History at the Movies: Recommendations

Here is an alphabetical list of historical media that Dr. D. recommends. It's not a comprehensive list, to be sure, but it's a great place to start! Should you wish to read more about Dr. D's views on accuracy vs. authenticity in historical media, navigate to History vs. Media: A Meditation.

• 12 Strong (2018)—recounts special forces unit deployed to Afghanistan immediately after 9/11

• 13 Hours (2016)—fictionalized recreation of the 2012 Bengazi attack on the US embassy in Libya in

• A Bridge Too Far (1977)—retelling of Operation Market Garden

• Band of Brothers (2001)—miniseries following the US 101st Airborne E company in WWII

• Battle of Britain (1969)—recounts the Battle of Britain

• Below (2002)—WWII supernatural horror film set during the Battle of the Atlantic

• Blackadder Goes Forth (1989)—British comedic miniseries about British soldiers in 1917

• Blackhawk Down (2011)—recreation of the 1993 US ranger raid of Mogadishu

• Conspiracy (2009)—reenactment of the Wansee Conference

• Cromwell (1970)—recounts the life and rise to power of Oliver Cromwell

• Das Boot (1981)—fictional recreation of serving on a German sub in WWII

• Downfall (2005)—Account of Hitler’s final days in the Berlin Führer Bunker

• Dunkirk (2017)—film about the vital Allied evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940

• Flags of Our Fathers (2006)—creation of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective

• Gettysburg (1991)—the Battle of Gettysburg from the Union and Confederate perspectives

• Glory (1989)—recounting of 54th Massachusetts, first all-Black company during the American CW

• Hacksaw Ridge (2016)—WWII-era biopic of US army medic Desmond Doss

• Inglorious Basterds (2009)—counterfactual take on an alternate outcome of WWII

• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)—fictionalized recounting of post-WWII Nuremberg trial

• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)—depiction of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the American perspective

• Lone Survivor (2013)—recounting of raid to kill Taliban leader Ahmad Shah in 2005

• Lincoln (2012)—fictionalized biopic of Abraham Lincoln and the passing of the 13th Amendment

• Master and Commander (2003)—the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars

• Midway (1976/2019)—films recounting Battle of Midway from the Japanese and US perspectives

• Mongol (2007)—biopic of childhood of Temijun’s rise to become Genghis Kahn

• Nuremberg (2000)—TV miniseries retelling of the post-WWII war crimes trials in Nuremberg

• Oppenheimer (2023)--biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb

• Outlaw King (2018)—biopic of 14th century king Robert the Bruce

• Patton (1970)—biopic of Gen. George S. Patton during WWII

• Ran (1985)—King Lear-themed recounting of the life of Japanese feudal lord Mori Motonari

• Saving Private Ryan (1998)—fictional American soldiers on a mission starting after D-Day

• Schindler’s List (1993)—biopic of Oscar Schindler, German industrialist who saved Jews during WWII

• Sink the Bismarck! (1960)—recounts British efforts to sink the Battleship Bismarck

• Stalag 17 (1953)—comedic take on being a POW in a German camp during WWII

• Swing Kids (1993)—film about the rise of Nazism, conflicts with youth culture in Germany

• The 300 Spartans (1960)—fictionalized recreation of the Battle of Thermopylae

• The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)—Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel

• The Battle of Algiers (2002)—documentary of the French war in Algeria

• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)—allied POWS building a bridge for the Japanese during WWII

• The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)—recreation of famous British battle during the Crimean War

• The Dam Busters (1955)—British development of the “bouncing bomb”

• The Darkest Hour (2016)—recounts Winston Churchill’s first months as Prime Minister

• The Dirty Dozen (1967)—story of US military convicts during WWII trained for a dangerous attack

• The Enemy Below (1957)—fictional duel between US destroyer and German sub in WWII

• The Great Escape (1963)—account of Allied POWs escaping from a German camp during WWII

• The Guns of Navarone (1961)—story of British soldiers destroying German gun in WWII Greece

• The King’s Speech (2010)— King George VI overcoming his speech impediment

• The Last of the Mohicans (1992)—fictionalized story set during the French and Indian War

• The Longest Day (1962)—semi-accurate recreation of the D-Day invasion from multiple perspectives

• The Man who Never Was (1956)—recounting of Operation Mincemeat before Allied invasion of Sicily

• The Seven Samurai (1954)—story of village during the Sengoku Jidai hiring ronin to defend them

• The Siege of Jadotville (2016)—recounting of Irish company’s standoff in the Congo in 1960s

• The Tudors (2007 - 2010)--TV series about the life and reign of English King Henry VIII

• They Were Expendable (1945)—biopic of US navy sailors in the Pacific in the early days of WWII

• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)—recreation of the 1941 Doolittle Raid

• Titanic (1997)—fictionalize recounting of the sinking of the HMS Titanic

• Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)—Recreation of the Pearl Harbor attack from US and Japanese perspective

• Troy: The Fall of a City (2018)—miniseries recounting the causes and course of the Trojan War

• Valkyrie (2008)—fictionalized depiction of the German plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944

• War and Peace (1956/2007)—fictionalized telling of various Russians during the Napoleonic Wars

• Waterloo (1970)—a recounting of the Battle of Waterloo (Napoleon’s final defeat)

• We Were Soldiers (2002)—retelling of the Battle of la Drang (Vietnam War)

• Where Eagles Dare (1968)—fictional story of British/US raid on Austrian stronghold during WWII

• Yojimbo (1961)—fictional story capturing samurai culture and ronin during the Sengoku Jidai

• Zulu (1964)—British vs. Zulu in South Africa at the Battle of Roark’s Drift

• Zero Dark Thirty (2012)—fictional recounting of the hunt for and death of Osama Bin Laden