Highest-Rated Movies about 'American Civil War'

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966), The General (1926), Gone with the Wind (1939), Dances with Wolves (1990), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Glory (1989), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), The Last Samurai (2003) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best American Civil War movies.

#16. Little Women (1994)

Storyline: Louisa May Alcott's autobiographical account of her life with her three sisters in Concord, Massachusetts in the 1860s. With their father fighting in the American Civil War, sisters Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth are at home with their mother, a very outspoken women for her time. The story tells of how the sisters grow up, find love and find their place in the world.

Plot Keywords: death, feminist, first love, growing up, snow, christmas tree, christmas eve ...

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#17. 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: based on real person, politics, based on true story, mental illness, washington d.c., speech, mourning ...

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#18. The Story of Adele H (1975)

Storyline: Halifax, 1863. A young woman, Miss Lewly, comes to Halifax to search for Lt Pinson, with whom she is madly in love. Actually, she is Adèle Hugo, the second daughter of the great French literary figure and statesman. The Lt Pinson does not answer to her love and makes her understand it is hopeless. But as her obsession grows she keeps chasing and harassing him. This film about passionate yet obsessive love and self-destruction is based upon the real diary of Adèle Hugo.—Yepok

Plot Keywords: jewelry, cross dressing, british soldier, top hat, drowning, sickness, doctor ...

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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: u.s. civil war, nonlinear timeline, based on novel, stabbed in the chest, shot in the chest, female frontal nudity, baby ...

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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: leg amputation, american civil war, sexuality, womanizer, seduction, crutches, girls' school ...

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#21. The Little Colonel (1935)

Storyline: After Southern belle Elizabeth Lloyd runs off to marry Yankee Jack Sherman, her father, a former Confederate colonel during the Civil War, vows to never speak to her again. Several years pass and Elizabeth returns to her home town with her young daughter. The little girl charms her crusty grandfather and tries to patch things up between him and her mother.—Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>

Plot Keywords: gunshot, gold, elopement, deception, cook, civil war veteran, children ...

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#22. 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: imperialism, saloon, san francisco california, singing, small town, spinster, st. louis missouri ...

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#23. 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: based on play, cigar smoking, saga, episodic structure, honor, based on true story, 1860s ...

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#24. Union Pacific (1939)

Storyline: One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: grief, sadness, henchman, railroad, train movie, blizzard, kidnapping ...

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#25. I Married a Witch (1942)

Storyline: In 1672, two witches (Jennifer and her father Daniel) were burned by puritan Jonathan Wooley. In revenge, Jennifer cursed all future generations of the Wooley family, that the sons will always marry the wrong woman and be miserable. In the 20th century, a bolt of lightning frees Jennifer and her father from the tree that had kept their souls imprisoned. Jennifer assumes corporeal form and decides to make up-and-coming politician Wallace Wooley, then unhappily engaged, even more miserable by getting him to fall in love with her before his wedding. Wallace is a straight arrow, though, and Jennifer has to resort to a love potion. As we all know, love potions tend to backfire, with comedic results.—Finchster

Plot Keywords: curse, jail, jealousy, marriage proposal, parrot, party, political candidate ...

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#26. Juarez (1939)

Storyline: The newly-named Emperor Maximillian, the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire, arrives in Mexico in the early 1860s with his wife Carlotta to face popular sentiment favoring Benito Juarez and popular demand for democracy. With an elite group of Mexican monarchists, Maximillian tries to appease the democratic Mexicans but he fails. Abraham Lincoln continues to support Juarez and asks the French to withdraw support for Maximilian. Carlotta goes to France to plead with Napoleon III, to no avail.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: cavalry charge, infantry, cavalry, musket, flintlock pistol, flintlock rifle, cannon ...

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#27. 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: civil war, american civil war, standing in the rain, snake, animal attack, animal bite, bloodhound ...

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#28. 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: newspaper headline, integrity, abuse of power, conscience, fasting, hunger strike, vengeance ...

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#29. 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: spy, based on true story, steam train, american civil war, espionage, jailbreak, telegram ...

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#30. Mysterious Island (1961)

Storyline: During the US Civil War, Union POWs escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a South Pacific island, inhabited by giant plants and animals. They must use their ingenuity to survive the dangers, and to devise a way to return home. Sequel to '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'.—Stewart M. Clamen <clamen@cs.cmu.edu>

Plot Keywords: friendship between men, octopus, lightning, harmonica, goat, ends with death, chicken ...

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