Highest-Rated Movies about '1900s'

The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Prestige (2006), Wild Strawberries (1957), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Kwaidan (1964), Battleship Potemkin (1925), The Wizard of Oz (1939) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best 1900s movies.

#16. 1900 (1976)

Storyline: Set in Italy, the film follows the lives and interactions of two boys/men, one born a bastard of peasant stock (Depardieu), the other born to a land owner (de Niro). The drama spans from 1900 to about 1945, and focuses mainly on the rise of Fascism and the peasants' eventual reaction by supporting Communism, and how these events shape the destinies of the two main characters.

Plot Keywords: class struggle, socialist, male full frontal nudity, world war two, farm worker, army, penis ...

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#17. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Storyline: The young, handsome, but somewhat wild Eugene Morgan wants to marry Isabel Amberson, daughter of a rich upper-class family, but she instead marries dull and steady Wilbur Minafer. Their only child, George, grows up a spoiled brat. Years later, Eugene comes back, now a mature widower and a successful automobile maker. After Wilbur dies, Eugene again asks Isabel to marry him, and she is receptive. But George resents the attentions paid to his mother, and he and his whacko aunt Fanny manage to sabotage the romance. A series of disasters befall the Ambersons and George, and he gets his come-uppance in the end.

Plot Keywords: spoiled brat, forgiveness, jealousy, comeuppance, class differences, automobile, star ...

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#18. The Last Emperor (1987)

Storyline: This sweeping account of the life of Pu-Yi, the last emperor of China, follows the leader's tumultuous reign. After being captured by the Red Army as a war criminal in 1950, Pu-Yi recalls his childhood from prison. He remembers his lavish youth in the Forbidden City, where he was afforded every luxury but unfortunately sheltered from the outside world and complex political situation surrounding him. As revolution sweeps through China, the world Pu-Yi knew is dramatically upended.

Plot Keywords: china, based on true story, divorce, extortion, eyeglasses, flower, gate ...

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#19. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Storyline: A musical portrait of composer/singer/dancer George M. Cohan. From his early days as a child-star in his family's vaudeville show up to the time of his comeback at which he received a medal from the president for his special contributions to the US, this is the life- story of George M. Cohan, who produced, directed, wrote and starred in his own musical shows for which he composed his famous songs.

Plot Keywords: singing, dancing, father son relationship, spanking, fake beard, parade, fourth of july ...

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#20. The Public Enemy (1931)

Storyline: Tom Powers and Matt Doyle are best friends and fellow gangsters, their lives frowned upon by Tom's straight laced brother, Mike, and Matt's straight laced sister, Molly. From their teen-aged years into young adulthood, Tom and Matt have an increasingly lucrative life, bootlegging during the Prohibition era. But Tom in particular becomes more and more brazen in what he is willing to do, and becomes more obstinate and violent against those who either disagree with him or cross him. When one of their colleagues dies in a freak accident, a rival bootlegging faction senses weakness among Tom and Matt's gang, which is led by Paddy Ryan. A gang war ensues, resulting in Paddy suggesting that Tom and Matt lay low. But because of Tom's basic nature, he decides instead to take matters into his own hands.

Plot Keywords: criminal, gangster, bootlegger, chicago illinois, rise and fall, prohibition, organized crime ...

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#21. Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press (1996)

Storyline: The profile of controversial journalist George Seldes and a piercing examination of America's news media. Narrated by Susan Sarandon, with readings of writings by Ed Asner, this Academy Award-nominated film includes stunning archival materials.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: infiltration, fascism, brutality, assassination, scandal, expulsion, political repression ...

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#22. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Storyline: St. Louis 1903. The well-off Smith family has four beautiful daughters, including Esther and little Tootie. 17-year old Esther has fallen in love with the boy next door who has just moved in, John. He however barely notices her at first. The family is shocked when Mr. Smith reveals that he has been transfered to a nice position in New York, which means that the family has to leave St. Louis and the St. Louis Fair.

Plot Keywords: love, moving, 1900s, snowman, corset, marriage proposal, turn of the century ...

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#23. The Time Machine (1960)

Storyline: On January 5, 1900, a disheveled looking H.G. Wells - George to his friends - arrives late to his own dinner party. He tells his guests of his travels in his time machine, the work about which his friends knew. They were also unbelieving, and skeptical of any practical use if it did indeed work. George knew that his machine was stationary in geographic position, but he did not account for changes in what happens over time to that location. He also learns that the machine is not impervious and he is not immune to those who do not understand him or the machine's purpose. George tells his friends that he did not find the Utopian society he so wished had developed. He mentions specifically a civilization several thousand years into the future which consists of the subterranean morlocks and the surface dwelling eloi, who on first glance lead a carefree life. Despite all these issues, love can still bloom over the spread of millennia.

Plot Keywords: time machine, post apocalypse, dystopia, steampunk, based on novel, time travel, london england ...

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#24. Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Storyline: The year is 1899, and Christian, a young English writer, has come to Paris to follow the Bohemian revolution taking hold of the city's drug and prostitute infested underworld. And nowhere is the thrill of the underworld more alive than at the Moulin Rouge, a night club where the rich and poor men alike come to be entertained by the dancers, but things take a wicked turn for Christian as he starts a deadly love affair with the star courtesan of the club, Satine. But her affections are also coveted by the club's patron: the Duke. A dangerous love triangle ensues as Satine and Christian attempt to fight all odds to stay together but a force that not even love can conquer is taking its toll on Satine...

Plot Keywords: death of main character, two word title, title spoken by character, tragedy, eiffel tower paris, jukebox musical, jealousy ...

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#25. Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Storyline: When Walt Disney's daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins (1964), he made them a promise - one that he didn't realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney's plans for the adaptation. For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn't budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp. It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers ...

Plot Keywords: disney, based on true story, death of father, filmmaking, alcoholism, father daughter relationship, mistrust ...

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#26. Sunshine (1999)

Storyline: The film follows a Jewish family living in Hungary through three generations, rising from humble beginnings to positions of wealth and power in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. The patriarch becomes a prominent judge but is torn when his government sanctions anti-Jewish persecutions. His son converts to Christianity to advance his career as a champion fencer and Olympic hero, but is caught up in the Holocaust. Finally, the grandson, after surviving war, revolution, loss and betrayal, realizes that his ultimate allegiance must be to himself and his heritage.

Plot Keywords: one word title, man in shower, sex scene, jewish, female frontal nudity, eastern europe, family business ...

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#27. Legends of the Fall (1994)

Storyline: In early twentieth century Montana, Colonel William Ludlow (Sir Anthony Hopkins) lives in the wilderness with his sons, Tristan (Brad Pitt), Alfred (Aidan Quinn), and Samuel (Henry Thomas). Eventually, the unconventional, but close-knit, family encounters tragedy when Samuel is killed in World War I. Tristan and Alfred survive their tours of duty, but, soon after they return home, both men fall for Samuel's gorgeous fiancée, Susannah (Julia Ormond), and their intense rivalry begins to destroy the family.

Plot Keywords: guilt, torment, melodrama, melancholy, fiancee, sibling rivalry, loss of brother ...

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#28. The Tin Drum (1979)

Storyline: Danzig in the 1920s/1930s. Oskar Matzerath, son of a local dealer, is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of World War II. So he refuses the society and his tin drum symbolizes his protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighborhood, which stand for all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time. However, (almost) nobody listens to him, so the catastrophe goes on...

Plot Keywords: nazi, male nudity, drummer, money, mother son relationship, boy, nazi uniform ...

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#29. Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Storyline: Henry Van Cleve presents himself at the gates of Hell only to find he is closely vetted on his qualifications for entry. Surprised there is any question on his suitability, he recounts his lively life and the women he has known from his mother onwards, but mainly concentrating on his happy but sometimes difficult twenty-five years of marriage to Martha.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Plot Keywords: teenage boy, chase, cigar smoking, cousin cousin relationship, cynicism, dancer, death of husband ...

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#30. The Sea Wolf (1941)

Storyline: 1900. Each coming into the situation under different circumstances, George Leach, Ruth Brewster, both who are trying to evade capture by the authorities, and writer Humphrey Van Weyden, from a refined background, somewhat reluctantly are on their first of the latest sailing of the Ghost, a sealing schooner, out of its home port of San Francisco. The Ghost is skippered with an iron fist by "Wolf" Larsen, who will not tolerate any question of his authority, and whose cruelty has turned his crew into a hardened lot. In that cruelty, he will often turn his adversaries against each other to his own end of that total control. While all three would like to get off, George and Ruth someplace other than San Francisco, they are being held somewhat captive by Wolf both in not interacting with any other ships and not making land until its ultimate return to San Francisco. Humphrey can see and discovers that Wolf is a mass of contradictions as the Ghost's true nature, which has to do with Wolf's similarly seafaring brother, remains hidden from most. Meanwhile, George does whatever he can to get off board safely with Ruth, especially as they have fallen in love partly in their fugitive status, and even if it requires trying to organize a mutiny under the condition of not knowing who to trust. Through the machinations of each trying to achieve their goal, Wolf may display to who it matters the most his working under the ultimate creed of preferring to "reign in hell than serve in heaven".—Huggo

Plot Keywords: writer, murder, sea captain, ship, insanity, doctor, self sacrifice ...

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