Best History Movies

Historical films let you watch the past argue with itself - wars, trials, revolutions and the people caught inside them. Ranked here by audience rating: sweeping period epics, tense docudramas and intimate true stories. See where each streams and mark off the eras you've covered.

Serpico (1973)

Hero (2002)

The World's Fastest Indian (2005)

The Two Popes (2019)

Ed Wood (1994)

Empire of the Sun (1987)

Hotel Mumbai (2019)

Elvis (2022)

My Way (2011)

Enemy at the Gates (2001)

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)

Maudie (2016)

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Only the Brave (2017)

Young Woman and the Sea (2024)

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

The Impossible (2012)

The Last Duel (2021)

The Thin Red Line (1998)

Richard Jewell (2019)

The Iron Claw (2023)

Simone: Woman of the Century (2022)

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Darkest Hour (2017)

Selma (2014)

A Million Miles Away (2023)

Gangs of New York (2002)

The Uprising (2026)

The Miracle Worker (1962)

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Love and Death (1975)

Les Misérables (2012)

War Horse (2011)

Quo Vadis, Aida? (2021)

Brooklyn (2015)

Pressure (2026)

The Flowers of War (2011)

The Right Stuff (1983)

The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)

Air (2023)

The Physician (2013)

Race (2016)

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Glory Road (2006)

Sword of the Stranger (2007)

The Patriot (2000)

Delusions of Grandeur (1971)

Colonia (2016)

A Royal Affair (2012)

The Heiress (1949)

Cyrano, My Love (2018)

Balloon (2018)

Detroit (2017)

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Harriet (2019)

Invictus (2009)

First They Killed My Father (2017)

Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero (2018)

Eddie the Eagle (2016)

Rudy (1993)