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
Buyer beware:
Don't use the vendor elechtronix. They seem to have a standard practice of keeping the money and never responding to enquiries. I learned a lesson the hard way with a loss of about $200 dollars. Amazon.com does not provide any way to get your money back, unless the seller cooperates. Their policy is that the seller has to ask to give the customer a refund. Well, a bad or dishonest firm is not going to give your money back, no way! And Amazon.com does not warn anyone about a company that has a terrible record of stealing money from customers. Amazon. com should throw off elechtronix, instead of allowing their users/customers to be ripped-off. But in America it's always in favor of the business and not the customer. Amazon.com has no business allowing vendors that are obviously thieves to keep operating as if they were honest. So, you must use the seller profile option, to see the ratings for the companies. In the case of elechtronix, the rating after 30 days was 86% percent negative.
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 & Beyond.
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) and Beyond
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) with Victoria Vetri
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
X La donna dei faraoni (The Pharaoh's Woman) (1960) -- Giorgio Rivalti, Italy; 31st century BC love story just after r the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt
Land of the Pharaohs (1955) -- building of the Pharaoh's Great Pyramid of Giza, 2560 B.C.
X Sudan (1945) -- following the murder of her father, Queen Naila of Khemis is enslaved
X The Egyptian (1954) -- story of physician Sinuhe in Akhenaten's reign, 1352 B.C.
Nefertiti, regina del Nilo (Queen of the Nile) (1961) -- Queen Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaaten1
X Faraon (Pharoah) (1966) – Polish film set in Egypt in 1069 BC
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.
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)
Jing ke ci qin wang (The Emperor and the Assassin) (1998) - 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)
X Qin yong (A Terra-Cotta Warrior) (1990) – in the Qin Dynasty the emperor builds an army of terra-cotta warriors (currently unavailable)
Han Dynasty (206 BC - 8 AD)
Xi chu bawang (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 Samrat Chandragupta (1958) -- Indian emperor befriends, but then defeats Alexander the Great, establishing the Maurya Empire (321 - 185 BC)
X Samrat Chandragupta (1945) -- ancient, pre-Islamic India; ruler from 320-298 BC
X Chandragupta (1934) -- founder of Mauryan Empire, originating from Magadha kingdom in modern Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bengal in e. India
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
BABYLON
X Cortigiana di Babilonia (Queen of Babylon) (1956) -- Babylonia rebels against the Assyrian empire, 626 B.C.
Intolerance (1916) -- first of four stories deals with intolerance in Babylon that leads to its fall to the Persians, 539 B.C.
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 Giacobbe ed Esau (Jacob and Esau) (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 (1995) --
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 Koning David (1965) – Dutch film about King David
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
X Menelik l (2008) – Queen of Sheba, King Solomon and their son, Menelik
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
Jeremiah (1998) TV -- the prophet beginning 628 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
X Liken: Esther and the King (2006) – mother tells her daughter about the great Esther
III. LATER CIVILIZATIONS. Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
III.1. GREEK CIVILIZATION. Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
Mycenaean Period (1600 BC to about 1100 BC) Mycenae when Mycenae dominated much of southern Greece
Crete:
X Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete (1960) – Italian film legendary exploits of supposed Athens founder Theseus in Minoan Crete. c. 1,500 BC.
X Minotaur (2006) – loosely based on the legend of Theseus (set in the iron age instead of the bronze, c. 1,500 BC)
Fight against Troy:
Helen of Troy (2003) -- Troy falls to the Greeks (with Sienna Guillory)
Helen of Troy (1956) -- with Rossana Podesta
X La guerra di Troia (The Trojan Horse (1961) -- stars Steve Reeves and Edy Vessel
X The Trojan Women (2004) -- with Shelley Delayne
The Trojan Women (1971) -- grieving women after fall of Troy (with Irene Papas)
X Troy (2004) -- Troy VII (1275-1240 B.C.) with Diane Kruger
X Troy (2004) -- starring Brad Pitt
X The Odyssey (1977)
X The Odyssey (1997) TV miniseries -- based on the return voyage of the Greeks from Troy
Ulysses (1954)
Persian-Greek Wars:
Giant of Marathon (1959) – actor Steve Reeves as Phillipides in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC)
300 (2006) -- Spartan King Leonidas and a force of 300 Spartans fight the Persians (under King Xerxes) at Thermopylae in 480 B.C.
The 300 Spartans (1962) -- Greeks stand against the Persians at Thermopylae
Golden Age of Greece (Age of Pericles) (448 to 429 BC):
X Socrates (1970) TV -- last days of Socrates, a philosopher who was a social gadfly in Athens
X Barefoot in Athens (1966) TV -- Socrates
Battles between Athens, Sparta and Thebes:
Seven from Thebes (1964) -- a group of Thebans fight to rid Thebes from the control of Sparta,, 382-379 BC
Alexander the Great (336 to 323 BC):
Alexander the Great (1968) -- the great Macedonian empire builder (with William Shatner); made for TV
Alexander the Great (1956) -- with Richard Burton
Alexander the Great (2004) -- with Colin Farrell
X Sikander (Alexander the Great) (1941) -- Alexander the Great's conquests in North-Western India. 326-225 BC (in Urdu language)
Il colosso di Rodi (The Colossus of Rhodes) (1961) – 280 BC a Greek military hero joins a group of rebels to overthrow the tyrannical King Serse on Rhodes
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 Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire -- film starts with the foundation of Rome and goes to its collapse
Orazi e Curiazi (Duel of the Champions) (1961) -- Roman leader (673-642 BC) challenges forces of Alba Longa
Hero of Rome (1964) – the exile Tarquin, the last tyrant of Rome, 509 BC, tries to get back in power
X Coriolanus: Hero without a Country (1964) – Coriolanus, Roman general at siege of the Volscian city of Corioli, 493 BC
Hannibal (1959) -- the great Carthaginian general in the Second Punic War (Carthage vs. Rome), 218-201 BC
X Hannibal: Rome's Worst Nightmare -- Hannibal marched 40,000 soldiers and 37 elephants 1,500 miles to fight the Romans
Cabiria (1914) -- a young girl's odyssey at the time of Hannibal in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) -- focus on n. African front
X Siege of Syracuse (1960) – Roman siege (214-212 BC) in Second Punic War
X Scipione l'africano (Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal) (1937) -- Roman general defeats Hannibal ($30)
X Scipione detto anche l'africano (Scipio the African) (1971) -- ancient Roman warrior Scipio Africanus ($60)
Cartagine in fiamme (Carthage in Flames) (1960) -- Rome vs. Carthage during Third Punic War, 149-146 B.C.
The Centurion (Conqueror of Corinth) (1961) – Battle of Corinth (146 BC)
Spartacus and the Slave Revolt:
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
Gli invincibili dieci gladiatori (Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators) (1964) – story of Spartacus
III.2.2. FOUNDATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
Julius Caesar:
Julius Caesar (2002) -- solid telling in this mini-series of the Caesar tale; Jeremy Sisto as Julius Caesar & Samuela Sardo as Cleopatra
X Julius Caesar (1984) -- Janet Baker as Caesar; Valerie Masterson as Cleopatra; made for TV
X Julius Caesar (1970) -- Charlton Heston as Caesar; no Cleopatra
X Julius Caesar (1953) -- Shakespeare's play with Marlon Brando as Julius Caesar (48-44 B.C.); no Cleopatra
Giulio Cesare, il conquistatore delle Gallie (Caesar the Conqueror) (1962) -- Caesar conquers Gaul; with Cameron Mitchell as Caesar
Vercingétorix (Druids) (2001) -- story of the battle of the Gauls against the tyranny of Rome; Klaus Maria Brandauer as Caesar
X Die Verschwörung (1969) – Caesar and assassination; made for German TV
X Rome (2005) -- Julius Caesar & Company; Ciarán Hinds as Caesar & Lyndsey Marshal as Cleopatra
Cleopatra:
Cleopatra (1999) -- with Leonor Varela
Cleopatra (1963) -- with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
Cleopatra (1934) -- love affairs with Caesar (to 44 BC) and Mark Antony (second triumvirate, 43-27 BC) (with Claudette Colbert)
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) -- British film with Vivian Leigh as Cleopatra
X Antony and Cleopatra (1974) -- Janet Suzman as Cleopatra
X Antony and Cleopatra (1972) -- with Hildegard Neil
X Antony and Cleopatra (1983) -- Shakespeare version ; Lynn Redgrave as Cleopatra
X The Cleopatras (1983) – miniseries of the Ptolemaic dynasty (305-30 BCE) in Egypt
Il sepolcro dei re (Cleopatra's Daughter) (1960) – total fiction
Rome after Caesar:
Imperium: Augustus (2003) -- the great emperor of Rome, 27 B.C. to 14 A.D.
Empire (2005) -- rise of Octavius (the future Emperor Augustus of the Roman Empire)
X Massacre in the Black Forest (1967) – Germanic Cheruski ambushes and annihilates three Roman legions in 9 AD
X Caligula (1980) -- 37 to 42 A.D., very wicked emperor of Rome after Tiberius, 14-37 AD
X Caligola: La storia mai raccontata (Caligula: The Untold Story) (1982) – with lots of hardcore sex
I, Claudius (1976) -- handicapped emperor of Rome after Caligula, 42 to 54 AD
Messalina Venere imperatrice (Messalina Imperial Beauty) (1960) -- incredibly ambitious wife of Claudius who will do anything to get power for herself
Centurion (2010) -- devastation of the 9th Legion of Rome by the Picts in modern Scotland
Imperium: Nerone (Nero) (2004) -- 54-68 A.D., emperor of Rome after Caligula
Titus (1999) – Shakespeare story of "extraordinary human violence" after Roman general Titus Andronicus returns from his war on the northern Goths (note this is not the Roman Emperor Titus who ruled 79 to 81 A..D. )
X Dacii (1967) – King Decebalus of Dacia fought three wars without being eliminated against Rome under two emperors, but Rome in 105 seeks revenge
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
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 El redentor (The Redeemer) (1959) – life of Jesus
X Golgotha (1935) -- Jesus
X Jesus (1999) --
X Jesus (1979) --
X Jesús, el nino Dios (1971) --
X Jesús, María y José (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) (1972) --
X Karunamayudu (Ocean of Mercy) (1978) – Indian cast in Indian movie about the life of Jesus
X King of Kings (1961) -- Jesus
X Mary Mother of Christ (2010) --
X Mary and Joseph (1979)
X Per amore, solo per amore (For Love, Only for Love) (1993) – Mary and the nativity from Joseph’s point of view
X The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
X The Sword and the Cross (1958) -- story of Mary Magdalene (prostitute or disciple?)
X Mary Magdalene (1993) -- ditto
X Judas (2004) -- the story of the man who betrayed Jesus of Nazareth
X The Revolutionary II (1996) -- Jesus of Nazareth
X Il vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew) (1964) – Jesus as a Marxist
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
X Life of St. Paul (1938) -- popularizer of Christianity
X Life of St. Paul Series (1949) – ditto
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 Gli amici di Ges - Maria Maddalena (Mary Magdalene) (2000) –John the Baptist and 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)
Fabiola (1949) -- love story between a Roman woman and a gladiator and persecution of the Christians
Masada (1981) -- 70 A.D. Jewish Revolt against Roman rule
X San Giovanni - L'apocalisse (The Apocalypse) (2002) -- the apostle St. John tries to save Christianity from Roman Emperor Domitian, 90 AD
Pompeii:
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.
X Anno 79: La distruzione di Ercolano (The Destruction of Herculaneum) (1962) – intrigues in the court of Roman Emperor Titus Flavius
III.2.4. FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (180-476) Back to Chapter III Back to Contents
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) (currently unavailable)
Constantine and the Cross (1962) -- early 4th c. A.D. emperor battling Romans
Ágora (2009)-- Davus, a slave of the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, 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 (currently unavailable)
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 Fajr al islam (Dawn of Islam) (1971) – son of a powerful sheik meets the prophet Mohammed and converts to the new religion, but runs afoul of his father
Rashidun (rightly guided) Caliphs -- first four Caliphs (632-661):
Ummayad Empire -- a series of Caliphates (662-750): Arabs move into southern Spain ( 711); Umayyad Caliphate in Spain collapsed (1031) followed by age of petty kingdoms
Abbasid (750-1260) -- al-Mansur (754-775); Abd ar-Rahman I establishes an independent caliphate in Spain (756); Harun al-Rashid (786-809); al-Ma'mun (809-813); Aghlabid Caliph deposed by Shiite Fatimid dynasty (909)
X Abu Zayd al-Hilali (1947) --- 10th century Islamic Egyptian hero leader Abu Zayd al-Hilali; he and his wife break away from his father's tribe; later the two tribes engage in battle and son and father have to fight it out (in Arabic)
El valle de las espadas (The Castilian) (1963) -- Spanish film of the first independent Count of Castile, 931-970, who opposed the Moors
Seljuq Turks (a Muslim Turkish clan moved into Persia) take power, 1055):
El Cid (1961) -- 1094, takes Valencia from the Moors
X La Spada del Cid (Sword of El Cid) (1962) -- based on the homonymous poem and other documents from the epoque
X I cento cavalieri (Son of El Cid; Hundred Horsemen) (1964) -- El Cid's son Diego Rodríguez killed fighting invading Muslim Almoravids from North Africa at Battle of Consuegra, 1097
al Massir (aka Le Destin; Destiny) (1997) -- the story of Islamic philosopher Averroes (1126-1198) in Spanish province of Andalusia
Ottoman Empire (1250-1517) -- Mongol Empire brought down the Abbasid period in 1250:
X King Conqueror (2009) -- James I of Aragon (reign 1213-1287) part of the Reconquista (c. 718 and lasting around 800 years)
X La conquista de Albania (1984) – second marriage of Louis of Navarre (1341-1376) gives him the rights to Durazzo and the Kingdom of Albania and Louis strives for their recovery
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 The Eagle (2011) -- accompanied by his slave, a Roman journeys to Scotland to retrieve his father's long-lost emblem
X King Arthur (2004) -- the legend
X Camelot (1967) -- King Arthur and Court (legend)
X Camelot -- multi-DVD set; a French television series with a more "realistic" approach to the Arthurian legend
X Knights of the Round Table (1953)
X Siege of the Saxons (1963) – 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
Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America (2007) -- in 1007 Vikings mistakenly leave two men behind and the men have to struggle with nature, Irish monks, Abenaki natives and their own natures to try to get back to the Viking settlement
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
Valhalla Rising (2009) -- year 1000 A.D., discovery of the new world
Gil Invasori (d'annunzio 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 A Viking Saga (2008) -- Viking story
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 ($70)
The Long Ships (1964) -- Vikings against the Moors in search of a huge all gold bell
L’ Ultimo dei Vikinghi (The Last Viking ) (1961) -- Norwegian Vikings try to overthrow the tyrant Sveno
Den sidste Viking (The Last Viking) (1997) -- Danish movie from boy Harald's perspective about a mad king out to confiscate all the ships of his village
Thirteenth Warrior (1999) -- 10th century Arab shocked by Viking behavior in Russia
X Utlaginn (The Outlaw) (1981) – an Icelandic film about and accurately depicting the peoples involved in a Viking blood feud (based on the Icelanders' Sagas called the Gísla saga)
X Den rde kappe (Red Mantle) (1967) – Icelandic Viking saga
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
X Michel Strogoff (1956) -- French film of a hero who fought the Tartars
House of Wessex (restored), 1042-1066:
Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955) -- during reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066); Norman conquest of England 1066
1066 (2009) -- Norman conquest of England in 1066 along with some Viking trouble
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
X 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
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 the 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
X Vägen till Jerusalem (The Road to Jerusalem) (1998) – trilogy about a fictional Swedish Knights Templar named Arn Magnusson
Arn – Tempelriddaren (Arn – The Knight Templar) (2007) – part of a trilogy
X Arn – Riket vid vägens slut (Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End) (2008)– part of a trilogy
X Lionheart: The Crusade (2003) – Richard the Lion Hearted, son of Henry II, who ruled 1189-1199
Lionheart (1987) -- A young knight (Eric Stoltz) forms a Children's Crusade against the "Infidels" from all the homeless children following in the wake of Richard the Lionheart on his way to fight in the Crusades
X Richard Ivinoye serdtse (Richard the Lion-Hearted) (1992) -- Russian film
X Rytsar Kennet (Knight Kenneth) (1993) -- Richard the Lion-hearted
King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) -- Christian Richard I of England faces off with Moslem Saladin
The Crusades (1935) -- historical drama from Cecil B. DeMille
Crusaders (2005) -- two young men swept up in the Crusades
X Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) -- with Errol Flynn
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
X Black Death (2010) – bubonic plague enters England, 1348
X Richard of Bordeaux (1955) -- Richard II (ruled 1377-1399) who took the throne at age 10 and overthrown by future King Henry IV
X König Heinrich IV (King Henry IV) (1975) – William Shakespeare adaptation
Scotland
X Macbeth (1948)
X Macbeth (1971) -- 1040, Shakespeare
Brave Heart (1995) -- story of William Wallace, 1297, Scottish independence leader
The Bruce (1996) -- story of Robert the Bruce of Scotland (1274-1329) who was King of the Scots from 1306 to 1329
Edward II (1991) -- 1307-1327, anti-gay bias ruins his rule; directed by Derek Jarman
Edward II (1970) -- Edward II deposed and murdered because of his going overboard for his homosexual lover Piers Gaveston
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 Richard of Bordeaux (1955) -- Richard II (ruled 1377-1399) who took the throne at age 10 and overthrown by future King Henry IV
The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) -- during the reign of King Henry IV of England (1399-1413), a talented and ambitious peasant tries to work his way up the ladder to knighthood and get the hand of the fair lady of MacWorth castle
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
X Tower of London (1939) -- questionable story of Richard III with Boris Karloff and Vincent Price
X 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)
X 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 (French language only)
Capetian Dynasty, House of Valois (1328-1589)
House of Lancaster (1422-1453)
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) -- 1428; under Charles VII (ruled 1422-1461); Hundred Year's War with England (1337-1453)
Joan of Arc (1999) -- with Leelee Sobieski
X Joan of Arc (1948) -- with Ingrid Bergman
X Le passion de Jeanne d'arc (Passion of Joan of Arc) (1928) -- French film
X Das Mädchen Johanna (Joan of Arc) (1935) – German movie about Joan of Arc
X Ciocârlia (The Lark) (2002) – Romanian film about Joan of Arc
X Wired Angel (1999) -- very "different" approach to telling the Joan of Arc story
X Jeanne la Pucelle I - Les batailles (1994) -- Joan of Arc
X Jeanne la Pucelle II - Les prisons (Joan the Maid 2: The Prisons) (1994) – Joan of Arc
X Proces de Jeanne d'Arc (The Trial of Joan of Arc) (1962) -- life and death of a more sophisticated Joan of Arc focusing on the psychological and physical torture used to break her
X Beatrice (1988) -- set during the Hundred Year's War (1337-1453), a revisionist view of the noble Knights
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
X Quentin Durward (The Adventures of Quentin Durward) (1955) – in 1465 Quentin Durwood travels to France for an arranged marriage to suit King Louis XI ($200)
Capetian Dynasty, Valois-Orléans Branch (1498-1515)
Capetian Dynasty, Valois-Angoulme Branch (1515-1589)
The Sword and the Rose (1953) -- English King's sister Mary Tudor married to King Louis XII, who ruled from 1498-1515
IV.1.3. Medieval Italy and Germany 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
X Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen (Iron Hand) (1979) – Germany in the Middle Ages
IV.1.4. Medieval Russia, Poland, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
Russia:
X Legenda o knyagine Olge (The Legend of Princess Olga) (1983) – one of the founders of Christianity in Russia
X Rus iznachalnaya (1986) -- VI century Russian tribes unite to repel the Khazar invaders & the Byzantine empire collaborators
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
X Didgori: Land of Sacrificed Knights (2009) – 1121 AD, 56,000 Georgian warriors under King Davit IV battle 500,000 Seljuk Turks on the Didgori battlefield
Aleksandr Nevskiy (Alexander Nevskey) (1938) -- 13th century attack of the Teutonic Knights on Russia (Sergei M. Eisenstein director)
X Aleksandr. Nevskaya bitva (aka Alexander: The Neva Battle) (2008) -- Battle of Neva, 1240; Swedes invade Novgorod controlled territory
Grand Princes of Moscow, Rurik Dynasty (1283-1547):
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
Tsar (2009) --
Ivan the Terrible
Poland:
Piast Dynasty (9th century - 1305):
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
Gniazdo (The Cradle) (1974) -- Mieszko I and the Battle of Cedynia, 972 A.D.
Boleslaw Smialy (aka King Boleslaus the Bold) (1972) -- 1079, struggle between the king of Poland, Boleslaus the Bold (reign 1076-1079), and the Bishop of Cracow; the Polish Becket
X I lancieri neri (Charge of the Black Lancers) (1962) -- set after the Mongol-Tartar invasion of Poland and the Battle of Legnica (1241), lost by High Duke of Poland, Henry II (1238-1241)
Kazimierz Wielki (Casimir the Great) (1976) -- a Piast king of Poland (1333-1370) who doubled his country in size (mostly through addition of lands in the Ukraine)
Jagiellon Dynasty (1386-1572)
Krzyzacy (Black Cross; Knights of the Teutonic Order) (1960) -- under Ladislas II (1386-1434), defeat of the Order of Teutonic Knights of Prussia by the Polish and Lithuanians at Battle of Grunwald (1410)
X Barbara Radziwillówna (Love or a Kingdom) (1936) – Sigismund II, Augustus I, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (reign 1530-1572)
X Epitafium dla Barbary Radziwillówny (An Epitaph for Barbara Radziwill) (1983) – Barbara in 1547 married Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Sigismund II August
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1574-1795):
Zelazna reka (The Iron Hand) (1989) -- story of right-hand warrior to Stefan Batory, ruler 1576-1586, of the noble Hungarian Báthory family; one of the greatest elected Kings of Poland
Romania:
X Mircea (Proud Heritage) (1989) -- 1393, Ottoman Empire had to go through Romania; King Mircea of the Old Romanian Principate of Valahia decides to fight
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 (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
X Nemuritorii (The Immortals) (1974) -- warriors of Romanian lord Mihai (1611) attacked by Turks while bringing the lord's battle flag back from Austria
X Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
X Stefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great) (1974) – Stephen the Great or the 'Saint' ruled Moldavia, 1457-1504; fought the Ottoman Empire and Hungary
X Alexandru Lapusneanu (????) – Alexandru Lăapuşsneanu was Prince of Moldavia 1552-1561 and 1564-1568
X Neamul Soimarestilor (The Hawk; The Soimaresti Family) (1965) – war in 1600s Romania (Moldova)
X Horea (Castles Aflame in Transylvania) (1984) -- Revolt of Horea, Cloşsca and Crişsan (November 1784 - February 1785) against feudal serfdom in Transylvania, Romania
Bulgaria:
X 681 Величието на хана (681 AD: The Glory of Khan) (1981) -- 681 foundation of Bulgarian medieval state by Khan Asparuh
X Aszparuh (aka Khan Asparoukh) (1981) -- first Bulgarian ruler Khan Asparuh
Serbia (& others):
X Boj na Kosovu (translation Battle of Kosovo) (1989) – 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 Seljacka buna 1573 (1975) -- peasant revolt of 1573 in Croatia and Slovenia (being heavily taxed to fight off the Turks)
X Konjanik (2003) – Croatian film about a Muslim girl and a Christian guy fall in love despite it being forbidden; set in 18th c. on the border of Bosnia and Dalmatia, Ottoman Empire and Venetian Republic
X Timocka buna (1983) -- set at the time of the Timok Rebellion, 1883, in Serbia; nationalist peasant anarchism
Turkey:
X Gültekin amazon kizlara karsi (1969) – 1400s Turkey Medieval period
X Istanbul'un fethi (The Conquest of Constantinople) (1951) – Turks attack and take Constantinople of the Byzantine Empire, 1453
X Suleiman the Conqueror (1961) -- Suleiman the Magnificent, leader of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century
Hungary:
c. 858-895 -- High Prince Álmos (first Hungarian leader)
c. 895-907 -- Árpád (led the Magyars into Central Europe)
X Honfoglalás (The Conquest) (1996) – 896 AD, Magyar chief Arpad (Nero) and his seven tribes comes out of the steppes and into the Carpathian basin
997-1038 -- Stefan 1 (last Grand Prince and first King of Hungary)
X Szent Gellért legendája (1994) – 11th century Hungary
X Árpád népe (2006) – 11th century Hungary
X István király (1992) – first king of Hungary, King Stephen (1001-1038)
X István, a király (1984) -- King Stephen of Hungary
1047-1061 -- Andrew I, Árpád dynasty restored; lasted to 1301
X Bánk bán (1987) – 13th century Hungary
1310-1342 -- Charles I, establishes the Angevin dynasty in Hungary; lasts until 1386
1446-1453 -- John Hunyadi serves as regent of Hungary
X The Black Knight (2009) -- General John Hunyadi defends Hungary from the Turks in the mid-15th century
X Ítélet (1970) – 1500s Peasant Revolution in Hungary
1608-1619 -- Matthias II
Bathory (2008) – Countess Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614) of Hungary, accused serial killer, but rather a modern Renaissance woman
X Die Grafin (The Countess) -- Elizabeth Báthory (in German with German subtitles)
X Csínom Palkó (1973) –1700s Hungarian history
1848-1916 -- Francis Joseph
Szirmok, virágok, koszorúk (Flowers of Reverie) (1984) -- after Russians beat down the 1848-1849 Hungarian revolution, Hungarian soldier wrestles with his accepting a forced enrollment into the Austrian army
X Szegénylegények (The Hopeless Ones; The Poor Outlaws; The Round-Up) (1966) -- after the Kossuth Rebellion, the Hungarian police round up peasants and subjected them to psychological torture
Les sans espoir (1966) -- Hungarian soldiers and rebels are trained to be Austrian soldiers while held in prison
Other:
X Helden sterben anders (Heroes Die Differently) -- in the Battle of Sempach, 1386, young Arnold Winkelried turns the battle for the Swiss against Leopold III, Duke of Austria, by throwing himself on the spears of the enemy
X Marketa Lazarová (1967) – Czech film account of the shift from Paganism to Christianity
X Mestari Patelin (1985) -- Medieval Finland
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 (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
Yôkihi (Princess Yang Kwei-fei) (1955) – a poor young woman is used by General An Lushan in his rebellion plans against Emperor Xuanzong (ruled 712-756)
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
X Shi si nu ying hao (The Fourteen Amazons) (1972) – Sung dynasty warriors defending against invading Mongolians (with coverage of Yang Family tragedy)
X Shi er jin pai (Twelve Gold Medallions)
(1970) -- ditto
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)
X Po veleniyu Chingiskhana (By the Will of Genghis Khan) (2009) –
X Genghis Khan - Historical TV Series (10 DVD Set) (2007) --
X 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) (2007) – a Japanese-Mongolian depiction of the life of Genghis Khan
The Mongol (2007) – Genghis Khan's slow rise to power
X The Fall of Otrar (2002) – Genghis Khan
X Genghis Khan (1998) -- Genghis Khan
X Gibel Otrara (The Fall of Otrar) (1991) – the incident in Otrar that unleashed Genghis Khan and his hordes
X Genghis Khan (1965) -- 1206-1227
The Mongols (1961) -- Jack Palance plays the role of the son of Genghis Khan with Anita Ekberg as his mistress
Conqueror (1956) -- Mongols under Genghis Khan vs. Tartars and others
Marco Polo (2007) -- the adventures, including love ones, of Marco Polo
Marco Polo (1998) -- 1295 with Kublai Khan, opening up the east to trade with the west.
X Marco Polo: Haperek Ha'aharon (Marco Polo: The Missing Chapter) (1996) – Polo returns to Venice in 1295 to find Venice and Genoa at war; he is soon imprisoned by the Genoans and used as a political pawn
X Marco Polo (1982) -- tv mini-series about Marco Polo
X Marco Polo (1962) --
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) -- 1275, in China
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
IV.3. INDIA (Medieval Period: 711-1526) Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
X Pritviraj-Samyukta (1946) – Prithviraj Chauhan (1168-1192), second-to-last Hindu to rule Delhi & unifier of Rajputs against Muslim invasions, & his wife Samyukta
Islamic Sultanates (1206-1596)
X Ambikapathy (1937) – 1083, story of the poet Kambar in the time of Kulothunga Chola (1070-1120) of the s. Indian Chola Empire (300s BC-1279)
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 (1935) – in 17th century an Ahom princess is killed for refusing to betray her husband; film calls for cooperation between hills and plains people
X Khalsa (1999) -- Khalsa (Punjabi for "Pure") all baptized Sikhs; founding of the religion & Sikh history
X Anokhe Amar Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Ji (2006) -- based on Sikh history
IV.4. Japan (Early Medieval Period: 711-1526) Back to Chapter IV Back to Contents
The Asuka period (538-710)
X Shotoku taishi (Prince Shotoku) (2001) – established a centralized government; aka Prince Umayado; his existence is disputed
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:
X Kikuchi sembon-yari: Shidonî tokubetsu kôgeki-tai (Thousand Spears of Kikuchi: Sydney Special Attack Unit) (1944) -- Nanbokucho wars in Nanboku-cho period, 1336-1392, with Northern Imperial Court founded by Ashikaga Takauji in Kyoto & Southern Imperial Court established by Emperor Go-Daigo in Yoshino
Furin kazan (Under the Banner of Samurai; Samurai Banners) (1969) -- Yamamoto Kansuke (1501-1561),Japanese samurai and General who planned the victory at the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima against Uesugi Kenshin
V. RENAISSANCE, REFORMATION & CATHOLIC COUNTER-REVOLUTION Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
V.1. RENAISSANCE, ITALY. Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
House of Habsburg (1437-1657)
Maximilian I (1483-1519)
Borgias:
Lucrezia Borgia (1935) -- good story of the many political marriages of Lucrezia Borgia used by her family as a political pawn
Prince of Foxes (1949) -- Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) plays politics with who his sister will marry
X Bride of Vengeance (1949) -- Cesare Borgia
Lucrezica Borgia (1953) – Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519) born near Rome
X Il Duca Nero (The Black Duke) (1963) -- Cesare Borgia starring Cameron Mitchell ($32)
X The Borgias (1981) -- BBC miniseries
X Las noches secretas de Lucrezia Borgia (Secret Nights) (1982) -- don't bother; it's more about sex than anything else
X Le notti di Lucrezia Borgia (The Nights of Lucretia Borgia) (1959) --
Los Borgia (The Borgias) (2006) -- Spanish film with English subtitles about the Borgia family
X The Borgias (2011) -- Showtime miniseries
Others:
Flesh and Blood (1985) -- 1501 story of Landsknechts (mostly German mercenaries including pikemen & supporting foot soldiers, late 15th to late 16th century)
Charles V, Holy Roman Empire (1530-1556)
X Il Diavolo nero (The Black Devil) (1957) -- as Carlos I of Spain (1516-1556) and as Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (1519-1556) the monarch tries to occupy all of Italy with the help of traitors
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)
X Il mestiere delle armi (The Profession of Arms) (2001) – first victim of modern artillery Captain Giovanni De' Medici, who fought in the war of Charles V against the Pope, first half of 1500s -- (not available)
Rudolph II (1575-1612)
Caravaggio (2007) -- Italian Renaissance painter 1593-1610; proto-Baroque style
X Caravaggio (1986) -- gay Derek Jarman's fictionalized version of the life of Caravaggio
Artemisia (1997) -- Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the most accomplished early Baroque painters in the generation; influenced by Caravaggio
Dangerous Beauty -- a courtesan (Catherine McCormack) becomes the most desired woman in 16th century Venice, but faces criticism, humiliation and the Holy Inquisition
X Galilée ou L'amour de Dieu (2005) – Galilée and the Inquisition
Galileo (1975) -- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Galileo Galilei (1969) -- Italian film
X Pietro Micca (1938) -- soldier becomes national hero in the defense of Turin (1706) against French troops during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714)
X Casanova (2005) -- yes, even Casanova got dumped; 18th century
X Adventures of Casanova (1948) --
X Les aventures de Casanova (Loves of Casanova) (1947) --
X Fellini's Casanova (1976) -- not for historians; erotic adventure
V.2. REFORMATION AND RELIGIOUS CONFLICT Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
X John Hus (1977) -- Czech burned at the stake in 1415; had influence on Martin Luther
X Jan Žižka (1955) -- Hussite Wars
X Proti všem (Against All Odds, (1957) -- Hussite Wars
Luther (2003) -- of the Reformation
X Luther (1973) -- of the Reformation, 1520
X Der Reformator (1968) – German film about Martin Luther
X Martin Luther (1953) -- of the Reformation
X The Radicals (1990) -- the story of the radical Anabaptists
X Fru Inger til strt (Lady Inger of Ostrat) (1975) -- 1528, Norwegian noble woman seeking independence for the nation in the time of the Kalmar Union (1396-1537) involving Sweden, Denmark and Norway
Karin Mansdotter (1954) – 1550–1612, started as mistress and ended as Swedish Queen to Eric XIV (reign 1560-1568)
X Queen Christina (1933) -- 1654 Queen Christina of Sweden; Greta Garbo
The Abdication (1974) – Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates; what happened to Queen Christina when she converted to Catholicism
X Snapphanar (Scanian Guerilla ) (1941) – Scanian War, 1676-1679, between Sweden and Denmark
X Karl XII (1925) -- Charles XII of Sweden (reigned 1697-1718); Great Northern War (1700-1721)
X Epitaph für einen König (1969) – Epitaph for a King; King Karl XII of Sweden (1697-1718)
X Kustaa III (1964) – Finnish film, Strindberg play adaptation; Gustav III, King of Sweden (1771-1792) when Finland was part of Sweden
X Gustav III (1974) – assassination of Sweden’s King Gustav III (ruled 1771-1792)
X Lockfgeln (The Decoy) (1971) – on his death-bed, a father asks his son to kill King Gustav III
Gustav III's äktenskap (The Marriage of Gustav III) (2001) – Gustav III of Sweden, nine years into his marriage
X Behöriga äga ej tillträde (1988) – 1890s Sweden
X General von Döbeln (1942) -- Swedish general who fought in the Russian War, Finnish War and Second War Against Napoleon
X Korkein oikeus (1998) – the "Cudget War" was a peasant rebellion in the late 16th century Finland
X Kolme katku vahel (1970) – Livonian War, 1558–1583, where Russia tried to take Livonia (today’s Estonia a& Latvia) and was opposed by varying Allies
X General Crack (1930) – John Barrymore speaks! takes place at the palace of the Archduchess Maria of the Holy Roman Empire
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
X Motsart i Salieri (Mozart and Salieri) (1962)
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 Catherine de Médici (1989) -- French movie about Catherine (1519-1589) who was queen consort of King Henry II of France from 1547 to 1559
X La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (Princess of Cleves) (1966) – the princess in the royal court of Henry II of France; she marries but loves another who she thinks has been unfaithful
X Il Diavolo nero (The Black Devil) (1957) -- As Carlos I of Spain (1516-1556) and as Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (1519-1556) the monarch 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 La conjura de El Escorial (The El Escorial Conspiracy) (2008) - deceit and betrayal in the court of King Philip II of Spain
X Seville, 1640 (2004) --
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
John Wycliffe: The Morning Star (1984) -- Wycliffe (mid-1320s to 1384) -- early English dissident from Roman Catholic Church ; founder of Lollard Movement, predecessor to Luther
House of Tudors: 1461-1603
Henry VIII
The Shadow of the Tower (1972) -- founding of the Tudor Dynasty by Henry VII
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 (2007)-- mini-series with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Henry VIII
X Henry VIII (2003) -- 250 minutes
X Henry VIII (1991) -- 200 minutes
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 Sword and the Rose (1953) -- Henry VIII uses his sister Mary Tudor's marriage prospects as a pawn in international politics
X The Twisted Tale of Bloody Mary (2008) -- Mary Tudor as tragic figure
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 Nine Days a Queen (aka Tudor Rose) (1936) -- Lady Jane Grey's short life ($95 for a new VHS tape)
The Pearl 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)
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 Sir Francis Drake -- 3 DVD-set (26 episodes) about the famous privateer
X Seven Seas to Calais (1962) -- Sir Francis Drake
X Drake's Venture (1980) -- 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):
X Gunpowder, Treason and Plot (2004) -- Protestant Guy Fawkes's Gunpowder Plot of 1605 against the Catholic Stuart, King James I (1603-1625)
To Kill a King (2003) -- Cromwell, General Fairfax, Mrs. Fairfax and Charles I (1625-1649) struggle over the future of England
Cromwell (1970) -- English Puritan leader, ruled England 1653-1658
X The Crimson Blade (1963) -- love affair in the time of Cromwell's struggle
By the Sword Divided (1983) -- in the English Civil War the Lacey family supports King Charles I and the related by marriage Fletcher family supports Oliver Cromwell (BBC series)
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
X The Devil's Whore (2008) -- tv mini-series; an aristocratic lady goes through trials and tribulations because of problems associated with the English Civil War
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 -- (discontinued by the manufacturer)
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) -- one of Charles II mistresses who enjoyed her great liveliness
Stage Beauty (2004) -- first woman to play the role of a woman on the stage in England under 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
Captain Blood (1935)-- 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
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 John Wesley (1954) -- John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of Methodism
X The Massacre of Glencoe (1971) -- massacre of the Macdonald Clan by the Campbell Clan, 1692
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
X Kidnapped -- a young man cheated out of his inheritance joins forces with Alan Breck, just escaping from the defeat at Culloden, to get the inheritance back
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) ($34)
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) -- Edward Teach (Blackbird) captured in November 1718
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
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) -- ($59)
Queen Margot (1994) -- sister of Frances's Charles IX (ruled 1560-1574) weds in 16th c; marries the future King Henri IV
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 Borbon (1589-1792)
X Les samedis de l'histoire: Henri IV (1977) – story of Henri IV of France (reign 1589-1610) who enacted the Edict of Nantes for religious freedom
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 worried about opposition from the Huguenots in the south (currently unavailable)
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
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
X Cautio Criminalis oder Der Hexenanwalt (1974) – German movie; witchcraft
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
Le moine et la sorcire (Sorceress) (1987) – supposed witchcraft in 13th century France
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
X Posledná bosorka (The Last Witch) (1957) – a painter of a nude model angers the clergy so they condemn the model as a witch
The Hour of the Pig (aka The Advocate) (1993) -- a lawyer defends animals accused of being involved in witchcraft
X Anna Göldin, letzte Hex (Anna Goldin, the Last Witch) -- $70
Rembrandt (1936) -- 1630 Dutch painter
Rembrandt (1940) --
Rembrandt (1999) --
X Rembrandt fecit 1669 (Rembrandt - 1669) (1977) --
Night watching (2007) -- Rembrandt's romantic and professional life
X Rembrandt: Fathers and Sons (1999) --
Girl with a Pearl Earring -- Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, 1665
Louis XIV
La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (The Taking of Power by Louis XIV) (1966) -- Louis XIV (1643-1715)
X Versailles, le reve d'un roi (Versailles: The Dream of a King) (2008) – Louis XIV
X Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (2006) – mistress of King Louis XIV
Vatel (2000) -- in 1671, Prince de Condé hosts Louis XIV for three days of excess
X Saint-Cyr (The King's Daughters) (2000) -- France under the rule of Louis XIV (including his lady friend and his mistress) ($55)
X Louis, enfant roi (Louis, the Child King) (1993) -- formative years of the young king Louis XIV
X Liselotte von der Pfalz (The Private Life of Louis XIV) (1935) – Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatine (or Pfalz) marries brother of Louis XIV of France and becomes known for her correspondence
X Liselotte von der Pfalz (1966) -- ($40)
X La reine et le cardinal (2009) – Mazarin functioned as co-ruler of France with Queen Anne during the regency for young King Louis XIV; later Mazarin directed French policy with the monarch
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
X Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (2006) – mistress of King Louis XIV, 1745-1764
Madame du Barry (aka Passion) (1917) -- mistress of King Louis XV of France
Madame du Barry (1954) -- 1768 Louis XV and the Countess Du Barry
V.6. SPAIN & PORTUGAL Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
Muslim Era (8th to 15th century):
X King Conqueror (2009) -- James I the Conqueror (reign 1213-1276), King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier
X Ins de Castro (1944) – loved one of Pedro I of Portugal (1357-1367); she had a tragic ending
X Ins de Portugal (1997) -- ditto
X O Judea (The Jew) (1996) -- the Portugal Inquisition (1497 to l821) tries a converso (i.e., a Jew who had converted to Catholicism)
'Non', ou A V Glória de Mandar (No, or the Vain Glory of Command) (1990) -- Portuguese in Portuguese Colonial War review early history of Portugal
Imperial Spain (16th to 17th centuries): under Habsburg Empire: Kings Charles I (1516-1556); Philip II (1556-1598); Philip III (1598-1621); Philip IV (1620-1665); Charles II (1665-1700)
X Torquemada (1989) -- Spanish Inquisition
Secret Passage (2004) -- two Jewish Spanish sisters and a daughter try to escape the wrath of the Spanish Inquisition
X La conjura de El Escorial (The El Escorial Controversy) (2008) -- deceit and betrayal in the court of 16th century King Philip II of Spain who reigned 1556-1598
X Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien (2005) -- bad relations between King Philip II of Spain and his son Don Carlos
X Cervantes (1980) -- Cervantes (1547–1616), later author of Don Quixote, persuades Philip of Spain to join the Holy League and then becomes a soldier
Expulsados 1609, la tragedia de los moriscos (2009) -- 1609 Moriscos expelled from Spain
X El Greco (2007) – a Greek film about the Greek painter (1541–1614) of the Spanish Renaissance
X El Greco (1966) -- about the Greek painter of the Spanish Renaissance
Alatriste (2006) -- heroic Spanish soldier fighting in Flanders in 17th century has to look after a dying friend's son in Madrid; King Philip IV depicted
X Esquilache (1989) -- Spain under troubled reign of Charles II (1665-1700); (specifically, the Esquilache Riots of March 1766) (Spanish only)
Spain under the Borbons (18th century): Philip V (1700-1724); Louis I (1724); Philip V (1724-1746); Ferdinand VI (1746); Charles III (1746-1788)-; Charles IV (1746-1808); Ferdinand VII (1808)
V.7. GERMANY Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
X Zwölf Meter ohne Kopf (12 Paces without a Head) (2009) -- 1401, German 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 Anthem of Leuthen) (1933) -- German film depicting Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1740–1786) (no subtitles)
X Maria Theresia (1951) -- (1717-1780) the Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and a Holy Roman Empress by marriage to Francis I; son Joseph II ; daughter Marie Antoinette
X Maria Theresia (1980) -- ditto
X Der große König (The Great King) (1942) – Nazi film glorifying Prussian King Friedrich II during the battle of Kunersdorf (Russians and Germans versus Austria)
V.8. POLAND Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1574-1795):
1612: Khroniki smutnogo vremeni (aka 1612) (2007) – Russian film set in the Time of Troubles and the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618) (under Polish King Sigismund III (1587-1632))
Taras Bulba (1962) -- fictional character; 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) (1938) – earlier fictional film of the Taras Bulba story
Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword) (1961) Cossacks vs. Poles; first part of a trilogy set in mid-17th century (1648-1649); under Ladislas IV (1632-1648) & John II Casimir (1648-1668)
Potop (The Deluge) (1975) -- second part of the trilogy; Swedish army invades Poland and a warrior fights for the heart of Olenka; lasted 1665-1660 under John II Casimir
Pan Wolodyjowski (Colonel Wolodyjowski) -- third part of the trilogy; Turkish invasion of Poland; (1668-1670) under Polish Kings John II Casimir (1648-1668) and Michael I (1669-1673)
X August der Starke (King August the Strong) (1936) – King August II The Strong (1697-1733) Polish monarch, abdicated 1706, king again 1709
X Virtuti Militari (1995) -- the history of Poland's "Virtuti Militari" medal, awarded for bravery since the Polish-Russian war of 1792
Kings of the Kingdom of Poland ("Congress Poland"), 1815-1917
Pan Tadeusz (2000) -- Poland's attempt to free itself from Russian rule in Napoleonic times, 1803-1815
X The Wedding (1972) -- national drive toward self-determination after the Polish uprisings of 1830 and 1863
X Jaroslaw Dabrowski (1976) -- Dabrowski (1836 – 1871) a Polish revolutionary, Nationalist and general who became involved in the preparation of the January Uprising; arrested August 1862
On the Banks of the Niemen (1986) -- 1863 uprising against Russian occupation
Wierna rzeka (The Faithful River) (1987) – only survivor of a unit in the 1863 insurgency in Poland is taken care of by a land steward's daughter
X Wierna rzeka (1936) -- ditto
X Szwadron (Squadron) (1992) – Russian soldier finds out the little insurrection in 1863 Poland is a lot bigger than he expected
X Goraczka (Fever) (1981) – in 1905 Polish anarchists try to assassinate the Tsarist Governor-General
Zamach Stanu (Coup D'etat) (1981) -- Polish film about General Jozef Pilsudski taking over Poland in 1918 and ruling for four years & coming back in 1926 to rule until his death in 1935
V.9 RUSSIA & TURKEY TO FRENCH REVOLUTION & BEYOND Back to Chapter V Back to Contents
Tsars of Russia (1547-1721):
Rurik Dynasty (1547-1598): second part of Ivan the Terrible's reign & reign of Feodor I
X Borus Godunov (1986) -- de facto regent of Russia , 1584-1598, and then the first non-Rurikid tsar, 1598 to 1605
X Mest shuta (A Fool's Revenge) (1993) -- 1500s Russia
Times of Troubles (1598-1613):
Gudonov Dynasty (1598-1605): Boris Gudonov & Feodor II
Usurper I: False Dmitry I (1605-1606)
1612: Khroniki smutnogo vremeni (aka 1612) (2007) – Russian film set in the Time of Troubles and the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618)
Shuysky Dynasty (1606-1610): Vasily IV Shuysky
Usurper II: False Dmitry II (1607-1610)
Council of Seven Boyars (27 July 1610 – 4 November 1612)
House of Vasa -- Włladysłlaw IV Vasa (1595-1610)
Council of All the Land (17 April 1611 – 26 July 1613)
House of Romanov (1613-1721):
X September Eleven, 1683 -- siege of Vienna by the Turks
Peter the Great (1689-1725):
Peter the Great (1986)-- 1689-1725, Russian Czar; 1710-11 war with Ottoman Empire
X Yunost' Petra (Peter's youth) -- young Peter the Great
V nachale slavnykh del (At the Beginning of Glorious Days) (1981) -- Peter the Great and the build up of the Russian Navy
X Sluga Gosudarev (The Sovereign's Servant) (2007) -- 1709 during war between Russian and Sweden (The Great Northern War, 1700-1721) -- (currently unavailable)
X Epitaph für einen König (1969) – epitaph for a king; Karl XII of Sweden (1697-1718)
X Isoviha (1939) – story set in 18th century Finland when the country was occupied twice by Russia, during the Great Northern War (1700-1721) and the Lesser Wrath (1741–1742)
Catherine the Great (1762-1796):
X Young Catherine (1991) 1762-1796, Catherine the Great of Russia; 1768 war with Turkey ($46)
The Scarlet Empress (1934) -- Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great (1934) -- with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Flora Robeson
X Caterina di Russia (Catherine of Russia) (1963) -- Italian film (currently unavailable)
X Catherine the Great (1995) -- with Catherine Zeta-Jones
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
Russkiy bunt (Captain's Daughter) (2000) -- during the Pugachev uprising, the love of Masha Mironova and Pyotr Grinev is threatened
X Kapitanskaya dochka (The Captain's Daughter) (1959) -- Pugachev uprising of Cossacks and peasants in 1774-1745 under Empress Catherine II (aka Catherine the Great)
Turkey and others:
X Estergon kalesi (Estergon Castle) (1972) – Estergon Castle in Hungary conquered by Turkish Invaders under Sultan Suleiman II in 1543
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
X Taj Mahal: A Monument to Love (2003) -- ditto
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
X Ghashiram Kotwal (1976) – story of Nanasaheb Phadnavis, the prime minister and real power of the Peshwa Maharaja, 1773-1797
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 (1997) -- NHK's TV drama
Rikyu (1989) -- Buddhist priest and improver of the tea ceremony runs afoul of Lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi
X Sekigahara (1981) -- 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
Makai tenshô (Samurai Resurrection) (2003) – the Shimabara Rebellion of mostly Christian peasants,1637–1638, during the Tokugawa era against rising taxes
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
Ako-Jo danzetsu (aka Swords of Vengeance) (1978) -- Ronin revolt against 5th Togukawa shogun (Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, reign 1680-1709) in honor of their master Lord Asano
X Ô-oku: The Movie (2006) – 1713, scandal of a power struggle between Ietsugu's concubine mother and the late Shogun's official wife
Goyokin (1969) -- 1831,debts 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)
Chinmoku (Silence) (1971) --two Portuguese missionaries face torture and death in a closed Japan
X Ansatsu (The Assassination; The Assassin) (1964) -- set in 1853, a masterless samurai's loyalties move dangerously back and forth between the Shogunate and the Emperor
X Sekigahara (1981) -- Ieyasu Tokugawa
X Sen-hime to Hideyori (1962) – based on Princess Sen, daughter to Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and wife of Toyotomi Hideyori Masahiro Makino
Shinsengumi (1969) – band of ronin devoted to the Tokugawa shogun fights to protect the Shogun when he confers with the Emperor on expulsion of foreigners; 1863-1864
VI. AGE OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
VI.1. EARLY EXPLORATION. Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
Imperial Spain (16th to 17th centuries): under Habsburg Empire: Kings Charles I (1516-1556); Philip II (1556-1598); Philip III (1598-1621); Philip IV (1620-1665); Charles II (1665-1700)
Apocalypto (2006) -- Mayan Rambo just before the arrival of the Spanish
Kings of the Sun (1963) -- Mayans pursued by Toltec invaders
X La princesa de los ursinos (Princess of the Ursinos) (1947) – French lady (d. 1722) prominent for a decade and a half at the court of the first of the Spanish Borbons, Philip V (reign 1700-1724)
X La espada negra (The Black Sword) (1976) – love story of Ferdinand and Elizabeth of Spain
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 (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 (1974) -- 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
Nuevo Mundo ( New World) (1978) -- in the future Mexico, the Spanish laity and clergy use torture and fear to try to force the native people to accept Christianity and abandon their pagan beliefs
X 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 Los conquistadores del Pacífico (1963) -- inspired by Balboa, discoverer of the Pacific Ocean
X Juana la loca (Locura de amor; Mad Love) (2001) -- Juana's devotion to her husband of an arranged marriage becomes an obsession; remake of Locura de Amor
X Locura de Amor (Love Crazy) (1948)-- Spanish movie about Joanna the Mad or Joanna of Castile (1479-1555) who ruled jointly with her husband Philip the Handsome ($28)
X Perlas ng silangan (1969) -- Spanish colonization of the Philippines (languages Filipino/Tagalog)
X Damong ligaw (199&) -- Filipino-Spanish War (languages Filipino/Tagalog)
The Spanish Main (1945) -- the area containing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico was subject to a lot of piracy to get at the gold and other treasures of the New World headed to Spain
Anne of the Indies (1951) -- pirate Anne Bonny out of Bermuda who married pirate John "Calico Jack" Rackham and sentenced to hang in Jamaica
Spain under the Borbons (18th century): Philip V (1700-1724); Louis I (1724); Philip V (1724-1746); Ferdinand VI (1746); Charles III (1746-1788)-; Charles IV (1746-1808); Ferdinand VII (1808)
X Sangre de mayo (Blood of May) (2008) -- love story set against reign of Fernando VII of Spain (currently unavailable)
VI.2. SETTLEMENT OF MEXICO Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
Mission to Glory: A True Story (1977) -- the story of Jesuit missionary Father Kino working in the lower southwest region of the future USA
X Kino (1993) -- Eusebio Francisco Kino (1645–1711) Catholic priest explores and works primarily in northern Sonora, Mexico and the future southern Arizona establishing 24 missions & country chapels
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
Spain: House of Borbon (First Restoration) -- 1813-1868 Ferdinand VII (1813-1833) and Isabella II (1833-1868 deposed)
Proceso a Mariana Pineda (The Trial of Mariana Pineda) (1984) -- TV mini-series about a woman who fought for a republic in Spain and against Ferdinand VII and who pays a high price for her activities
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
Spain: House of Savoy -- Amadeo (1870-1873)
VI.3. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & CANADA TO AMERICAN REVOLUTION Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
First Landing (2007) -- Christian Broadcasting Network story of Jamestown settlement in Virginia, 1607 with the main focus on the life of the chaplain of the expedition
X Plymouth Adventure (1952) -- story of the voyage of the "Mayflower", 1620
X Plymouth Adventure (1945) --- early settlers in America
X Knickerbocker Holiday (1944) -- 1650 dictatorial Governor "Peg-Leg" Stuyvesant in future New York City has outspoken newspaperman arrested
The New World (2005) -- Pocahontas & 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 Der scharlachrote Buchstabe (The Scarlet Letter) (1973) – German film with Senta Berger
The Scarlet Letter (1995) -- evil effects of Puritanism (with Demi Moore)
Follow the River (1995) -- two women escape from the Shawnee to make it back home in a journey of 500-600 miles; 1755
The Broken Chain (1993) -- story of Sir William Johnson and brother-in-law Joseph Brant from French and Indian Wars through end of the American Revolution
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; Indians, under Pontiac, capture the daughter
Northwest Passage (1940) -- French & Indian War
X Northwest Passage (1958) -- adventure series of 26 episodes 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
Unconquered (1947) -- Captain Holden and Abbey try to save Fort Pitt (in future Pittsburg) during Pontiac's War
Captain Kidd (1945)
X Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (1954)
Canada:
Black Robe (1991) Canadian-Australian film about Jesuit in 17th century Quebec among the Indians
X Hudson's Bay (1941) -- Canada's early history
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
X Secret Nation (1992) -- search for a possible conspiracy surrounding the referendum by which Newfoundland joined Canada
X Paper Wheat – a play by the 25th Street House Theatre about the hard lives of early Saskatchewan settlers
VI.4. LATIN & SOUTH AMERICA Back to Chapter VI Back to Contents
Mexico:
X Getrudis (1992) – Mexican War of Independence
Cuba:
La Última cena (The Last Supper) (1976) -- slavery in Cuba
Tamango (1957) -- 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
Puerto Rico:
A Show of Force (1990) -- two young independence supporters are killed by government agents, accused of trying to blow up a communication centers, but the story doesn't make sense
Colombia:
Bolívar soy yo (2002) -- an actor playing the Liberator Simon Bolivar starts working to complete Bolivar's dream of a "Great Colombia"
X Simon Bolívar (1942) -- the Great Liberator (may be a documentary)
X Cóndores no entierran todos los días (A Man of Principle) (1984) --
Venezuela:
X Francisco de Miranda (2006) – Venezuelan freedom fighter considered forerunner of Simon Bolivar
X 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 O Quinto Império - Ontem Como Hoje (The Fifth Empire) (2004) – King Sebastian of Portugal, reigned 1554-1578 (currently unavailable)
X El Dorado (1988) -- 1560 expedition down Amazon River by Spanish soldiers searching for the fabled city of gold, El Dorado
X Xica (1978) -- slavery in Brazil
Cafundó (2005) – life of black slave in Brazil Joo de Camargo (1858-1942) who led an exemplary life to attain his freedom
Quilombo (1984) -- illegal towns composed of renegade slaves and others at the bottom that whites just had to destroy
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 Ganga Zumba (1963) -- a runaway slave founds a Quilombo, Palmares, an escaped slave community
X Netto Perde Sua Alma (2001) -- General Antônio de Souza Netto fights the Farroupilha Revolution (1835-1845) (Garibaldi 's first military experience) and the Paraguai War (1864-1870), leading an army of gauchos & black spearmen
Argentina:
X El santo de la espada (1970) – Argentine independence hero Jose de San Martin
X Güemes - la tierra en armas (1971) – wars of independence in Northern Argentina
X Felicitas (2009) -- Felicia Antonia Guadalupe Guerrero y Cueto (1846-1872) who was considered the most beautiful woman in the Republic of Argentina
X La revolución es un sueo eterno (translation: The Revolution is an Eternal Dream) (2008) – May Revolution in 1810 which brought about the first local government not designated by the Spanish Crown
X Argentina hasta la muerte (1971) -- War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguay vs. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, 1864-1870)
Haiti:
Lydia Bailey (1952) -- love story set in Haiti, 1802, Toussaing L'Overture, the black president versus the French trying to retake possession of the country
Others:
Cerro Cora (1978) -- by Guillermo Vera, Paraguay; War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguay vs. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, 1864-1870); devastation for Paraguay
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
Botany Bay (1953) -- in 1787 prisoners are shipped from Newgate Jail to a new penal colony in Botany Bay, New South Wales, Australia
X Eureka Stockade ( Massacre Hill) (1949) -- Australians battle the government during the 1854 miners' revolt
X Heritage (1935/I) – disappointing overview of 150 years of Australian history
X Mary Bryant -- late 18th century Australia, poverty-ridden Mary is arrested & sent to the new penal colony in Australia where she faces many problems
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
X Choosing Revolution (1999) -- brothers of the well-known Randolph family of Virginia choose different sides during the time of revolution
Allegheny Uprising (1939) – colonials in Pennsylvania have an uprising even before the American Revolution
X The Bastard (1978) -- first part of John Jakes' novels: poor French man and his mother come to the 13 colonies and get involved with the events leading up to the American Revolution (based on John Jakes's novels)
X The Rebels (1979) -- second part of John Jakes' novels, not as good as The Bastard
Johnny Tremain (1957) -- a young fellow caught up in the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington & Concord
April Morning (1988) -- Battle of Lexington & Concord,1775, war starts before Dec. of Independence
1776 (1972) -- musical about the political maneuvering in order to produce an acceptable-to-all Declaration of Independence
John Paul Jones (1959) -- Robert Stack as the naval hero
The Crossing (2003) -- Delaware River crossing by George Washington, December 25, 1776
X George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation (1986) -- miniseries with Barry Bostwick as Washington; interesting too because it is Viggo Mortensen's first film ($80)
La Fayette (1961) -- the Frenchman who fought for American independence
X Kosciuszko pod Raclawicami (1938) -- Polish soldier who served in the American Revolution and also battled in Poland
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) -- Mohawk Valley, New York frontier in the Revolution
Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor (2003) -- the infamous American traitor (1779)
The Scarlet Coat (1955) -- for money Benedict Arnold wants to offer up West Point to the British
The Patriot (2000) -- Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina, January 17, 1781 (with Mel Gibson)
Revolution (1985) -- set within the American Revolution, such as the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, the winter encampment at Valley Forge and the Battle of Yorktown (starring Al Pacino)
"Disneyland" The Birth of the Swamp Fox (1959, 1960) -- South Carolina revolutionary guerrilla leader (with Leslie Nielsen)
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
Revolution in South America:
Bolivar 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
Ridicule (1966) -- wit proves the key to social success at the court of Louis XVI (1774-1792)
Marie Antoinette (2006)
X Marie Antoinette (Shadow of the Guillotine) (1956) -- Marie-Antoinette
X Marie Antoinette (1938) -- daughter of Francis II of Austria; wife of Louis XVI
The Affair of the Necklace (2001) -- with Hilary Swank
X Le collier de la reine (The Queen’s Necklace) (1929) -- affair of the necklace reflects badly on innocent Marie Antoinette
X L'autrichienne (1990) – last days of Queen Marie Antoinette
The Beloved Rogue (1927) -- French poet-patriot Francois Villon battles wits with King Louis XI
X Galgenfrist (2008) – French poet, vagabond Francois Villon convicted of murder
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
X l'cavaliere di Maison Rouge (The Glorious Avenger) (1953) -- 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
Reign of Terror (The Black Book) (1949) -- 1789 French Revolution (DVD with poor production quality)
Scaramouche (1952) -- only set in the 1789 French Revolution
Danton (1982) -- radical but pragmatic leader in the French Revolution
X Danton (1932) -- Georges Jacques Danton (1759–1794)
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 Varenne
X Sade (2000) -- 1794, Marquis de Sade faces execution by Robespierre's regime
Quills (2000) -- Marquis de Sade at the Charenton Mental Asylum
X Lady Oscar (1979) -- in her youth a female guard to Marie Antoinette loved Andre, but they meet again at the assault on the Bastille on opposites sides
Dangerous Exile (1957) -- fate of ten year old Louis XVII, who died in 1795, (many thought he escaped from his French revolutionary captors)
X Caroline chérie (Dear Caroline) (1968) -- French Revolution
X Madame Guillotine (1931) -- French Revolution
X Madame Recamier; Or, The Price of Virtue (1923) – Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélade Bernard Récamier (777-1849) was a leader of the literary/political circles of the early 19th century
X Madame Récamier (1928) --
X Le diable boiteux (The Lame Devil) (1948) – the French diplomat Talleyrand (1754–1838) worked successfully under the following: Louis XVI, Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis-Philippe
VII.3. AGE OF NAPOLEON. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X Napoleon (2003)
Napoleon (1955) -- film made by the French
X Napoleon (1927)
X Joséphine (2006) – Napoleon and Josephine
X A Royal Divorce (1938) -- Napoleon and Josephine
Passion in the Desert (1997) – 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
X Raffl (1984) -- Franz Raffl betrays the great rebel leader Andreas Hofer fighting the French and Bavarians and becomes the "Judas of Tyrol", 1809
X Das Heilige Land Tyrol (2010) -- Katharina and her husband escape from Bavaria to Tyrol and get into a revolutionary hotspot with leader Andreas Hofer
X Austerlitz (1960) -- Napoleon
X Kolberg (Burning Hearts) (1945) – Napoleon’s troops in Germany have isolated Kolberg, but the citizens refuse to surrender; French prepare massive bombardments (April-July 1807)
Napoleon in Russia:
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
X Война и мир; Vojna i mir (War and Peace) (1968) -- expensive Russian version of War and Peace
X Pushkin: Poslednyaya duel (2006) – Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), considered greatest Russian poet
X Poslednyaya doroga (The Last Road) (1986) – death and the 'last road' of Aleksandr Pushkin
1814 (2007) -- mystery story in the time of Pushkin
After Russian Defeat:
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
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
X Betzi (1978) – imprisonment of Napoleon Bonaparte on St Helena
X N (Io e Napoleone) (Napoleon & Me) (2006) – the librarian on Elba Island hates Napoleon, but learns to respect him
Conquest (1937) -- a Polish countess (played by the great Garbo) becomes the mistress of Napoleon in an attempt to gain freedom for her country
Marysia i Napoleon (Maria and Napoleon) (1966) -- Polish film about Maria Walewska uses her sensuality to try to convince Napoleon to help liberate Poland
X Le destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary (Mlle. Desiree) (1942) – Désirée Clary once the fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte and later Queen of Sweden & Norway as wife of King Charles XIV John
Desiree (1954) -- the future queen and king of Sweden and Napoleon; a seamstress loves Napoleon, but his marriage to aristocrat Josephine spoils her dreams
X The Kautokeino Rebellion (2008) – religious and cultural reawakening inspires rebellion in a 19th century Norwegian Saami village
Madame Bovary (1991) -- the then scandalous portrait of a bored middle-class married woman engaging in adultery
The Duelists (1977) --- one man is obsessed with killing another, duel over a period of fifteen years covering the Napoleonic era
Napoleon and Love (1974) -- love life of Napoleon
X Fanny Elssler (1937) -- Metternich has Fanny Elsser keep the Duke of Reichstadt (future Napoleon II, ruled 1815) out of French politics, but the two fall in love
X L'aiglon (translation: The Eaglet) (1931) -- Napoleon
English Opponents of Napoleon:
X H. M. S. Defiant (1962) -- based on the Spithead and Nore mutinies, in the form of strikes for better pay and conditions, by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797 during war with the French Revolutionary government
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 puts an end to Napoleon's naval threat
That Hamilton Woman (1941) -- Lord Horatio Nelson and Lady Emma Hart Hamilton 1801
The Divine Lady (1929) -- silent about Nelson, Lady Nelson and Emma Hart in a triangular affair
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
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) -- English naval ship against a more powerful and faster French ship during the Napoleonic Wars, 1805
X Sharpe's Waterloo (2006) -- Battle of Waterloo, 1815
The Iron Duke (1934) – historical drama about the Duke of Wellington starring George Arliss ($80)
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) -- novelist famous for a tempestuous affair with Lord Byron in 1812; (was also involved with the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon)
Byron (2003) -- the famous English poet who led a scandalous existence
X 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
X Chopin: Desire for Love (2004)
Impromptu (1991) -- novelist George Sand and composer Frederic Chopin
X Mlodosc Chopina (Young Chopin) (1952) --formative years between 1825 and 1831
A Song to Remember (1945) -- Frederic Chopin
X Preußische Liebesgeschichte (A Prussian Love Story) (1938) – Frederic Chopin
X Abschiedswalzer (Farewell Waltz) (1934) – Frédéric Chopin and George Sand
X La chanson de l'adieu (Farewell) (1934) – Frederic Chopin and George Sand
Spanish Opposition to Napoleon: House of Bonaparte: Joseph Bonaparte (1808-1813)
The Pride and the Passion (1957) -- Spanish Revolution Against Napoleon 1810
Goya in Bordeaux (1999) -- Spanish painter Francisco Goya (maja is a pretty woman)
Volavérunt (1999) -- Goya and the Duchess of Alba, Goya's "Naked Maja" starring Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Penélope Cruz
The Naked Maja (La maja desnuda) (1958) -- Goya and the Duchess of Alba starring Ava Gardner
Goya (1985) -- tv mini-series; lots of history
Goya's Ghosts (2006) -- Goya and the Spanish Inquisition
X Augustina (2010) -- "Spanish Joan of Arc" Agustina de Aragón (1786-1857) defended Spain during the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814)
X Agustina de Aragón (1950) -- ditto
Other:
X Nezrimyy puteshestvennik (1999) – December of 1825, last days of the Russian Emperor Aleksandr I (known for the victory over Napoleon in 1812)
X Der Herzog von Reichstadt (1931) – story of King Napoleon II, who ruled less than a month in 1815 (aka Herzog von Reichstadt), son of Napoleon I and second wife, Marie Louise of Austria
X L'agonie des aigle (The Death Agony of the Eagles) (1933) -- Napoleon II of France
Immortal Beloved (1994) -- speculation on loves of Beethoven (1795-1815)
X Beethoven's Great Love (1936)
X Spring Symphony -- composer Robert Schumann
X Mazeppa (1993) – biography of French Romantic painter Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) who painted the controversial "Raft of the Medusa" (1819) (new for $29)
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
X I megali stigmi tou '21: Papaflessas (1971) – the Greek revolution against the Turks (1821)
VII.4. EARLY YEARS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & CANADA. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X Alexander Hamilton (1931) George Arliss as first Secretary of the Treasury of the US
The Hamilton-Burr Duel (1976) -- July 11, 1804, Aaron Burr initiates and carries out duel with Alexander Hamilton in Weehawken, New Jersey
Jefferson in Paris (1995) -- Jefferson's experiences as French ambassador along with his love life
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000)
The Far Horizons (1955) -- Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the west of the USA
X Tripoli (2011) -- Barbary pirates
X Tripoli (1950) -- US Marines battle Barbary pirates in 1805
Little Old New York (1923) -- silent movie; 1807, Robert Fulton and his steamboat run into some nasty opposition
Magnificent Doll (1946) – Dolly Payne Todd is torn between Aaron Burr and James Madison
The Mutiny (1952) -- a mutiny on a ship is motivated by greed to get the gold France has given the USA to help their fight against the British in the War of 1812
X The Buccaneer (1938) -- pirate-hero Jean Lafitte, who aids American cause in Battle of New Orleans, War of 1812 (temporarily out of stock)
The Buccaneer (1958) Andrew Jackson relies for help in the Battle of New Orleans on the pirate Lafitte
X Buccaneer's Girl (1950) New Orleans's singer helps free pirate-friend from prison
X Belizaire the Cajun (1986) -- persecution of the Cajuns/Creole culture in the South ($118)
X The President's Lady (1953) -- Andrew Jackson criticized for his wife with a past
The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) -- a relationship between John Eaton and the innkeeper's daughter results in trouble for both of them and President Andrew Jackson
The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) -- trouble for Napoleon exiles in Demopolis, Alabama
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
X Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956)
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
Canada:
X Random Passage (2002) -- refugees from destitution from Ireland and England head for St. Johns, Canada, but land up in a little place called Random, Canada
X Tecumseh (1972) -- East German film of famed warrior Tecumseh (1768-1813)
Mormons:
Emma Smith: My Story (2008) – story of the wife of Mormon founder Joseph Smith
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
Texas (1994)-- history of Texas from its settlement via Stephen Austin to statehood
X The First Texan (1956) -- based on life of Sam Houston (starring Joel McCrea) ($40)
Houston: the Legend of Texas (Gone to Texas) (1986) -- story of Sam Houston (including battle at the Alamo and the battle of San Jacinto)
X Man of Conquest (1939) -- Sam Houston
The Adventures of Jim Bowie (1956) (TV) -- TV series based on the life of Jim Bowie
X Travis (1991) -- a teenager watches the courage of Col. Travis at the Alamo
X Alamo: The Price of Freedom (1988)
X Alamo: 13 Days to Glory (1987) --
The Alamo (1960) -- 1836
X The Last Command (1955) Jim Bowie and the Alamo
X Heroes of the Alamo (1937) --
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)
X The California Conquest (1952) -- 1840s, the push for statehood for the future California, then part of Mexico (currently unavailable)
Pirates of Monterey (1947) -- a Spanish woman is going to California to marry a Spanish officer, but instead falls in love with an American
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
X Mark Twain: Adventures in the Holy Land (2008) – tourist adventures
VII.5. VICTORIAN ENGLAND TO WWI. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X The First Gentleman (Affairs of a Rogue) (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
The Young Victoria (2009) -- very charming love story of Victoria and Albert
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
Disraeli (1929) -- Conservative Party prime minister. George Arliss play Disraeli
Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill (1974) -- Jennie Jerome's life with Lord Randolph Churchill; parents of Winston Churchill
X Dickens of London (1976) -- 4 DVD box set of a British tv miniseries about the great British writer Charles Dickens
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 In Desert and Wilderness (2001) --
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 (as well as Judge Roy Bean of Texas)
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
VII.6. FRANCE. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Capetian Dyanasty, House of Borbon 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
X 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
X The Song of Bernadette (1943) -- Jerome Cowan plays Napoleon III
X Maytime (1936) -- Guy Bates Post plays Louis Napoleon
X Spy of Napoleon (1936) -- Napoleon III that is
X La contessa di Castiglione (2006) – Italian courtesan & secret agent Virginia Oldoini, Countess di Castiglione (1837–1899); as mistress of Emperor Napoleon III she used her influence to soften his response to Italian unification
X La contessa di Castiglione (1954) –
Edward the Seventh (a.k.a. Edward the King) (1975) -- contains many references to Louie Bonaparte
VII.7. CRIMEAN WAR -- Russia (under Nicholas I & Alexander II) vs. Turkey (Ottoman Empire), England and France (under Napoleon III) 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
Charge of the Lancers (1954) -- affairs set against the Crimean War
Florence Nightingale (1986) -- the great nurse at work during the Crimean War fighting against prejudice to be of service to the soldiers
Lady with a Lamp (1951) -- nurse-crusader Florence Nightingale
X The White Angel (1936) -- Florence Nightingale ($45)
X Bronte (1983) -- Irish film
X Les Soeurs Bronte (Bronte Sisters) (1979) French film
Devotion (1946) -- Bronte sisters from Yorkshire (n.e. England)
X The Brontes of Haworth (1973) -- TV mini-series about the Brontes
VII.8. ITALY (1789-1867) Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
0X Die Marquise von O (The Marguise of O) -- in French-controlled Italy, in 1799 Russian General Souvorov invades Italy to kick the French out; he captures and then rapes the widow of the Marquis of O and she becomes pregnant (in German with English subtitles)
Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814)
Napoleon I (1805-1814)
X Fuoco su di me (Fire at my Heart) (2006) – story of young soldier of the Napoleonic army in 1815 in Napoli after the era of Gioacchino Murat, King of the Two Sicilies (1808 to 1815) (no English subtitles)
Ferdinando e Carolina (Ferdinando and Carolina) (1999) -- King Ferdinando I of Naples (reign 1816-1825) weds Mary Caroline of Austria, daughter of Empress Mary Theresa, in a political marriage
X L'ultima carica (1964) – set in 1820s war of independence in southern Italy
Wars of Italian Independence --three wars between Italian states and Austrian Empire 1848-1866 ending with conquest of entire Italian peninsula
0X Viva l'Italia! (1961) -- about Giuseppe Garibaldi of Italian unification fame (director is Rossillini) (only Italian options -- no English)
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 Noi credevamo (2010) -- Italy's battle for unification in the 19th century (no English options)
X In nome del popolo sovrano (In the Name of the Sovereign People) (1990) – 1849, Ciceruacchio declares Independent Republic of Rome, but French & Austrians try to block it by bringing back the Pope to Rome
X Bronte: cronaca di un massacro che i libri di storia non hanno raccontato (Liberty) (1972) — Italian War of Independence
X I vicer (2007) – 19th century Italian wars
X Ovod (The Gadfly) (1955) -- Russian film about 1800s Italy ($30)
X 'O re (The King of Naples) (1989) – 1860 overthrow of Francesco, the King of Naples and the two Sicilies; the deposed king and queen adapt to their new lives
Senso (1954) -- Venice, Italy 1866, obsessive love story set against Austrian military occupation and its overthrow
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
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 Ascension Day (2007) -- Nat Turner rebellion in 1831
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 helps slaves escape via the underground railroad
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
X Freedom Bound (2009) -- stories covering three centuries, including slavery
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 (1939) -- mostly fictional biopic of Stephen Foster
Bloody Kansas:
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) -- for vengeance joins "Bloody Bill" Anderson's gang, a pro-southern gang of "outlaws" or better said "war criminals"
Quantrill's Raiders (1958) -- psychopath leading outlaws with a pro-southern slant ($40)
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)
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:
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) -- Raymond Massey as Lincoln
X Lincoln (2005) --
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) -- John Ford director
Abraham Lincoln (1930) -- directed by D. W. Griffith
Conspirator (2010) -- southerner Mary Surratt is accused of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth and others to kill the president, vice-president and the secretary of state
X The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1976) --
X Just a Man (2008) -- a bit of recovery for the distraught Mrs. Lincoln
X Tad (1995) -- Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad
X Tap Roots (1948) – very loosely based on farm owner reacting to the attempt by his Jones County to secede from Mississippi
Class of '61 (1993) -- graduates of West Point enter the Civil War with the Battle of Bull Run
X Journey to Shiloh (1968) -- seven friends travel for the purposed of joining up with the Confederate army; Battle of Shiloh, Pittsburgh Landing, s.w. Tennessee on the Tennessee River, April 6-7, 1862
Ironclads (1991) -- the CSS Virginia versus the USS Monitor in the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862
Hearts in Bondage (1936) -- battle between the CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack) and the USS Monitor
X John Ericsson - segraren vid Hampton Roads (Ericsson, The Great John) (1937) – designer of the iron-clad ship the Monitor to fight the ironclad Confederate ship the Merrimack
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
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
X Louisiana (1984) -- woman loses her house in the aftermath of the Civil War and vows to recoup her plantation
True Women (1997) -- lives of three women through the Texas Rebellion ,Comanche raids, 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 Prince of Players (1955) – great American stage actor Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth
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
Burma:
X Kyan Sit Min (King Kyan Sit) (2005) -- Burmese film based on Kyanzittha, the 43rd king of the Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1084 to 1112
Thailand:
Ayutthaya Kingdom (1350-1767)
2nd Suphannaphum Dynasty (1409-1569)
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) -- reign of King Chakkraphat (1548-1568); Queen Suriyothai dies 1548.
Sukhothai Dynasty (1569-1629)
X Naresuan (2006) -- King Naresuan the Great (1590 to 1605); a follow-up to The Legend of Suriyothai
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
Prasat Thong Dynasty (1630-1688)
Ban Phlu Luang Dynasty (1688-1767)
Bang Rajan (2000) -- Burmese invaders of 18th century Thailand
Thonburi Period, 1768-1781
Ratanakosin Period, 1782- ?
King Rama IV (1856-1868)
X Anna and the King (2000) -- Thailand during American Civil War; Jody Foster, 1862
X The King and I (1999) -- animated version
X The King and I (1956) --
X Anna and the King of Siam (1946)-- widow Anna Owens becomes the tutor to the royal children of Siam (Thailand) and runs into conflict with the king; Irene Dunne
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 racist 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)
The Toast of New York (1937) -- story behind the Financial Panic of 1869
USA -- COWBOYS
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
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
Meek's Cutoff (2010) -- 1845 wagon train travel on the Oregon Trail where they lose their way on a supposed short-cut
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill (1995) -- Hickok that is; 1866-1871, marshal in Kansas cowtowns, including Abilene
Young Bill Hickok (1940) -- B western
Calamity Jane (1953) -- friend of Hickok
The Plainsman (1936) -- Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane and George Armstrong Custer
Jesse James
X Jesse James: American Outlaw (2007) --
American Outlaws (2001) -- James and Younger gangs
The Long Riders (1980) -- James, Younger, Miller and Ford brothers
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) -- ill-fated 1876 bank robbery by James and Younger gangs
X Young Jesse James (1960)
The True Story of Jesse James (1957)
X The Great Jesse James Raid (1953)
X The Great Missouri Raid (1950) -- Jesse James and Youngers
X Jesse James Rides Again (1947) --
Jesse James (1939) -- bank and train robber and a very bad man; 1866-1882
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) -- shows James as a bit of a psychopath, but still portrays him somewhat sympathetically
X The Plot to Kill Jesse James (2006) --
X I Shot Jesse James (1949) --
X Cole Younger, Gunfighter (1958) -- with Frank Lovejoy; revenge, romance and a trial
X Bad Men of Missouri (1941) -- the Youngers
The Daltons
When the Daltons Rode (1940) -- Dalton gang in Indian Territory; 1891, first train robbery
The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang (1979) -- Dalton gang of bank robbers
Wyatt Earp
Wichita (1955) -- 1874, Wyatt Earp tries to bring law and order to Wichita, Kansas
Wyatt Earp (1994) -- 1876-1879 marshal of Dodge City, Kansas (my personal favorite western)
Tombstone (1993) -- Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, 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, AZ
X My Darling Clementine (1946) Henry Fonda
X Frontier Marshal (1939) -- Wyatt Earp and the fight at the O.K. Corral
The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959) -- very loosely based on Ford County sheriff Bat Masterson
The Woman of the Town (1943) -- story of murder in Dodge City of Dora Hand by Jim Kenedy, who was partly captured by a posse composed of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and other famous lawmen
Billy the Kid
X Billy the Kid (1930) -- first kill 1877
Billy the Kid (1941) -- with Robert Taylor
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
Buffalo Bill (1944) -- Buffalo Bill Wild West Show formed 1883
Buffalo Bill and the Indian, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)
X Pony Express Days (1940) -- Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express (which lasted from April 1860 to October 1861)
Annie Get Your Gun (1950) -- musical about female sharpshooter in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show
Annie Oakley (1935) -- ditto
Australia:
Burke & Wills (1987) -- a shocking story of the 1860-1861 expedition across Australia from south to north, Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpenteria at Flinders River
Ned Kelly (2003) -- Australian gang of bank robbers active in the 1870s
Ned Kelly (1970) -- ditto
Mad Dog Morgan (1976) -- Australian outlaw active around the 1880s Australian gold rush
Canada:
X Iron Road (2008) -- a poor Chinese woman disguises herself as a boy and works for the railroad crew in the Rocky Mountains to find out what happened to her long-lost father
Canadian Pacific (1949) -- 1881-1885, building of the Canadian Pacific Railway heading through a pass through the Canadian Rockies
Others:
Union Pacific (1939) -- first transcontinental railroad, 1869
The Invasion of Johnson County (1976) -- large ranch cattle men hire a private army to kill or hang the small ranchers, who they consider as "cattle rustlers" in Johnson County, Wyoming
The Lawless Breed (1953) -- infamous Texas gunman John Wesley Hardin
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
Il mio corpo per un poker (The Belle Starr Story) (1968) --
The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959) -- very loosely based on Ford County sheriff Bat Masterson
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) -- c. 1882
X The Westerner (1940) -- Judge Roy Bean of Texas
X Texas Rangers (2001) --
"Disneyland" The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (1958) -- a Mexican-American becomes a hero law officer in Socorro, New Mexico and later becomes a lawyer
The Story of Jack London (1943) -- Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and the stories that rose from it
& 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 trilogy
X Comanche -- frontier scout tries to prevent the application of a plan of genocide for the Comanche
X Comancheros (1961) -- fight against outlaws selling guns to the Comanche
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
X Comanche Territory -- Jim Bowie works to stop a white settler attack on the Comanche
Custer and the Sioux:
A Man called Horse (1970) -- English nobleman must prove himself to the Sioux by surviving torturous rituals
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) -- Capt. Benteen 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 (1936) -- 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
Crazy Horse (1996) -- Sioux warrior who fought Custer at Little Big Horn
X Chief Crazy Horse (1955) -- with Paul Guillfoyle and Victor Mature
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 trilogy
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee (2007) -- from the Battle of Little Big Horn (1876) to the Indian massacre at Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890
Canada:
Canadians (1961) -- Americans as the bad guys in more peaceful Canada
Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald (1867-1873)
Alexander Mackenzie (1873-1878)
X Pony Soldier (1952) -- 1876, a mounted policeman in western Canada is sent to get two white hostages from the Cree Indians
Saskatchewan (1954) -- spring 1877, Canadian Mounted Police deal with the Sioux and the Cree after the Custer massacre
Sir John A. MacDonald (1878-1891) (second term)
X Big Bear -- mini-series about Plains Cree Chief Big Bear in Canada of the 1880s and 1890s; whites want to put the chief's people on a reservation, but he won't sign the treaty which leads to his people starving ($131 DVD)
Riel (1979) -- 19th Century Canadian founder of the province of Manitoba and rebel leader Louis Riel
North West Mounted Police (1940) -- Texas Ranger gets caught up in the Riel rebellion (or Northwest Rebellion)
Apache:
X Conquest of Cochise (1953) -- 1850s southwest
Broken Arrow (1950) -- 1870s Apache Chief Cochise (Jeff Chandler) and ex-Army man and peace negotiator (played by James Stewart)
Fort Apache (1948) -- loosely based on the fight against Cochise and Custer's Last Stand; part of John Ford's cavalry trilogy
Fort Bowie (1958) -- not really worth watching from an historical perspective; deals with Apache leader Victorio (1825-1880) and Fort Bowie (s.e. AZ near Wilcox), but historically the two are not directly connected
The Battle at Apache Pass (1952) -- deals with "The Bascom Affair", 1861, and the battle at Apache Pass, 1862, involving Cochise
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
The Battle at Apache Pass (1952) -- Cochise
Walk the Proud Land (1956) -- Indian Agent John P. Culm at Arizona's San Carlos Reservation and Geronimo
X Geronimo (1962) -- with Chuck Connors
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 (played by Burt Lancaster)
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
X Chinaman's Chance (2008) -- 1870's, a. Chinese immigrant is falsely accused of murdering a white woman and has to deal with prejudice and injustice
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 años (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
X The Eagle and the Hawk (1950) -- in 1863 Texas Ranger and a Union spy cross into Mexico to investigate power struggle between French puppet Maximilian and Mexican Benito Juarez
Vera Cruz (1954) -- Americans try to steal the gold while escorting a countess to Vera Cruz and Emperor Maximilian; Juaristas also want the gold
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
X Guadalupe La Chinaca (1938) – a love story set during French Intervention in Michoacán
X La paloma (1937) -- Emperor Maximilian and the war for independence
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 (1944) – conquering Germans throw their weight around in occupied France during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, while French nobles kiss their posteriors
La commune (Paris , 1871) (2000) -- story of the Paris Commune of 1871, which briefly ruled France; semi-documentary (so I have just a little summary of the film's start)
X 1871 (1990) – the rise and fall of the Paris Commune
X Champ d'honneur (Field of Honor) (1987) – Franco-Prussian War; a fellow sells his high draft lottery number and takes the place of the son of a rich man
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
Lust for Life (1956) -- 1885-1891, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (friend of painter Paul Gauguin)
Vincent and Theo (1990) -- the two Van Gogh brothers
Moulin Rouge (1952) -- painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Félix Faure (1895-1899):
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
X L'affaire Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) (1995) – French film of the Dreyfus Affair
X L'affaire Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) (1965) – French film of the Dreyfus Affair
X Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Case) (1930) -- German film about the Dreyfus affair
X Affäre Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) (1959) – German film
X Affäre Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) (1968) – German film
French Art Scene: birth of modern art
Impressionists (2006) -- story of Monet and the creation of Impressionism which began in 1860s among Paris-based artists
Modigliani -- Amadeo, the painter
X Montparnasse 19 (Modigliani of Montparnasse) (1993) – life of the painter Amadeo Modigliani
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
Alexander II (1855-1881):
X Nas venchali ne v tserkvi (We Weren’t Married in Church) (1982) – love story of young woman wanting to get away from her small town and join a revolutionary group (as the one in Petersburg named "chaikovtsy", 1869-1874)
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 The Turkish Gambit (2005) -- spy story set in the War between Russia and Turkey (1877-1878); no English subtitles
X V nachale slavnykh del (At the Beginning of Glorious Days) (1981) -- Russo-Turkish War
X Pervye radosti (1977) – life in Saratov, Russia before the Bolshevik revolution
X Pervye radosti (No Ordinary Summer) (1956) -- intellectual joins a revolt and then becomes a professional revolutionary
X I Demoni di San Pietroburgo (The Demons of St. Petersburg) -- Russian writer Dostoevsky just finished 10 years hard labor in Siberia; he wants to stop a plot to kill the imperial family; the problem is that the young terrorists were inspired mainly by his writings
Others:
X Dmitriy Kantemir (1974) -- Moldavia (now part of Romania), 1700s
X Trandafirul galben (The Yellow Rose) (1982) – outlaw fights corrupt politics in 1800s Romania
X Drumul oaselor (1980) -- 1848 Romania (revolution in Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania)
X Manto Mavrogenous (1971) – she (1796 - July 1848) was a heroine of the Greek War of Independence(1821-1829)
VII.15. WORKERS' STRUGGLE Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
Argentina:
X La Patagonia rebelde (The Patagonian Rebellion) (1974) -- in Patagonia farm workers try to get better conditions of work
Australia:
X Comrades (1986) – British farm laborers imprisoned in Australia in 1834 for forming an unauthorized union
X Strikebound (1983) -- worker struggle in the Gippsland coalfields during 1930’s Australia
Belgium:
Daens (1993) -- Father Adolf Daens works in Belgium of the 1890s & champions the workers' cause
X Marcinelle (Inferno Below) -- 1956 tragedy in the mine at Marcinelle in Belgium where 300 miners died (136 of the dead miners were Italians)
Chile:
Sub Terra (2003) -- coal miners strike for better pay and conditions in 1897 Lota, Chile
Finland:
X Työväenlaulaja (1973) -- labor troubles in Finland
France:
X La Révolte des enfants (The Children's Rebellion) (1992) -- drama set in France around the abuse of child labor ($32)
X Germinal (1993) -- French film about a perilous workers' strike in the French mines
Germany:
Desertir (The Deserter) (1933) -- labor struggle in Germany and Russia
Great Britain:
X Made in Dagenham (2010) -- female workers walk out in protest against sexual discrimination in 1968 at the Ford Dagenham car plant
Italy:
0X I compagni (The Organizer) (1963) -- labor strike in Italy at turn of the 20th century against a 14-hour work day
Japan:
X Ah! Nomugi toge (Oh! The Nomugi Pass) (1979) -- abuse of women workers in silk industry in Japan in early 1900s
The Bad Sleep Well (1963) -- Kurosawa's film about a man seeking revenge against the Japanese company that murdered his father
Mexico:
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
X Tina in Mexico (2002) -- life of photographer Tina Modotti and her contacts with intellectual circles (including Diego Rivera)
Raíces de sangre (Roots of Blood) (1979) -- the fight for unionization of the fabric factories around the US/Mexican border
Puerto Rico:
Sudor Amargo (Bitter Sweat) (Bitter Sweat) (2004) -- mysterious death of a supervisor during the Star Kist Caribbean Plant closure in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Russia:
Desertir (The Deserter) (1933) -- labor struggle in Germany and Russia
Stachka (Strike) (1925) -- 1912 strike in Russian locomotive factory; directed by Sergei Eisenstein
Spain:
X El Corazon de la tierra (The Heart of the Earth) -- in Andalusia, 1888, a workers' protest against the miserable conditions at the local mines ends in a massacre
Sweden:
X Ådalen 31 (Adalen 31 or Adalen Riots) (1969) -- in 1931 Swedish military opens fire on peaceful labor demonstrators in Adalen
U.S.A.
X Los mineros (The Miners) (1991) -- Mexican-American copper miners fight for better terms 1903-1946 which shapes the course of Arizona history (currently unavailable)
X Joe Hill (1971) -- labor organizer
Cradle will Rock (1999) -- actor Orson Wells has big trouble trying to put on a theatrical production of a musical about a steel strike
Matewan (1987) -- violent confrontations between company thugs and coal miners in 1920's West Virginia, USA; with Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones
X Sacco e Vanzetti (Sacco and Vanzetti) (1971) -- 1920, the unjust trial of two Italian-American anarchists for a crime they did not commit; documentary
Norma Rae (1979) -- true story of a woman textile worker (Sally Field) being radicalized by New York City labor organizer (Ron Leibman)
Harlan County War (2000) -- a Kentucky coal miner's wife spearheads a 1970s union strike to close the mine and force contract negotiations
Salt of the Earth (1953)-- 1950 zinc mine workers go on strike in Silver City, New Mexico; black listed in Hollywood for making the film were the director, actor Will Geer, producer Paul Jarrico & screenwriter Michael Wilson
Molly McGuires (1970) -- violence used by Irish coal workers to fight the owners
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 corruption on the docks of New York City
X Margaret's Museum (1995) -- Margaret finds love but what are her odds for happiness when she lives in a town where half the men die down the coalpit
Others:
X Schwabenkinder (2003) -- a child sent away as a laborer, now an adult, tells his story to his now dying father (currently unavailable)
VII.16. RACE TO THE POLES (North and South)
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
X Cook & Peary: The Race to the Pole (1983) -- American Frederick Albert Cook claims to have reached the North Pole April 21, 1908; Am. Robert Peary claims he reached the pole first April 6, 1909
Glory and Honor (1998) -- black man Mathew Henson who accompanied Peary to the North Pole (Peary claimed to have been the first person to the North Pole, on April 6, 1909)
Scott of the Antarctic (1948) -- Robert F. Scott's trip to be the first man to reach the South Pole (1910-1912)
The Last Place on Earth (1985) -- mini-series about the race to the South Pole between Norwegian Roald Amundsen and British Capt. Robert F. Scott, 1910-1912
Shackleton (2002) -- Shackleton's journey to the South Pole and the crew's harrowing return trip, 1914-1915
X Krasnaya Palatka (The Red Tent) (1969) -- failed 1928 Arctic airship expedition of the "Italia" airship
VIII. AGE OF IMPERIALISM. Back to Chapter VIII Back to Contents
VIII.1. IMPERIALISM: SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR Back to Chapter VIII Back to Contents
Spain: First Spanish Republic (1873-1874):
Spain: House of Borbon (Second Restoration) --1874-1931: Alfonso XII (1874-1885); Alfonso XIII (1886-1931)
José Rizal (1998) -- Filipino hero who is unjustly tried for treason by the colonial government
X Rizal sa Dapitan (1997) -- the Philippine national hero as a messianic figure
X Ang buhay at pag-ibig ni Dr. Jose Rizal (The Life and Love of Dr. Jose Rizal) (1956) -- Filipino hero
X Bayaning Third World(2000) -- The untold love story of Jose Rizal and Josephine Bracken is finally revealed after more than 100 years
X El vibora (1972) – Artemio Ricarte, a Filipino patriot, fought against the Spanish and then the Americans; he was later supported by the Japanese
X Baler (2008) --1898, Siege of Baler, Philippines between Filipino forces and Spanish soldiers defending Baler (today is the capital municipality of Aurora)
X Los últimos de Filipinas (The Last Ones in the Philippines) (1945) – Spanish-American War; Spanish soldiers are pushed out of the Philippines
X Sisa (2008) -- Narcisa "Sisa" Dalangin is a young Filipina during the Spanish Occupation & is a childhood friend of Jose Rizal
Citizen Kane (1941) -- the life of William Randolph Hearst & yellow journalism start a war w/ Spain
X The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985) -- Hearst and actress Marion Davies ($39)
The Cat's Meow (2001) -- movie producer Thomas Ince dies after yachting with William Randolph Hearst, Charlie Chaplin & Marion Davies
Rough Riders (1997) -- 1898, with Theodore Roosevelt
Newsies (1992) -- musical about the 1899 newspaper boy strike against Pulitzer and Hearst in NYC
X Mambí (1998) – the Cubans loyal to Spain called the insurgents the Mambies, named after the black Spanish officer, Juan Ethninius Mamby, who was a freedom fighter in the Dominican Republic
The White Legion (1936) -- the medical search for the cure for yellow fever killing so many workers on the Panama Canal
Cavalry Command (1963) -- after the war's end, in 1902 an American cavalry brigade is sent to quell guerilla resistance in the Philippines
X Emilio Aguinaldo (2000) -- had a key role in Philippine independence during the Philippine Rev. against Spain & the Philippine-American War against American occupation
X Hen. Gregorio del Pilar (1949) – Philippine hero of the Philippine-American War (Filipino | Tagalog )
The Real Glory (1939) -- doctor in Philippines after Spanish-American War, in second phase of the Philippine-American War, 1906
The Wind and the Lion (1975) -- Morocco 1904, Pres. TR & political kidnapping
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
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) -- beautiful girl Evelyn Nesbit, architect Stanford White, murdering husband Harry Thaw
X Titanic (1997) -- 1912 sinking of the passenger ship Titanic
X S.O.S. Titanic (1979)
X Titanic (1953) -- 1912 sinking
X A Night to Remember (1958) -- 1912, sinking of the Titanic
X Atlantis (1930) -- fictionalized story of Titanic
X Atlantik (1929) -- fictionalized story of Titanic
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
The Hawaiians (1970) -- Americans overthrow the government of Hawaii 1893
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 (Filipino/Tagalog)
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 (currently unavailable)
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)
Stanley and Livingstone (1939)-- 1871; Am. newspaperman finds "lost" humanitarian (discontinued by the manufacturer)
Albert Schweitzer: Called to Africa (2006) -- Nobel Peace Prize winner who, as a doctor, served the poor in today's Gabon starting in 1905 (Dutch language and Dutch subtitles)
Egypt:
X Al-Mummia (aka The Night of Counting the Years, The Mummy) (1969) – an Upper-Egyptian clan in 1881 has been robbing a cache of mummies near Kurna
Sudan:
Khartoum (1966) -- 1884
Morocco:
Outpost in Morocco (1949) -- French Foreign Legion and colonialism in Morocco
Morocco (1930) -- Foreign Legion film (with Marlene Dietrich)
Beau Geste (1939) -- French Foreign Legion
Legionnaire (1998) -- the Foreign Legion's battles against Spanish Moroccan Berbers
March or Die (1977) -- French Foreign Legion against the Arabs in Morocco
X La batalla de los Tres Reyes (The Battle of the Three Kings) (1990) – (?) aka The Battle of Alcácer Quibir was fought in n. Morocco in 1578 pitting Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi & King Sebastian of Portugal against Moroccan army under the new Sultan of Morocco
Another Sky (1954) -- in the 1950s, an English woman becomes a paid companion of a wealthy expatriate and is changed by the mysteries of Morocco
Algeria:
Fort Saganne (1984) -- 1911,the adventures of Charles Saganne in the French Foreign Legion when he is posted to the Sahara in Algeria (& a little of WWI)
Rachida (2002) -- a look at terrorism in the Algerian civil war through the eyes of Rachida, a teacher in one of the school districts.
Cameroon:
Chocolat (1989) -- colonial racism in Cameroon
X Sarraounia (1986) -- troops from the French Sudan in 1899 go up against the black Sultan Rabah in Cameroon
Senegal:
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
Tanzania:
X Carl Peters (1941) -- colonialism, Tanzania
Mozambique:
X Battle of the Three Kings (1953) – 1894, Portuguese conquer Mozambique to counter the Vatuas insurgency
'Non', ou A V Glória de Mandar (No, or the Vain Glory of Command) (1990) -- 1963 to 1975, Portugal fights to maintain its colonies (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau)
Other:
Coup de Torchon (Clean Slate) (1975) -- life in a French colony in Africa
South Africa:
X 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 Shangani Patrol (1970) -- 1893, battalion of volunteer soldiers face the might of King Lobengula's army in Rhodesia
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) -- in the Boer War, a British Lieutenant is upset that he has to burn out Boer farms and crops
X That Englishwoman (1989) -- story of Emily Hobhouse, who worked to improve health conditions for Boer women and children in detainment camps; detested in Britain, heroine in South Africa
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) -- an old soldier relives his life from the 1902 Boer War through World Wars I and II
Young Winston (1972) -- Churchill that is
Gandhi (1982) -- first part deals with the early Gandhi, before 1915
Gandhi, My Father (2007) – Gandhi and his eldest son's bad relationship ( in South Africa and India)
Kenya:
X The Flame Trees of Thika (1982) -- life in colonial Kenya
X The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) -- two man-eating lions delay the building of the railroad in 1899 Tsavo, Kenya
X Out of Africa (1985) -- Kenya, early 20th century with Danish writer Isak Dinesen
Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa) (2001) -- Jewish refugees establish a new life in Kenya during the Hitler reign
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) --
Kranti (1981) – an Indian family fights to drive the British out of India circa 1825 to 1875 AD
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) -- battles between British and Afghan guerillas
X The Bengal Brigade (1954) -- British work to thwart the Sepoy rebellion in India -- 1857
X King of the Khyber Rifles (1953) -- a native Afridi deserter from the Muslim fanatic Karram Khan attacks Capt. King & his escort on his way to the Northwest Frontier; later he gets the assignment to get Khan
X Storm over Bengal (1938) -- battles between the British and Indians in Bengal (currently unavailable)
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
Cotton Mary (1999) -- racism and its effects in post-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
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 The Long Duel (1967) -- 1920s India where the British Raj still rules India; a British lawman squares off with a freedom-backing sultan
X The Drum (Drums) (1938) -- in the time of the British Raj, Indian Prince Azim tries to warn the prejudiced British about a coming revolt
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)
Dream of the Red Chamber (1962) – 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 (A Dream of Red Mansions) (1962) -- musical of the fall of the 18th-century clan ($68)
X 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 (currently unavailable)
X Lin zexu (The Opium Wars) (1959) – young man wants to end the trade in opium partly because his relatives are addicts
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
Jia wu feng yun (Naval Battle of 1894) (1962) -- naval battles of the First Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895)
55 Days at Peking (1963) -- 1898-1901 Boxer Rebellion in China
X Da taijian Li Lianying (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)
Wo zhe yi bei zi (This Life of Mine) (1950) – Beijing policeman and his family experience a very rough 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 Guo fu Sun Zhong Shan yu kai guo ying xiong (The Story of Dr. Sun Yat-sen) (1986) – Sun Yat-sen
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
Gada Meilin (2002) -- 1931 in Inner Mongolia, Mongolian national hero Ga da mei lin who led Mongolians to protect their homeland from the provincial government
X Shanghai Triad (1995 )-- Chinese singer gets mixed up with gangsters in 1930s Shanghai
X The Lover (1992) -- a relationship between a young French teen-ager and wealthy Chinese heir in French Indochina causes problems
X 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
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
Ansatsu (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 ($67)
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
Musa (The Warrior) (2001) -- 1375, Korean Koryo warriors band together to save the Yuan dynasty
Ssang-hwa-jeom (A Frozen Flower) (2008) – homosexual relationship between king and his bodyguard Chief is complicated by the necessity to get the Queen pregnant (a task the King gives to the Chief)
Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910)
X Taejo Lee Seong-gye (King Taeho) (1965) – a general overthrows the old king and founds the Joseon Dynasty
X Sejong daewang ( Sejong the Great) (1978) -- 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 Mi-in-do (Portrait of a Beauty) (2008) -- 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 Cheon-gun (Heaven's Soldiers) (2005) – South Korean action and humorous film, but with some historical parts (currently unavailable)
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
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
Victor Emmanuel II (1861-1878)
X Correva l'anno di grazia 1870 (aka 1870) (1971) – 1870 Italy
Umberto I (1878–1900)
Leopard (1936) -- Sicily after Italian unification
Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946)
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)
The Great White Hope (1971) -- black Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion (beats Tommy Burns in 1908)
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 Nancy Astor (1982)-- 3 DVD set from Masterpiece Theatre follows the story of Nancy Langhorne born in Virginia, USA who married the wealthy Waldorf Astor and became the first woman to take her seat in the British House of Commons
X Sofya Kovalevskaya (1956) – first woman in Russia to become a Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the obstacles she had to overcome
X Sofya Kovalevskaya (1985) -- ditto; made for TV
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 (My Memories of Mexico) (1944) -- (no English subtitles) remembrances of Mexico under Diaz
X Mexico de mis recuerdos (My Memories of Mexico) (1963) -- (no English subtitles) remembrances of Mexico under Diaz
X Thunder over Mexico (Que viva México) (1933) -- excesses of the powerful in the days of dictator Porfirio Diaz
Pancho Villa (leader of the northern forces)
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 decide 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
Villa Rides! (1968) -- an American pilot becomes involved with Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution
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 ($1,000 for VHS tape)
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 (The Treasure of Pancho Villa) (1957) -- Mexican Revolution (currently unavailable)
X Flor Silvestre (Wild Flower) (1943) -- set against the Mexican Revolution, class differences between a rich man and poor woman leads to family divisions
Los de abajo (1940) -- farm worker joins Pancho Villa General; fights in takeover of Zacatecas; promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel
X Los de abajo (1978) --
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
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
X Emiliano Zapata (Zapata) (1970) -- played by Antonio Aquilar
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
La casta divina (1977) -- the Yucatan aristocracy on the eve of the Mexican Revolution
X Trini (1976) -- East German movie involving 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 (El asesinato de Carrillo Puerto Mexico - (subtitle)) (1974) -- (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 (The General's Daughter) (1975) -- (no subtitles) centers on the Cristero movement, an uprising of Catholic fundamentalists (currently unavailable)
IX.4. GERMANY & AUSTRIA: BEFORE WWI Back to Chapter IX Back to Contents
Germany:
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
X Bismarck (1940) -- about Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) (done by the Third Reich)
X Bismarck (1990) -- West German TV mini-series
The Shaping of the Western World. Bismarck: Germany from Blood and Iron (2008) -- a docudrama about Otto von Bismarck who was the most responsible man in uniting Germany into a single nation
X Die Entlassung (The Dismissal) (1942) – about Bismarck (sequel by the Third Reich)
Wagner (1982) -- Hitler's favorite composer
X Rosa Luxemburg (1986) -- labor agitator in Germany
X Kuhle Wampe oder: Wem gehört die Welt? (Wither Germany?) (1932) -- left-wing politics in Weimar Germany (written by Bertolt Brecht); banned by the Nazis -- (currently unavailable)
Abschied - Brechts letzter Sommer (The Farewell) (2002) – Bertolt Brecht's last summer and the women in his life with the Stasi watching it all
Austria:
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 Elisabeth Kaiserin von Österreich (1972) -- Elizabeth married Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria in 1854
X Friedrich III. '...gestorben als Kaiser' (1970) – German emperor in the Year of the Three Emperors, 1888
X Mayerling (1936) -- 1889, Austrian, Crown Prince Rudolph, son of Emperor Franz Joseph
Mayerling (1969) -- wants to marry Mary Vetsera even though he is already married
Kronprinz Rudolf (The Crown Prince) (2006)-- the woman Crown Prince Rudolph really wants to marry is not suitable according to his father and mother
X Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe (Mayerling) (1956) -- German movie about Crown Prince Rudolph
X Der Engel mit der Posaune (The Angel with the Trumpet) (1948) – Austrian history from the late 19th century to post-World War II as seen in the fortunes of Vienna piano-makers
X Chopin: Desire for Love (2000) -- ditto above
X Lisztomania (2000) -- Hungarian composer Franz Liszt
X Szerelmi álmok - Liszt (The Loves of Liszt) (1970) – Liszt in Russia
Lola Montes (1955) -- love affairs with Liszt and King Ludwig I of Bavaria
X Song without End (1960) – Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt is involved in a romantic scandal with a married Russian princess
Ludwig (1972) --Ludwig II, Mad King of Bavaria, friend of Wagner & cousin of Sissi
X Ludwig II: Glanz und Ende eines Königs (Mad Emperor: Ludwig II) (1955) – Ludwig II (reign 1864-1886)
X The Strauss Dynasty -- the family life and careers of musicians Johann Strauss and his son, Johan Strauss (the King of the Waltz, who died in 1899)
Hungary:
X 80 huszár (80 Hussars) (1978) – Hungarian revolution of 1848-1849
A Hídember (The Bridgeman) (2002) -- story of Istvan Szechenyi, the nineteenth-century Hungarian revolutionary
X Szabadságharc Szebenben (2007) – 1860s Hungary
X A komáromi fiú (1987) – 19th century Hungry
Other:
X Mis Ston (Miss Stone) (1958) -- elderly American woman travels in Macedonia when held by the Ottoman Empire, which will soon disappear
X. WORLD WAR I & AFTERMATH. Back to Chapter X Back to Contents
National Leaders: Germany (Wilhelm II, 1888-1918); France (Pres. Raymond Poincaré, 1913-1920); Britain (George V, 1893-1936); Russia (Nicholas II, 1894-1917); United States (Pres. Woodrow Wilson)
X.1. World War I. Back to Chapter X Back to Contents
X Oh! What a Lovely War -- film follows the Smith family through significant events of World War I
Assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand:
Fall of Eagles (1974) (TV miniseries) -- fall of Habsburg, Hohenzollern and Romanov dynasties in WWI
X De Mayerling a Sarajevo (From Mayerling to Sarajevo) (1940) -- lead-up to the assassination of the Archduke Franz-Ferdinand and his wife
Sarajevski atentat (The Day that Shook the World) (1975) -- events leading up to the assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand
X Sarajevski atentat (1972) -- events leading up to the assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand
X Sarajevski atentat (1968) -- events leading up to the assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand
X Gavre Princip - Himmel unter Steinen (Death of a Schoolboy) (1990) –assassin of Archduke 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
And the Ship Sails On (1983) -- Serbian war refugees
Carlston za Ognjenku (Tears for Sale) (2008) – after WWI 2/3 of Serbian men were killed; two sisters plan to kidnap some men
Austria-Hungary:
Colonel Redl (1985) -- Austrian-Hungarian Empire
X Magyar rapszódia (Hungarian Rhapsody) (1979) – an examination of pre-revolutionary (pre-communist) Hungary around the time of World War I through the eyes of an aristocratic Captain that bonds with the peasants
Gallipoli and Turkey:
Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) (2006) -- soldiers on both sides call a Christmas truce in 1914 and are punished for it
Gallipoli (1981) -- British, New Zealander and Australian troops against Turkey (Ottoman Empire), 1915
X Chunuk Bair (1997) -- a New Zealand film about the Wellington Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli (currently unavailable)
1915 (1982) -- two Australian country boys vie for the same girl, but their world changes when they land in Gallipoli
X The Battle of Gallipoli (Tell England) (1931) -- Battle of Gallipoli 1915
ANZACs: the War Down Under (1985) -- Australian-New Zealand Army Corps head for disaster in Gallipoli and then on to France and the battles of Ypres and Amiens, among others
X The Battle of Broken Hill (1981) -- prelude to Gallipoli; 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 Cumhuriyet (The Republic) (1998) – foundation of Turkish Republic between the years of early 1920's to 1933
X 1922 (1978) -- Asia Minor Disaster and Asia Minor Greeks, arrested and led to death by Kemal's troops and armed groups of Muslims
X Abdul the Damned (1935) -- in Turkey, 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid resists the Young Turk party
Armenia:
Ararat (2002) -- Turkish atrocities committed against Armenians
X Huso astgh (Star of Hope) (1978) -- David Bek and Mkhitar Sparapet lead the Armenian liberation movement , XVIII century
X Sayat Nova (Color of Pomegranates) (1991) – life of Armenian poet Aruthin Sayadin (a.k.a. Sayat-Nova) (1712-1795)
Western Front 1916 onwards:
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 Le Conscrit (The Conscript) (1974) -- Belgium film that illustrates the appalling condition under which soldiers were forced to serve
The Trench (1999) -- 1st of July 1916, "The day British idealism died "
Paths of Glory (1957) -- French generals hide their own incompetence by declaring their own soldiers cowards, 1916
Britannic (2000) -- sinking of the sister ship of the Titanic, November 1916
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) -- Arab revolt against Turkey (Ottoman Empire) 1916
Beneath Hill 60 (2010) -- Australian miners are used to dig tunnels under the German lines to plant explosives, June 7, 1917
The Monocled Mutineer (1986) -- 2 DVD set of a tv series about the mutiny of soldiers against the harsh British training Camp Etaples, France in 1917 on the eve of the Passchendaele battle, June 11, 1917
Passchendaele (2008) -- Battle of Passchendaele (June-November 1917) in which 10th Battalion of 1st Canadian Division set record for highest number of individual bravery awards for a single battle
Lighthorsemen (1987) -- charge on Beersheba, events after Gallipoli for the Australian troops (October 31, 1917)
Forty Thousand Horsemen (1941) -- Australian cavalry at the Battle of Beersheba (October 31, 1917)
Mata Hari (1932) -- Greta Garbo as the spy Mata Hari executed in 1917
X Mata Hari (1972) -- the spy Mata Hari
X Mata Hari, agent H21 (1964) -- with Jeane Moreau (currently unavailable)
X Vsadniki (aka Guerilla Brigade; Riders) (1939) -- Ukrainian resistance against Germans in 1918
X The Lost Prince (2003) -- Prince John, the youngest child of King George V and Queen Mary of Great Britain, who died of epilepsy at the age of 13 in 1919
All the King's Men (1999) -- a military company from the estate of the mother of King George V just seems to disappear
Behind the Lines (a.k.a., Regeneration) (1998) -- Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, two of England's most important WW1 poets
The Road to Glory (1936) -- trench life as seen by a French regiment; as time goes on Lt. Denet gets in a triangle love relationship with Monique and his captain
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
Capitaine Conan (Captain Conan) (1996) -- during the last days of the WWI, French Capitaine Conan is an excellent warrior, but finds he is unsuited for peacetime duty in Bucharest
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
My Boy Jack (2007) -- Author Rudyard Kipling pushes to get his son into the army; son is reported missing, probably wounded; Mrs. Kipling moves heaven and earth to learn the truth about what happened
X Testament of Youth (1979) -- tv mini-series based on Vera Brittain's autobiography for the years 1913-1925 who becomes a nurse & is almost overwhelmed at seeing the faces of dead and horribly wounded friends and family
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
USA Finally Gets into the War
X The Man I Killed (1932) --
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 (A Girl for Joe) (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
Sergeant York (1941) -- American World War I hero, 1918
X The Man I Killed (1932) --
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 (A Girl for Joe) (1951) -- updating of "A Farewell to Arms" (with William Holden)
X Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) -- 1906-1917, American patriotic popular music composer George M. Cohan
The Fighting 69th (1940) -- Irish-American unit sent to fight in WWI
Company K (2004) -- man struggles with writing a history of his US Marine Corps company in WWI
X The Yanks are Coming (1974) -- college buddies in France
The Lost Battalion (2001) -- Americans caught behind enemy lines, Argonne Forest, 1918 (October)
Canada:
Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden (1911-1920)
X Sam Hughes's War (1984) -- Canada in World War I
X Two Solitudes (1978) -- 1917 Conscription Crisis in Canada
X The Kid Who Couldn't Miss (1982) – docudrama that questions fighter pilot Billy Bishop's accomplishments during WWI
The Air War:
The Blue Max (1966) -- the air war
Der Rote Baron (The Red Baron) (2008) -- Baron Manfred von Richtofen with 80 kills
Von Richthofen & Brown (a.k.a. The Red Baron) (1971) -- Baron Manfred von Richtofen, the German air ace during the World War I
Crimson Romance (1934) -- fly the World War I sky with the Luftwaffe
Aces High (1976) -- RAF squadron and its high turn-over
X Eagle & Hawk (1933) -- air war with Royal Air Force squadron
Dawn Patrol (1938) -- Errol Flynn; air war with British flying aces
X Captain Eddie (1945) -- Captain Eddie Rickenbacker becomes an American flying ace with 26 kills
X Lafayette Escadrille (With You in My Arms; Hell Bent for Glory) (1958) -- a young American joins the French Air Force early in the war
Flyboys (2006) -- US pilots in France's legendary Lafayette Escadrille
Others:
Austeria (The Inn) (1983) -- a Polish inn at the border with Russia at the start of WWI
The African Queen (1951) -- the classic with Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn
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
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
X Il figlio di Aquila Nera (1968) – Cossacks plan an uprising against Gen. Volkonsky, governor of the Caucasus
X Dauriya (Dauria) (1971) -- love story set among the Cossacks of Siberia at the time of the Russian Revolution
X Yermak (1996) -- Cossack leader Yermak Timofeyevich explored Siberia (starting 1579 or 1581) which opened that land to Russian expansion
Dersu Uzala (1975) -- 19th century Russian expedition to Siberia
X Mat (Mother) (1926) -- a woman struggles against Tsarist rule during the 1905 Russian Revolution (new for $55)
X Sveaborg (1972) -- 1906 bloody revolt by Russian garrison (in Finland)
Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (Barber of Siberia) (1998) -- Czar Alexander III
Bronenosets Goyokin (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 v Parizhe (Lenin in Paris) (1980) -- Lenin's four years in Paris (1909-1912)
X Lenin v Polshe (Lenin in Poland) (1966) --
X Lenin v oktyabre (Lenin in October) (1937) --
X Lenin: the Train -- on his return trip to Saint-Petersburg Lenin goes from Zurich, through Germany, through Sweden to Saint-Petersburg
X Scarlet Dawn (1932) -- Russian officer caught up in the troop revolts in WWI (includes a love story)
X Moonzund (1987) -- Soviet film is a love story set against the Russian Navy in the 1915-1917 WWI battles at the Moonzund Islands in the Baltic Sea
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) -- 1894-1917 of Russia; fights Germany and Turkey in WWI
X 120 (2008) – Turkish film about the Battle of Sarikamish between Russia and Ottoman Empire from December 22, 1914 to January 17, 1915
X Romanovy: Ventsenosnaya semya (The Romanovs: An Imperial Family) (2000) -- last year and a half of the life of the royal Romanovs before their execution in 1918 by the Bolsheviks (currently unavailable)
X Rasputin (1996) -- the mad Gypsy adviser to Alexandra; Greta Scacchi, Alan Rickman
X Rasputin (1985)
X Rasputin - Orgien am Zarenhof (1984) --
Agoniya (aka Agony: The Life and Death of Rasputin) (1981) -- very good Russian film on the fall of Rasputin and the Russian monarchy
X J'ai tué Raspoutine (I Killed Rasputin) (1967) --
X Rasputin - the Mad Monk (1966) -- the Hammer Studios version of Rasputin
X Nights of Rasputin (1960)
Rasputin and the Empress (1932) --
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
X Diadi gantiadi (They Wanted Peace; Great Glow) (1938) -- Lenin and the 1917 Russian Revolution
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
X Khleb - imya sushchestvitelnoe (1988) -- three generations living around the Volga river beginning in 1902 and going through the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War and Stalin’s rule
X Pod znakom skorpiona (1995) – writer Gorky’s positive, then negative view of the Russian Revolution
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
X Esperanza (1988) -- Russian man flees the Russian Revolution and goes to Mexico
X Gosudarstvennaya granitsa: My nash, my novyy... (1980) – a Russian and his mother try to flee Russia following the Russian Revolution of 1917
X I leoni di Petersburgo (Lions of St. Petersburg) (1972) – Italian film about two brothers who are rivals in the Russian Revolution
X Baltiyskaya slava (The Baltic Glory) (1957) -- Baltic Fleet sailors join in the action in revolutionary Petrograd, autumn 1917
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) -- Anastasia is played by Amy Irving\
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) (currently unavailable)
X Tjurens r (1988) -- five-year-old boy sees turmoil of the First World War and the Russian Revolution
Russian Civil War
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
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 v 1918 godu (Lenin in 1918) (1939) – Soviet film giving the background of the Russian Civil War
X Vikhri vrazhdebnye (Hostile Whirlwinds) (1953) – Soviet film about the first years of Soviet government, 1918-1921, as seen by Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Bolshevik Secret Police
X Sedmoy sputnik (The Seventh Companion) (1968) – Soviet film dealing with the years following the Russian Revolution (currently unavailable)
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)
Chapaev (Chapayev) (1934) -- Russian movie about Vasili Ivanovich Chapaev (1887 - 1919) Commander of the Red Army's 25th Division
X Nenavist (Hatred) (1975) -- the Russian civil war tears a family apart
X The Adjutant of His Excellency – Soviet mini-series set in the Russian civil war where a Soviet secret policeman spies on the White Army
X Бумбараш (Bumbarash) (1971) – Russian film about Pvt. Bumbarash as he tries to survive the Russian Civil War to return to his village and his love
X Pervaya konnaya (First Cavalry) (1984) – Russian Civil War
X Knight Without Armor (1937) – English spy gets caught up in the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War
X Nezabyvaemyy god 1919 (The Unforgettable Year 1919) (1951) – Stalin's cruel suppression of the 1919 anti-communist uprising in St. Petersburg, Russia
X Sedmaya Pulya (The Seventh Bullet) (1972) -- set after the Russian Civil War (in the wake of the Basmachi rebellion)
X Neobyknovennoye leto (1979) – life in city of Saratov in 1919 during the Russian Civil War
X Neobyknovennoye leto (1957) -- ditto
Бer (The Flight) (1970) – Russian film about the defeat of the "White Army" in the Russian Civil War of 1918-21 and emigration to Constantinople
X Lyubov Yarovaya (1970) – Soviet film about the Russian Civil War
X Svoya chuzhaya zhizn (To Live for Another) (2005) – Bolsheviks set up House of Art in Petrogard of 1921 to control the intellectuals
Russia under Stalinism:
Piry Valtasara, ili noch so Stalinym (Baltazar's Feasts or the Night with Stalin) (1989) -- Stalin and his brutal purges
X Prorva (Moscow Parade) (1992) – first Russian, post-Soviet view of Stalinist excesses
X Dreszcze (Creeps) (1981) -- excesses of Stalin and their effect on a man and his two boys
X Est - Quest (East-West) -- Stalin invites Russian émigrés to return home and then double-crosses them
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
Finland:
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 Doverie (Trust) (1976) -- set around the founding of the Republic of Finland
X Pako punaisten päämajasta (2000) – Finnish Civil War (January to May, 1918)
Käsky (Tears of April) (2008) -- a White officer in the Finnish Civil War against the Reds repeatedly tries to save a female Red soldier who he loves (in Finnish with English subtitles)
X Mommilan veriteot 1917 (The Mommila Murders) (1973) – richest man in Finland is killed in December 1917 just a few months before the Finnish Civil War by a revolutionary seamen
X Aika hyvä ihmiseksi (aka Pretty Good for a Human) (1977) -- Finnish film about a boy in post-World War I Finland
X Raja 1918 (The Border) (2007) -- guarding the border with Russia following the end of the Finnish War of Independence
X Suuri peli, korkeat panokset (1999) -- 1920s, Russia, Finland, peace negotiations
Latvia:
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
X Rigas sargi (Defenders of Riga) (2007) -- 1919 fight for Latvian independence
X Dolgaya doroga v dyunakh (1980) -- love story set in Latvia around the time Latvia was overtaken by the Soviets
Estonia
X Tants aurukatla ümber (1987) -- life in 20th century Estonia by monitoring a steam boiler
X Detsembrikuumus (December Heat) (2008) -- December 1924 attempted Communist Coup in Estonia
X Äratus (The Awakening) (1989) – 1949 March deportation of Estonian people to Siberia by Soviet Secret Police
Other
Earth (1930) -- collective workers in Ukraine against rich landowner win the day
Smierc prezydenta (Death of a President) (1977) – first president of the Polish Republic 1922 (for five days) Gabriel Narutowicz, who was opposed by the Polish Nationalists /Fascists
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
Ryan's Daughter (1970) --an Irish woman has a passionate adulterous relationship with a British officer and is accused of treason
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
X Rebel Heart (2001) – miniseries set in period from the 1916 Easter Rising until the end of the civil war (currently unavailable)
X Easter Sixteen (2009) – 1916 Easter Uprising
X Shake Hands with the Devil (1959) -- IRA fights the Black and Tans trained to suppress the IRA (with James Cagney)
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
Irish Destiny (1926) -- the Black and Tans make life very difficult for one young IRA fellow
X Ballyvaughan Story (2006) -- 1921, young girl tries to save her village from British retribution for IRA killing two British marines
X Michael Collins (1996) -- leader of the Irish during the 1922 revolt
X The Treaty (1991) -- the one negotiated by Michael Collins in 1921 that led to civil war (1922-1923)
X 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
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
Spirit of St. Louis (1957) -- Lindbergh, first solo trans-Atlantic flight
X Crime of the Century (1996) Lindbergh kidnapping trial
X Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994) -- the famous aviatrix
Amelia (2009) -- life and tragic death of Amelia Earhart
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
X Gangster Wars (1981) –
Independents:
X Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
X The Bonnie Parker Story (1958) -- Bonnie of Bonnie & Clyde
X Public Enemies - with Johnny Depp as Dillinger, infamous bank robber
X Dillinger (1991) -- Mark Harmon as John 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? (1969) -- 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 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)
The King's Speech (2010) -- story of King George VI and his speech therapist
Gathering Storm (2002) -- Winston Churchill warns against the rising power of fascist Germany
X Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years --- 4 DVD box set; in 1929 Churchill was nearly cut completely out of power; 10 years later he makes a come-back
X Glorious 39 (2009) – mystery surrounding anti-appeasement movement before WWII
They Flew Alone (Wings and the Woman) (1942) -- 1930's British pioneer aviatrix Amy Johnson
X A Shadow on the Sun -- in 1936 Beryl Clutterbuck became the first person to fly west across the Atlantic solo
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
Black Legion (1936) -- Bogart as a factory worker who, after failing to get a desired promotion and it goes to a guy named Dombrowski instead, decides to join a KKK type group.
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) -- sharecroppers in 1930's Louisiana try to survive poverty
X Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored (1996) 1940s Mississippi to civil rights movement ($35)
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
Glory and Honor (1998) -- black man Mathew Henson who accompanied Peary to the North Pole
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
X Novemberverbrecher - Eine Erinnerung (1968) – German Revolution 1918 to the formal establishment of the Weimar Republic in August 1919
Good (2008) -- "evil triumphs when good men do nothing"
Der Rat der Götter (Council of the Gods) (1950) – industrialists cooperate with the Nazis for goods and profit
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
X I am a Camera -- precursor to the Movie "Cabaret"
Christopher and his Kind (2011) -- real story of "Cabaret"
The Damned (1969) -- a German family declines as the Nazi party rises; covers "The Night of the Long Knives"
X Bent (1997) -- a homosexual chooses the wrong night to have sex with a storm trooper because he gets caught up in 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 Nuremberg 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
Edelweiß piraten (Edelweiss Pirates) (2004) – group of young men resisting Hitler's 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
X 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
X 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 (mini-series)
X Um das Menschenrecht (1934) -- rise of fascism in Germany
Pramen zivota (Spring of Life) (2000) – German SS program to build an Aryan race of supermen and superwomen
X Dny zrady I& II (Days of Betrayal) (1973) -- Munich Conference agreement of September 1938 gives Germany the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia (occupied October 1938)
X Der Bockerer (The Butcher) (1981) -- Viennese butcher doesn't like the Nazi occupation of Austria, says so and gets in trouble; acts like an idiot to survive
X Livrez-nous Grynszpan (Bring Us Grynszpan) (2008) – a young Jew kills a German diplomat in Paris in desperation, giving the Nazis an excuse to launch "Kristallnacht" Nov, 1938
X Hitler - ein Film aus Deutschland (Hitler: A Film from Germany) (1977)-- seven hour long film exploring why the Germans deified Hitler
The Nightmare Years (1989) --
tv mini-series: story of
American journalist William Shirer observes up close the increasing extremism of
the Nazis; Shirer wrote the book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"
XI.6. RISE OF MUSSOLINI Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946)
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
X La Vita P bella (It's a Beautiful Life) (1997) -- father and son thrown in a concentration camp and dad tries to pretend it's a game to protect his son from the terror there
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
X Giarabub (1942) – Italian propaganda movie about Italian forces in a critical situation in Libyan desert
Sanquepazzo (Wild Blood) (2008) -- acting couple Valenti and Ferida still act during fascist regime in Italy
Il Federale (The Fascist) (1961) -- an Italian fascist has to capture an anti-Mussolini professor; the fascists gets his man, but they have a series of mishaps getting back
0X Sicilia! Sicilia! (Baarìa) (2009) -- a young man grows up noticing the injustices of living under the thumb of the local tycoon; he joins the Communist party and we see history through his eyes (only Italian options)
0X Paolmbella rossa (Red Wood Pigeon) -- star player of the water polo team has a problem with amnesia and goes through over 20 years of Italian communist party history while trying to remember who he is
0X D'Annunzio (D'Annunzio and I) (1985) -- Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863-1938) was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and dramatist who had a controversial role in Italian politics
Una giornata particolare (A Special Day) (1977) -- love story set around the first meeting of Hitler and Mussolini
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) (1984) – 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) -- in Patagonia farm workers try to get better conditions of work
X Evita (1996) -- musical with actress/singer Madonna; Evita Peron of Argentina, wife of the fascist Juan Peron
X Eva Peron (1996) --
X Evita Peron (1981) --
Funny Dirty Little War (No habrá más penas ni olvido) (1983) -- Peronists vs. "Communists" in an Argentine village
El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) (2009) -- legal problems for pursuing justice in fascist Argentina
Hermanas (Sisters) (2005) -- remembrances of the excesses of the military dictatorship in Argentina brings sisters to fighting
X La Amiga (The Girl Friend) (1988) -- Argentine military dictatorship
XI. 8. PRE-WAR JAPAN Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Meiji Restoration, 1868-1912:
X 1895 (Blue Brave: The Legend of Formosa in 1895) (2008) -- Taiwan's resistance against the Japanese invasion
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
X 203 kochi (The Battle of Port Arthur) (1980) – battle for Hill 203 during the Russo-Japanese war, 1905
X Meiji tennô to nichiro daisenso (Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War) (1957) – Japanese attack on Manchuria
X La Vallee des fleurs (Valley of Flowers) (2006) -- love story (with reincarnation) spanning two centuries starting in the early 19th century
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
Wu Qingyuan (The Go Master) (2006) -- a Chinese man becomes a master of the game of Go in Japan despite the rise of fascism in Japan
Ningen no jôken (Human Condition: No Greater Love) (1959) -- 1st part of the trilogy The Human Condition about a pacifist socialist trying to survive in Fascist Japan
Ningen no jôken (Human Condition: Road to Eternity) (1959) -- 2nd part of the trilogy The Human Condition about a pacifist socialist trying to survive in Fascist Japan
Ningen no jôken (Human Condition: A Soldier's Prayer) (1961) -- 3rd 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 To homa vaftike kokkino (aka Blood on the Land) (1966) -- 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 (Days of 1936) (1972) – drama with background the 4th of August Regime, a military dictatorship under General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled Greece from 1936 to 1941 (currently unavailable)
Rembetiko (1983) -- 40 years of the life of Greek popular singer Marika Ninou (1922-1957) covers a great deal of Greek history
XI.10. SPANISH CIVIL WAR -- one million dead Back to Chapter XI Back to Contents
Spain: Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939)
Spain: Francoist Spain (1939-1975)
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
X Little Ashes (2008) -- the friendship of film director Luis Bunuel and the two artists Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca
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
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 Zerkalo (The Mirror) (1975) -- the Spanish Civil War seen with an intermixture of drama and documentary footage
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, Freedom Fighters) (1996) -- in the Spanish civil war nun Maria flees her convent, joins a woman's anarchist group and fights on the front
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
Los santos inocentes (The Holy Innocents) (1984) -- a critical look at the terrible inequality in the Spanish country life of the 1960s
Head in the Clouds (2005) -- two women and one man confronted with the growing fascism in Spain & eventual civil war
Los girasoles ciegos (The Blind Sunflowers) (2008) -- under fascism in Spain, a high school teacher and his family has to live in fear while trying to avoid being caught by the police for the thoughts and writings of the husband
Las 13 rosas (The 13 Roses) (2007) -- republican women try to keep their republican ideal in the aftermath of Franco's victory
Salvador Puig Antich (2006) – based on the life of the last person executed by the garrote under the dictator Francisco Franco
Die Frau des Anarchisten (The Anarchist's Wife) (2008) -- the anarchist's wife never gives up hope of seeing her husband again after he fought in the Spanish Civil War and then joined the French Resistance and then fought against Franco and his regime
X Operación Ogro (Orgo) (1979) – clandestine Basque organization ETA plans to kill Franco successor, Admiral Carrero Blanco
X Raza (Race) (1942) -- film glorifying the fascist forces defeating the democratic ones in the Spanish Civil War
X Cruzada en la mar (1968) – Spanish Civil War
X Días rojos (2004) -- Spanish Civil War
X 20-N: Los últimos días de Franco (2008) -- the last days of dictator Francisco Franco
X Mirant al cel (2008) – Spanish Civil War
X Alféreces provisionales (1964) -- Spanish Civil War
L'assedio dell'Alcazar (The Siege of Alcazar) (1940) – a piece of fascist propaganda; during the Spanish Civil War the Alcazar of Toledo, 45 minutes from Madrid, is besieged by Republican forces
X Las largas vacaciones del 36 (Long Vacations of 36) (1976) – on a long vacation a family tries to remain neutral in the Spanish Civil War (currently unavailable)
El viaje de Carol (Carol's Journey) (2002) -- Carol is a Spanish-American from NYC, but her dad fights in the Spanish Civil War; she & her mother go to Spain
X La Forja de un rebelde (1990) -- autobiographic trilogy of Arturo Barea who became involved in the Spanish civil War; TV series
La buena nueva (The Good News) (2008) -- priest Miguel tries to defend the victims of shootings by the National Front but finds the church is siding with the fascists and not the republic
L'espoir Sierra de Teruel (Man's Hope) (1945) -- a Republican aerial squadron needs to wipe out a secret Franco air field, but don't know its location; so they take an illiterate peasant up in the air with them
Behold a Pale Horse (1964) -- Spanish republican, Manuel Artiguez, continues to fight Franco's fascist forces even after the Republicans lost the war; a policeman plans to trap him
La hora de los valientes (The Hour of the Brave Ones) (1998) -- a man and a woman try to save a Goya masterpiece amidst the violence of war
Dragón rapide (1986) -- two weeks before the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936; the title is the name of the type of plane used by Franco in the carrying out of his overthrow of the Spanish Republic
X Viva la muerte (Long Live Death) (1971) -- Spanish Civil War (warning about some explicit scenes of, for instance, cows being killed -- I censor scenes like these by blocking my sight with my left hand)
XII. WORLD WAR II. 75 million dead. 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) -- the rise and fall of Albert Speer, Hitler's favorite architect and later responsible for insuring the continued production of German munitions
X Hitler (1962)
Rotation (1949) -- father is critical of Nazism, while son is in Hitler Youth and may inform on him
Hitler's Children (1943) -- the Nazis declare that a German-American woman is actually a native German and they keep her in Germany
Invasion of Poland, September 1, 1939
Der Fall Gleiwitz (The Gleiwitz Case) (1961) – Nazis dressed as Poles raid a German border radio station to give Hitler an excuse to invade Poland in 1939
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
Urodziny mlodego warszawiaka (The Birthday) (1980) – life of a young man from Warsaw is greatly changed by the German invasion of Poland and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
X To Be or Not to Be (1949) -- occupied Poland; Jack Benny
X General Nil (2009) – twentieth century Polish hero, Emil Fieldorf (1895-1953), aka General Nil -- ($27)
X Operacja Himmler (1979) – Polish film
Invasion of Norway, April 9, 1940
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) -- (not yet available)
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 -- ($32)
X Ni Liv (Nine Lives) (1957) -- about Jan Baalsrud, a member of the Norwegian resistance during World War II ($26)
X Commandoes Strike at Dawn (1942) -- Norwegian resistance ($35)
Svik (Betrayal) (2009) -- a Norwegian woman works for the Resistance to German occupation of her country and has to deal with corrupt Norwegian businessmen and a corrupt German officer, among other matters
The Day Will Dawn (The Avengers) (1942) -- a foreign correspondent heads to Norway after Hitler's invasion of Poland and his boat is attacked by a German U-boat; he tells the British navy but no one believes him
Flammen & Citronen (Flame and Citron) (2008)-- Danish Resistance to German occupation
Invasion of France, May 10, 1940
X Stukas (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
Mrs. Miniver (1942) -- Dunkirk & the 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 summer and autumn of 1940
X Enemy at the Door -- 8 DVD box set of a British television series about German occupation of the British Channel Islands
Battle of Britain (1969) -- never have so many owed so much to so few, July-October, 1940
Dark Blue World (2001) -- Czech pilots flee to England and help in the Battle of Britain
X The War on Democracy -- two Czech pilots escape from Nazi controlled Czechoslovakia to fly for the British and both fall in love with Susan
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
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 London Blitz that were designed not to detonate on impact
X Forever and a Day (1943) -- an American who comes to London to sell a house lands up experiencing the London Blitz Bombing ($65)
X L'homme qui a sauvé Londres (translation: The Man who Saved London) (1972) -- Michael Hollard reconnoiters a number of V1 rocket sites allowing accurate bombings of the rockets
X The Way to the Stars (Johnny in the Clouds) -- shows how the Battle of Britain affected both the lives of civilians and combatants
X The Way Ahead (The Immortal Battalion) -- the film covers the training of a bunch of recruits to transform them into good fighters and make the group a real, effective military unit
X Joe Maddison's War (2010) -- in WWII, WWI veteran Joe and his friends join the Home Guard amidst considerable family problems
Canada
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (third term, 1935-1948)
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 Partis pour la gloire (1975) – 1942, Liberal Party of Canada votes in a Conscription Law, which causes great unrest in Quebec and avoidance of conscription (currently unavailable)
Ireland:
The Brylcreem Boys (1998) -- in neutral Ireland, a British and a German pilot shoot each other down & are thrown in the same POW camp; the two become rivals for the affection of an Irish girl
French Occupation and Resistance:
X Section spéciale (Special Section) (1975) -- Nazi-collaborative Vichy government in southern France under Marshall Pétain (currently unavailable)
Le Silence de la Mer (The Silence of the Sea) (1947) -- an old man and his beautiful niece have to house a Nazi officer during the German Occupation
X Les Otages (The Mayor's Dilemma) -- a German officer in a Nazi-occupied tiny French village is killed; five villager are ordered to be shot if the murderer or murderers don't come forward
Laissez-passer (Safe Conduct) (2002) -- the effects of the German occupation on French cinema
Le septieme jour de Saint-Malo (The Seventh Day in Saint Malo) (1960) -- French film faithfully reconstructs the hardships the town of Saint Malo suffered in August 1944, shortly before the arrival of the Allies
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
X Wish Me Luck -- 6 DVDs; British training of civilians to work with the French Resistance; follows a British woman through her training and her experiences in France
X Jean Moulin (2002) -- French Resistance, 1943 -- ($90)
X Jean Moulin, une affaire française (2003) -- 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
To Have and Have Not (1944) -- skipper becomes reluctantly involved with the French Resistance in Martinique (with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall)
The Train (1964) -- 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 (Shock Troops) (1967) -- French Resistance
X Guy Môquet, un amour fusillé (2008) – 1941 France, German occupation
X La vie sera belle (2007) – French Resistance
X Le Sang des Autres (The Blood of Others) -- a female resistance fighter develops confused loyalties when she succumbs to the charms of a German businessman
X The Silent Invasion -- Nazi occupation of the small town of Mereux, France in 1940 leads to the formation of a resistance group
X L' armee du crime (The Army of Crime) -- story of one of the most notorious and feared sects of the French Resistance
X Le Sauveur (The Savior) -- an Englishman is found in the woods by a French girl and he tells her he has come to organize resistance to the Nazis; but is he what he says he is?
X Un condamne a mort s'est echappe ou Le vent souffle ou il veut (A Man Escaped) -- director Robert Breeson was a French Resistance fighter sent to prison in Lyons, where 7,000 of the 10,000 prisoners there died; he puts a lot on film of what went on there
X Refractaire (The Undercover War) -- in Nazi-occupied Luxembourg 21 year old Francois will have to fight for the Nazis or go into hiding in the countryside iron mines
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 Oorlogswinter (Winter in Wartime) (2008) – Dutch Resistance ($38)
X Het Woeden der Gehele Wereld (2006) -- Dutchman takes advantage of the German persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands
Wilhelmina (2001) -- TV series, 4 chapters, 50 minutes each; the Queen of the Dutch helps lead Dutch resistance to Nazi-occupation
Greece:
X Aera! Aera! Aera! (Hero Bunker) (1972) -- young people become entangled in military maneuvers at the Greek border with Albania in October 1940, during Mussolini's invasion of Greece
X Ypolochagos Natassa (Battlefield Constantinople) (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 Ipolohagos Natassa (Battlefield Constantinople) (1970) – a tragic love story about Natassa and her deceased lover set against the German occupation of Greece and the Greek Resistance
X Ypovryhion: Papanikolis ( SS Papanikolis) (1971) -- one of the most successful Greek submarines during WWII
Other:
Fortunes of War (1987) -- British professor in Romania is sought for spy work against the fascist elements
X Tales from Hollywood (1992) -- Hollywood colony of German artists who escaped from Nazi Germany including Thomas Mann and Bertold Brecht
Zelary (2003) -- a nurse and her lover in the Czech resistance are found out and she has to hide in a very old-fashioned Czech village
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
Action in the North Atlantic (1943) -- before Dec. 7, 1941, the US merchant mariners brought supplies to the Russians; with Humphrey Bogart
X Atlantic Convoy (1942) -- war on U-boats attacking Allied ship convoys
Das Boot (1981) -- U-boats in 1941
We Dive at Dawn (1943) -- British submariners go after the German ship the Brandenburg
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
Above Us the Waves (1955) -- a British midget submarine raid damages German battleship Tirpitz, September 1943
X Tales from Hollywood (1992) -- Hollywood colony of German artists who escaped from Nazi Germany including Thomas Mann and Bertold Brecht
Proud (2004) -- the USS Mason, with an