Highest-Rated Movies about 'Historical Events', Sort by Popularity

...So Goes the Nation (2006), The Conqueror Worm (1968), Waco: The Rules of Engagement (1997), Rosewood (1997), Les Misérables: The Staged Concert (2019), Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993), Ookami kodomo no Ame to Yuki (2012), Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye (2003) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Historical Events movies.

#1. ...So Goes the Nation (2006)

Storyline: Filmmakers examine the role of Ohio in the 2004 presidential election and present the American electoral process through the eyes of voters, politicians and activists. Republican and Democratic campaign strategists and officials all attempt to swing the election their way by pushing hot-button issues to the forefront.

Plot Keywords: dick cheney, george w. bush, john kerry, volunteer, activist, political consultant, fascinating ...

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#2. The Conqueror Worm (1968)

Storyline: A disturbing tale of evil set during the English Civil War. When Matthew Hopkins is appointed Witchfinder General by the Puritans under Cromwell, he is empowered to travel the countryside with his henchmen and collect a fee for each witch from whom he extracts a confession - a policy which is exploited to the full.

Plot Keywords: witch, priest, henchman, villager, dark, creepy, gripping ...

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#3. Waco: The Rules of Engagement (1997)

Storyline: This documentary about the 1993 showdown between the FBI and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, presents an alternate theory about the tragedy. The government has long contended that this fringe Christian group was a danger, and that the siege on its compound, which resulted in the death of 70 people, was necessary. Director William Gazecki, using footage from the siege and the Congressional hearings that followed it, asserts that American forces may have attacked a peaceful religious group.

Plot Keywords: narrator, cult member, government official, shocking, intense, profound, waco, texas ...

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#4. Rosewood (1997)

Storyline: Rosewood, Florida, is a small, peaceful town with an almost entirely African-American population of middle-class homeowners, until New Year's Day 1923, when a lynch mob from a neighboring white community storms the town. Among the carnage, music teacher Sylvester (Don Cheadle) and mysterious stranger Mann (Ving Rhames) stand tall against the invaders, while white grocer John (Jon Voight) attempts to save the town's women and children. The film is based on a true story.

Plot Keywords: teacher, stranger, grocer, mother, child, dark, disturbing ...

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#5. Les Misérables: The Staged Concert (2019)

Storyline: Seen by over 120 million people worldwide one of the world's most popular musicals. Now cinema audiences can experience a live broadcast of the musical phenomenon which broke box office records and sold out its entire 16-week season.

Plot Keywords: prisoner, prison guard, peasant, waif, innkeeper, love interest, spirited ...

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#6. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993)

Storyline: This Canadian documentary portrays the 1990 showdown between the Mohawk Nation and the predominantly white Quebec town of Oka, which is intent on developing land deemed sacred by the native people. When members of the Mohawk tribe protest plans to expand a golf course into their territory, they form a barricade, leading to an armed standoff with provincial police that becomes increasingly tense, with the possibility of violence looming over the heads of everyone involved.

Plot Keywords: native, police officer, soldier, politician, tense, emotional, spirited ...

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#8. Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye (2003)

Storyline: Filmed only a few years before his death, this documentary focuses on the career of Henri Cartier-Bresson, a frustrated painter who became a world-renowned photographer. As he reviews his portfolio of iconic images and notable figures, the notoriously press-shy Cartier-Bresson offers insights into his legendary career, which covered everything from Gandhi's funeral to the fall of China. Interviews with historians and colleagues explore the powerful impact of his globetrotting work.

Plot Keywords: photographer, actor, historian, filmmaker, playwright, colleague, creative ...

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#9. JFK (1991)

Storyline: On November 22, 1963, president John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the crime and subsequently shot by Jack Ruby, supposedly avenging the president's death. An investigation concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby acted alone in their respective crimes, but Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison is skeptical. Assembling a trusted group of people, Garrison conducts his own investigation, bringing about backlash from powerful government and political figures.

Plot Keywords: district attorney, assassin, businessman, informant, wife, passionate, spirited ...

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#10. Kon-Tiki (1951)

Storyline: "Kon-Tiki" was the name of a wooden raft used by six Scandinavian scientists, led by Thor Heyerdahl, to make a 101-day journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands. The purpose of the expedition was to prove Heyerdal's theory that the Polynesian Islands were populated from the east---specifically Peru---rather than from the west (Asia)as had been the theory for hundreds of years. Heyerdahl made a study of the winds and tides in the Pacific, and by simulating conditions as closely as possible to those he theorized the Peruvians encountered, set out on the voyage.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: explorer, scientist, sailor, filmmaker, engaging, fascinating, pacific ocean ...

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#11. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Storyline: The Joad clan, introduced to the world in John Steinbeck's iconic novel, is looking for a better life in California. After their drought-ridden farm is seized by the bank, the family -- led by just-paroled son Tom -- loads up a truck and heads West. On the road, beset by hardships, the Joads meet dozens of other families making the same trek and holding onto the same dream. Once in California, however, the Joads soon realize that the promised land isn't quite what they hoped.

Plot Keywords: ex-convict, sharecropper, priest, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, bleak ...

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#12. A Taxi Driver (2017)

Storyline: May 1980. A Seoul taxi driver named Man-seob (SONG Kang-ho) comes across an offer too good to be true. If he drives a foreign passenger from Seoul down to Gwangju and back again before the curfew, he'll be paid the unthinkable sum of 100,000 won - enough to cover several months of unpaid rent. Without stopping to ask the details, he picks up the German reporter Peter (Thomas Kretschmann) and sets off along the highway. Although stopped by police roadblocks at the edge of Gwangju, Man-seob is desperate to earn his taxi fare, and eventually manages to find a way into the city. There they encounter students and ordinary citizens taking part in large-scale demonstrations against the government. Man-seob, alarmed by the danger in the air, pleads with Peter to go quickly back to Seoul. But Peter ignores him, and with the help of a university student Jae-sik (RYU Jun-yeol) and a Gwangju taxi driver named HWANG (YOO Hai-jin), begins shooting with his news camera. As time passes the situation grows more and more serious, and Man-seob keeps thinking of his young daughter at home all alone.—Showbox

Plot Keywords: soldier, journalist, taxi driver, protester, thrilling, sad, gritty ...

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#13. The Lion in Winter (1968)

Storyline: It's Christmas 1183, and King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) is planning to announce his successor to the throne. The jockeying for the crown, though, is complex. Henry has three sons and wants his boy Prince John (Nigel Terry) to take over. Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn), has other ideas. She believes their son Prince Richard (Sir Anthony Hopkins) should be King. As the family and various schemers gather for the holiday, each tries to make the indecisive King choose his or her option.

Plot Keywords: king henry ii, queen, prince, mistress, son, engaging, intricate ...

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#14. A Night to Remember (1958)

Storyline: A successful attempt at an even-handed portrayal of the White Star Line's (later part of Cunard) luxury liner R.M.S. Titanic's sinking from the standpoint of 2nd Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, himself the most senior of the ill-fated ship's Deck Officers to survive the disaster. (Lightoller later went on to distinguish himself as a line British Naval Officer during the First World War and served as a Senior Naval Staff Officer (convoys) during WWII. Between wars he owned and operated a successful family business producing pleasure craft.) His own survival of the sinking, along with several others, is shown atop one of the liner's two "collapsible" lifeboats which was capsized in floating off the liner as it sank. The picture depicts then known facts (c1958) as reported after the sinking; such as the woeful lack of adequate lifeboats, the ship's band playing true to the very end, White Star's co-owner Bruce Ismay's somewhat less than chivalrous departure from the sinking vessel -...

Plot Keywords: captain, sailor, passenger, tense, gripping, ocean liner, atlantic ocean ...

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