This master list is under construction and constantly being added to. If you do not see your favorite documentary or historical movie, please add it in the comments! Thank you.
ANCIENT
The Bible: In the Beginning – Extravagant Hollywood production: Adam and Eve through Abraham and Isaac
Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs at Ur
Ancient Egypt 101 – National Geographic
King Tut – PBS
Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus, The Moses Controversy, The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 and Part 2 (1491 BC Egypt and Israel)
The Ten Commandments (1491 BC Egypt and Israel)
Lost Worlds: Persia’s Forgotten Empire
The Rise and Fall of the Spartans (ancient Greece) – History Channel
Alexander the Great (330 BC)
Spartacus (71 BC Rome) A Thracian gladiator inspires a slave revolt against Rome
The Nativity Story (4 BC Judea)
Jesus of Nazareth (4 BC-27 AD Judea)
Risen (33 AD Judea) A Roman centurion is tasked with finding the missing body of Yeshua of Nazareth
The Robe (33 AD Judea) Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio is ordered to crucify Jesus of Nazareth but is tormented by his guilty conscience afterwards.
Ben Hur (26-33 Judea and Rome)
Masada (70-73 Judea) The last Judeans hold out against Rome after the destruction of Jerusalem
Gladiator (180 Rome) – Mature: The death of Marcus Aurelius and ascension of Commodus, to the detriment of Rome
MEDIEVAL
The Anglo-Saxon Invasion – BBC (~450)
The First Crusade, part one and part two (1095 Europe and the Middle East)
Becket (1162-70 England) King Henry II appoints Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury
The Lion in Winter (1183 England) King Henry II and his succession
Kingdom of Heaven (1184-93 France and Jerusalem) – Mature: Christian knights defend Jerusalem from Saracen armies
The Mongols from Genghis to Kublai (1162-1294 Asia)
Braveheart (1270-1305 Scotland) – Mature: William Wallace, battle scenes
The Messenger (1412-31 France) – Mature: Joan of Arc, battle scenes
MODERN
Luther (1505-30 Germany)
Lady Jane (1553 England) The committed Protestant, Queen for nine days, following the death of Edward VI
Elizabeth (1558 England) – Mature: Elizabeth ascends the throne amid conspiracies to remove her
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1560 Peru, Amazon) Spanish conquistadors search for El Dorado
Michael the Brave (1593-1601 Romania) Prince Mikhail unites the provinces against the Ottomans on one side and the Hapsburgs on the other, creating the Romanian nation in the process
The English Civil War, part one, part two, part three (1642-1651)
Master and Commander (1803-15 Naval Napoleonic Wars) A British commander pursues a French warship
The Leopard (1860s Sicily) The old Sicilian aristocracy fades as the new Sicilian Mafia families come to prominence
The History of Russia from Prince Rurik to the Revolution
AMERICAN
The Last of the Mohicans (1757 America) – Mature: French and Indian War, violence
The Patriot (1775-83 America) – Mature: War violence, an American is drawn into the war
John Adams – Miniseries, from the Revolution to serving as the 2nd President of the Republic
Amistad (1839 America) – Mature: African captives revolt and are tried upon capture
12 Years a Slave (1841-53 America)
Harriet (1849 America) Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
Gangs of New York (1862 New York City) – Mature: immigrant Irish gang violence
Glory (1863 America) – Mature: Civil War violence, 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
Gettysburg (1863 Pennsylvania) The definitive battle of the Civil War
Lincoln (1865 America) Civil War
Free State of Jones (1865 Mississippi) – Mature: Civil War and the Reconstruction
20TH CENTURY
Battleship Potemkin (1905 Russian Federation) The events of the 1905 Russian Revolution
A Night to Remember (1912 North Atlantic) The sinking of the Titanic
All Quiet on the Western Front (1914-17 WWI Germany, France) A young German recruit discovers war is not as advertised
Joyeux Noel (1914 Europe) WWI Christmas truce
1917 (1917 WWI France) – Mature: War Drama, but an excellent, excellent movie
Lawrence of Arabia (1916-18 WWI Middle East) Arabian revolt against Ottoman rule
Chariots of Fire (1924 Paris Olympics)
The Untouchables (1930 Chicago) – Mature: Mob violence; Federal agents attempt to bring gangster Al Capone to justice
Bonnie and Clyde (1931-34 heartland America) – Mature: Gangster era violence during the Great Depression
The Great Debators (1935 America) The first black debate team challenges Harvard elites during Jim Crow
The King’s Speech (1936 England) – Mature: King George VI ascends the throne following his brother’s abdication
Ip Man (1937 China) The Japanese invasion of China forces a martial arts master to open a school teaching his craft
Schindler’s List (1939-44 Poland) – Mature: Graphic reality of the Holocaust
Das Boot (1939-45 Atlantic Ocean) – Mature: A German sub in WWII
The Human Condition (1939-45 Japan) WWII era Imperialist Japan
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1941 Hawaii) The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Stalingrad (1942-43 WWII Russia) German soldiers against the Russians
The Great Escape (1943 Germany) Allied prisoners of war held in a Nazi prison camp execute the greatest escape in history
Patton (1943-45 Europe) – Mature: Language, General Patton in WWII
Saving Private Ryan (1944 Normandy) – Mature: graphic war
Downfall (1945 Berlin) – Mature: Hitler’s final days at the end of the Third Reich
Flags of Our Fathers (1945 WWII Battle of Iwo Jima) – Mature: War violence, American perspective
Letters from Iwo Jima (1945 WWII Battle of Iwo Jima) – Mature: War violence, Japanese perspective
Judgment at Nuremberg (1948 Germany) The Nazi war crimes tribunal
Sophie’s Choice (post WWII Brooklyn) – Mature: surviving the Holocaust
Gandhi (1893-1948 British Colonial India)
The Battle of Algiers (1954-57 French Algeria) Guerrilla insurgency against the French colonial government
October Sky (1957-58 West Virginia) Three boys invent model rocketry
Hidden Figures (1961-62 America) Female mathematicians at NASA develop complex computations for the Space Race
Thirteen Days (1962 America) Cuban Missle Crisis
JFK (1961-69 America) – Mature: Inconsistencies surround the assassination of the President
Jackie (1963 America) – Mature: Jackie Kennedy after the assassination of the President
Mississippi Burning (1964 Mississippi) – Mature: The FBI investigates Ku Klux Klan violence
Selma (1965 Alabama) Martin Luther King, Jr.
Apollo 13 (1970 America) Disaster aboard the Apollo flight to the moon
Munich (1972 Munich Olympics) – Mature: Palestinian activists murder Israeli athletes at the Olympics, and the aftermath
All the President’s Men (1972-74 Washington D.C.) Watergate scandal ending Nixon’s presidency
The Iron Lady (1975-90 Britain) The life of Margaret Thatcher
Holy Land: Startup Nations (1948-present) Modern Israel, the world’s top innovator
Black Hawk Down (1993 Somalia) – Mature: Battle violence
Hotel Rwanda (1994 Rwanda, Africa) Tutsi and Huti Civil war and genocide
13 Hours (2012 Libya) – Mature: Attack on the U.S. outpost at Benghazi
Out of the Shadows – Mature: The rise of the global elites’ use of media to obtain their goals
Sources
Biography.com
History.com
NationalGeographic.com
PBS.org
BBC History Documentaries
Various YouTube.com history and documentary channels