Best History Movies List

Schindler's List (1993)

Aggregate Rating: 282 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 93 | Earnings: $96.07M

Lead Role: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall, | Director: Steven Spielberg,

In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.

Dunkirk (2017)

Aggregate Rating: 252 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 94 | Earnings: $188.37M

Lead Role: Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, | Director: Christopher Nolan,

Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France are surrounded by the German Army, and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Aggregate Rating: 235 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 93 | Earnings: $40.22M

Lead Role: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds, Martin Stringer, | Director: Paul Thomas Anderson,

A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Aggregate Rating: 233 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 96 | Earnings: $56.67M

Lead Role: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, | Director: Steve McQueen,

In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

Braveheart (1995)

Aggregate Rating: 223 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 68 | Earnings: $75.60M

Lead Role: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen, | Director: Mel Gibson,

When his secret bride is executed for assaulting an English soldier who tried to rape her, Sir William Wallace begins a revolt against King Edward I of England.

Amadeus (1984)

Aggregate Rating: 221 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 93 | Earnings: $51.60M

Lead Role: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice, | Director: Milos Forman,

The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri - now confined to an insane asylum.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Aggregate Rating: 216 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 80 | Earnings: null

Lead Role: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, | Director: Sergio Leone,

A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.

Spotlight (2015)

Aggregate Rating: 216 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 93 | Earnings: $44.99M

Lead Role: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, | Director: Tom McCarthy,

The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.

Zodiac (2007)

Aggregate Rating: 205 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 78 | Earnings: $33.05M

Lead Role: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, | Director: David Fincher,

In the late 1960s/early 1970s, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.

Der Untergang (2004)

Aggregate Rating: 202 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 82 | Earnings: $5.50M

Lead Role: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler, | Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel,

Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

Aggregate Rating: 199 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 79 | Earnings: $23.47M

Lead Role: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Xolani Mali, | Director: Terry George,

Paul Rusesabagina was a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda.

Rush (2013)

Aggregate Rating: 195 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 75 | Earnings: $26.90M

Lead Role: Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, | Director: Ron Howard,

The merciless 1970s rivalry between Formula One rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Aggregate Rating: 192 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 71 | Earnings: $67.12M

Lead Role: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, | Director: Mel Gibson,

WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people, and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.

Il gattopardo (1963)

Aggregate Rating: 191 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 100 | Earnings: null

Lead Role: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa, | Director: Luchino Visconti,

The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860's Sicily.

The Aviator (2004)

Aggregate Rating: 191 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 77 | Earnings: $102.61M

Lead Role: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, | Director: Martin Scorsese,

A biopic depicting the early years of legendary Director and aviator Howard Hughes' career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s.

Bridge of Spies (2015)

Aggregate Rating: 190 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 81 | Earnings: $72.31M

Lead Role: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, | Director: Steven Spielberg,

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Aggregate Rating: 190 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 94 | Earnings: $15.70M

Lead Role: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, | Director: Kathryn Bigelow,

During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Aggregate Rating: 187 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 95 | Earnings: $95.72M

Lead Role: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, | Director: Kathryn Bigelow,

A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.

Troy (2004)

Aggregate Rating: 184 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 56 | Earnings: $133.23M

Lead Role: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Julian Glover, | Director: Wolfgang Petersen,

An adaptation of Homer's great epic, the film follows the assault on Troy by the united Greek forces and chronicles the fates of the men involved.

The Great Escape (1963)

Aggregate Rating: 182 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 0 | Earnings: null

Lead Role: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, | Director: John Sturges,

Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.