A Cinematic History of the World

[SuperDave]

A Cinematic History of the World

A while ago (i.e., grade school), I realized that a shockingly large percentage of American adults have little to no understanding of the historical origins of modern-day laws, customs, religious beliefs, social movements, and violent conflicts which fill our newspapers every day. While part of the blame for this ignorance can be laid at the feet of the American educational system, this doesn't address the issue that lots of people living in this world don't know why things work the way they do, and hence, don't know how to change them, or whether attempting to change them is a good idea.

So I thought to myself, maybe if there were a syllabus out there which people could use to fill-in the gaps in their historical knowledge, maybe that could help reduce ignorance in the world, and help people to better-understand the world they live in, and how to live more effectively within it.



My goal here is to compile a list of films, which when viewed in roughly chronological order, would provide the viewer with a generalized understanding of history’s major characters and events, from the earliest civilizations to the modern world. Ideally, I'd like to give the average person an understanding of history as a living, vibrant, and above all exciting field of study.


Guidelines: This list is not meant to be comprehensive, nor does it aspire to scrupulous historical accuracy. The main intent of this "playlist" is to entertain, and thereby inform, purely as an incidental effect of viewing. As such, historical comedies and farces (such as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, or Dr. Strangelove) are not automatically disqualified, as long as they provide some historical perspective to the viewer. Documentaries, though highly informative, are often stale and boring to those who do not study history, and as such should not be added to the list – we’re looking for action here, not just factual information. We want to include the twists, the turns, the inexorable marches towards destiny, the sudden unexpected reversals of fortune, and all the crazy chapters that make up the story of human beings on Earth.

Organization: Films will be organized in rough chronological order, from the earliest human societies to the middle of the 20th Century (probably ending with the Space Race - it seems as good an ending-point as any. And we really need a cut-off point, because if we don't have one, this list would go on literally forever). Viewers who wish to increase their knowledge of history would select one or more likely-looking films from each historical era, and watch them in chronological order. Watching all of them wouldn't be necessary; realistically, one film of the viewer's choice from each historical era is probably more than optimistic.

[Traab]

I was hoping for a remake of this.

[SuperDave]

Films by Historical Era

• Prehistory
  
  The Clan of the Cave Bear
  Quest for Fire
  
  
• Pre-Columbian Americas
  
  Apocalypto
  Kings of the Sun
  
• Mesopotamia/Bablylon
  
  The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Ancient Egypt
  
  Cleopatra (1934)
  Cleopatra (1963)
  The Egyptian
  Land of the Pharaohs
  Princess of the Nile
  Sudan
  Faraon (Pharaoh)
  Das Weib des Pharao (The Loves of Pharaoh)
  
  
• The Sudanic States(Ghana, Mali, and Songhai)
  
  Yaaba
  Wend Kuuni (does this belong here?)
  Sia, le rêve du python (Sia, the Dream of the Python)
  Kirikou and the Sorceress
  Kirikou and the Wild Beasts
  
• Swahili City-States and Indian-Ocean Trade
  
  
• Ancient Greece
  
  Troy
  Alexander
  300
  Alexander the Great
  Barefoot in Athens
  
• The Old Testament
  
  The Ten Commandments
  The Prince of Egypt
  Samson and Delilah (1949)
  The Bible: In the Beginning...
  Abraham
  Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)
  The Story of Jacob and Joseph
  Joseph
  Moses
  King David
  Esther
  Esther and the King
  
  
• Indus Valley and Ancient India (REQUIRES REORGANIZATION)
  
  The Mahabharata (1989)
  Gunga Din
  Mangal Pandey: The Rising
  Kim
  A Passage To India
  The Man Who Would be King
  
• The Yellow Emperor (Early China)
  
  The Emperor and the Assassin
  Hero
  Mongol
  
• Further Chinese History (REQUIRES REORGANIZATION)
  
  Curse of the Golden Flower
  House of Flying Daggers
  Once Upon a Time in China
  The Warlords
  
• Ancient Rome
  [INDENT][I]Julius Caesar
  Spartacus
  Gladiator
  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
  The Eagle
  Titus
  Satyricon
  The Fall of the Roman Empire
  
• Rome and Christianity
  
  Ben-Hur
  Quo Vadis
  Constantine and the Cross
  The Sign of the Cross
  The Robe
  Demetrius and the Gladiators
  Agora
  
• The New Testament
  
  The Last Temptation of Christ
  The Passion of the Christ
  The King of Kings
  The Greatest Story Ever Told
  Jesus
  The Miracle Maker
  The Gospel According to St. Matthew
  
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms (China)
  
  Red Cliff (part I)
  Red Cliff (Part II)
• The Middle Ages
  
  The Secret of Kells
  The Name of the Rose
  Tristan + Isolde
  Henry V
  The Lion in Winter
  Becket
  Beowulf & Grendel
  The Passion of Joan of Arc
  
  
• The Buddha
  
  Little Buddha
  Siddhartha
  Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?: A Zen Fable
  
• Mohammed and the Founding of Islam
  
  The Message
  Muhammad: The Last Prophet
  
• The Crusades
  
  Kingdom of Heaven
  King Richard and the Crusaders
  Saladin
  The Crusades
  Arn: The Knight Templar
  
• The Renaissance
  
  Elizabeth
  Elizabeth: The Golden Age
  Shakespeare in Love
  The Other Boelyn Girl
  Anne of the Thousand Days
  The Agony and the Ecstasy
  Galileo
  Girl with a Pearl Earring
  
• The Reformation in Europe
  
  Luther (1974)
  Martin Luther (1953)
  The Last Valley
  Queen Margot
  
• The Mughal Dynasty (India)
  
  Anarkali (1953, Hindi)
  Anarkali (1955, Telugu)
  Anarkali (1966, Malayam)
  Baiju Bawra
  Humayun
  Jahan Ara
  Jodhaa Akbar
  Meera (1979)
  Meera (1945)
  Mughal-e-Azam
  Pukar
  Taj Mahal (1963)
  Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story
  Waris Shah: Ishq Daa Waaris
  
  
• The "Discovery" of the New World (both North and South America)
  
  1492: Conquest of Paradise
  The Mission
  The Last of the Mohicans
  La Otra Conquista (The Other Conquest)
  The New World
  Aguirre: The Wrath of God
  
• The Enlightenment
  
  Longitude
  Cromwell
  Valmont
  Dangerous Liaisons
  Restoration
  
  
• The American Revolution
  
  1776
  Revolution
  The Crossing
  
  
• The Slave Trade
  
  Amistad
  Amazing Grace
  The Amazing Grace
  Cobra Verde (Slave Coast)
  Xica da Silva (The Silver Queen)
  Adanggaman
  
• The French Revolution
  
  La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (The Rise of Louis XIV)
  La Marseillaise
  A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
  A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
  Danton
  Vatel
  Les Misérables (1998)
  Marie Antoinette
  Jefferson in Paris
  
  
• The Napoleonic Era
  
  Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
  Quills
• The Industrial Revolution
  
  Germinal
  Moulin Rouge!
• The Victorian Era
  
  The Young Victoria
  Zulu
  Khartoum
  Oliver Twist (2005)
  Disraeli
  Hard Times (1994) (although it's a TV series, it's only 100 minutes long, so I feel it counts as a single film.)
  Wilde
  The Elephant Man
  Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown
  
• The American Civil War
  
  Gone With the Wind
  Gods and Generals
  Gettysburg
  Glory
  
• The Meiji Restoration and Japanese Imperialism
  
  The Last Samurai
  City of Life and Death
  
  
• The Captains of Industry, the Robber Barons, and the Gilded Age
  
  There Will Be Blood
• The Russian Revolution
  
  Dr. Zhivago
  Battleship Potemkin
  
• Imperialism and Nationalism
  
  The Wind that Shakes the Barley
  Sarraounia
  Michael Collins
  
• World War I
  
  Lawrence of Arabia
  War Horse
  All Quiet on the Western Front
  Paths of Glory
  My Boy Jack
  
  
• The Great Depression
  
  The Grapes of Wrath
  Of Mice and Men
  Citizen Kane
  Inherit the Wind
  Modern Times
  Rabbit-Proof Fence (does this film belong here?)
  The Untouchables
  Public Enemies
  
• The Interbellum Period
  [INDENT][I]Triumph des Willens (The Triumph of the Will)
  Mephisto
  Cabaret
  Swing Kids
  
  Land and Freedom
  Burnt by the Sun
  
• World War II
  
  Saving Private Ryan
  Casablanca
  Letters from Iwo Jima
  Flags of our Fathers
  The Great Escape
  Grave of the Fireflies
  The Bridge on the River Kwai
  Das Boot
  Enemy at the Gates
  Patton
  Der Untergang (The Downfall)
  Idi i Smotri (Come and See)
  Tora! Tora! Tora!
  Midway
  Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
  
  
• The Holocaust
  
  Schindler's List
  The Diary of Anne Frank
  Sophie's Choice
  The Pianist
  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
  Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters)
  
• The End of Colonialism
  
  Gandhi
  The Last Emperor
  La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers)
  Diên Biên Phú
  The House of the Spirits
  
• The Cultural Revolution (China)
  
  Huozhe (To Live)
  Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl
  Farewell My Concubine
  
  
• The Cold War
  
  Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
  Ice Station Zebra
  Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
  The Hunt for Red October
  Thirteen Days
  The Inner Circle
  Fail Safe
  The Atomic Cafe
  The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  Good Night and Good Luck
  The Proposition (does this belong here?)
  Evita (does this belong here?)
  State of Siege
  Missing
  Death and the Maiden
  Z
  The House of the Spirits
  
• The Civil Rights Movement
  
  To Kill a Mockingbird
  Malcolm X (1972)
  Malcolm X (1992)
  Men of Honor
  Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
  In the Heat of the Night
  Blackboard Jungle
  
• The Space Race
  
  Apollo 13
  October Sky
  The Right Stuff
  

[Bulldog Psion]

There's only one problem -- there are no films out there that can cure historical ignorance, even when watched in thousands, compared to one good history book.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Impressively non-Eurocentric. I approve.

Not sure how you're going to avoid the constant "Actually this isn't how things really went" caveats that end up in historical movies, but hey, I love a good historical movie, so!


One of the best historical movie/shows I ever saw is Canada: A People's History. 17 episodes, 32 hours. One of the best dramatical retellings of the history of an entire nation that I've ever seen. It was actually put together by CBC, the government-funded television and radio network, and it's probably the reason why we still HAVE the CBC: this program was so popular it led directly to increased CBC funding.

I'll list the episodes by where I would classify them by Era and subject.

Episode 1 falls under The New World.
Episode 2 falls under The New World/Elizabethan Era
Episodes 3 and 4 deal with New France up until it's taken over by the British, so I'd probably put that under The New World
Episode 5 is The American Revolution
Episode 6 is the Wild West
Episode 7 is the French Revolution (well, not really, but being that it deals with the attempted revolution and the Springtime of Nations in Canada, it's the best place for it to go)
Episode 8 is the American Civil War
Episode 9 is Imperialism I suppose, being as it deals mostly with the country taking over the west... By the way, you should move the Russian Revolution bit after the Imperialism and WWI, and maybe also fold Imperialism more broadly into European Colonialism?
Episode 10 is probably Imperialism as well.
11 and 12 are WWI (and the leadup to)
13 is the Great Depression
14 is WWII
15 is the cold war
16 is loosely Civil Rights movement
and 17 is Space Race (in era, not in theme. In theme, closer to Civil Rights movement)

It's basically the most complete and most interesting and captivating history of my country ever made, and one of the most, if not THE most well-done history documentaries EVER.

If you want to list each episode seperately (they are 2 hours long each, and pretty much count as movies), then I can get the episode names for you, or you can just look at the wiki page.

[Yora]

Now a problem is that you have to judge events as significant or not significant to something.

Explaining how Europe or North America came to be as it is now is one thing. There you can make a reasonably continuus string of significant events.

But supposed you live in India or China. The American Civil Rights Movement or the Empire of Charlemange have no significance at all. If America would still be segregated, what would have changed in China in the last 40 years?

And in respect to "the world", these two regions make up less than 20% of all people. A history of the world from the perspective of China and India would explain the world of over 50% of all people. And during the 1000 years of the middle ages, progress didn't stop there and they also had another 1000 years head start.

In regard to the world, our little corner on the North Atlantic played a major part only for the last two centuries, and is now returning to the second row.

[SuperDave]

Now a problem is that you have to judge events as significant or not significant to something.

Isn't that the definition of the discipline we call "History"? I'm sure Winston Churchill and Liu Bei and Haroun Al-Raschid all spent plenty of time on the toilet or brushing their teeth. It's the historian's job to cut out all the parts that are irrelevant for the story they're telling. The hygeine of these men probably wouldn't find its way into histories of military conquests, but if you were writing the biography of the man, it might be significant.

I realize that there's absolutely no way we'll ever come up with a comprehensive history of the world here. That would require filming everybody who ever lived on earth, for all of their lives, in full-immersion IMAX 3D, and even then we'd still be missing a ton of information.

I'm just looking to touch on a few of the high points of history, for the benefit of those who don't have the privilege of knowing much about it. A basic understanding of history, painted in broad strokes, is better than no understanding at all.

But supposed you live in India or China. The American Civil Rights Movement or the Empire of Charlemange have no significance at all. If America would still be segregated, what would have changed in China in the last 40 years?

What would be different now? Well, for starters, dissidents like Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese lawyer who fled from home arrest a few months ago, would have fewer successful role models to base their efforts on. Also, if America were still segregated, then that would mean one less member of the UN Security Council who's willing to put pressure on China to "lighten up" on its citizens.

Second, I think that as long as there are people out there who live their lives as second-class citizens, that makes life worse for the rest of us to, because that throws off a lot of anger and frustration and crime into the world, not to mention the fact that the discriminated group feels less incentive to improve the world around them, since they gain only a small benefit, if any, from doing so.

And in respect to "the world", these two regions make up less than 20% of all people. A history of the world from the perspective of China and India would explain the world of over 50% of all people. And during the 1000 years of the middle ages, progress didn't stop there and they also had another 1000 years head start.

In regard to the world, our little corner on the North Atlantic played a major part only for the last two centuries, and is now returning to the second row.

What eras would you suggest I add to the list? Do you know of any movies to fill those categories? I'd love to hear them

[The Glyphstone]

Would Ice Station Zebra qualify as a Cold War film? It's about as historically accurate as Dr. Strangelove, coming from a thriller/action angle instead of a black comedy angle, but does have some mild historical basis.

Though in terms of submarine Cold War movies, Hunt For Red October is far superior, and again roughly as historically accurate as Dr. Strangelove.

[Bulldog Psion]

I'd like to suggest:

The Alamo (the one with Thornton, it's actually excellent and I can't see why it's disliked so much) -- probably Victorian.

Open Range -- Wild West.

[An Enemy Spy]

To Live.
It's a film about a family in China going through the Chinese Civil War and the rise of communism from the 40s to the 60s.

[Madcrafter]

I thought that Hunt for Red October was pretty good.

Another Cold War film I might suggest is Thirteen Days. I remember watching it in history class when we were studying the Cuban Missile Crisis, and IIRC it captured the feeling of the time pretty well.

EDIT: Another Holocaust one I remember watching a long time ago: The Pianist. I personally don't remember how good it was, but it's on imdb's top 250, so it can't be that bad (IIRC depressing, though that is hardly surprising).

Also, for Cold War/East Germany: The Lives of Others. Haven't personally seen this one, but I know lots of people who thought it was very good.

Also, To Kill a Mockingbird for Civil Rights?

Not based in any history at all AFAIK, but Gladiator for Rome (I don't know how many movies there are set in the Roman Empire; probably quite a few, but I can't think of many).

For some perspective from the German side in WWII (at least a submarine crew): Das Boot, for another, the oft parodied Downfall (haven't seen this one personally). And for the Russians: Enemy at the Gates. POWs: The Great Escape and Bridge on the River Kwai. Americans: Patton, and those already mentioned.

Vietnam War: Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, or Apocalypse Now (and a whole ton of others). For a TV series that is a documentary but still very interesting, the recently aired Vietnam in HD (all real footage too).

For the Wild West: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

A few WWI films: Lawrence of Arabia, All Quiet on the Western Front, War Horse, and Paths of Glory.

[Weezer]

Roman Empire:
I, Claudius: A TV series, but such a classic that I must mention it. Shows an (admittedly stylized) look at Roman court intrigue during the imperial era. Includes such important figures as Augustus and Caligula.

Combines Rome with New Testament:
Ben-Hur

American Civil War:
Gettysburg: An amazing depiction of one of the deciding battles of the war. Doesn't have an overview of the war as a whole, but a very good ground floor look at it.

Cold War:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Shows the fatalism and disillusionment that characterized much of the Cold War.

[thompur]

*The Cold War
Fail Safe

[Selrahc]

Now a problem is that you have to judge events as significant or not significant to something.

Except by invoking the medium of cinema, that gives am inherent cultural context.

Wild West is a very niche topic as far as world is history is concerned. But it is one that has had a lot of cinematography devoted to it, so it can easily justify being in the list. Probably more so than much more historically significant events.

As defined in the original post, this is a thread giving people a cinematographic jumping off point to understanding world history. Sparking interest and discussion, and maybe being a handy point of reference. With that in mind, I don't think it's terribly productive to get into "The nature of world history" discussions. Although I'm sure if you have periods and movies to add, they could well be included in what looks more like a framework than a strait jacket.

[GolemsVoice]

"The Lives of Others" can give a good insight into life in the GDR, but also into the life in a paranoid communist country in general, as well as the move "The Inner Circle" for Soviet Russia.

"The Downfall" is a good, if long and heavy movie about Hitler's last days, which isn't a whole lot of history, but it's well made and shows the German side, which is quite rare.

[Caivs]

The BBC has made quite a few docu-dramas that are as entertaining as most of the movies you mentionned, while being a lot more historically accurate (Even though of course, they are not as informative as a good old book). You might want to take a look at Ancient Rome: the Rise and Fall of an Empire (6 one hour films of critical moments of ancient roman history), Heroes and Villains (6 one hour films of various historical figures such as the Shogun Ieyasu, Hernan Cortez, Richard Lionheart,etc) and Hannibal: Rome's Worst Nightmare (1h30m film of Hannibal's campaigns), and there are some others I forgot.

They're made like movies, with some action-filled scenes, great soundtrack and excellent acting, while teaching a lot more about actual history than cliched hollywood movies.

[SuperDave]

Wild West is a very niche topic as far as world is history is concerned. But it is one that has had a lot of cinematography devoted to it, so it can easily justify being in the list. Probably more so than much more historically significant events.

I've been having similar thoughts myself. The whole Wild West era is a really culturally-biased term; the English just call the same span of years "The Victorian Era". Furthermore, except for Native Americans, it didn't really have a huge impact on people outside the United States and Mexico. While a section on the destruction of native peoples would certainly be relevant, I unfortunately know very little about Native American cinema. I'm not certain I've ever seen an Indian-directed film, to my knowledge, and never one about the Pre-Columbian Americas.

Maybe the whole Wild West section should be changed to reflect the native perspective more fully, or else be cut out entirely.

In fact, I've been wondering if the American Civil War was really an event of truly international significance for world history. Sure, it ended the market for slaves in one of the larges (and last) nations where slavery was legal, but what about Great Britain's peaceful struggle to abolish the practice? I'm sure that that had much greater resonance for a much larger population of enslaved Africans living in the world's largest empire.

(The same might also be said about the American Revolution, too.)

As defined in the original post, this is a thread giving people a cinematographic jumping off point to understanding world history. Sparking interest and discussion, and maybe being a handy point of reference. With that in mind, I don't think it's terribly productive to get into "The nature of world history" discussions. Although I'm sure if you have periods and movies to add, they could well be included in what looks more like a framework than a strait jacket.

You're quite right, Selrahc. I concur!

[SuperDave]

Roman Empire:
I, Claudius: A TV series, but such a classic that I must mention it. Shows an (admittedly stylized) look at Roman court intrigue during the imperial era. Includes such important figures as Augustus and Caligula.

While I like the sound of the series, based on how you describe it, I think that we've got to exclude serieses (sp?) from this particular list. Even attempting to assemble a list like this might be aiming a bit high. If we throw serieses into the mix, we'll be here forever.

I guess I like the idea of just sticking to movies for now, because they're self-contained and easy to digest. As soon as people see that a series is 30+ episodes long, they're likely to feel nervous about how long this is all going to take, and then they'll turn the TV back to Real Housewives. It should be easy to come in at any point in the list, and be done with each section in just a few sittings at most.

That said, I think that a thread for outstanding documentaries and/or historical-fiction TV series' would be an excellent idea.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

You can also consider them just be era rather than by event, that's how I was. The American Civil War section dealing not just with the war, but with a whole pile of things happening in the 19th century at around the same time.

[Raimun]

Now a problem is that you have to judge events as significant or not significant to something.

Explaining how Europe or North America came to be as it is now is one thing. There you can make a reasonably continuus string of significant events.

But supposed you live in India or China. The American Civil Rights Movement or the Empire of Charlemange have no significance at all. If America would still be segregated, what would have changed in China in the last 40 years?

And in respect to "the world", these two regions make up less than 20% of all people. A history of the world from the perspective of China and India would explain the world of over 50% of all people. And during the 1000 years of the middle ages, progress didn't stop there and they also had another 1000 years head start.

In regard to the world, our little corner on the North Atlantic played a major part only for the last two centuries, and is now returning to the second row.

Isn't that kind of an understatement? Industrial Revolution changed the world perhaps more than anything else ever and that started in Europe. Other continents might have had more advanced technology in middle ages but that technology consisted mostly of novelties that didn't really impact the lives of normal people. Even if Europe was blasted sky high right now, its impact was huge, regardless of whether or not you agree it's for the best. That's why history is so often eurocentric.

[polity4life]

How about Dr. Zhivago for your Russian Revolution category? It could go under World War I as well but let's flesh out a presently empty category.

Thought of another: Zulu for the Victorian Era. It's a bit like Saving Private Ryan meeting Seven Samurai all in the backdrop of the Anglo-Zulu War.

[SuperDave]

I found this really useful list of Old Testament movies, but I've never watched any of them. Has anyone else seen a few of them, and would be able to make recommendations about which ones are the best?

(At first it looks like there are only two movies in the list, but if you scroll past the eBay ads you'll be able to see the rest of them.)

-----------------

Also, I think we're good on WWI and WWII films at this point. Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions! If you can think of any more, feel free to post your suggestions. I'm just noticing that we've got a lot of 20th-century movies, but we don't have as many concerning the rest of the bulk of human history.

[polity4life]

For BC era China, however you want to categorize it, you could put in The Emperor and the Assassin. That's one of the best pieces of east asian cinema I've ever seen.

Edit: Let's throw in Mongol for good measure. It's primarily based on the early life of Genghis Khan.

[VanBuren]

(The same might also be said about the American Revolution, too.)

In what sense? For better or for worse, the United States has has an enormous impact on the face of the rest of the world. So the American Revolutionary War has an international significance because it's responsible for the creation of one of the biggest pieces on the board in the 20th century.

Besides that, would you even have the French Revolution without it?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

In what sense? For better or for worse, the United States has has an enormous impact on the face of the rest of the world. So the American Revolutionary War has an international significance because it's responsible for the creation of one of the biggest pieces on the board in the 20th century.

Besides that, would you even have the French Revolution without it?

The most important thing with the American Revolution would be it's influence on liberal ideology and revolutionary ideals across the world. Of course, most of American Revolution movies you find are going to be chest-thumping nationalism though.

[VanBuren]

The most important thing with the American Revolution would be it's influence on liberal ideology and revolutionary ideals across the world. Of course, most of American Revolution movies you find are going to be chest-thumping nationalism though.

Part of it is that it's probably easier to make a film of the second on than the first.

[Klose_the_Sith]

You want to expand the French Revolution section into a French Revolution & Napoleonic Wars section, which Master and Commander fits into (good movie, but it doesn't really show much actual colonialism). I would also propose "The Duellists" for that section, though that is a sometimes contentious pick.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Got some nominations:

Gangs of New York: Tells the story of the Union Home Front in New York during the Civil War. Quite authentic, if not wholly accurate (huge difference) portrayal of life at the time and the underlying social issues of the day.

HBO's Rome: Rome is a miniseries (~20 episodes) that seeks to show the Fall of the Roman Republic, from the end of Julius Caesar's Gallic campaign to Augustus' rise to imperial power. Again, the emphasis of the series is the day-to-day lives and society of the common people of the city of Rome.

The Twelve Chairs: The Russian Revolution as told by an ex-noble who seeks to reclaim his lost fortune. Aided by a homeless con-man, the ex-noble sees many aspects of early Soviet Union life as he tries to recover a set of Twelve Chairs his mother sewed her diamonds into to escape the mobs.

Reds: This movie details the life of one John Reeds, the only American buried under the Kremlin. John Reed wrote a first-hand account of the Russian Revolution entitled, Ten Days that Shook the World, and the movie follows him as he reports on the Revolution, tries unsuccessfully to apply communist ideals to America, and then dies of kidney failure in the aftermath of the Revolution

[Aedilred]

As an historian, I'm wary of including stuff like Braveheart in the list because they're almost offensively inaccurate. They're fine as fantasy in a quasi-historical setting but there's nothing about it that's really historical. I don't just mean the anti-English propaganda, either, I mean everything. It's a 19th-century romanticised ideal of Scotland with Hollywood characters pasted over the top. The same goes for The Patriot, obviously.

However, if it's going to be included I'd reservedly recommend Gallipoli, the best of the Mel Gibson Anglophobic pseudo-histories, which takes fewer liberties than those above and also had a significant impact on the recent development of independent Australian culture.

Taking my "I hate Mel Gibson" hat off, I haven't seen it but Australia migh be worth a look. Hero isn't a bad take on (a mythologised version of) the story of the unification of China. And, from left field, if you're looking for a potted and entertaining ride through some of the defining moments of postwar American history, you could do worse than Forrest Gump.

There are a number of decent film versions of Shakespeare plays dealing with the Middle Ages. For a brief summary of the Hundred Years' War, Henry V (I think the Hollow Crown version is actually superior in most respects to the Olivier one) isn't too bad.

If you want something on the English Renaisssance, Anne of the Thousand Days is probably a better bet than The Other Boleyn Girl. The Elizabeth films are pretty awful but probably just about accurate enough to qualify.

Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven are definitely worth a look. Neither are amazing films but they're not terrible, and they're about as historically-accurate as films get.

To really put the cat among the pigeons, how about 300? It's stupid, and I can totally see the arguments about borderline racism, but the overall story isn't really any further off the mark historically than many films already suggested.