The historical drama is a film genre in which stories are based upon historical events and famous persons. Some historical dramas attempt to accurately portray a historical event or biography, to the degree that the available historical research will allow. Other historical dramas are fictionalized tales that are based on an actual person and their deeds, such as Braveheart, which is loosely based on the 13th century knight William Wallace's fight for Scotland's independence, and Saving Private Ryan, a heavily fictionalised version of a search for a paratrooper of the US 101st Airborne Division during World War II.
Examples
Some well-known historical drama films, by the historical era they are portraying, include:
Films set in Prehistorical times
Films set in Antiquity (until the fall of the Roman Empire)
- Troy (2004), based on Homer's Iliad. This movie is set in the Bronze Age, c. 1190 BC.
- Helen of Troy, a Movie released for TV, also based on the Iliad (c. 13th century BC).
- Alexander, based on the life of Alexander the Great (4th century BC).
- Attila (about Attila the Hun, 5th century A.D.)
- Spartacus, set during the Roman Republic.
- The Passion of The Christ (film)
- Jesus of Nazareth (Jesus Christ).
- Ben-Hur (1959 film) , set in the Roman Empire c. A.D. 26
- Nero (2005 film) , set in the Roman Empire c. A.D. 62
- Cleopatra (1963 film), the famous 1963 movie set during the first years of the Roman Empire (1st century AD) that depicts the life of Cleopatra, a queen of Egypt.
- Cleopatra (1999 film), the 1999 Movie made for TV, also set during the first years of the Roman Empire (1st century AD).
- Rome (TV Series) (2005), a TV Series set in the time of the Roman Empire.
- Hero (movie), a movie set in Ancient China 300BC
- Gladiator (set during the reign of Roman Emperor Commodus, who ruled from 180 to 192).
- The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) (set during the reign of Roman Emperor Commodus, who ruled from 180 to 192).
- 300 (movie) a film set in the Battle of Thermopylae
- I, Claudius (TV series) a TV Series set during the rule of the of the Roman Julio-Claudians
Films set in the Middle Ages (5th to mid-15th centuries)
Late Roman/Early Middle Ages (5th to 11th centuries)
- King Arthur (movie), a 2004 movie set in the last years of the Roman occupation. It tells the story of King Arthur, but it depicts him as a Roman warrior instead of a medieval king.
- The Mists of Avalon, 2001 TV movie based on the novel The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley recounting the King Arthur legend from the perspective of the female characters).
- Tristan + Isolde (2006), set about a century (around the 6th century AD) after the departure of the Romans from Britain (or Britannia), it tells the story of a war between the Irish and the people of Britain (Saxons, Celts, etc.), but especially of the love between Tristan and the Irish princess Isolde (based on the medieval legends of Tristan and Iseult).
Middle Ages (1000-1453)
West Europe
East Europe
Early Modern (1453-1600)
- The Lion in Winter, 1968 movie about three ambitious princes who want the throne around 1183 AD
- The Lion in Winter 2003 tv movie, Henry II is in power as his wife Eleanor's plots with her sons
- 1492: Conquest of Paradise, a movie that tells the story of the discovery and conquest of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
- Richard III (best known version) (Richard III of England).
- Anne of the Thousand Days (Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England during the 16th century, Queen Consort of King Henry VIII and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I).
- Henry VIII and his Six Wives (Henry VIII of England).
- The Other Boleyn Girl (Anne Boleyn, Queen of England).
- The Private Life of Henry VIII (Henry VIII of England)
- Elizabeth (Elizabeth I of England, the Queen in the 16th century).
- Elizabeth R, a 1970's BBC mini-series about Elizabeth I of England.
- Young Bess (Elizabeth I of England).
- Lady Jane (Lady Jane Grey, the uncrowned queen regnant of the Kingdom of England for nine days in the mid-16th century).
- Fire Over England (the Spanish Armada, a Spanish-controlled fleet which sailed against England in the late 16th century).
- Ivan the Terrible by Sergei Eisenstein, a biographic movie about Ivan IV of Russia.
- A Man for All Seasons (about Thomas More).
- Kagemusha (about the Battle of Nagashino, Japan).
- Henry VIII (TV serial), an ITV drama about Henry VIII starring Ray Winstone, Helena Bonham Carter and David Suchet
- Charles II: The Power and The Passion, BBC drama starring Rufus Sewell
- The Virgin Queen (TV show), a BBC production about Elizabeth I of England starring Anne-Marie Duff
- Elizabeth I (TV series), historical drama starring Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons and Ian McDiarmid
- Elizabeth: The Golden Age, 2007 historical drama starring Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen
- Cromwell (about Oliver Cromwell).
- Mary, Queen of Scots, a 1971 movie about the queen Mary I of Scotland.
- The Last Valley, Germany during Thirty year's war.
- La Reine Margot, set during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
- The Crucible(Aurthur Miller) (Salem Witch Trials)
Films set in the 18th and 19th Centuries
- Amadeus
- Amistad (an 1839 mutiny aboard a ship containing African slaves bound for the United States)
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which focuses on the end of Jesse James' career as a criminal and the man who eventually kills him, Robert Ford.
- Barry Lyndon
- Beau Brummell (Beau Brummell, a 19th century arbiter of fashion in England who popularized the man's suit and necktie)
- Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) based on a real-life series of killings that took place in France in the 18th century and on the famous legend around the Beast of Gévaudan
- Casanova (Giacomo Casanova famous 18th century womanizer)
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (the Charge of the Light Brigade)
- The Four Feathers (1939) based on the British army's Gordon Relief Expedition during the late 1880s in Sudan
- The Four Feathers (2002)
- Gone with the Wind (the American Civil War)
- Glory(about one of the first official African-American units in the United States armed forces, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which fought in the American Civil War in the mid-19th century)
- Lady Caroline Lamb (Lady Caroline Lamb, a novelist and British aristocrat active in the early 19th century)
- The Madness of King George (George III of the United Kingdom, King of Great Britain and Ireland for the latter half of the 18th century.
- Marie Antoinette (1938 film) about Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, 18th century)
- Marie Antoinette (2006 film) about Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, 18th century)
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
- Mrs. Brown (Queen Victoria and John Brown)
- Mutiny on the Bounty (set in 1789 during the mutiny on the Bounty, a British Royal Navy ship)
- Rob Roy (about Scottish folk hero Robert Roy MacGregor)
- Roots (the slave trade)
- The Scarlet Empress(Catherine II of Russia, the "enlightened despot" who reigned as Empress of Russia for in the latter half of the 18th century)
- Tombstone (events leading up to the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral)
- War and Peace (1956 film) (based on the work by Tolstoy, set in Russia during the Napoleonic Era)
- Waterloo (the Battle of Waterloo)
- Wild Bill (the life and times of Wild Bill Hickok)
- Wyatt Earp
Films set in the early 20th Century
Films set in the latter 20th Century
See also
External links
- History on Film - A historian looks at how Hollywood has presented historical events in the movies.
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