Highest-Rated Movies about 'American Civil War', Sort by Popularity

Bad Company (1972), A Season in France (2017), The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Santa Fe Trail (1940), Gone with the Wind (1939), Airlift (2016) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best American Civil War movies.

#16. Lincoln (2012)

Storyline: In 1865, as the American Civil War winds inexorably toward conclusion, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln endeavors to achieve passage of the landmark constitutional amendment which will forever ban slavery from the United States. However, his task is a race against time, for peace may come at any time, and if it comes before the amendment is passed, the returning southern states will stop it before it can become law. Lincoln must, by almost any means possible, obtain enough votes from a recalcitrant Congress before peace arrives and it is too late. Yet the president is torn, as an early peace would save thousands of lives. As the nation confronts its conscience over the freedom of its entire population, Lincoln faces his own crisis of conscience -- end slavery or end the war.

Plot Keywords: president, first lady, son, vice president, military officer, activist, somber ...

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#17. They Drive by Night (1940)

Storyline: Brothers Paul and Joe Fabrini run a trucking business in California mainly shipping fruit from farms to the markets in Los Angeles. They struggle to make ends meet in the face of corrupt businessmen and intense competition. They are forced into driving long hours, and one night pick up waitress Cassie Hartley who's just quit her job at a truck stop. The three of them witness the death of a mutual acquaintance when he falls asleep at the wheel. This has a profound effect on Paul and Joe and they become determined to find a way to make the business pay so they can quit.—Col Needham <col@imdb.com>

Plot Keywords: truck driver, brother, business owner, girlfriend, uneasy, gritty, suspenseful ...

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#18. The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)

Storyline: In 1877, Frank (John Pearce) and Jesse James (Robert Duvall) are expecting to receive amnesty from the state of Missouri for all their previous crimes. But the railroad owners whom the brothers have repeatedly robbed intervene, stopping the amnesty and sending the Pinkertons to kill the gang. Meanwhile, Frank and Jesse team up with Cole Younger (Cliff Robertson) and his gang, and plot to rob the biggest bank west of the Mississippi, located in Northfield, Minn.

Plot Keywords: frank james, outlaw, gunslinger, bank robber, pinkerton agent, wild, intense ...

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#19. Cold Mountain (2003)

Storyline: This Civil War saga addresses romance, friendship, and the ravages of war--both in the field and on the home front. Captures the horrors of war for both those fighting it, and for those left behind. This is a tale of hope, longing, redemption, second chances, and faith.

Plot Keywords: soldier, farmer, deserter, wife, housekeeper, bleak, sad ...

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#20. The Beguiled (1971)

Storyline: As the costly American Civil War still rages on, a twelve-year-old student of the forgotten Miss Martha Farnsworth's Seminary for Young Ladies in warm and humid Mississippi stumbles upon a gravely wounded Union soldier, Corporal John McBurney (Clint Eastwood). Taken in to recover from his injuries, McBurney is imprisoned in a small room inside the mansion. However, before long, the seductive and unwanted guest will manage to take advantage of the female inhabitants' wartime-subdued desires. But is McBurney really in control over the situation?

Plot Keywords: soldier, young girl, student, fiery, sultry, offbeat, school ...

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#21. How the West Was Won (1962)

Storyline: Setting off on a journey to the west in the 1830s, the Prescott family run into a man named Linus, who helps them fight off a pack of thieves. Linus then marries daughter Eve Prescott (Carroll Baker), and 30 years later goes off to fight in the Civil War with their son, with bloody results. Eve's sister, Lily, heads farther west and has adventures with a professional gambler, stretching all the way to San Francisco and into the 1880s.

Plot Keywords: gambler, fur trapper, singer, frontiersman, captain, lieutenant, striking ...

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#22. The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)

Storyline: He was a riverboat pilot, newspaper reporter, penniless prospector, would-be entrepreneur, loving family man, world traveler, pomposity burster and raconteur. Then he passed away on April 21, 1910 at age 75 shorty after Halley's Comet returned as he predicted. This turns out that the man who created adventures for Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and a Connecticut Yankee led a mighty adventurous life himself. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) said, "Truth is a very valuable thing. I believe we should be economical with it." And that sets the tone for what follows: a biography about the immortal humorist's life from Hannibal boyhood to Big River exploits to global literary lion and more.—Michael Crew <m.crew@bbcnc.org.uk>

Plot Keywords: publisher, wife, widow, friend, writer, charming, lighthearted ...

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#23. The Conspirator (2010)

Storyline: In the wake of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. As the trial unfolds, Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son.

Plot Keywords: abraham lincoln, war hero, veteran, woman, lawyer, tense, emotional ...

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#24. Free State of Jones (2016)

Storyline: Set during the Civil War, Free State of Jones tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. Banding together with other small farmers and local slaves, Knight launched an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War.

Plot Keywords: farmer, medic, confederate soldier, slave, fugitive, rebel, brooding ...

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#26. The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)

Storyline: This is based on a true story. During the Civil War, a Union spy, Andrews, is asked to lead a band of Union soldiers into the South so that they could destroy the railway system. However, things don't go as planned when the conductor of the train that they stole is on to them and is doing everything he can to stop them.—<rcs0411@yahoo.com>

Plot Keywords: soldier, spy, conductor, thrilling, rousing, railway, georgia ...

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#27. The Raid (1954)

Storyline: A group of Confederate prisoners escape to Canada and plan to rob the banks and set fire to the small town of Saint Albans in Vermont. To get the lie of the land, their leader spends a few days in the town and finds he is getting drawn into its life and especially into that of an attractive widow and her son.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Plot Keywords: confederate soldier, prisoner of war, veteran, widow, son, banker, thrilling ...

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#28. Young Tom Edison (1940)

Storyline: Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Toms only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.—Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>

Plot Keywords: boy, teacher, father, mother, man, doctor, heartwarming ...

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#29. Virginia City (1940)

Storyline: During the American Civil War, Captain Kerry Bradford escapes from a notorious confederate prison. He and two of his men are sent to Virginia City where Confederate sympathizers are prepared to donate $5 million dollars to the cause of Southern independence. The war is going badly for the Confederacy and money may tip the war in their favor. On the stagecoach to Virginia City, Bradford meets and falls in love with Julia Hayne not realizing that she is one of the conspirators. When he gets to Virginia City, he also runs into Confederate Captain Vance Irby who has been sent to collect and safely deliver the gold. Irby manages to get out of the city but the Union cavalry is in hot pursue. When Bradfoed catches up with them, he not only has to fight Irby but also John Murrell, a bandit who has his own plans for the gold. He also—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: southerner, commander, intelligence officer, bandit, friend, engaging, gripping ...

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#30. Rio Lobo (1970)

Storyline: Bent on unearthing the cynical traitor who sold information to the enemy and caused the death of a dear brother-in-arms, the battle-tested former Union cavalry officer, Colonel Cord McNally, teams up with a pair of ex-Confederates after the Civil War. Now, as honest friends, the three companions ride into Rio Lobo--a dusty town in the middle of the desert overcome by corruption--to bring to justice the one who sold McNally out; however, the town is rife with the betrayer's murderous cut-throats. Can McNally avenge his bosom buddy and clean up Rio Lobo?—Nick Riganas

Plot Keywords: outlaw, sheriff, traitor, deputy, confederate soldier, union soldier, melodramatic ...

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