X Witness the Healing (2009) -- a young woman learns how California's early policies toward the Native Americans influenced her family's fortunes
Mexico under Juarez (president 1858-1872) Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Juarez (1939) -- Mexican leader against Napoleon III's man in Mexico
X Aquellos anos (1973) -- Benito Juarez
Major Dundee (1965) -- Dundee hunts down an Apache warrior group raiding in Texas during the Civil War & runs into French troops in Mexico
Vera Cruz (1954) -- Americans try to steal the gold while escorting a countess to Vera Cruz and Emperor Maximilian; Juaristas also want the gold
X Mexicanos, al grito de guerra (Mexicans, to the Cry of War) (1943) -- a soldier defends Mexico against the French while in love with the French ambassador's daughter
The Undefeated (1969) -- a group of Confederate soldiers from USA decide to establish a new life in Mexico under French Emperor Maximilian
VII.13. FRANCE Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Third French Republic (1870-1940)
Untel père et fils (Heart of a Nation) (1943) -- the Froment family of Montmartre, France from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to Nazi occupation in World War II
Mademoiselle Fifi – conquering Germans throw their weight around in occupied France during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, while French nobles kiss their posteriors
X Paris Commune (2000) -- story of the Paris Commune of 1871, which briefly ruled France
1871 (1990) – the rise and fall of the Paris Commune
Total Eclipse (1995) -- French poets struggle with relationships, 1871
X Camille Claudel (1989) -- in 1883 France, sculptor Auguste Rodin meets sculptress Camille Claudel and they begin a relationship
X Lust for Life (1956) -- 1885-1891, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (friend of painter Paul Gaugan)
X Vincent and Theo -- the two Van Gogh brothers
Moulin Rouge (1952) -- painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
The Life of Emile Zola (1937) -- involved in the anti-Semitic Dreyfus Affair
X I Accuse! (1958) -- Zola and the Dreyfus Affair
Prisoner of Honor (1991) -- anti-Semitic Dreyfus affair, 1894
Impressionists (2006) -- story of Monet and the creation of Impressionism which began in 1860s among Paris-based artists
X Modigliani -- Amadeo, the painter
X Montparnasse 19 (1993) – life of the painter Amadeo Modigliani
X Surviving Picasso (1996) -- Spanish painter Pablo Picasso
La Mome (La Vie en Rose) (2007) -- very rough life of Edith Piaf, one of the world's greatest singers
Waiting for the Moon (1987) -- a few months in the life of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein
VII.14. RUSSIA AND TURKEY Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X Geroite na Shipka (Heroes of Shipka) (1955) -- Bulgarian/Soviet Union film about the Battle of Shipka Pass during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78)
X Yuliya Vrevskaya (1978) – for reasons of love Russian nurse Yuliya Vrevskaya follows the troops in the war between Russia and Turkey (1877-1878)
X V nachale slavnykh del (At the Beginning of Glorious Days) (1981) -- Russo-Turkish War
X Trandafirul galben (1982) – outlaw fight corrupt politics in 1800s Romania
VII.15. WORKERS' STRUGGLE Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X Comrades (1989) – British farm laborers imprisoned in Australia in 1834 for forming an unauthorized union
X La Révolte des enfants (The Children's Rebellion) -- drama set in France around the abuse of child labor
x Daens (1993) -- Father Adolf Daens works in Belgium of the 1890s champions the workers' cause
X Desertir (The Deserter) (1933) -- labor struggle in Germany
X Ådalen 31 (Adalen 31 or Adalen Riots) (1969) -- in 1931 Swedish military opens fire on peaceful labor demonstrators in Adalen
X Joe Hill (1971) -- labor organizer
X The Triangle Shirt Factory Fire Scandal -- 1911 sweatshop fire in New York City (near New York University, Manhattan)
Frida (1986) -- the life and paintings of Frida Kahlo (married to the great muralist Diego Rivera)
Frida (2003) -- two left-wing Mexican artists interact with the Rockefellers
Tina in Mexico (2002) -- life of photographer Tina Modotti and he contacts with intellectual circles (including Diego Rivera)
Cradle will Rock (1999) -- actor Orson Wells has big trouble trying to put on a theatrical production of a musical about a steel strike
X Matewan (1987) -- Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones -
X Norma Rae (1979) -- labor organizer played by Sally Field
Harlan County War (2000) -- a Kentucky coal miner's wife spearheads a 1970s union strike to close the mine and force contract negotiations
Sudor Amargo (Bitter Sweat) (2004) -- mysterious death of a supervisor during the Star Kist Caribbean Plant closure in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Sub Terra (2003) -- coal miners strike for better pay and conditions in 1897 Lota, Chile
X Salt of the Earth (1953)--
Molly McGuires (1970) -- violence used by Irish coal workers to fight the owners
X Strikebound (1983) -- worker struggle in the Gippsland coalfields during 1930’s Australia
X The Organizer (1963) -- labor strike in Italy at turn of the 20th century against a 14-hour work day
X Ah! Nomugi toge (1979) -- abuse of women workers in silk industry in Japan in early 1900s
X The Bad Sleep Well (1963) -- Kurosawa's film about a man seeking revenge against the Japanese company that murdered his father
X F.I.S.T. (1978) -- interesting theory that managers and their hired thugs used so much violence that the American labor movement had to turn to organized crime to survive and thereby was corrupted
X Northern Lights (1978) -- early 20th century popular take-over of government in USA northern plains
On the Waterfront (1954) -- fighting inequality on the docks of New York City
Työväenlaulaja (1973) -- labor troubles in Finland
Sacco e Vanzetti (Sacco and Vanzetti) (1971) -- 1920, the unjust trial of two Italian-American anarchists for a crime they did not commit
X Schwabenkinder (2003) -- a child sent away as a laborer, now an adult, tells his story to his now dying father
VIII. AGE OF IMPERIALISM. Back to Chapter VIII Back to Contents
VIII.1. IMPERIALISM: SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR Back to Chapter VIII Back to Contents
José Rizal (1998) -- Filipino hero who is unjustly tried for treason by the colonial government
X Sisa (2008) --
X Citizen Kane (1941) -- William Randolph Hearst & yellow journalism starts war w/ Spain
X The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985) -- Hearst and actress Marion Davies
X The Cat's Meow (2001) -- movie producer Thomas Ince dies after yachting with William Randolph, Charlie Chaplin & Marion Davies
X Newsies -- musical about the newspaper boy strike against Pulitzer in NYC
X The Indomitable Teddy Roosevelt (1983) -- the bull moose, President Theodore Roosevelt
Rough Riders (1997) -- 1898, with Theodore Roosevelt
X The White Legion (1936) -- the medical search for the cure for yellow fever killing so many workers on the Panama Canal
X Cavalry Command (1963) -- after the war's end, in 1902 an American cavalry brigade is sent to quell guerilla resistance in the Philippines
X The Real Glory (1939) -- doctor in Philippines after Spanish-American War, in 1906
X The Wind and the Lion (1975) -- Morocco 1904, Pres. TR & pol. kidnaping
Lillian Russell (1940) -- singing bombshell sensation wooed by Diamond Jim Brady among others
X The Florodora Girl (1930) -- early 1900 Broadway girls
Flame of the Barbary Coast (1945) -- San Francisco's Barbary Coast and the 1906 Earth Quake
San Francisco (1936) -- love triangle set against the San Francisco earth quake
X The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) -- beautiful girl Evelyn Nesbit, architect Stanford White, murdering husband Harry Thaw
X Titanic (1953) -- 1912 sinking
X A Night to Remember (1958) -- 1912, sinking of the Titanic
X S.O.S. Titanic (1979)
X Titanic (1997) -- 1912
X The Unsinkable Molly Brown -- 1912, lively survivor of the sinking of the Titanic
Jim Thorpe (1951) -- native American star of the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden
X Stars & Stripes Forever (1952) -- march composer and Marine Corp band leader John Philip Sousa
X Hawaiians (1970) -- the U.S. Dole Pineapple Company takes over Hawaii.
Hawaii (1966) -- an extremely anal retentive, moralistic minister makes it hard for everyone: natives, whites and even his own family
X Tandang sora (1947) – a heroine of Philippine history
X Tirad Pass: The Story of Gen. Gregorio del Pilar (1997) -- story of the Filipino Revolution to oust the USA from the Philippines
X Sakay (1993) -- Filipino American War
VIII.2. IMPERIALISM: AFRICA Back to Chapter VIII Back to Contents
Mountains of the Moon (1990) -- expedition to find the source of the Nile river in the name of Queen Victoria's British Empire.
Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone (1997)
X Stanley and Livingstone (1939)-- 1871; Am. newspaperman finds "lost" humanitarian
The Night of Counting the Years (aka. The Mummy; Al-Mummia) – an Upper-Egyptian clan in 1881 has been robbing a cache of mummies near Kurna
Khartoum (1966) -- 1884
Outpost in Morocco (1949) -- French Foreign Legion and colonialism in Morocco
X Morocco (1930) -- Foreign Legion film (with Marlene Dietrich)
Beau Geste (1939) -- French Foreign Legion
X Legionnaire (1998) -- the Foreign Legion's battles against Algerian Berbers
March or Die (1977) -- French Foreign Legion against the Arabs in Morocco
Chocolat (1989) -- colonial racism in Cameroon
X Afrique, Je Te Plumerai (Africa, I will fleece you) (1992) -- life after winning freedom from colonialists in Cameroon
Camp de Thiaroye (1987) -- in WWII African men fight bravely for France but are screwed by their oppressors once it is time for them to be discharged
Noirs et blancs en couleur (Black and White in Color) (1976) -- French and German colonialists learn WWI has been on for seven months
Coup de Torchon (Clean Slate) (1975) -- life in a French colony in Africa
Rachida (2002) -- a look at terrorism in the Algerian civil war through the eyes of Rachida, a teacher in one of the school districts.
X Sarraounia (1986) -- troops from the French Sudan in 1899 go up against the black Sultan Rabah in Cameroun
South Africa:
Shaka Zulu (1987) -- 1816-1828, feared leader of the South African Zulus
Shaka Zulu: The Last Great Warrior (2005) -- follow up to Shaka Zulu (1987)
Zulu Dawn (1979) -- prequel to Zulu; massacre of the British
Zulu (1964) -- 1879 defense of the British Army outpost at Rorke's Drift against the Zulus
X Rhodes of Africa (1936) -- British imperialist and developer of South Africa, Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia
X Rhodes (1996) TV -- Cecil Rhodes
X Untamed (1955) -- Boer trek through hostile S. African county
Breaker Morant (1980) -- 1901 in the Transvaal, South Africa; during Boer War
Torn Allegiance (1984) -- the Boer War
X Colonel Blimp (1945) -- an old soldier relives his life from the 1902 Boer War through World Wars I and II
X Young Winston (1972) -- Churchill that is
Gandhi (1982) -- first part deals with the early Gandhi, before 1915
Kenya:
The Flame Trees of Thika (1982) -- life in colonial Kenya
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) -- two man-eating lions delay the building of the railroad in 1899 Tsavo, Kenya
Out of Africa (1985) -- Kenya, early 20th century with Danish writer Isak Dinesen
X Nowhere in Africa -- life in latter-day Kenya
Something of Value (1957) -- the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya
Kitchen Toto (1987) -- Mau Mau in Kenya
X Hemingway, the Hunter of Death (2001) -- Hemingway goes on a scientific expedition to Mt. Kenya during Mau-Mau rebellion
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) -- Hemingway's story based on his own life experiences
VIII.3. IMPERIALISM: INDIA Back to Chapter VIII Back to Contents
British Period: 1757-1947
X Clive of India (1935) -- Robert Clive (1725-1774) who secured British rule in India
Jhansi Si Rani (1952) -- in the 1800s, first native revolt against the British in India
Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players) (1977) -- a classic in which the British seize the Indian kingdom of Oudh, one of the last independent kingdoms of India
Gunga Din (1939) -- 19th Century Punjab India, Thuggee cult (followers of Kali)
The Deceivers (1988) 1825 India, with Brosnan as British officer infiltrating Thuggee cult
Sunghursh (1968)) -- Indian film accurately depicting the Thuggee cult
Sabaka (1954) --
X Carry on up the Khyber (1968) - British India 1895 and the Burpas are revolting
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) -- battles between British and Afghan guerillas
The Bengal Brigade (1954) -- British work to thwart the Sepoy rebellion in India -- 1857
X Storm over Bengal -- battles between the British and Indians in Bengal
X The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005) -- hero of an uprising against the British, the Sepoy Mutiny c. 1857
X Brigand of Kandahar (1965) -- British army fights off an uprising in the 1850s
North West Frontier (a.k.a., Flame over India) (1959) -- 1905, fighting between Muslims and Hindus & trying to safe an important young Hindu Prince
A Passage to India (1984) - 1920's clash between English racist colonialism and the native Indians
X Cotton Mary (1999) -- racism and its effects in colonial India
The Jewel in the Crown (1984) -- set against the final years before India gained independence
The Far Pavilions (1984) -- mini-series about forbidden love between a British cavalry officer and an Indian princess
X Heat and Dust / Autobiography of a Princess (1983) -- Merchant Ivory production
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) -- Hindi movie about the effect of British injustices on a small Indian village of peasants
X Immadi Pulakeshi (1967) -- actor Dr. Rajkumar film
The Rains Came (1939) -- British colonial love stories set against floods in Boroda, India, 1938
X Marudhanayagam
X Paheli (1977) --
X Umraao Jaan (1981) --
VIII.4. IMPERIALISM: CHINA & FRENCH INDO-CHINA Back to Chapter VIII Back to Contents
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
Musa (The Warrior) (2001) -- 1375, Korean Koryo warriors band together to help save a Princess of the Ming dynasty from the Mongols of the former Yuan Dynasty
Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)
X Dream of the Red Chamber (1944) – semi-autobiographical story of Cao family in the 18th c. during the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty (1644-1912) founded by the Manchu clan Aisin Gioro in Manchuria
X Hong lou meng (1962) -- musical of the fall of the 18th-century clan
Tai Pan (1986) -- the First Opium War (1839-1842)
X Yapian zhanzheng (The Opium War) (1997) – 1839, British opium merchants to be executed in Guangzhou, China; start of the Opium War
Qing quo ging cheng (The Empress Dowager) (1975) -- Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty who was the de facto ruler of China, 1861-1908
Tau ming chong (The Warlords) (2007) -- Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), a large-scale revolt against the Qing Government by the army and civil administration
X Noroshi wa Shanghai ni agaru (aka Signal Fires of Shanghai) (1944) -- Taiping Rebellion
55 Days at Peking (1963) -- 1898-1901 Boxer Rebellion in China
X Li Lianying: The Imperial Eunuch (1991) -- Li Lianying was a eunuch who held enormous power in the waning days of the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty
Hong he gu (Red River Valley; aka The Tale of the Sacred Mountain) (1999) -- British incursion into Tibet in 1904
X Xiang xiang gong zhu (aka Princess Fragrance) (1987) -- kung-fu movie about an uprising in Qing dynasty China (17/18th Century AD)
X Wo zhe yi bei zi (This Life of Mine) (1950) – Beijing policeman and his family experience 50 years of life in China, 1900-1950
Republic of China (1911-1949)
The Soong Sisters (1997) -- the lives of three sisters who all married among the highest rank of officials in the Republic of China (1911-1949).
X Ye Ming (Road to Dawn) (2007) -- segment of the life of revolutionary Sun Yat-sen
The Sand Pebbles (1966) -- 1926 China; an American gun boat, Chiang Kai-shek against the warlords and the move toward civil war
X Yego zovut Sukhe-Bator (His Name Is Sukhe-Bator) (1942) – 1919, commander-in-chief of the Mongolian Peoples' Revolutionary Army defeated China's attempt to retake Mongolia
Shanghai Triad (1995 )-- Chinese singer gets mixed up with gangsters in 1930s Shanghai
The Lover (1992) -- a relationship between a young French teen-ager and wealthy Chinese heir in French Indochina causes problems
Indochine (1992) -- political upheaval in French Indochina in the 1930s to the defeat of the French in 1954
VIII.5. IMPERIALISM: JAPAN Back to Chapter VIII Back to Contents
Late Tokugawa Shogunate, 1853-1867:
Bushido Blade (1981) -- a drama set around 1854, US Naval Commodore Matthew Perry opens up Japan to trade with the West
The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) – in 1850s US President Pierce sends to Japan the first U.S. Consul-General
Eijanaika (1981) -- rocky road for a love relationship set against carnival atmosphere in 1867 and 1868 for the approach of the Meiji Restoration
X The Last Samurai (2003) -- American civil war veteran hired to teach the Emperor's troops how to defeat the last of the samurai, late 19th century
Anatsu (Assassination) (1964) -- Kiyokawa Hachiro & initial phase of Shinsengumi, the Shogun's corp of ex-ronin fighting anarchy in the Imperial capital Kyoto
X Gohatto (Taboo) (1999) -- Shinsengumi men fall in love with a girlishly attractive young man which causes great instability in a local militia
Mibu Gishiden (When the Last Sword is Drawn)
(2003) -- a poor samurai joins the Shinsengumi under
economic duress in last days of the shogunate
X
Hitokiri (Tenchu) (1969) --
one
of the famous assassins of the Bakumatsu era
X Okami yo Rakujitsu o Kire (The Last Samurai) (1974)
-- the Bakumatsu and the involvement of men on different sides in the
fighting
Kedamono no ken (Sword of the Beast) (1965) -- Japanese period film shows how the clan system used and betrayed the samurai
X Tokugawa ichizoku no houkai (1980) -- Matsudaira Katamori (1836-1893), a samurai & the Military Commissioner of Kyoto who fought against the Meiji Government armies
Director Yoji Yamada Trilogy:
The Twilight Samurai (2002) -- lower samurai helped by the merchants, end the Tokugawa government and make way for the Mejii government
Kakushi ken oni no tsume (The Hidden Blade) (2004) -- set in the late Tokugawa era, dealing with the dissatisfied lower samurai who brought an end to the era, a clan makes a samurai kill his friend
Bushi no ichibun (Love and Honor) (2006) -- problems between husband and wife when the samurai poison taster is actually poisoned; about the lower samurai
Korea:
Silla (57 BC – 935 AD) -- Silla was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and the longest sustained dynasty in Asian history
The Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392)
X Taejo wanggun (Wang-Gun the Great) (1970) -- General Wang-gun overthrows the usurper Ku-jin who slew the last king of the Shilla Dynasty and becomes king, starting the new dynasty
X A Frozen Flower -- ambitious king organizes Kunryongwe while pursuing Hong Lim, commander of Kunryongwe, while the queen watches
Musa (The Warrior) (2001) -- 1375, Korean Koryo warriors band together to save the Yuan dynasty
Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910)
X Taejo Lee Seong-gye (King Taeho) (1965) – a general overthrows the old king and founds the Joseon Dynasty
X The Divine Wind -- Sejong the Great (1418-1450) of the Joseon Dynasty faces increasing hostility from Ming China
X Disturbance in Her Barroom -- set in 1724 against back drop of gangster culture of Joseon Dynasty
X Portrait of a Beauty -- painter Shin Yun-bok (pen name Hyewon), born 1758, known for his realistic depictions of daily life, is thought to be a woman
Chihwaseon (Painted Fire) (2002) -- famed Korean painter paints while Japan and China fight over Korea
Goongnyeo (Shadows in the Palace) (2007) -- fictionalized account of court maids during Joseon era
X Heaven's Soldiers – South Korean action and humorous film, but with some historical parts
IX. Pre-World War I Period. Back to Chapter IX Back to Contents
IX.1. ITALY: BEFORE WWI. Back to Chapter IX Back to Contents
Leopard (1936) -- Sicily after Italian unification
1900 (1976) -- the rise of the Black Shirts
Time of Indifference (1964) -- moral & social decay in 1920s Italy
IX.2. USA: BEFORE WWI Back to Chapter IX Back to Contents
Wilson (1944) -- President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
X The Great White Hope (1971) -- Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion (beats Tommy Burns in 1908)
X The Winds of Kitty Hawk (1978) -- story of the Wright Brothers who had the first flight in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Women's Rights and Suffrage:
Iron Jawed Angels (2004) -- Alice Paul and Lucy Burns fight for the right to vote for women
X Sofya Kovalevskaya – first woman in Russia to become a Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the obstacles she had to overcome
IX.3. MEXICAN REVOLUTION/CIVIL WAR (1910-1917) ( 1,000,000 dead) Back to Chapter IX Back to Contents
Dictator General Porfirio Diaz (1876-1880) and (1884-1911)
Madera (president 1911-1913)
El Cometa (The Comet) (1999) -- a young Mexican girl wants to get the collected money to San Antonio, Texas to support Madero in his fight against dictator General Porfirio Diaz
Cuartelazo (military uprising) (1977) -- General Vitoriano Huerta overthrows Madera in a plot with US ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson; he was president 1913-1914
X Mexico de mis recuerdos (1944) -- (no English subtitles) remembrances of Mexico under Diaz
X Thunder over Mexico (1933) -- excesses of the powerful in the days of dictator Porfirio Diaz
Pancho Villa (leader of the northern forces)
X Viva Villa! (1934) -- Pancho Villa, head of the army of the North, 1916, Mexico
Let's Go with Pancho Villa (1936) -- a group of 6 men from the same village decided to join the Villa forces
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003) -- Pancho Villa raises money by agreeing to let the Americans film his battles
X Villa! (1958) dull; Mexican revolutionary
X Villa Rides! (1968)
The Old Gringo (1989) -- about the writer Ambrose Bierce who at 70 was a volunteer with Villa
Pancho Villa (1972) -- non-historical comedy
La soldadera (Soldier's Woman) (1966) -- (no English subtitles) a wife becomes a soldier's woman when her husband is conscripted into the Mexican Revolution
Reds -- journalist John Reed interviewed Villa
X Reed, México insurgente (1973) -- American journalist John Reed and the Mexican Revolution
Caballo prieto azabache (Midnight Stallion) (1965) -- (no English subtitles) shelters Villa in his early days after he killed a landowner and then Villa repays a debt
X El principio (2007) -- (no English subtitles) an artist joins the forces of Villa
Un Dorado De Pancho Villa (1966) -- (no English subtitles) a Villa supporter finds a rich man, steals his sweetheart and Villa is asked for help
X El tesoro de Pancho Villa (1957) --
X Flor Silvestre (Wild Flower) (1943) -- set against the Mexican Revolution, class differences between a rich man and poor woman leads to family divisions
X Los de abajo (1939) -- farm worker joins Pancho Villa; fights in takeover of Zacatecas; promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel
La muerte de Pancho Villa (The Death of Pancho Villa) (1974) -- (no English subtitles) the murder of Pancho Villa, 1923
X Under Strange Flags (1937) -- Pancho Villa prevents some Americans from getting their mined-in-Mexico silver
X They Came to Cordura (1959) -- story of courage or the lack of it set during raiding activities of Pancho Villa along the Mexico/USA border
Zapata (leader of the southern forces)
Viva Zapata (1952) -- Marlon Brando 1916, Mexico
Zapata: Amor en Rebeldia (2004) -- Zapata in a three-way relationship
X Zapata: El sueño de un héroe (2004) -- Emiliano Zapata, leader of the southern forces fighting the Mexican Revolution
El Compadre Mendoza (1934) -- a wealthy land owner survives the revolution by playing friends to both governmental and Zapata forces
Lucio Vasquez (1968) -- (no English subtitles) a close comrade to Zapata wants revenge for the killings of Zapata and his father
X La casta divina (1977) -- the Yucatan aristocracy on the eve of the Mexican Revolution
Other:
Cannon for Cordoba (1970) -- soldiers against Mexican bandits on the Texas border ca. 1912
X La Sombra del caudillo (1960) -- corrupt politics in post-revolutionary Mexico
X Peregrina (1966) -- (no English subtitles) love affair between journalist Alma Reed and Governor of Yucatan, Felipe Carillo Puerto during time of Obregon (pres 1920-1924)
X La Guerra Santa (1979) -- (no English subtitles) a poor pottery maker is coerced into fighting with the Christian army in the Cristero Rebellion (1926-1929)
X De todos modos Juan te llamas (1975) -- centers on the Cristero movement, an uprising of Catholic fundamentalists
X Trini (1976) -- Mexican Revolution
IX.4. GERMANY & AUSTRIA: BEFORE WWI Back to Chapter IX Back to Contents
Fall of Eagles (1974) (TV miniseries) -- part of it deals with Bismarck and the unification of Germany and the fall of the Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary
A Hídember (The Bridgeman) (2002) -- story of Istvan Szechenyi, the nineteenth-century Hungarian revolutionary
Sissi (1955) -- first of a trilogy about the Austrian princess Elizabeth (a.k.a., Sissi) who married Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria
Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin (Sissi: The Young Empress) (1956) -- second of a trilogy about Austrian Empress Elizabeth (a.k.a., Sissi)
Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress) (1957) -- third of a trilogy about the Empress Elizabeth
X Mayerling (1936) -- 1889, Austrian, Crown Prince Rudolph, son of Emperor Franz Joseph
Mayerling (1969) -- wants to marry Mary Vetsera even though is already married
The Crown Prince -- the woman Crown Prince Rudolph really wants to marry is not suitable according to his father and mother
X Chopin: Desire for Love (2000) -- ditto above
X Lisztomania (2000) -- Hungarian composer Franz Liszt
X Franz Liszt. Dreams of Love (aka The Loves of Liszt) -- based on the biography of the Austrian-Hungarian composer and pianist
Lola Montes (1955) -- love affairs with Liszt and King Ludwig I of Bavaria
X Song without End – Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt is involved in a romantic scandal with a married Russian princess
X Wagner (1982) -- Hitler's favorite composer
Ludwig (1972) --Ludwig II, Mad King of Bavaria, friend of Wagner & cousin of Sissi
X Rosa Luxemburg (1986) -- labor agitator in Germany
X Kuhle Wampe (1932) -- left-wing politics in Weimar Germany (written by Bertolt Brecht); banned by the Nazis
Abschied - Brechts letzter Sommer (The Farewell) (2002) – Bertolt Brecht's last summer and the women in his life with the Stasi watching it all
X. WORLD WAR I & AFTERMATH. Back to Chapter X Back to Contents
X.1. World War I. Back to Chapter X Back to Contents
Fall of Eagles (1974) (TV miniseries) -- fall of Habsburg, Hohenzollern and Romanov dynasties in WWI
X The Day That Shook the World (1977) -- events leading up to WWI
X The Great War (2007) -- docu-drama of Canada's participation in World War I
X Sam Hughes's War (1984) -- Canada in World War I
X De Mayerling B Sarajevo (Mayerling to Sarajevo) (1940) -- lead-up to the assassination of the Archduke Franz-Ferdinand and his wife
X Sarajevski atentat (1975) -- events leading up to the assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand
X Weltuntergang (1984) – a local doctor is put in charge of the investigation into the assassinated of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by Gabriel Princip
Austeria (The Inn) (1983) -- a Polish inn at the border with Russia at the start of WWI
Colonel Redl (1985) -- Austrian-Hungarian Empire
And the Ship Sails On (1983) -- Serbian war refugees
The African Queen (1951) -- the classic with Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) -- horrifying effect of trench warfare and its impact on a small cohort of young German soldiers
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) -- ditto
X Deathwatch - WWI movie about bugged out soldiers in the trenches
Time Regained (1999) -- life of French writer and critic Marcel Proust, most famous for his In Search of Lost Time begun in 1909
Harem Suare (Last Harem) (1998) -- effects of the decline of the Ottoman Empire on the harem
Gallipoli (1981) -- British, New Zealander and Australian troops against Turkey (Ottoman Empire), 1915
1915 (1982) -- two Australian country boys vie for the same girl, but their world changes when they land in Gallipoli
X Tell England (1931) -- Battle of Gallipoli
X The Battle of Broken Hill (1981) -- a mass killing near Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia on January 1, 1915 carried out by Muslims to support the Ottoman Empire
Son Osmanli Yandim Ali (The Last Ottoman: Yandim Ali) (2007) -- veteran wants to meet Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), who wants to start a resistance against the occupiers
X Abdul the Damned (1935) -- in Turkey, 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid resists the Young Turk party
X Chunuk Bair (1997) -- a New Zealand film about the Wellington Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli
X Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell (2007) – Canadians win Battle of Vimy Ridge April 1917 forcing the Germans to retreat
All the King's Men (1999) -- a military company from the estate of the mother of King George V just seems to disappear
Ararat (2002) -- Turkish atrocities committed against Armenians
X The Color of Pomegranates (1991) – life of Armenian poet Aruthin Sayadin (a.k.a. Sayat-Nova) (1712-1795)
X Anzacs (1985)
Behind the Lines (a.k.a., Regeneration) (1998) -- Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, two of England's most important WW1 poets
Lighthorsemen (1987) -- charge on Beersheba, events after Gallipoli for the Australian troops
Forty Thousand Horsemen (1941) -- Australian cavalry at the Battle of Beersheba
Britannic (2000) -- sinking of the sister ship of the Titanic, November 1916
X Lawrence of Arabia (1962) -- Arab revolt against Turkey (Ottoman Empire) 1916
Paths of Glory (1957) -- French generals hide their own incompetence by declaring their own soldiers cowards, 1916
The Trench (1999) -- 1st of July 1916, "The day British idealism died "
Mata Hari (1932) -- Greta Garbo as the spy Mata Hari executed in 1917
X Mata Hari (1972) -- the spy Mata Hari
Untel père et fils (Heart of a Nation) (1943) -- the Froment family of Montmartre, France from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to Nazi occupation in World War II
X Capitaine Conan (1996) -- during the last days of the war, French Capitaine Conan is an excellent warrior, but finds he is unsuited for peacetime duty in Bucharest
X Sergeant York (1941) -- American World War I hero, 1918
X The Man I Killed (1932) --
The Fighting 69th (1940) -- Irish-American unit sent to fight in WWI
A Farewell to Arms (1932) -- with Helen Hayes & Gary Cooper
X A Farewell to Arms (1957) -- with Jennifer Jones & Rock Hudson
X Force of Arms (1951) -- updating of "A Farewell to Arms" (with William Holden)
In Love and War (1996) -- true story behind "A Farewell to Arms" with Sandra Bullock and Chris O'Donnell
X The Lost Battalion (2001) -- Americans caught behind enemy lines, Argonne Forest, 1918 (October)
X Legends of the Fall (1994) -- very good WWI trench combat scenes
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) (2004) -- a French woman has to become a detective in her search for her fiancé who is missing in action, not dead
Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) (2006) -- soldiers on both sides call a Christmas truce and are punished for it
X Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) -- 1906-1917, American patriotic popular music composer George M. Cohan
X Moonzund – Russian film of Battle of Moon Sound in autumn 1917 between Russia and Germany
X Baruto no Gakuen (The Ode to Joy) (2006) – a Japanese film of the Japanese Bando Prisoner of War camp in World War I depicting friendship of German/Austrian-Hungarian POWs with the camp director
X Padurea spânzuratilor (Forest of the Hanged) (1964) -- Romanian in service of Austro-Hungarian military refuses to fight the Romanians
X Vsadniki (aka Guerilla Brigade; Riders) (1939) -- Ukranian resistance against Germans in 1918
X The Yanks are Coming (1974) -- college buddies in France
The Air War:
The Blue Max (1966) -- the air war
Von Richthofen & Brown (a.k.a. The Red Baron) (1971) -- Baron Manfred von Richtofen, the German air ace during the World War I
X Der Rote Baron (The Red Baron) (2008) -- Baron Manfred von Richtofen
X Captain Eddie (1945) -- Captain Eddie Rickenbacker becomes an American flying ace with 26 kills
Flyboys (2006) -- US pilots in France's legendary Lafayette Escadrille
X Crimson Romance (1934) -- fly the World War I sky with the Luftwaffe
Dawn Patrol (1938) -- Errol Flynn; air war
X Eagle & Hawk (1933) -- air war
X Hell Bent for Glory -- a young American joins the French Air Force early in the war
X Aces High -- RAF squadron and its high turn-over
X.2. RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, CIVIL WAR & THE SOVIET UNION Back to Chapter X Back to Contents
Russian Ark (2002) -- time-traveling journey through 300 years of Russian history
X The Cossacks (1959) -- 1850s Russia; Cossack and son clash in loyalties to Czar Alexander II
Dersu Uzala (1975) -- 19th century Russian expedition to Siberia
Yermak (1996) -- Cossack leader Yermak Timofeyevich explored Siberia (starting 1579 or 1581) which opened that land to Russian expansion
X Mother (1926) -- a woman struggles against Tsarist rule during the 1905 Russian Revolution
Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (Barber of Siberia) (1998) -- Czar Alexander III
Bronenosets Potyomkin (Battleship Potemkin) (1925) -- classic Eisenstein silent film about revolt in Russia of sailors on the battleship Potemkin
Zvezda plenitelnogo schastya (Captivating Star of Happiness) (1975) -- Tsar Nicholas I and rebellion of officers in the Decembrist Revolt, 1825
X Strike (1924) -- Sergei Eisenstein; a strike in Czarist Russia, brutally suppressed
X Lenin in Paris (1980) -- Lenin's four years in Paris (1909-1912)
X Scarlet Dawn (1932) -- Russian officer caught up in the troop revolts in WWI (includes a love story)
X Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) -- 1894-1917 of Russia; fights Turkey in WWI
X Tod um Mitternacht: Das Ende des letzten Zaren (The Mystery of the Romanovs) (2000) – docudrama; Russian Revolution
X Rasputin (1996) -- the mad Gypsy adviser to Alexandra; Greta Scacchi, Alan Rickman
X Rasputin (1985)
X Agoniya (aka Agony: The Life and Death of Rasputin (1975)
X I Killed Rasputin (1967)
X Rasputin - the Mad Monk (1966) -- the Hammer Studios version of Rasputin
X Nights of Rasputin (1960)
X Rasputin and the Empress (1932) --
Romanovs: A Crowned Family -- last days of Tsar Nicholas II and his family
Fall of Eagles (1974) (TV miniseries) -- fall of Habsburg, Hohenzollern and Romanov dynasties in WWI
Reds (1981) 1917, Am. reporter Jack Reed, sympathizes with Bolsheviks
Dr. Zhivago (1965) -- Russian Revolution 1917
X October (1928) -- Sergei Eisenstein; Russian Revolution
Tikhly Don (Quiet Flows the Don) (1957) -- covers Russian history from 1912 to WWI to Bolshevik Revolution, to the Russian Civil War
Sibiriada ( Siberiade) (1979) -- two families, one wealthy and the other proletariat, through six decades from WWI to Bolshevik Revolution, to WWII and to the era of modernization
The End of St. Petersburg (1934) -- worker abuse leads to the Russian Revolution
X Dauryia (1997) -- life of Cossacks in Siberia during time of the Russian Revolution
Sorok pervyy (The Forty-First) (1956) – Soviet film of the romance of a female Red Army sniper and a White Army officer in the Russian Civil War
X Yunost (1937) – 1920, fisherman’s son Andrei recruited on the side of the Whites versus the Reds; he and his father are killed for hiding a Red officer; the family plans revenge
X Admiral (2008) -- Russian film about a love story involving the general of the White Army Alexander Kolchak who became the supreme governor of Russia
X Lenin in 1918 – Soviet film giving the background of the Russian Civil War
X Beg (1970) -- based on defeat of the "White Army" in the Russian Civil War of 1918-21
X Hostile Whirlwinds – Soviet film about the first years of Soviet government, 1918-1921, as seen by Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Bolshevik Secret Police
X The Seventh Companion – Soviet film dealing with the years following the Russian Revolution
Beloe solntse pustyni (White Sun of the Desert) (1970) – in today's Turkmenistan a Red Army soldier who fought in the Russian Civil War is going home but has to fight some bandits first
The Red and the White (1967) -- civil war in post-revolutionary Soviet Union
Arsenal (1928) -- Dovzhenko's "Ukraine Trilogy" (along with Zvenigora and Earth)
X Chapayev (1934) -- a legendary Red Army commander that became a hero of the Russian Civil War
X Nenavist (Hatred) (1975) -- the Russian civil war tears a family apart
The Adjutant of His Excellency – Soviet mini-series set in the Russian civil war where a Soviet secret police spies on the White Army
Bumbarash – Pvt. Bumbarash tries to survive the Russian Civil War to return to his village and his love
Der Fangschuß (aka Coup de grâce) (1976) -- 1919, at end of Russian civil war, Latvia; a countess' unrequited love for an army officer leads to promiscuity and disaster
Tants aurukatla ümber (1987) -- life in 20th century Estonia by monitoring a steam boiler
X Sedmaya Pulya/Седьмая Пуля (The Seventh Bullet) -- set after the Russian Civil War (in the wake of the Basmachi rebellion)
Piry Valtasara, ili noch so Stalinym (Baltazar's Feasts or the Night with Stalin) (1989) -- Stalin and his brutal purges
The Assassination of Trotsky (1972) -- story of the last days of the theorist of the Russian communist revolutionaries, hunted down by his once communist allies
Frida (2000) -- assassination of Trotsky in Frida's home
X Animal Farm (1955) -- animated version of George Orwell's story of the corruption of the communist system in Russia
X Animal Farm (1999) -- uses real animals in the portrayal of the communist dictatorship in the Soviet Union
X His Wife's Diary -- life of Russian writer, Nobel Laureate and critic of the Russian Revolution Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870-1953)
X Anastasia (1956) -- story of the young lady who pretended to be one of the children of the executed family of the Tsar
X Anastasia (1997)
X Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986)
Earth (1930) -- collective workers in Ukraine against rich landowner win the day
X Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Here Under the Northern Star) (1968) -- life of a tenant farmer family in a Finnish village from 1890s to 1918 and the Finnish Civil War
X Aika hyvä ihmiseksi (aka Pretty Good for a Human) (1977) -- Finnish film about a boy in post-World War I Finland
X Baltiyskaya slava (The Baltic Glory) (1957) -- Baltic Fleet sailors join in the action in revolutionary Petrograd, autumn 1917
X Tjurens r (1988) -- five-year-old boy sees turmoil of the First World War and the Russian Revolution
X.3. INDEPENDENCE FOR IRELAND Back to Chapter X Back to Contents
The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966) -- in Ireland 1587 Hugh O'Donnell inherits the title of the prince of Donegal and tries to unite Ireland to oppose English occupation
Parnell (1937) -- struggle for Home Rule in Ireland under Charles Stuart Parnell
Captain Boycott (1947) -- origin of the word "boycott" in Ireland
Scarlet (1994) -- follow up on Gone with the Wind; misery of the Irish under British control
The Informer (1935) -- informing on one's own during the violent Sinn Fein civil rebellion
Juno and the Paycock (1930) -- Irish family breakdown and son accused of being an informant
Rebel Heart – miniseries set in period from the 1916 Easter Rising until the end of the civil war
Shake Hands with the Devil (1959) -- IRA fights the Black and Tans trained to suppress the IRA (with James Cagney)
Irish Destiny (1926) -- the Black and Tans make life very difficult for one young IRA fellow
Ballyvaughan Story (2006) -- 1921, young girl tries to save her village from British retribution for IRA killing two British marines
Michael Collins (1996) -- leader of the Irish during the 1922 revolt
The Treaty -- the one negotiated by Michael Collins in 1921 that led to civil war (1922-1923)
Allegiance (2005) -- tempestuous first meeting of Michael Collins and Winston Churchill at Churchill's private residence
The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) -- criticism of the actions of the British leading to the Irish fight for independence
The Last September (1999) -- the Anglo-Irish play while the Irish world around them is rebelling
Talk of Angels (1998) -- Irish woman flees impending marriage to a political activist only to find political troubles in 1930s Spain
My Left Foot (1989) -- Irish painter/writer Christy Brown who had only his left foot with which to paint/write
Nora (2000) -- famous author James Joyce and his love Nora Barnacle have a rocky relationship
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (1979) -- Irish author James Joyce of Dublin
X Fools of Fortune (1990) – a man wants vengeance after the British army destroys his family and home at the onset of the Irish war of independence
XI. Interim Period Between World Wars. Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
XI.1. USA: 1920s. Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
X Chariots of Fire -- 1924, English athletes at Olympic games
X Knute Rockne, All American (1940) 1924; coach of Notre Dame football team
X Dempsey -- Treat Williams as the heavy weight boxing champion Jack Dempsey
X Inherit the Wind (1960) -- 1925 Scopes Trial on evolution, Clarence Darrow vs. Wm Jennings Bryan
X The Great Gatsby (1949) -- F. Scott Fitzgerald's tale of class snobbery among the rich
X Last Call (2002) -- biography of the mature F. Scott Fitzgerald
X Spirit of St. Louis (1957) -- Lindbergh, first solo trans-Atlantic flight
X Crime of the Century (1996) Lindbergh kidnapping trail
X Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994) -- the famous aviatrix
X Cobb (1994) -- TV Cobb (Tommy Lee Jones), great baseball player
X The Babe (1992) -- John Goodman
X The Babe Ruth Story (1948)
X Pride of the Yankees (1942) -- Lou Gehrig 1927
X The Great Zeigfeld (1936) 1907-1931 Ziegfeld Follies
X Funny Girl (1968) -- 1910-1919; Fanny Brice, comedian in Ziegfeld Follies
X Funny Lady (1975) -- latter life of Fanny Brice
X Tom and Viv (1994) -- American poet T. S. Elliott in England
X Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle (1994) -- 1920s New York intellectual circle meeting at Algonquin Hotel
X Freud (1962)
X Clarence Darrow (1974)
GANGSTERS -- PROHIBITION
Chicago
X Al Capone (1959) -- with Rod Steiger
St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)
X The Untouchables (1987) -- Kevin Costner as gangster hunter Eliot Ness
New York
X Eight Men Out (1988) 1919 Black Sox scandal in baseball
X King of the Roaring Twenties (1961) -- Arnold Rothstein, Jewish gangster
X Lucky Luciano (1974) --
X Lansky (1999) -- gangster Meyer Lansky
X Lepke (1975) -- leader of Murder, Inc.
X Billy Bathgate (1991) -- Dustin Hoffman plays ‘30s gangster Dutch Schultz
X Portrait of a Mobster (1961) -- Dutch Schultz
X The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) --
X Bugsy (1991) -- Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, gangster who helped build Las Vegas
Independents:
X Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
X The Bonnie Parker Story (1958) -- Bonnie of Bonnie & Clyde
X Public Enemies" - with Johnny Depp as Dillinger
X Dillinger (1945) -- infamous bank robber
Dillinger (1973) --
X Baby Face Nelson (1957)
X Gangsters Guns & Floozies Crime Collection: Pretty Boy Floyd (2007)
X Machine Gun Kelly (1958) -- with Charles Bronson
X Melvin Purvis (1974) -- G-man who got Dillinger chases Machine Gun Kelly
X Real Untouchables: Melvin Purvis (2001) --
X Bloody Mama (1970) -- Ma Barker
Ma Barker's Killer Brood (1960) --
XI.2. GREAT DEPRESSION USA Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
X The Grapes of Wrath (1940) -- fleeing from the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma
X The Stars fell on Henrietta (1995) – a group suffering in the Texas Dustbowl of 1935 seeks hope in the dreams of a wildcat oilman
X King of the Hill (1993) -- the Great Depression seen through the eyes of a 12-year old Jewish boy in the midwest
X Bound for Glory (1976) -- story of folk singer Woody Guthrie who discovered the misery of the poor and working class in the USA
X They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? -- a brutal competition shows the desperate straits in which people find themselves in the Great Depression
X Eleanor and Franklin: The Early Years and the White House Years (1976, 1977)
X Eleanor Roosevelt Story (1965)
X Sunrise at Campobello (1960)
X Warm Springs (2005) -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt overcomes his fear of being pitied as a victim of polio to proceed with his political career
X All the King's Men (1949) -- the Kingfisher, populist governor and virtual dictator of Louisiana
X All the King's Men (2006) -- remake of the 1949 movie
X Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995) -- populist threat to FDR
X Blaze (1989) -- Louisiana Governor Earl K. Long in lust with famous stripper
X The Miracle Worker (1962) -- story of blind and deaf Helen Keller, friend of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
X The Glen Miller Story (1953)-- Big Band leader
X The Benny Goodman Story (1956) -- Big Band leader
X Gypsy (1962) -- stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her over-bearing mother
X Henry and June (1990) -- writers Henry Miller and Anais Nin
X The Day the Bubble Burst (1982) -- 1929 stock market crash and its effects on some individuals
XI.3. GREAT BRITAIN & AUSTRALIA. Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978) (mini) -- in 1936 King Edward VIII abdicates in favor of marrying the former Mrs. Simpson
Bertie and Elizabeth: The Reluctant Royals (2002) - The Story of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth (2002)
Gathering Storm -- Winston Churchill warns against the rising power of fascist Germany
X The First of the Few (1942) -- contented British aircraft designer realizes from visit to Nazi Germany that he has to build a better plane (and came up with the spitfire)
X Between Wars (1974) -- a doctor faces important socio-political challenges in Australia and elsewhere between WWI & WWII
XI.4. USA, THE BLACK EXPERIENCE: GREAT DEPRESSION TO CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Cross of Fire -- story of the rise and fall of 1920s' Ku Klux Klan leader D.C. Stephenson
X Black Legion (1936)
X Lady Sings the Blues (1972) -- Sidney J. Furie 1935-1942, Blues singer Billie Holiday
X Josephine Baker Story (1991) -- American becomes famous Paris entertainer
Sounder (1976) -- sharecropper in 1930's Louisiana try to build a school; Harold Sylvester
X Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored (1996) 1940s Mississippi to civil rights movement
Rosewood -- 1922-1923 burning of a black town in Florida
X Leadbelly (1976) -- master of the 12-string guitar
X Miss Ever's Boys (1997) -- using Blacks as guinea pigs for syphilis study
X The Joe Louis Story (1953) -- the heavy weight champion
X Joe and Max (2002) -- Joe Louis and Max Schmeling representing America and Germany fight it out for the heavy weight championship of boxing
X Glory and Honor (1998) -- black man who accompanied Peary to the North Pole
X 10,000 Black Men Named George (2002) -- A. Philip Randolph works for unionization of black porters
XI.5. HITLER'S RISE Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Max (2000) -- A Jewish art dealer helps a struggling artist named Adolf Hitler
Hitler: the Rise of Evil (2003)
X Cabaret (1972) -- German decadence during Weimar Regime
The Damned (1969) -- a German family declines as the Nazi party rises; covers "The Night of the Long Knives"
Tin Drum (1980) -- Post-Hitler German recognition of the madness of Fascism.
Mephisto (1981) -- a German actor thinks true art can triumph even if it's the Nazis who are in charge
The Hindenburg (1975) -- doomed flight of the Zeppelin; George C. Scott
X Triumph of the Will (1935) -- Hitler's effective use of propaganda at Nuremburg rallies
X The Jesse Owens Story (1984) -- American track star who upsets Hitler at 1936 Olympics in Berlin
X The Joe Louis Story (1953) -- the heavy weight champion fights German Max Schmeling
X Olympia (1936) -- in Berlin
X The Great Dictator (1940) -- Charles Chaplin mocking the actions of the dictator Hitler
The Sound of Music (1965) -- singing group escapes from Austria after Nazi takeover
Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl - the Final Days) (2005) -- a few students at Munich University oppose Hitler's fascist regime
Die Weiße Rose (The White Rose) (1982) -- a few students at Munich University oppose Hitler's fascist regime
X Bauhaus -Broken Wings (2006) -- March 23rd 1933, students at the Bauhaus School for Arts and Architecture try to save their art from the Nazis
Fünf letzte Tage (Last Five Days) (1982) -- a few students at Munich University oppose Hitler's fascist regime
Hitler: Beast of Berlin (1939) -- use of torture, imprisonment and concentration camps by Hitler's Germany
Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (1985) – two brothers come to regret their involvement with the Nazis
Enemy of Women (1944) -- Joseph Goebbles, propaganda minister
Taking Sides (2001) -- Berlin orchestra director thinks politics and art won't mix under Hitler
die Manns - Ein Jahrhundertroman (The Manns - Novel of a century) (2001) -- biographical trilogy of the Mann family set during rise of fascism in Germany
X Jump!(2007) -- anti-Semitism in Austria leads to quick conviction of a young Jewish man for supposedly killing his father
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) -- ex-convict attempts to go straight but is hindered by the troublesome and corrosive Weimar-era Germany
X Um das Menschenrecht (1934) -- rise of fascism in Germany
XI.6. RISE OF MUSSOLINI Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
1900 (1976) -- the Italian Communist Party and the rise of the Black Shirts
Tea with Mussolini (1999) -- English women stay in Florence up to and during World War II
Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971) -- Italian concurrence with the Final Solution
La Vita P bella (It's a Beautiful Life) (1997)
Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) Italian -- writer Carlo Levi's exile from Mussolini in the Basilicata region of southern Italy
Lion of the Desert (1981) -- Omar Mukhtar, guerilla leader stymies Italian forays into Libya, 1911- 1931
Sanquepazzo (2008) -- acting couple Valenti and Ferida helped the fascist regime and later collaborated with the Germans
XI.7. FASCISM IN ANOTHER CORNER -- ARGENTINA Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Camila (1984) -- was Argentina a fascist country from the very start? lovers severely punished
Juan Moreira (1973) -- an outlaw, gaucho (cowboy) and folk-hero, c. 1874
X La Guerra Gaucha (The Gaucho War) (1942) -- creoles led by Martín Miguel de Güemes protect the northwest provinces during the war of independence
X Asesinato en el senado de la nación (aka Murder in the Senate) – set in 1930s Argentina the story is about the assassination attempt on politician Lisandro de la Torre by Senate recruited and trained Ramón Valdez Cora
Miss Mary (1986) -- British governess sees the onslaught of a fascist government in Argentina
X La Patagonia rebelde (The Patagonian Rebellion) (1974)
X Evita (1996) -- Evita Peron of Argentina, wife of the fascist Juan Peron
X Evita Peron (1981) --
X Eva Peron (1996) --
Funny Dirty Little War (No habrá más penas ni olvido) (1983) -- Peronists vs. "Communists" in an Argentine village
Hermanas (Sisters) (2005) -- remembrances of the excesses of the military dictatorship in Argentina brings sisters to fighting
X La Amiga (The Friend (female)) (1988) -- Argentine dictatorship
XI. 8. PRE-WAR JAPAN Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Meiji Restoration, 1868-1912:
Fall of Eagles (1974) (TV miniseries) -- part of it deals with the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War from the perspective of Russia.
X Nihonkai daikaisen (Battle of the Japan Sea) (1969) -- fought May 27–28, 1905 in the Tsushima Strait; Admiral Heihachiro Togo destroyed two-thirds of Russian fleet under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky
Sisters of the Gion (1936)
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Zi Hudi (Purple Butterfly) (2003) -- espionage and counter-espionage between the Japanese and Chinese in Shanghai
Behind the Rising Sun (1943) -- triumph of fascism over liberalism in Japan and a Japanese father wants his Americanized son to be part of the Sino-Japanese War
X No Greater Love -- part of the trilogy The Human Condition about a pacifist socialist trying to survive in Fascist Japan
X Road to Eternity -- part of the trilogy The Human Condition about a pacifist socialist trying to survive in Fascist Japan
X A Soldier's Prayer -- part of the trilogy The Human Condition about a pacifist socialist trying to survive in Fascist Japan
XI.9. PRE-WAR GREECE & MACEDONIA Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
X Homa vaftike kokkino (aka Blood on the Land) -- hard life of poor Greek land workers in Thessalia at beginning of 20th century; and Marinos Antypas, socialist critic assassinated
X Dust (2001) -- at the turn of the 20th century, one brother fights for the Ottoman sultan and the other is a Macedonian rebel
Before the Rain (1994) -- in Macedonia interwoven tales against a backdrop of ethnic hatred
X Eleftherios Venizelos (1980) -- famed Greek politician of the 1909-1920 period
Meteor and Shadow (1985) -- poet Napoleon Lapathiotis and his shocking lifestyle
Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzei (The Weeping Meadow) (2004) -- roughly spans the period from the end of World War I to post World War II, 1919-1949
X Meres tou '36 (The Days of 1936) – drama with background the 4th of August Regime, a military dictatorship under General Ioannis Metaxas ruled Greece from 1936 to 1941
XI.10. SPANISH CIVIL WAR Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Belle Epoque (1992) -- love blooms for a young man during the early period of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939)
Land and Freedom (1995) -- Spanish Civil War
Disappearance of Garcia Lorca (1997) -- executed; Spanish Civil War
Talk of Angels (1998) -- Irish woman flees impending marriage to a political activist only to find political troubles in 1930s Spain
X For Whom the Bell Tolls (1944) -- Spanish Civil War
X The Good Fight (1992) -- U.S. citizens join the anti-Fascist struggle on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War
Hemingway (1988) (miniseries) -- the life and loves of the Nobel Prize winner for Literature
La Niña de tus ojos (The Girl of Your Dreams) (1998) -- Franco's Spain makes movies in Hitler's Germany
Ay Carmela! -- captured republican theatre players search their consciences about performing for the fascists
Soldados de Salamina (The Soldiers of Salamina) (2003) -- a woman reporter chases down the story of fascist poet Rafael Sánchez Mazas who escaped a massacre of 50 fascist prisoners
Butterfly (1999) -- fascism didn't mean much until they started rounding up people
Viridiana (1961) -- parable of the Spanish Civil War by director Luis Bunuel
El espiritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive) (1973) -- a child's attempts to make sense out of the horrific effects of the Franco dictatorship
Silencio roto (Broken Silence) (2001) -- a young woman loves a Republican rebel which leads to a great many problems for her
Blockade (1938) -- anti-war drama of peasant farmer forced to take up arms to defend his farm during the Spanish Civil War
X The Mirror (1975) -- the Spanish Civil War seen with an intermixture of drama and documentary footage
X La caza (The Hunt) (1966) -- on a 4-man hunt, bad memories return concerning the Spanish Civil War and lead to big trouble
X Libertarias (Juegos de Guerra) (1996) -- Spanish civil war
Vacas (1991) -- following two Basque families from 1875-1936, from the Carlist War to the Spanish Civil War
Una Pasion Singular (2002) -- Blas Infante, "the father of Andalucia," in the Spanish Civil War
X Los santos inocentes
Head in the Clouds (2005) -- two women and one man confronted with the growing fascism in Spain & eventual civil war
X Los girasoles ciegos (2008) --
X Las 13 rosas (The 13 Roses) (2007) -- republican women try to keep their republican ideal in the aftermath of Franco's victory
X Salvador (Puig Antich) (2006) – based on life of last person arrested for political reasons under Francisco Franco
X The Anarchist's Wife (2008) -- the anarchist's wife never gives up hope on seeing her husband again after he fight in the Spanish Civil War and then joining the French Resistance
XII. WORLD WAR II. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
XII.1. The Fight against Germany and Italy. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
XII.1.1. Germany. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
Casablanca (1942) -- love in 1940 French Morocco under French Vichy government
X Inside the Third Reich (1982) -- Randy Quaid
X Hitler (1962)
Invasion of Poland
Lotna (1959) -- Polish cavalry up against German tanks in the German invasion of Poland
Matka Królów (Mother of Kings) (1983) -- a Polish charwoman witnesses the start of World War II into the Stalinist Era in Poland
Hubal (1973) -- a Polish leader and his band of soldiers continue to fight the Germans during the occupation of Poland
X Karol, un uomo diventato Papa (Karol: A Man Who Became Pope) (2005) -- from 1939 German Invasion to almost through end of Soviet Occupation of Poland
X Urodziny mlodego warszawiaka (The Birthday) (1980) – life of a young man from Warsaw is greatly changed by the German invasion of Poland
X To Be or Not to Be (1949) -- occupied Poland; Jack Benny
Invasion of Norway
The Last Lieutenant (1993) -- light resistance to the Nazi invasion of Norway
Hamsun (1997) -- Norwegian Nobel Laureate and German invasion of Norway
X Edge of Darkness (1943) -- underground movement in Norway during the Nazi takeover (starring Errol Flynn)
Heroes of Telemark (1965) -- Norwegian resistance tries to stop the Nazis from producing an atomic bomb component (with Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris)
X Max Manus (2008) -- true story of key player in the Norwegian Resistance
X Ni Liv (Nine Lives) (1957) -- about Jan Baalsrud, a member of the Norwegian resistance during World War II
Invasion of France
X Sutkas (1941) -- German pro-war film, dive bomber squadron, the Battle of France, May-June 1940
Dunkirk (1958) -- escape of the trapped British forces in France, June 1940
X Weekend at Dunkirk (1965) -- seen from the French perspective
X Mrs. Miniver (1942) -- Dunkirk & their effects of the war on an English family
In Which We Serve (1942) -- based on experiences of Lord Louis Mountbatten
Failed Invasion of Britain
Battle of Britain (1969) -- never have so many owed so much to so few, July-October, 1940
X Dark Blue World (2001) -- Czech pilots flee to England and help in the Battle of Britain
X Angels One Five (1952) -- pilots in the Battle of Britain
A Perfect Hero (1991) -- mini-series; Cambridge fellows join the RAF and fight in the Battle of Britain
Hope and Glory (1987) -- British family sticks together in spite of German bombings
X Forever and a Day -- bombing of London by the Germans in WWII
Charlotte Gray (2001) -- a woman decides to join the British SOE to become a British spy in Nazi-occupied France
X Danger UXB (1979) -- story of those who had to defuse the Nazi bombs of the Long Blitz that were designed not to detonate on impact
Canada
Above and Beyond (2006) -- TV-miniseries about flying Hudson Bombers to Britain from Newfoundland, Canada to fight the Germans
For the Moment (1993) -- love story set against the nearly 100 air bases created across Canada (as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program to get more pilots)
X Two Solitudes (1978) -- 1917 Conscription Crisis in Canada
French Occupation and Resistance:
X Section spéciale (Special Section) (1975) -- Nazi-collaborative Vichy government in southern France under Marshall Pétain
La Silence de la Mer (1947) -- an old man and his beautiful niece have to house a Nazi officer during the German Occupation
Laissez-passer (Safe Conduct) (2002) -- the effects of the German occupation on French cinema
X Le Chagrin et la Pitié (The Sorrow and the Pity) (1969) -- directed by Marcel Ophüls, interviews and documents
Paris brûle-t-il? (Is Paris Burning?) (1966) -- freedom fighters of Paris and the Paris liberation of 1944
Untel père et fils (Heart of a Nation) (1943) -- the Froment family of Montmartre, France from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to Nazi occupation in World War II
L' Armée des ombres (Army of Shadows) (1969) -- the many travails of the French Resistance
La Bataille du Rail (The Battle of the Rails) (1946) -- railway workers form part of the French Resistance sabotaging the Nazi occupation
X Assignment in Brittany (1943) -- efforts of the Free French
X To Have and Have Not (1944) -- skipper becomes reluctantly involved with the French Resistance (with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall)
X The Train (1965) -- French Resistance tries to destroy a train carrying French treasures to Germany
Monsignor Renard (2000) -- TV series about German occupation of France
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped) (1956) -- a French Resistance man is captured and thinks only of escaping from the Nazis
X Un homme de trop (1967)
Dutch Resistance:
Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange) (1977) -- Dutch collaboration and resistance to German occupation
Zwartboek (Black Book) (2006) -- young Dutch Jewish woman works with the Dutch resistance against the German occupation
X Het Woeden der Gehele Wereld (2006) -- Dutchman takes advantage of the German persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands
Greece:
X Aera! Aera! Aera! -- young people become entangled in military maneuvers at the Greek border with Albania in October 1940, during Mussolini's invasion of Greece
X Ipolochagos Natassa (1970) -- German occupation of Greece, April 1941 to October 1944
Ill Met by Moonlight (aka Night Ambush) (1957) -- Resistance with help of British capture the German commander-in-chief (based on events on Crete in World War II)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) -- atrocities against Italian prisoners of war, such as the massacre of the 'Acqui' Division on Cephallonia
X Ipolochagos Natassa – a tragic love story about Natassa and her deceased lover set against the German occupation of Greece and the Greek Resistance
X Ypovryhion: Papanikolis (aka SS Papanikolis) (1971) -- one of the most successful Greek submarines during WWII
Other:
X The Last Lieutenant (1994) -- a former naval officer organizes a group of partisans
X Tales from Hollywood (1992) -- Hollywood colony of German artists who escaped from Nazi Germany including Thomas Mann and Bertold Brecht
X Das Boot (1981) -- U-boats in 1941
XII.1.2. Naval Warfare. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
X 49th Parallel (1941) -- a Nazi U-boat crew shipwrecked in Canada try to flee to the neutral United States
X Action in the North Atlantic (1943) -- before Dec. 7, 1941, the US merchant mariners brought supplies to the Russians
X Atlantic Convoy (1942) -- war on U-boats attacking Allied ship convoys
The Battle of the River Plate (1956) -- destruction of the Graf Spee, Montevideo, Uruguay, December 1939
Sink the Bismarck! (1960) -- sinking of Germany's most powerful battleship, May 27, 1941
Attack on the Iron Coast (1968) -- British raid on large ship dock at St. Nazaire, France, March 28, 1942
X Above Us the Waves (1955) -- a British midget submarine raid damages German battleship Tirpitz, September 1943
Proud (2004) -- the USS Mason, with an African-American crew, was the only such ship to sail into combat, fighting Nazi U-boats
XII.1.3. Germans Kicked out of Africa. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
Sundown (1941) -- Nazis in East Africa
Desert Fox (1951) -- Field Marshal Rommel
X Desert Victory (1943) -- the rout of Rommel in Africa by the British 8th Army
X Tobruk (2008) -- Battle of Tobruk; Czech Legion
Fighting Rats of Tobruk (1944) -- one of Australia's greatest wartime legends
Desert Rats (1953) -- Tobruk seen from Australian side
X Tobruk (1967) -- attempt to destroy Rommel's fuel supply in North Africa
X Desert Patrol (1958) -- British patrol in Africa before battle of El Alamein
X Lilli Marlene (1950) – set in North Africa before El Alamein
El Alamein (2002) -- the battle that finally stops Rommel in North Africa seen through the eyes of an Italian unit, October- November, 1942
Il Grande Attacco (Battle Force (a.k.a. The Great Battle) (1978) -- story of the build-up to a real Allied offensive against the Germans (in North Africa)
Battaglia di El Alamein (El Alamein)) (1969) -- Italian troops left behind by their German allies
Alexandria . . . Why? (1979) -- personal relationships set against the background of World War II; Alexandria Trilogy
The Story of G. I. Joe (1945) -- story of Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle
X From Two Men and a War -- account of a pilot's WWII experience, including many encounters with popular journalist Ernie Pyle
Patton (1970) -- from North Africa to Sicily (July 1943) to France and Germany
Big Red One (1980) -- Sam Fuller's WWII diary of squad in First Infantry Division
X The Malta Story (1954) -- British Malta holds out against 3,000 air raids from June 1940 to December 1942
World War II - When Lions Roared (1994) -- Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin dialogue through World War II
XII.1.4. Allied Invasion of Italy. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
Anzio (1968) -- French-Italian-Spanish movie dealing with the beach landing, January to May, 1944
X Darby's Rangers (1958) -- assault troops in N. Africa & Italy
X Bold and the Brave (1956) -- WWII soldiers fighting in Italy
La Ciociara (Two Women ) (1960) -- an Italian woman and her daughter try to escape the daily air raids in Rome by heading into the countryside
A Walk in the Sun (1945) -- story of one platoon of Americans fighting in Salerno
X Baciami piccina (Three on the Road) (2006) -- a couple decide to get married in the middle of the war in Italy in 1943
X The Scarlet and the Black (1983) -- Vatican official hides downed Allied pilots and coordinates with the Italian Resistance
XII.1.5. Russian Front. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
Finland's Defense against the Soviet Union
Talvisota (The Winter War) (1989) -- the Soviet Union attacks Finland; Finnish resistance
A Rukajärven tie (Ambush) (1999) -- Finnish resistance 1939-1940
X Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) (1955) -- ordinary Finnish soldiers in the Continuation War (1941-1944) between Finland and the Soviet Union
X Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) (1985) -- remake of the 1955 film of the same name
X Tali-Ihantala 1944 (2007?) -- the Battle of Tali-Ihantala (June 25 to July 9, 1944) of the Continuation War (1941-1944)
X The Cuckoo -- Finland WWII
X Child of Mine (2005) -- Swedish film; over 70,000 Finnish war children sent to Sweden, Norway and Denmark; one boy's story in Sweden
Russian Front:
X Katyn (2009) -- three women search for relatives killed in the spring of 1940 in a Stalin ordered genocide of 15,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in Katyn Forest
Djariskatsis mama (Father of a Soldier) (1964) -- following Russian soldier Gregory all the way to Berlin during WWII
Idi i smotri (Come and See) (1985) -- resistance to the German invasion of the Soviet Union in Byelorussia
The North Star (1943) -- a Ukrainian village under Nazi invasion, June 1941
X White Bird with Black Mark (1972) -- Ukrainian film, set in 1937-1947, where one brother joins the Red Army and another the UPA (Ukrainian insurgent army)
X Shchors (1939) -- Russian/Ukrainian film, commissioned by Stalin, about the partisan leader and Ukrainian Bolshevik Nikolai Shchors
Days of Glory (1944) -- guerrillas fight back against the 1941 Nazi invasion of Russia
X Baltiyskoe nebo - 1 seriya, 2 seriya (1960) -- fighter pilots fight against the blockade of Leningrad by German army during 1941 -1943
X Blokada (2006) -- German siege of Leningrad begins September 1941 and after 900 days ends in 1944 (more than a million people died during the siege)
Hong ying tao (Red Cherry) (1995) -- two Chinese students sent to Russia experience the German invasion of that country
Stalingrad:
Stalingrad (1992) -- the real turning point of the war; choice of German or English and using or not using subtitles
Cross of Iron (1977) -- German soldiers at the eastern front with an arrogant Prussian Captain Hauptmann Stransky who claims the Iron Cross for something that another leader did
Stalingrad: Hunde, wolt ihr ewig leben? (Stalingrad: Dogs, Do you Want to Live Forever?) (1959) -- battle of Stalingrad (July 1942 to February 1943) from German perspective
X Der Arzt von Stalingrad (The Doctor from Stalingrad) (1958) -- Dr. Fritz Bohler buoys the German POWs in a Russian camp
Enemy at the Gate (2001) -- Russian sniper vs. German sniper at Stalingrad
The Night Witch (2010) -- Lidya Litvak, highest ranking female ace in history, known as the White Rose of Stalingrad
Other:
Italiani brava gente (Attack and Retreat) (1999) -- 1942, Italian army up against the Russians at the Battle of the Don during the Stalingrad counteroffensive
X Zasieki (1983) -- Soviet-backed Polish forces bravely battles the Germans in the Battle of Lenino, October 1943
Zvezda (The Star) (2002) -- summer of 1944, facing certain death, a group of seven Russian snipers named "Zvezda" does reconnaissance behind enemy lines to stop a planned Nazi tank offensive
Voskhozhdeniye (Ascent) (1977) -- two Soviet partisans fight against the Germans
X L'Uomo della Croce (Man with a Cross) (1943) -- Catholic chaplain with Italian expeditionary forces on the Eastern Front
Letyat zhuravli (The Cranes are Flying) (1957) -- a girlfriend of a Russian soldier nearly loses her mind desperately waiting for his return
X A byahme mladi (We were Young) (1961) -- Bulgarian resistance to the Germans in Sofia
X Oglinda (aka The Mirror) -- Romania during World War II with the King Michael Coup Prime Minister Marshal Ion Victor Antonescu, who ruled Romania 1940 to 1944
XII.1.6. Allied Invasion of France. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
Dieppe (1993) -- 1942, worst defeat of Canadian forces in World War II
X Then There Were Giants (1994)
Yanks (1979) -- love stories involving American troops in England
X D-day the Sixth of June (1956) -- June 6, 1944
The Longest Day (1962) -- D-Day
X Band of Brothers (2001) - Easy Company of the 101st Airborne in many battles, including Bastogne during Battle of the Bulge
X Saving Private Ryan -- D-Day
X Breakthrough (2000) -- D-Day
Overlord (1975) -- movie follows the an ordinary British fellow from induction to D-Day
Ike: Countdown to D-Day -- Eisenhower has a lot of problems with the big egos around him
X Ike: The War Years (1978) -- Eisenhower fighting the Nazis and romancing his driver Kate Summersby
Patton (1970) -- George C. Scott
The Last Days of Patton (1986)
X Guns of Navarone (1961)
X The Last Drop (2005) -- the British hatch a plan, Operation Market Garden, that proves a flop; a small unit collides with three renegade German soldiers
To Hell and Back (1955) -- most decorated soldier in the history of the military, Audi Murphy
Go for Broke! (1950) -- Japanese-American troops fight in Europe; the 442, the first all-Nisei (Japanese- American) Regimental combat team
X Only the Brave -- Japanese Americans of the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team rescue members of the Texas 141st Regiment known as the "lost Battalion"
Bridge at Remagen (1969) -- Allies plan to blow the bridge at Remagen, March 7, 1944
Indigènes (Days of Glory) (2006) -- North African Muslims in French colonies fight for France
X Camp Thiaroye (1990) -- Senegalese soldiers fighting for France rebel against their ill-treatment after the end of the war
X Jackboot Mutiny (2001) -- attempt to assassinate Hitler, July 20, 1944
X Plot to Kill Hitler (1990)
X Stauffenberg (2004) --the attempt to kill Hitler
A Bridge Too Far (1977) -- Allied defeat in Operation Market Garden, Sept 1944
XII.1.7. German Counter-Attack (Battle of the Bulge) Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
When Trumpets Fade (1998) -- Battle of Hurtgen Forest (second phase beginning Nov. 10, 1944)
Hell is for Heroes (1962) -- film later re-made as When Trumpets Fade
Battle of the Bulge (1965) -- Hitler's famous counter-attack that ultimately failed (Dec. 16, 1944 - Jan. 7, 1945)
X Battleground (1949) -- 101st Airborne's defense of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge
X Midnight Clear (1992) -- anti-war drama about mission in Ardennes Forest near end of WWII
Saints and Soldiers (2003) -- survivors of the "Malmedy Massacre" of American soldiers by the Germans
Yalta: Peace, Power and Betrayal (2002) -- Yalta Conference, February 1945
Watch on the Rhine (2008) -- 106th Infantry Division attacked by a half-million German soldiers, Dec. 16, 1944
XII.1.8. Air War. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
Memphis Belle (1990) -- air raids over Bremen
Twelve O'clock High (1949) - US bomber pilots over Germany
X Catch 22 -- comedy set during air war over Europe
X Journey Together (1946) -- RAF air war
Reach for the Sky (1957) -- British RAF flyer who loses both legs fights to fly again
X The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) -- black airmen
X Spitfire (1942) -- story of the designer of the superior RAF fighter plane, the Spitfire
Appointment in London (1952) -- air war seen through eyes of a wing commander of a British squadron of Lancaster bombers
The Dam Busters (1955) -- British Lancaster bomber pilots destroy three dams in the Ruhr Valley flooding the huge industrial valley (May 17, 1943)
Dresden (2006) -- love story set against the massive bombing of Dresden Germany in 1945
XII.1.9. Others. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
X The Great Escape (1963)
X Stalag 17 (1953)
X The Wooden Horse (1950) -- three British POWs try to escape
A Generation (1954) -- 1st in trilogy of Polish resistance
Kanal (1957) -- 2nd in trilogy; Warsaw uprising in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1944
Ashes and Diamonds (1958) -- 3rd in trilogy; Polish film of Resistance movement in Poland during WW II's closing days
X Heroism (1958) -- Polish reaction to Nazi occupation
The Battle of Neretva (1969) -- Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia and 1943 victory of Tito's partisans
X Uncerdoaver (1943) -- Yugoslavian family fights guerrilla warfare to stop the Germans from taking their town
Enigma (2001) -- the British Bletchley Park and code-breaking
Sekret Enigmy (Enigma Secret) (1979) -- Polish contribution to the breaking of the German enigma code in WWII
U-571 (2000) -- mission to capture a German Enigma coding machine from a U-boat
X The Misfit Brigade (1988) -- Hitler's regiment composed of prisoners, the 27th Panzers
XII.1.10. Hitler's Last Days. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
Downfall (2004) -- of Hitler that is
The Bunker (1981) -- last days of Hitler
X Hitler -- The Last Ten Days (1973)
The Death of Adolf Hitler (1973) -- from his birthday on April 20, 1945 until his death by desperate suicide
X Judgment at Nuremburg (1961)
X Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial (2006)
X Nuremburg (2000) --
X The Bridge (1960) -- German teen-age boys drafted to stop Allied invasion
X Die Letzte Brücke (The Last Bridge) (1954) -- anti-war themed German movie (starring Maria Schell and Bernhard Wicki)
Der Unhold (The Ogre) (1996) -- a French POW rounds up children for a German military academy, who are ultimately sacrificed to stem the oncoming Russians
XII.1.11 Italy's Last Days of Fascism. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
Mussolini: The Decline and Fall of Il Duce (1985) (a.k.a, Mussolini and I)
Benito: The Rise and Fall of Mussolini (1993) -- Mussolini in his early opportunistic career as a socialist
Last Days of Mussolini (1977) -- ad-hoc execution of Mussolini
Mussolini: The Untold Story (1985) -- based on the memories of Vittorio Mussolini, the oldest son of the Italian dictator
X Miracle at St Anna (2008) -- four African-Americans fighting in the Tuscany region, get trapped in a village, fall of 1944
Paisan (1946) -- a heart-breaking look at the last days of the war
The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982) -- last days of WWII for one town in Italy
Roma, cittB aperta (Open City) (1945) -- the Italian resistance against German occupation
X Vincere (2009) – Mussolini’s mistress Ida Dalser and their son Albino
X Texas 46 (2002) --- story around the 50,000 Italian POWs in the USA
XII.1.12. Holocaust. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
X Conspiracy (2001) -- banal, but downright evil at the same time; the design of the implementation of the Holocaust
X Wannseekonferenz (1984) -- planning to implement the idea of a final solution
Amen (2002) -- the decision of the Vatican to remain neutral on all political matters, especially the Holocaust
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) -- Jewish girl and family hide from Nazis
X The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988) -- Miep Gies (Mary Steenburgen) aids Jewish refugees
Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) -- the story of Anne Frank hiding in the Netherlands from the Gestapo
Au revoir les enfants (1987) -- a Catholic school in France hides three Jewish boys from the Gestapo
Le Dernier Métro (The Last Metro) (1980) -- a gentile wife conceals her Jewish theatre director husband from the Nazis during the German occupation of France
X The Assisi Underground (1985) -- rescuing Italian Jews from the Nazis in 1943 Assisi
The Man Who Cried (2000) -- Russian Jewish immigrant is endangered in a Paris, France dance troupe because of her heritage
X Voyage of the Damned (1976)-- Jewish passengers unable to disembark
X Lacombe Lucien (1974) -- in occupied France, a young Frenchman is conflicted over his work for the German police and his Jewish girlfriend
Europa, Europa (1991) -- anti-Semitism in Germany
Schindler's List (1993) -- rescues his Jewish factory workers from death
X Perlasca, un Eroe Italiano (aka Perlasca, an Italian Hero or Perlasca, The Courage of a Just Man) – Italian film Giorgio Perlasca, who saved five thousand Jews
Edges of the Lord (2000) -- in Poland, Christians hide a Jewish boy from the Nazis
Ostatni etap (The Last Stage) (1948) -- a Polish woman's experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp
X Varian's War (2000) -- an American Schindler Varian Fry saving European intellectuals from the Nazis
X The Holocaust (1978) -- Meryl Streep
X Gentleman's Agreement (1947) -- anti-Semitism
X The Shop on Main Street (1965) -- Czechoslovakian film about anti-Semitism
The Pianist (2002) -- Jewish survivor of the Warsaw ghetto uprising
Uprising (2002) -- uprising in the Warsaw ghetto
In the Presence of Mine Enemies (1997) -- struggle for survival during the coming of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
X Jacob the Liar (1974) -- Jacob uses story-telling to keep up the spirits of the resident of the Warsaw ghetto even if he has to lie now and then
X Divided We Fall (2000) -- in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, a couple agree to hide a Jewish friend
X Daleká cesta (Distant Journey) -- Czech Holocaust film about a Jewish eye doctor in love with a Gentile plagued by anti-Semitism
X Rosenstrasse (2003) -- early, 1943 courageous German non-Jewish wives protest against the imprisonment of their Jewish husbands
The Hiding Place (1975) -- Corrie ten Boom recounts her and her family's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp
Out of the Ashes (2003) -- concentration camp survivor Dr. Gisella Perl
Devil's Arithmetic (1999) -- a young Jewish woman cares little about her Jewish heritage until she gets a taste of life in a concentration camp
God Afton, Herr Wallenberg (Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg) (1990) -- Swedish national saves Hungarian Jews
Das Boot ist Voll (The Boat is Full) (1980) -- destruction of the myth of the Swiss "lifeboat" for the persecuted
Der NeunteTag (The Ninth Day) (2004) -- a Catholic priest from Luxembourg is held in the Dachau concentration camp and yet gets a 9-day leave; what? why?
Sorstalanság (Fateless) (2005) -- teenage Hungarian boy is sent to Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Zeitz concentration camps
X Nackt unter Wölfen (Naked among Wolves) (1963) -- last weeks at Buchenwald before its liberation
The Aryan Couple (2004) -- Himmler makes a deal with a rich Jewish-Hungarian steel industrialist: his vast fortune for his and his extended family's freedom
X Hanna’s War (1988) – Hungarian Jewish martyr Hannah Senesh executed by the Nazis in 1944
X Perlasca (2005) – Italian fascist Giorgio Perlasca uses fascist credentials to save more than 5,000 Jews from extermination
The Statement (2003) -- war criminal Pierre Broussard escapes justice for many years because of an intricate web of protection, including the French clergy
Sunshine (1999) -- three generations of Hungarian Jews from c. 1900 to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
The Grey Zone (2001) -- revolt of the Jews who fed the Holocaust ovens at Auschwitz II - Birkenau
Escape from Sobibor (1987) -- the biggest and most successful escape of Jewish inmates from a death camp
X The Passenger (1963) -- on a cruise ship a former Auschwitz camp overseer thinks she sees someone who once was her prisoner
X Commissar (1967) -- anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union
X Cold Days -- anti-Semitism in Hungary (massacre of Jewish and Serbian people of Novi Sad in 1942)
X Mr. Klein (1976) -- the non-Jewish Klein exploits the Jewish people in occupied Paris, World War II, only to be mistaken as Jewish
Look to the Sky (1993) -- Jonah, an innocent young Jewish Child from Amsterdam, tries to survive life in a concentration camp
Lena: My 100 Children (1987) -- a woman adopts 100 Jewish Holocaust orphans, but then her problems of defending the children gets really tough
X Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story (1989) (TV) -- the Nazi-war-criminal-hunter and catcher
X Bent (1997) -- two gay men and their friend, a Jewish girl, come to the attention of the Gestapo in Germany
X A Day in October (1992) -- Danish resistance helps 7,200 Danish Jews escape to Sweden
X Debajo del mundo (1988) -- a family hide underground for six years to escape the Nazi's plans for them
X Divided We Fall (2001) -- a couple in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia hide their Jewish neighbor at great risk to themselves
X In Our Own Hands (1998) -- story of the only all-Jewish fighting unit in World War II
X Invincible (2002) -- a Jewish strongman performer in German sees himself as chosen by God to warn his people of the impending danger
X Kapo (1964) -- a Jewish girl in a concentration camp rises to be a camp guard, but she is bothered by what she sees
X Prisoner of Paradise (2003) -- German-Jewish actor who co-starred with Marlene Dietrich in "The Blue Angel" is sent to a concentration camp
X Me and the Colonel -- just before the German invasion of Paris, a Jewish refugee tries to escape in a car and picks up an anti-Semite & his girlfriend
X Sophie Scholl (2006) -- Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine
X The Assisi Underground (1985) -- the monasteries and convents of the city of Assisi provide haven to Jewish refugees
X Bonhoeffer (2003) -- German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the first clear voices of resistance to Adolf Hitler; he openly challenged his church to stand with the Jews; hanged April 1945
X Pastor Hall (1940) -- German pastor Martin Niemoller thrown into Sachsenhausen concentration camp for speaking out against the Nazis
X Under the Domim Tree (1996) -- 1953 Israel has to deal with orphans damaged because of the Holocaust
X Korczak (1991) -- Dr. Janusz Korczak runs a Jewish orphanage in Poland; he and his orphans are sent to Treblinka on August 6, 1942
X Boxer a smrt (The Boxer and Death) (1963) -- in a Nazi concentration camp, the commandant, a former prize-fighter, saves an inmate from execution because of his amateur boxing ability
X I Love You, I Love You Not (1997) -- a Jewish prep school student shares stories of anti-Semitism with her grandmother, an Auschwitz survivor (with Jeanne Moreau and Claire Danes)
X Samson (1960) -- man released from prison is imprisoned again in Warsaw Ghetto for being Jewish
X Defiance (2008) -- true story of three brother taking on the task of defending a multitude of 1,000 Polish Jews from the German occupation force
X A Boy in Striped Pajamas - in a concentration camp a German boy becomes friends with a Jewish boy with consequences
XII.2. THE FIGHT AGAINST JAPAN. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) in 1925, he predicted Japanese attack on U.S.
Blood on the Sun (1945)
XII.2.1. THE WAR IN CHINA AND BURMA. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
The Last Emperor (1987) -- Pu Yi, emperor of China & emergence of Communist China
Rakuyô (The Setting Sun ) (1992) -- Japanese agent in Manchuria gets money for Japanese war effort there by stealing and selling opium
Ba dao lou zi (Seven Man Army) (1976) -- seven Chinese soldiers hold off 20,000 Japanese at a battle at the Great Wall of China
Story of a Prostitute (1965) -- love story set during Sino-Japanese War between a soldier and a comfort woman
Hei tai yang 731 (Men Behind the Sun) (1988) -- Japanese atrocities in the prison camp Manchu 731
Hei tai yang: Nan Jing da tu sha (Black Sun: the Nanking Massacre) (1995) -- Nanking Massacre, Dec. 1937
Saam gwok dzi gin lung se gap (The Children of Hung Shi (aka Bitter Sea and Children of the Silk Road)) (2008) -- British journalist in Japan during Nanjing Massacre
City of Life and Death (aka Nanking! Nanking!) --- the Battle and the Massacre of Nanking
Don't Cry Nanjing (aka Nanjing 1937) -- family with Chinese husband and Japanese wife caught in the Nanking Massacre
X The Diary (2007?) -- based around the Nanking Massacre
X Hei tai yang 731 (Man Behind the Sun) (1988) -- in Squadron 731 Japanese troops torture and experiment on Chinese and Russian POWs
X Dragon Seed -- Chinese villagers try to adopt a peaceful attitude toward their Japanese conquerors, but not Jade Tan (with Katherine Hepburn)
Empire of the Sun (1987) -- a British boy becomes a victim of the Japanese invasion of China
Se, jie (Lust, Caution) (2007) -- Japanese Resistance uses a young virgin to seduce Chinese collaborator during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai with surprising consequences
Yi jiang chun shui xiang dong liu (The Spring River Flows East) (1947) -- in pre-war, wartime and post-war a family is split by the war with Japan
The White Countess (2005) -- love story set in pr-war and wartime Shanghai
Tai Hang shan shang (On the Mountain of Tai Hang) (2005) -- Chinese communist commander Zhu De wins some big battles against the Japanese in northern China
Yi ge he ba ge (One and Eight) (1983) -- eight criminals and a deserting Chinese officer in the communist Eighth Route Army
Guizi lai le (Devils on the Doorstep) (2000) -- Chinese villagers hold two Japanese prisoners of war
Dang doi lai ming (Hong Kong 1941) (1984) -- three friends suffer under Japanese occupation on the island of Hong Kong
Lady from Chungking (1943) – Chinese guerrilla leader resists the Japanese during WWII.
X Tian ma cha fang (March of Happiness) (1999) -- a love story set amid Japanese occupation of China
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) -- service in China and reaction to Japanese invasion
War in Burma:
Flying Tigers (1942) -- fighting the Japanese in Burma and China
X Bombs Over Burma (1942) -- devoted woman risks life for sake of China on espionage mission
X Burma Convoy (1941) -- getting critical supplies through to China via the Burma Road
Orde Wingate (1976) -- play-like movie about commander Orde Wingate who became a Zionist during foreign service in Palestine and developed guerrilla tactics used by the Israelis; leads strikes into Burma in WWII
Merrill's Marauders (1962) Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill, battling Japanese in Burmese jungle
Objective, Burma! (1945) WWII Brits invade Burma
Biruma no tategoto (Burmese Harp) (1956) -- Brits have to attack Japanese forces in Burma as late as July, 1945
XII.2.2. THE USA FINALLY GETS INTO THE WAR. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
X Tora! Tora! Tora! -- Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
In Harm's Way (1965) -- attack on Pearl Harbor and counter-offensive in a backdoor operationX Pearl Habor (2001) -- with Ben Affleck
X December (1991) -- coming of age story set during Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the decisions of whether they should sign up for the military or not
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) -- James H. Doolittle air raid on Japan soon after Pearl Harbor
X The Purple Heart (1944) -- US air force crew shot down during Tokyo raid and suffer the consequences
To the Shores of Tripoli (1942) -- egotistical young marine recruit gets taught some valuable lessons just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
X War and Remembrance (1988) -- 12 part mini series
X The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961) -- British soldiers trapped behind Japanese lines in the Malayan jungle
X Paloh – Malaysian film about the confrontation between the Japanese occupying force and the Communist Party of Malaya, during final days of Japanese occupation
Wake Island (1942) -- Japanese have a hard time taking a small island between Guam and Midway (Dec. 7, 1941)
X No Man is an Island (1962) -- an American serviceman fights for survival on Japanese-occupied Guam
X Ambush Bay (1966) -- US marines on a Japanese-held Philippine island try to hook up with Filipino guerillas
Macarthur (1977) -- loses Philippines, but comes back
X MacArthur, The Rebel General (1977)
Corregidor (1943) -- Battle of Corregidor, Philippines
Bataan (1943) -- fight against Japanese take over of the Philippines
Beast of Bataan (2l010) -- young lawyers tries to save his client from death penalty for war crimes stemming from 1942 Bataan Death March (10,000 American and Filipino POWs died on a forced march to captivity)
X American Guerilla in the Philippines (1950) -- resistance to Japanese after fall of the Philippines
X Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita (2004) -- impact of Japanese invasion of the Philippines on a quiet town
X Panaghoy sa Suba (The Call of the River) (2004) -- set during the American Occupation (1942) and the Japanese Occupation (1945)
Outrages of the Orient (or Atrocities of the Orient) (1948) -- Japanese atrocities against the Filipino people (including attempted rape)
So Proudly we Hail (1943) -- US army nurses headed to Hawaii diverted by Pearl Harbor attack to Bataan and Corregidor
X Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
X Australia (2008) -- love story set against background of racism and Japanese attack on Darwin, Australia on February 19, 1942
X Until They Sail (1957) – four New Zealand women fall for four U.S. soldiers waiting in New Zealand to be shipped out to fight
XII.2.3. THE USA STRIKES BACK. Back to Chapter XII Back to Contents
X Battle of the Coral Sea (1959) May, 1942
Midway (1976) -- Battle of Midway, June 5, 1942
Gung Ho (1943) -- 2nd Marine Raider commandos, under Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, raided the Japanese base at Makin Atoll
Guadalcanal Diary (1943) -- Battle of Guadalcanal, began August 7, 1942
The Thin Red Line (1998) -- Battle of Guadalcanal, 1942
X The Thin Red Line (1964) -- an earlier and better of 1998's The Thin Red Line
X Fighting Sullivans (1944) -- five brothers serving on the same ship die serving at Guadalcanal
X The Gallant Hours -- Admiral Halsey during the Battle of Guadalcanal
X Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976/1977) -- based on real-life squadron leader Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington
Kokoda (2006) -- Australian troops fight the Japanese during the 1942 Kokoda Track campaign
X Tarawa Beach Head (1958) -- costly invasion of the island, November 20-23,1943
X Jungle Patrol (1948) -- the US air force and the fighting in New Guinea 1943
Battle Cry (1955) -- the run up to and the Battle for Saipan, June 1944
Windtalkers (2002) -- Navajo codetalkers use their own language as the unbreakable code on Saipan, June 15 to July 9, 1944
Raiders of Leyte Gulf (1963) -- a raid before the Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 23-26, 1944, kicks off reconquest of the Philippines
X Battle Stations (1956) -- kamikaze attacks on the USS Franklin and USS Bunker Hill, October, 1944
The Walls of Hell (1965) -- fight in the walled city of Intramuros in the Philippines, February, 1945
Back to Bataan (1945) -- John Wayne leads Philippine guerillas
The Great Raid (2005) -- rescue of American POWs in the Philippines
The Ravagers (1965) -- Filipino guerrillas repel last remnants of the Japanese on their land
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) -- Battles of Tarawa and Iwo Jima, Feb.-March, 1945
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) -- story of the men behind the second raising of the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) -- the battle for Iwo Jima presented from the Japanese perspective
X The Outsider (1961) -- Tony Curtis plays troubled flag raiser Ira Hayes
X Okinawa (1952) -- largest amphibious assault in the Pacific campaign, April to June, 1945
Gekido no showashi: Okinawa kessen (Battle of Okinawa) (1971) -- horrors of combat from Japanese perspective
X Away all Boats (1956) -- life on the USS Belinda, Attack Transport PA22, which served at Okinawa
Mission of the Shark (1991) -- dropped off key parts for the atomic bomb, then sunk June 1945 and survivors attacked by sharks
X Paloh (2003) -- Malaysian love story set in last days of Japanese occupation in Malaysia in the small town of Paloh
Nobi (Fires on the Plain) (1959) -- fight of one Japanese soldier to survive facing terrible horrors on the island of Leyte, Philippines in February, 1945
Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) -- story of Los Alamos atomic bomb project
X Manhattan Project (1986)
X The Beginning or the End – dramatization of the atomic bomb Manhattan Project and the subsequent bombing of Japan
X Day (1989) -- story of Manhattan Project focusing on interaction between Col. Leslie R. Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer
X Above and Beyond (1952) -- bombing of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) by Col. Paul Tibbetts, commander of the Enola Gay
X Hiroshima (1995) -- August 6, 1945
Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (1990) -- emphasis on the damage done to the people of Hiroshima
Nihon no ichiban nagai hi (Japan's Longest Day) (1967) -- the military tries to overthrow the Emperor's civilian government after Nagasaki bombing
X Imamura (Black Rain) (1989) -- aunt and uncle try to prove their niece is not unhealthy due to radiation fallout and is, therefore, suitable for marriage
X The Winds of War (1983) -- world's leaders at the time
X Weekly's War (1984) -- story of Australian experience of WWII thru experience of those who worked on the publication of the Australian Women’s Weekly
X King Rat (1965) -- WW2 Japanese POW camp
X A Town like Alice (1956) -- British women & children fight to survive under the non-care of the Japanese
Prisoners of the Sun (1990) -- Japanese internment of Australian soldiers
X Overlanders (1946) -- fear of Japanese invasion in Australia causes cattlemen to push their herds overland halfway across the country.
To End all Wars (2001) -- very good movie on Japanese prisoner of war camp in Thailand
Three Came Home (1950) -- true account of American woman's experience in a Japanese prison camp
Paradise Road (1997) -- women imprisoned in Sumatra in WWII dealing with Japanese atrocities
X Blood Oath (1990) -- the Ambon tribunal tried 91 Japanese soldiers for war crimes against Australian prisoners
X Come See the Paradise (1990) -- Japanese-American internment in the USA
X The War Between Us (1995) -- Japanese-Canadian internment in Canada
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) -- prejudice against Japanese-Americans
X Stand Up for Justice (2004) -- Mexican/Irish-American goes to the internment camp with his Japanese-American friends
X Ten Days to Victory (2005) -- ten dramatic stories about end of World War II
The Home Front and the Soldiers Return
X The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980)
X A League of Their Own (1992) -- women's baseball in World War II
X Bye Bye Blues (1989) --
X Land Girls (1997) --
X Millions Like Us (1943) --
X Since You Went Away (1944) --
X Tender Comrade (1943)
X Best Years of Our Lives (1946) post-WWII adjustment of war veterans
X The Codes (1966) -- for a Polish veteran, home after the war, questions arise of collaboration and resistance in his own family under German occupation
X Zaduszki (All Souls' Day) (1962) -- mental damage caused by World War II in Poland
XIII. POST-WAR PERIOD. Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
XIII.1. Post-War Japan Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
Dongjing Shenpan (Tokyo Trial) 2006 -- a Chinese judge helps convinces the other international judges to choose the death penalty for the Japanese war criminals
Stray Dog (1949) -- a cop solves a murder in desperate, war-ravaged, U.S.-occupied Tokyo
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) -- a budding romance is overshadowed by memories of the horrors of the A-bomb
Rhapsody in August (1991) -- memories of the atomic bomb and its aftermath
X Gunki Hatameku Motoni (2001) – the widow of a Japanese sergeant wants information on the death of her husband in New Guinea only to get lies and half-truths, including knowledge of the inhumanity of the Japanese soldiers
Mishima -- Japanese novelist commits traditional suicide, 1970
Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972) --Japan wrestles with its brutal military performances in World War II
XIII.2. Post-War China Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
Communist Rule (1949-today)
The Soong Sisters (1997) -- the lives of three sisters who all married among the highest rank of officials in the Republic of China (1911-1949)
Ji jie hao (Assembly) (2007) -- set in 1948 during the Chinese Civil War
Zui hou de gui zu (The Last Aristocrats) (1989) -- Four Chinese women students in the USA are stranded when the Communists take over Shanghai in 1948
X Xin hai shuang shi (The Battle for the Republic of China ) (1981) --
X Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst (1957) -- 1949, British warship Amethyst blocked by Communist Chinese shore batteries on the Yangtse River
Wo de fu qin mu qin (The Road Home) (1999) -- country girl & a young teacher fall in love during the 1958 Anti-Rightist Movement reaction against the Hundred Flowers Campaign
China Cry (1990) – a barely Christian upper-class woman survives the anti-religious excesses of communism in China
Ba wang bie ji (Farewell, My Concubine) (1993) -- spanning warlord era to past the Cultural Revolution in China
Huozhe (To Live) (1994) -- a married couple experience the effects of the Communist victory, the Great Leap Forward, and The Cultural Revolution
Lan feng zheng (The Blue Kite) (1994) -- horrible effects of the Cultural Revolution
Tian yu (The Sent Down Girl) (1998) -- in the Cultural Revolution, teen-aged girl sent to a remote area of China and abandoned
Xiao cai feng (Balzac and the Little Seamstress) (2002) -- two young men sent for re-education in the Cultural Revolution fall in love with the same mountain woman
Hibiscus Town -- a young woman lives through the Cultural Revolution
In the Heat of the Sun -- young people roam the streets because the Cultural Revolution takes up most of their parents' time
Mei you hang biao de he liu (River Without Buoys) (1984) -- during the Cultural Revolution, timber rafters try to rescue a former District Director from a labor camp
Romance on Lushan Mountain (or Love on Lushan Mountain or A Love Story at Lushan Mountain) (1980) -- the Cultural Revolution makes love very difficult for a young couple
Xiang ri kui (Sunflower) (2005) -- following a family harmed by the Cultural Revolution for thirty years
X Dr. Bethune (1990) -- life of Canadian Doctor Norman Bethune who became a hero in China during Mao Tse-Tung's rise to power.
X Bethune (1977) -- Canadian doctor who aided Mao Tse-Tung's army
X Last Emperor 1987) -- the Qing Dynasty falls to nationalists, and the emperor later becomes a pawn in Japanese-controlled Manchuria directed by Bertolucci.
Zhantai (Platform) (2000) -- a performance troupe changes with the changes in the political climate in China
Yi ge dou bu neng shao (Not One Less) (1999)--a rural Communist confronts post-Deng modernization efforts in contemporary China.
Qiu Ju da guan si (The Story of Qiu Ju) (1992) -- woman battles frustrating court system in modern China.
Chinese Box (1997) -- a love story set against the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong
Tibet:
Seven Years in Tibet (1997) -- mountain-climber befriended by 14 year old Dalai Lama during WWII
Kundun (1997) -- Dalai Lama resists Chinese take-over of Tibet; 1949
Little Buddha (1993) -- search for the next Dalai Lama
XIII.3. Post-War Philippines Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
X Dekada '70 (2003) -- middle-class Filipino family realize the full meaning of dictatorship in the Philippines
X Bagong Buwan (2001) -- Muslim rebellion in Mindanao, Philippines between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
X Chavit (2003) -- in the Philippines, ouster of corrupt President Joseph Estrad in favor of vice president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
X Cavite (2005) -- terrorism bred by poverty and injustice
XIII.4. Post-War England Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
Scandal (1989) -- John Profumo scandal in England
XIII.5. Post-War Germany Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
Deutschland bleiche Mutter (Germany, Pale Mother) (1980) -- a German woman and her daughter try to survive while the father is away fighting; dad returns and it gets worse
The Tunnel (2001) -- escaping from East Berlin to West Berlin via a tunnel
Heimat - Chronicle of Germany (1985) -- Germany in the years 1919-1982 through the eyes of a woman named Maria
X Heimat II (Home, Vol. 2: A Chronicle of a Generation) (1994) -- portrait of German youth in the wild 1960s
X Heimat III (Heimat, Vol. 3: A Chronicle of Endings and Beginnings) (2004) --
Germania anno zero (Germany Year Zero) (1948) -- young German boy suffers from the hard times following the end of WWII
Die Ehe der Maria Braun (The Marriage of Maria Braun) (1979) -- rough times for Germany immediately following the end of WWII
The Big Lift (1950) -- Berlin Air-lift
Las Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) (2006) -- 1984 East Berlin, Stasi surveillance tactics changes the life of one Stasi worker
X Sonnenllee (1999) -- 17-year-old boy growing up in communist East Germany in the 1970s
Good Bye, Lenin (2003) -- after unification of the two Germanys, a son tries to restore East German life so his mother recently out of a coma won't have a relapse
X Kleinruppin forever (2004) -- identical twins Ronny and Tim switch places forcing Tim to experience life in East Germany
X Stammheim (1986) -- the trial in Stammheim Prison of the left-wing terrorist Baader-Meinhof Group
Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum) (1975) -- panic over Red Army Faction terrorism in the 1970s Germany
XIII.6. Post-War Italy Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thief) (1949) -- Italy's post-war depression
X Umberto D. (1955) -- poor treatment of elderly in post-war depression
X Miracle in Milan (1951) -- displaced European refugees
X La Dolce Vita (1961) -- disillusionment and decadence after Fascism and War
Mama Roma (1962) -- the continuing negative effects of poverty on a mother trying to improve her life for herself and her son
La Meglio gioventu (The Best of Youth) (2003) -- two brothers live through the period 1966-2000
Buongiorno, notte (Good Morning, Night) (2003) -- 1978, Red Brigade kidnaps Prime Minister Moro
Excellent Cadavers (1999) -- battle waged against the Sicilian Mafia during the late 1980's and early 1990's
X Salvatore Giuliano (1962) -- young man recruited by Sicilian separatist politicians is gunned down close to declaration of Sicily's self-rule
XIII.7. Post-War France Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
X Le Nouveau Monde (1995) -- French resentment of the "American occupation"
Un monde presque paisible (Almost Peaceful) (2002) -- in post-war France, Jewish Parisians try to build a new life after the Holocaust
La Haine (1995) -- social and racial tension in the outskirts of French cities leads to some nasty riots
X Liberty Belle (1983) -- a student, Paris, 1959-1960, gets involved with a group opposing the French Algerian war
X La Chinoise -- leftist French youth on the eve of the May 1968 student riots
Adieu De Gaulle adieu (2009) -- De Gaulle disapproves of the student uprisings of May 1968
XIII.8. Post-War Greece & Macedonia Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
X Traveling Players (1975) -- some traveling actors recount the terrible events that happened in Greece, 1939 to just before 1952
Eleni (1985) -- a grown-up Greek-American son searches for the executioner of his Greek mother in the Greek Civil War
X Petrina Chronia (Stone Years) (1985) -- 1954-1974; a couple is separated by the Greek Civil War
Politiki Kouzina (A Touch of Spice) (2003) -- unrequited love for a young Greek-Turkish boy who has to leave his love when his family is deported from Turkey back to Greece
Z (1969) -- 1963 killing of the Greek liberal politician Gregorios Lambrakise
X I Dokimi (The Rehearsal) (1974) -- indictment of the Greek military junta (1967-1974)
X Haromeni Imera (Happy Day) (1976) -- the story of the director’s exile to an island by the Greek military dictatorship
X Telos Epochis (End of an Era) (1995) -- 1969-1970 Greece as seen through the eyes of a group of high school seniors
X Ap’to Hioni (From the Snow) (1993) -- 1990 Greece as seen through the eyes of travelers heading from Corfu to Athens
X Attila 74 (1974) -- Turkish invasion of Cyprus
To Vlemma tou Odyssea (Ulysses' Gaze) (1995) -- in search of lost film reels, a Greek-American director travels across the Balkans, ending up in bomb destroyed Sarajevo
Before the Rain (1994) -- ethnic conflict in Macedonia
XIII.9. Post-War Spain & Portugal Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
Tiovivo c. 1950 (2004) -- life in post-Civil War Madrid, the city offers entertainment, hope and love, in spite of the many restrictions
Capitães de Abril (April Captains) (1997) -- military coup of the left overthrows the dictatorship in Portugal, April 25, 1974, that was established by Salazar in 1933
XIII.10. Post-War Soviet Union Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
Ballada o soldate (Ballad of a Soldier) (1960) -- A sort of Russian road movie about a young Russian soldier's four day trip to go home to see his mother
X The Chekist -- brutal Cheka security forces
Utomlyonnye solntsem (Burnt by the Sun) (1994) -- the paranoid era of the evil Stalin
The Inner Circle (1991) -- a true David and Batsheba story in the Soviet Union
X One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970) -- Russian gulag penal system
X Gulag (1985) -- gulag penal system
Sakharov (1984) -- Russian dissident
Prisoner of the Mountains (1997) -- drama set in First Russian-Chechen war (1994-1996)
House of Fools -- about psychiatric patients and combatants during the First Chechen War
Alexandra -- Russian movie set in the Second Russian-Chechen war (started 1999)
War -- about the realities of the Second Chechen War
My Best Friend, General Vasili, the Son of Joseph Stalin – Lt. Gen. Vasili Stalin commander of Army and Air Force sports teams befriends a sports talent; but what will happen when the general’s father dies?
XIII.11. INDEPENDENCE FOR INDIA -- 1947 Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
Gandhi -- 1915 onward; arrested in 1922 for civil disobedience against British rule
The Making of the Mahatma (1996) -- Gandhi's politically formative years in South Africa
X Lage Raho Munnabhai ("Carry on, Munnabhai") (2006) -- to impress a woman a Mumbai thug pretends to be an expert in Gandhian philosophy
X Anandmath (1950) -- Indian resistance to colonial rule
X Jhansi ki Rani (Queen of Jhansi) (1953) -- film based on Indian resistance to colonial rule
Kisna: the Warrior Poet (2005) -- love story between British girl and Indian boy set in 1940s Indian Independence Movement
Lord Mountbatten -- The Last Viceroy (1986) -- helps bring independence to India
X Laaj (2003) -- Hindu girl with a Muslim boy equals problems; set in the 1930s; the Pashtoons of India's northwest frontier turned against the ruling British Raj
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero (2005) -- fighter for Indian independence from Britain
Shaheed-e-Azam (2002) -- Bhagat Singh; celebrated martyr of Indian independence movement; hanged by British March 23, 1931
The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) -- Bhagat Singh
23rd March 1931: Shaheed (2002) -- Bhagat Singh
X Pagadi Sambhal (“Hold fast to your turban”) -- Bhagat Singh
X Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar (1998) -- leader of India's dalits ("untouchables")
Nine Hours to Rama (1963) -- events leading up to assassination of Gandhi in 1948
Staying On (1981) -- a British colonel and his wife decide to remain in India after the departure of the British in 1947
Jinnah (1998) -- Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan
Earth (1998) -- love story set against religious violence following Indian independence in 1947
Train to Pakistan (1998) -- ethnic violence between Hindus, Muslims & Sikhs in Punjab after British left in 1947
Hey! Ram (2000) – bloody civil war between Hindus and Muslims that ultimately led to the neo-Islamic state of Pakistan
Shakespeare Wallah (1965) -- a fast fading family acting troupe reflects the loss of British influence in India
X Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: the forgotten hero (2004) -- focused on a Bengali leader who favored violent means to liberate India.
Sardar: The Iron Man of India (1993) -- a biopic of Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first home minister and deputy prime minister
Pukar (1983) -- after 1947 a boy who sees his father shot by a "revolutionary" fights to kill all revolutionaries in Goa, but earns the hatred of almost every Goan
Bandit Queen (1994) -- Indian film about female Indian outlaw Phoolan Devi (Seema Biswas), 1980s
X Last Day of the Raj (2007) --
XIII.12. POST-WAR ALGERIA: INDEPENDENCE. Back to Chapter XIII Back to Contents
The Battle of Algiers (1966) -- Italian-Algerian film about Algerian revolt against French, 1954-1962
Lost Command (1966) -- French-Algerian guerilla warfare in North Africa
X Outremer (1990) -- French film about three sisters during the Algerian War
X La Trahison (The Betrayal) (2005) -- French officer and recruits in Algerian War
X Cache (2005) -- repressed memories of the aftermath of the Algerian War
X Le Crabe-tambour (1977) -- French war hero of French Indochina and Algeria
X Nuit Noire (Black Night) (2005) -- French massacre in Algeria
Le Petit Soldat (1963) -- during the Algerian war, young French deserter gets involved with woman who is fighting for the other side
X Chronique des années de braise (Chronicle of the Years of Fire) (1975) -- the Algerian War as seen through the eyes of a peasant.
X La vérité si je mens (1997) -- movie about the pieds-noirs community (non-Algerian émigrés from Algeria)
X The Day of the Jackal (1973) -- 1954-1962 De Gaulle and the Algerian War Fred Zinneman 1973 Edward Fox
X A Captain's Honor -- widow's tries to restore her husband's reputation from an accusation of using torture in the Algerian War
X Chronique des Années de Braise – the Algerian War of Independence as seen through the eyes of a peasant
Lumumba (2000) TV -- Patrice Emery Lumumba rises to power following independence for the Congo from Belgium
X Mon colonel (2006) -- a murder investigation reveals some terrible things about the Algerian War
X Un combat singulier (2004)
XIV. THE FIGHT AGAINST COMMUNISM. Back to Chapter XIV Back to Contents
XIV.1. USA -- LOSS OF CHINA, KOREAN WAR & MCCARTHYISM DURING COLD WAR Back to Chapter XIV Back to Contents
X East/West (1999) -- a young Russian doctor, his French wife and daughter return to the Soviet Union & the disagreements start over the quality of life there
X Daniel (1983) -- children of spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg deal with life
The Korean War
Truman (1995) -- Harry S. Truman, president, 1945-1952
X Give 'Em Hell, Harry! (1975) -- President Harry S. Truman
One Minute to Zero -- focus on just before and after North Korean invasion of South Korea
X Field of Honor (1986) -- a Dutch mercenary sergeant in 1951 in the Korean War
X Fixed Bayonets (1951) -- portrait of a platoon in an American division in the mountains of Korea and their trial by fire
Shang gan ling (Battle on Shangganling Mountain) (1965) – Chinese film of the Battle of Triangle Hill (Operation Showdown), October 1952
X Hell in Korea (aka A Hill in Korea) (1956) -- U.N. patrol fights Chinese troops (British troops)
X MacArthur (1977) -- leader in Korean War, fired by Truman
X Inchon! (1982) -- brilliant but risky move by MacArthur in Korean War turns the tide for awhile
Retreat, Hell! --- US marines land at Inchon and head north
Taegukgi Hwinallimyo (aka Brotherhood: Taegukgi and Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War) (2004) -- two reluctant South Korean young brothers are torn apart by their experiences in the Korean War
Men in War (1957) -- Korean War, September 1950; American troops nearly cut-off completely from their battalion have to reach safety
All the Young Men (1960) -- racial problems in the marines during the Korean War
Pork Chop Hill (1959) -- Korean War
X Battle Circus (1953) -- doctor and nurse in a romance set against rough conditions of treating patients during the Korean War (starring Humphrey Bogart, June Allyson)
X Prisoner of War (1954) -- mistreatment of American P.O.W.s during Korean War
X The Nest (1999) -- short film on Korean War about men in trenches where if the men go out to help their fallen comrades there is no return
Air War:
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955) -- air war in the Korean War
X Men of the Fighting Lady (1954) -- air war in Korea
The Hunters (1958) -- three American pilots have to fight the Chinese "volunteer" pilots over Korea
McCarthyism
Cradle will Rock (1999) -- prequel to McCarthyism in charging Federal Theater with having communist ties
Good Night and Good Luck (2005) -- TV journalist Morrow versus McCarthy
X Guilty by Suspicion (1991) -- Hollywood-blacklisting era; Robert De Niro
X Fellow Traveler (1989) -- McCarthyism
X Tail-Gunner Joe (1977) -- Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare
X Citizen Cohn (1992) -- Roy Cohn, assistant to Joseph McCarthy, and powerful figure in NYC politics
X Winchell (1998) -- Walter, the gossip journalist
X The Way We Were (1973) -- Barbara Streisand, Robert Redford divided over politics, including McCarthyism
X High Noon (1952) -- portrays feelings of those hounded by House on Un-American Activities
X High Noon (2000) -- a re-do of the "High Noon" of 1952
Rio Bravo (1959) -- John Wayne's answer to High Noon
X The Front (1976) -- with Woody Allen as the front-man selling works by authors on the black list
X Chaplin -- the famous funny man in trouble with the witch-hunters.
X Julia (1977) -- writer Lillian Hellman Story
X Dash and Lilly (1999) -- writers Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman
X The Manchurian Candidate (1962) -- deals pseudo-scientifically with theme of brain-washing
Other:
X Raging Bull (1980) -- Jake LaMotta, 1949 middle-weight champion
X Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) -- boxer Rocky Graziano
X Babe (1975)-- Zaharias that is; great all-around woman athlete and pro golfer
X Lenny (1974) -- 1950s; Lenny Bruce dies as a result of govt. prosecution and persecution
X Ed Wood (1994) -- dead in 1978; worst Am film director, but loved as campy hero
X Quiz Show (1994) -- 1960 probe into cheating on TV quiz shows ($64,000 Question)
X Pollock -- 1940s art scene with abstract painter Jackson Pollock
X Kinsey (2004) -- sexologist Alfred Kinsey shocks America with his study of its sexual habits; (overestimates the amount of homosexuality)
X In Cold Blood (1967) -- Truman Capote's tale of the murder of a Kansas farm family
X Capote (2005) -- the murder of a Kansas farm family as seen from the perspective of the writer of In Cold Blood
X Infamous (2006) -- Capote falls in love with condemned murder and pays a high emotional price for his getting a too close to his story
X Badlands (1973) -- Charles Starkweather and Carol Ann Fugate on a teenage murder spree
X On the Waterfront (1954) -- Marlon Brando; corruption and resistance to it
X K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) -- Soviet nuclear submarine faces a meltdown and explosion
XIV.2. TEEN REBELLION & ROCK AND ROLL Back to Chapter XIV Back to Contents
X The Wild One (1954)
X Blackboard Jungle (1956)
X Rebel Without a Cause (1955) -- teenage angst; James Dean
Elvis:
X Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970) -- Elvis Presley, king of Rock and Roll
X Elvis on Tour (1972)
X Elvis (1979)
X This is Elvis (1981)
X Elvis and Me (1988)
Others:
X Little Richard (2002) -- biopic of early black rock and roll star
X The Buddy Holly Story (1978) -- singing star killed in air crash with Richie Valens
X La Bamba (1987) -- Richie Valens Story, singing star killed in air crash with Buddy Holly
X American Hot Wax (1978) Alan Freed, pioneer Cleveland D.J. of rock and roll
X American Graffiti (1973) -- portrays teen-age life in the early 1960s
Beatles:
X The Compleat Beatles (1982)
X Backbeat (1993) -- the Fifth Beatle
X Beatlemania (1981)
X Stoned (2005) -- death of Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones
XV. THE FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS. Back to Chapter XV Back to Contents
XV.1. CIVIL RIGHTS -- USA Back to Chapter XV Back to Contents
X Keep the Faith, Baby (2002) -- Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. pushes integration in New York State and elsewhere
X Separate but Equal (1991) -- legal challenge of school segregation by NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall
The Road to Freedom: The Vernon Johns Story (1994) -- father of Civil Rights Movement; predecessor of King in Montgomery, AL
X Boycott (2000) -- MLK (Jeffrey Wrights) organizes the bus boycott
X King (1978) -- story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
X The Long Walk Home (1989) -- Montgomery Bus Boycott; Whoopi Goldberg
X Selma, Lord, Selma (1999) -- Clifton Powell as MLK in 1965 Alabama
X Selma (2009) -- police riot that helped the civil rights movement by showing the brutality of southern governments and police
X The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) -- long range view of race relations
X Malcolm X (1992) -- opposite views to Martin Luther King; Spike Lee; Denzel Washington
X Death of a Prophet: The Last Days of Malcolm X (1981) -- Malcolm X
X Murder in Mississippi (1990) -- victims Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman with a focus on Goodman
X Mississippi Burning (1988) -- murder of 3 civil rights workers in Mississippi, summer of 1964
X Ghosts of Mississippi -- assassination of Mississippi NAACP organizer Medgar Evers
Jackie Robinson Story (1950) -- first black man to desegregate professional baseball
X The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990) his protest of Army race policy
Heat Wave (1990) -- Los Angeles Watts riots of 1965
X Panther (1995) -- black panthers, radical black power movement
Riot (1997) -- good movie about four interrelated stories of people harmed by the L.A. riots of 1992 following the innocent verdicts in the trial of the policemen who beat black Rodney King
JFK, president 1961-1963
X The Kennedys of Massachusetts
X JFK - Reckless Youth (1993) -- the young John Fitzgerald Kennedy
X PT-109 (1963) -- Jack Kennedy commands a PT boat in the Pacific
Kennedy (1983) -- presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
X JFK (1991) -- Oliver Stone's conspiracy version of the assassination of Kennedy
X Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot (2001) -- Jackie, Ethel and Joan Kennedy
X Power and Beauty (2002) -- Kennedy and an affair with Judy Exner
X Marilyn (1963) -- Marilyn Monroe, super star sex kitten of the 50s & 60s, but still a wounded little girl
X Goodbye, Norma Jean (1976)
X Norma Jean and Marilyn (1996)
X Sugartime (1995) -- mobster Sam Giancana, another lover of Marilyn Monroe, woos singer Phyllis McGuire of the McGuire sisters
The Good Shepherd (2006) -- the early history of the American CIA up to the early 1960s
X O.S.S. (1946) -- the American secret war service blows up railroad lines in France (starring Alan Ladd)
X The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1977) -- Oswald, killer of Kennedy
X Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald (1993) -- widow of Oswald tells her story
X Ruby (1992) -- Jack Ruby, killer of JFK' assassin (& involved with mobsters)
Sinatra (1992) -- another one involved with mobsters and the Kennedys
X Hoffa (1992) -- teamster union leader & deep enemy of Robert Kennedy probing corruption
X Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992)
X Act of Vengeance (1986) -- Jock Yablonski challenges pres of United Mine Workers Tony Boyle
X The Ugly American (1963) -- supposed explanation of why other nations saw US in negative light
The Year of Living Dangerously (1983) -- a journalist in 1965 Indonesia under Sukarno
Space Program under Kennedy:
X Ukroshcheniye ognya (aka Taming the Fire) (1972) – biopic of Sergei Korolev, developer of Russian space industry leading to the launching of Sputnik in 1957
X Wernher von Braun (a.k.a., I Aim at the Stars) (1960) -- Nazi-Germany scientist who was important in the early space program for the United States
October Sky (1999) -- reaction to Sputnik, Russian space satellite
X Taming of the Fire – creation and development of Russian space and missile industry
The Right Stuff (1983) -- story of early astronauts John Glenn, Allan Carpenter, etc.
X Apollo 13 -- story of the Near Disaster in Space in 1970
X From the Earth to the Moon (1998) -- Tom Hanks; whole NASA history
X Beyond the Moon (2005)
XV.2. CIVIL RIGHTS -- NORTHERN IRELAND Back to Chapter XV Back to Contents
X The Dawn (1938) -- the "troubles" in Ireland in the early nineteen hundreds
Bloody Sunday (2002) -- quasi-documentary style dealing with Br soldiers firing on a peaceful civil rights demonstrators
X Sunday (2002) -- about Bloody Sunday
Some Mother's Son (1996) -- mother becomes involved in IRA hunger strike
Cal (1984) British film based in Northern Ireland
In the Name of the Father (1993) -- British try to frame innocent for bombings by I.R.A.
The Boxer (1997) -- set in Northern Ireland
Omagh (2004) -- aftermath of the 1998 IRA bombing that killed 29 people in Omagh, Northern Ireland
The Crying Game (1992) -- a Br soldier, Jody, is captured by the IRA; Jody develops a friendship with IRA man Fergus, things go wrong & Fergus winds up seeing Jody's girlfriend
This is the Sea (1997) -- troubles for a Protestant and a Catholic who fall in love in Northern Ireland
XV.3. CIVIL RIGHTS -- GREAT BRITAIN Back to Chapter XV Back to Contents
My Beautiful Laundrette (1986) -- multiculturalism in Great Britain
My Son the Fanatic (1997) -- Pakistani taxi-driver caught between British culture and Islamic fundamentalism
Vera Drake (2004) -- simple woman sent to prison for giving poor women abortions with no charge
XV.4. CIVIL RIGHTS -- SOUTH AFRICA Back to Chapter XV Back to Contents
Cry, The Beloved Country (1995)-- tale of reconciliation between S. Af minister's son who murders white man; James Earl Jones
The Quarry (2000) -- racism leads to the arrest of the wrong man, a black man, for the murder of a rural gay pastor
Dingaka (1965) -- white and black culture contrast in South Africa
X Sarafina (1992) -- black student resistance in South Africa
Bopha! (1993) -- black policeman in South Africa awakens to the fact that he works for a racist organization
Cry Freedom (1987) -- Stephen Biko 1975-77, black leader of resistance to apartheid
X The Biko Inquest (1984) -- based on inquest into the Biko assassination
X Mandela (1987) -- Danny Glover
Mandela and De Klerk (1997) -- the two who worked out a political answer to apartheid
The Color of Freedom (a.k.a. Goodbye Bafana) (2007) -- story of the special relationship between Mandela and his jailor
X Goodbye Bafana (2008) – the relationship between Nelson Mandela and James Gregory, his censor officer and prison guard
A Dry, White Season (1989) -- a white teacher finally awakens to the realities of the brutality of the apartheid system in South Africa, 1976
In My Country (2004) -- story set during the time of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings
X Drum (2004) -- apartheid and the forced removal of residents from Sophiatown
A World Apart (1988) -- a white teenage daughter comes to terms with her father and mother's work against apartheid in South Africa
Catch a Fire (2006) -- 1980, South African wrongly accused of a crime, is tortured and becomes radicalized by his experience
Beat the Drum (2003) -- a Zulu boy whose village has been devastated by AIDS goes to Johannesburg to find his long-lost uncle. Actors Junior Singo, Owen Sejake.
XV.5. CIVIL RIGHTS -- CANADA Back to Chapter XV Back to Contents
Isaac Littlefeathers (1984) -- racism in 1960s Alberta, Canada
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) -- anti-Semitism in Canada
Quand je serai parti... vous vivrez encore (aka The Long Winter) (1999) -- 1830s Quebec uprising
15 février 1839 (2001) -- the British execute five more Quebec Patriots, among them Chevalier De Lorimier
Quand je serai parti... vous vivrez encore (The Long Winter) – partly fictionalized film about the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837 and 1838 seeking to make Quebec independent
Mon oncle Antoine (1971) -- coming of age in Québec prior to the Asbestos Strike of the late 1940s, that led to the Quiet Revolution
X Les Ordres (1974) -- story of five people out of the 500 rounded up in the government crackdown to get at FLQ terrorists in October 1970
X Quebec – popular uprising to make Lower Canada (Quebec) independent
X Black October (2000) -- 1970, Quebec separatist Le Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), kidnap the British Trade Consul, and the Quebec Minister of Labor
XV.6. CIVIL RIGHTS -- AUSTRALIA Back to Chapter XV Back to Contents
X Australia (2008) -- love story set against background of racism and Japanese attack on Darwin, Australia on February 19, 1942
Newsfront (1978) -- follows two rivalries against the background of key political events of the 1950s in Australia
Black and White (2002) -- police virtually frame an aboriginal man leading to great controversy over the role of race in Australia
X Jedda (1955) -- conflict arises when an Aboriginal girl is separated from her culture
X The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) -- aborigine follows the white rules but no matter what he does he can't get ahead
Tracker (2002) -- a racist policeman goes way too far in his reactions to Aborigines
We of the Never Never (1982) -- Aeneas Gunn, the first white woman ever to journey into the Australian Outback
Walkabout (1971) -- a British boy and girl are stranded in the outback and form a relationship with a young Aborigine
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) -- 3 aborigine girls break away from their assimilation school to head back home
X Beneath the Clouds -- racial confrontation
X Come out Fighting (1973) -- aborigine torn between black and white worlds
X Manganinnie (1980) -- child's view of near-genocide of Tasmanian Aborigines
X Tudawali (1987) -- life of the first Australian Aboriginal actor Robert Tudawali, (a.k.a., Bobby Wilson)
X Wake In Fright (1971) -- British teacher at isolated school with menacing locals
Romper Stomper (1993) -- Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese
Australian Rules (2002) -- racism in the local football team
The Dismissal (1983) -- first Labor Prime Minister in 23 years who made many liberal changes (dismissed by the Governor-General in 1975)
X Exits (1980) -- effect of the Whitlam sacking on a group of Melbournites
X Apostasy: A Twice Told Tale in Black Red White (1978) -- dealing with the aftermath of the Whitlam sacking & other key events
XV.7. CIVIL RIGHTS - SPAIN Back to Chapter XV Back to Contents
X La pelota vasca: la piel contra la piedra (The Basque Ball: Skin against Stone) (2003) -- problem of Basque region of Spain
X Yoyes (2000) -- fictionalized reconstruction of the life of Dolores "Yoyes" González Catarain a woman member of the Basque liberation group ETA Milk
XV.8. GAY RIGHTS.
Milk (2008) -- Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold a major political office in the United States
XVI. The Fight Against Communism II. Back to Chapter XVI Back to Contents
XVI. 1. AMERICAN STRUGGLE TO STOP ALL LEFTISTS IN LATIN & SOUTH AMERICA Back to Chapter XVI Back to Contents
Cuba:
Havana (1990) -- a self-centered gambler falls in love with a revolutionary in Havana, Cuba
Cuba (1979) -- love story of a sort set in Havana at the time of the takeover by Castro
The Lost City (2005) -- love story set in Havana at the time of the takeover by Castro
X I am Cuba (1964) -- ode to Castro revolution
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) -- political education on a motorcycle
Che Guevara (2005) -- Ernesto "Che" Guevara, co-rebel with Fidel Castro in Cuba & rebel leader elsewhere
X Che (1969) -- Che Guevara
Azúcar amarga (Bitter Sugar) (1996) -- a young supporter of Castro becomes disillusioned
X Lucia (1968) -- three transitional periods in Cuban history from the perspectives of three women named Lucia
Guaguasi (1982) -- simple country man leaves his village to join the rebels, in Havana he falls in love, but he also falls apart, changed by the revolution
Thirteen Days (2001) -- Cuban Missile Crisis
X Missiles of October -- Cuban Missile Crisis docudrama
Before Night Falls (2000) -- homosexual Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas is terribly abused by the totalitarian Cuban system
X Memories of Underdevelopment (1973) -- wealthy man caught in the transitions during the Cuban revolution of 1959
Dominican Republic:
X Trópico de sangre (2009) – about the Mirabal sisters
In the Time of the Butterflies (2001) -- three Mirabal sisters risk their very lives by opposing Dictator Leonida Trujillo in the Dominican Republic
Guatemala:
El Silencio de Neto (1994) -- a young boy grows up against the background of the US-backed takeover of the Guatemalan Government in 1954
Nicaragua:
Walker (1987) -- Ed Harris as Walker who took over Nicaragua in 1855
Carla's Song (1997) -- 1978, CIA war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua
Under Fire (1983) -- trouble in Nicaragua
X Alsino y el condor (1982) -- radicalization of a young man in response to US advisor's cruelties
Guts and Glory: The Real Story of Oliver North (1989) -- Marine makes illegal deal of arms for hostages & becomes right-wing hero
El Salvador:
Romero (1989) -- leftist bishop in El Salvador assassinated , 1980
Salvador (1986) -- US journalist investigates assassination of Romero in El Salvador
Voces inocentes (Innocent Voices) (2004) -- innocent people caught in the El Salvador civil war in the 1980s
Panama:
Noriega: God's Favorite (2000) -- Manuel Noriega and 1989 Invasion of Panama
Dollar Mambo (1993) -- based on 5 soldiers in the Panama invasion murdering a Panamanian woman in a drunken spree
Columbia:
Confesión a Laura (Confessing to Laura) (1991) -- a love story set in civil war in Colombia following the assassination of liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948
Venezuela:
El Caracazo – Venezuela told by an international court to compensate the victims of the riots in the events of El Carcazo, Feb. 27, 1989
Amanecio de Golpe (Coup At Daybreak) (1998) -- '92 coup in Venezuela with Hugo Chávez
Peru:
X The Jaws of the Wolf (1989) -- in an isolated village, Peruvian soldiers surrounded by terrorists
Días de Santiago (2004) -- ex-Peruvian war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder can't get his life together
Ojos Que No Ven (2003) -- troubles under Japanese-Peruvian President Fujimoro of Peru
Paloma de papel (literally Paper Dove)(2003) -- effect of civil war between Shining Path and Peruvian villagers
Lima: Breaking the Silence (1998) -- terrorist assault in Lima, Peru, 1996
Doble Juego (Con Game) (2004) -- set in days of collapse under President Fujimoro of Peru
Bolivia:
X El coraje del pueblo (The Courage of the People) (1971) – a reenactment of the 1967 government-ordered massacre of striking tin miners in Bolivia
X Yawar mallku (1969) -- social struggle in Bolivia in the 1960s
Chile:
X It's Raining on Santiago (1976) -- military overthrow of Chile's leftist government
Missing (1982) -- search for a young American who disappeared during the aftermath of the 1973 US overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in Chile
Chico (2001) -- a determined communist filled with rage becomes an idealistic journalist, but also fights for Croatia against the Serbs
Of Love and Shadows (1994) -- fighting against the military dictatorship that followed the overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in Chile
Sweet Country (1978) -- following two couples and their reactions to the 1973 overthrow of the Allende government in Chile
X Actas de Marusia (Letters from Marusia) (1975) -- a 1907 massacre of miners in Chile is an allegory for the military coup of 1973
The Black Pimpernel (2007) -- after the military coupe in Chile, the Swedish ambassador to Chile saves more than 1,300 lives by moving them to Sweden
Mi mejor enemigo (My Best Enemy) (2005) -- the 1978 Beagle Conflict between Argentina and Chile over three islands south of Tierra del Fuego
Machuca (2004) -- overthrow of Allende government leads to a split in friendship among school chums
Pinochet in Suburbia (aka Pinochet's Last Stand) (2006) -- in 1998 British authorities arrest the ex-dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet
Argentina:
X Darse cuenta (Becoming Aware) (1984) – aware of the horrible occurrences associated with the Argentine military dictatorship, 1976-1983
X Los dias de junio (June Days) (1985) –
X Tangos, el exilio de Gardel –
X Made in Argentina (1987) -- Argentine family pushed apart by politics reunites but they are still divided by politics
The Official Story (1985) -- continued political problems (the ones who disappeared) in modern Argentina
Lo que vendrá (Times to Come) (1988) -- increasing power of the police state, 1976-1983
X El Arreglo (The Arrangement) (1983) -- a police inspector uncovers murders by a Latin American government using torture
Los Pasos Perdidos (The Lost Steps) (2001) -- a grandfather tries to get back his granddaughter whose parents just "disappeared"
Cautiva (Captive) (2003) -- a young woman's search for her true identity brings her to a knowledge of terrible things that happened in Argentina under the military dictatorship backed the the United States
X La Noche de las Lapices (The Night of Pencils) (1986) -- 12 students, arrested in La Plata for advocating changes in bus fares, just disappear.
Garage Olimpo (1999) --
Imagining Argentina (2003) -- missing persons in Argentina
Buenos Aires Vice Versa – one result of the Argentine military dictatorship was a group of youth with murdered relatives
X La Cara del Ángel (The Face of an Angel) (2006) – terrible effects of the military dictatorship’s murderous policies as seen by a small boy
Crónica de una fuga (Chronicle of an Escape) (2006) – four men narrowly escape death at the hands of a military death squad during the Argentina military dictatorship
Kamchatka – a family hiding from the government in rural Argentina
Mi mejor enemigo (My Best Enemy) (2005) -- the 1978 Beagle Conflict between Argentina and Chile over three islands south of Tierra del Fuego
La Deuda Interna (Veronico Cruz) -- poor Indian joins the Argentine navy and sees action in the Falklands War
X Los Chicos de la guerra (The Boys of War) (1985)&nbs