historical periods
Movies inspired by and based on true stories.
View trailers, reviews, films, and facts behind the films. Time travel through history by exploring films set in unique historical periods.
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Most films included are highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). They have at least a 70% rating from critics and audiences alike, many with 80% or above. Enjoy the best true story films!
Travel Through History
Imagine stepping into a time travel machine, like Marty McFly, who did not only travel to the future but also to the past - the 1950s and the Wild West, to be exact. Let's explore the facts and fiction in films set in multiple eras, spanning the Cold War, Vietnam War, World War II, U.S. Civil War, and more. Imagine opening your front door and seeing your wild-eyed genius friend pull up in a bright new car that's no ordinary car; it's a time travel machine that whisks you away to another time and place. Let's time travel through history with films!
True Story Films
Set in the Cold War Era (1947-1991)
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PG-13 | Drama, History, Mystery, Thriller | In this Cold War spy thiller inspired by a true story, ordinary businessman Greville Wynne is recruited by UK's MI-6 and a CIA operative to form a covert partnership with a Russian officer to help prevent nuclear conflict and end the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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Greville Wynne biography on Wikipedia
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The True Story Behind "The Courier" in Smithsonian Magazine
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PG-13 | Drama, History, Thriller | During the Cold War, an American lawyer, James Donovan, is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for an American spy plane pilot whom the Soviets captured.
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The True Story of 'Bridge of Spies' on Biography.com
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PG | Biography, Docudrama, History | Three brilliant African American women mathematicians begin work at NASA during the beginning of the space program, where they are the brains behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, an achievement that turned around the Space Race for the U.S. during the Cold War.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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Based on a True Story? Scene-by-scene Breakdown of Hollywood Films on information is beautiful
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Hidden Figures: Laudable Liberties on An Historian Goes to the Movies
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History behind the movie 'Hidden Figures' on Based on a True Story Podcast on YouTube
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Episode 10: Hidden Figures on History by Hollywood podcast
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, History | John Forbes Nash, Jr. is an asocial mathematical genius who accepts secret work in cryptography and who experiences notoriety, a mental health nightmare, and acclaim.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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History vs. Hollywood: A Beautiful Mind by Lawrence Henry on The American Spectator
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A Beautiful Mind’s John Nash is nowhere near as complicated as the real one. by Chris Suellentrop on Slate
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How Realistic Is 'A Beautiful Mind'? by ABC News
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How Schizophrenia Was Portrayed in A Beautiful Mind by Banyan Treatment Centers
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A Beautiful Mind biography book by Sylvia Nasar, which inspired the film.
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TV-MA | Disaster & Survival, Drama, History, Thriller | The film dramatizes the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which became one of the world's worst man-made catastrophes.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts: ​
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What HBO’s “Chernobyl” Got Right, and What It Got Terribly Wrong" article by Masha Gessen in The New Yorker
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How HBO Got It Wrong On Chernobyl article by James Conca in Forbes
True Story Films
Set in the Vietnam War Era (1955-1975)
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R | Action, Drama, History, War | Based on the book "We Were Soldiers Once...and Young" by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and journalist Joseph L. Galloway, this war drama depicts the first major battle between the United States and North Vietnam. It portrays the soldiers on both sides and the U.S. soldiers' wives coping in waiting at home for news about the life or death of their husbands.
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PG-13 | Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, War, Survival | During the Vietnam War, U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler is shot down over Laos and held captive in a POW camp, where he and fellow prisoners endure torture, hunger, and illness while awaiting a chance to escape.
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Werner Herzog offers two takes on the same incredible true story by A.A. Dowd at AV Club
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Little Dieter Needs to Fly - the 1997 documentary by the same director
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Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
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R | Biography, Drama, War, Disability | In the mid-1960s, Ron Kovic enlists in the marines to fulfill his patriotic duty, but he becomes paralyzed in the Vietnam war and returns home to a lack of support and understanding from the Verterans Administration and both major political parties, after which he becomes an anti-war, pro-human rights political activist.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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Born on the Fourth of July autobiographical book by Ron Kovic on Amazon
True Story Films
Set in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968)
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PG-13 | Biography, True Crime, Drama, History | In 1955, Emmett Till is a fourteen-year-old Black boy from Chicago visiting his cousins in Mississippi when he is murdered in a brutal lynching. His grieving mother, Mamie Till Mobley, battles racism in her effort to bring about justice.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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The Untold Story of EMMETT LUIS TILL (Documentary 2005) by Keith Beauchamp on the Mamie Till Mobley YouTube channel
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​The Lost Story of Emmett Till: The Universal Child docudrama part 1 from NBC Chicago on YouTube
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The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Trial in the Delta docudrama part 2 from NBC Chicago on YouTube
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The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Then & Now docudrama part 3 from NBC Chicago on YouTube
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PG | Drama, History | In 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, Odessa Carter needs transportation to work as a nanny in the home of the affluent Miriam Thompson, but she refuses to take the bus while participating in the Montgomery bus boycott as a protest against inequality between blacks and whites. Miriam offers Odessa rides to work, despite disapproval from Miriam's husband and community.
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Teach With Movies​​
PG-13 | Biography, Drama, Law, Romance | In 1958 Virginia, Richard and Mildred Loving are an interracial couple who get married and whose subsequent arrest for interracial marriage leads to a legal battle culminating in a historic U.S. Supreme Court decision.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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What’s Fact and Fiction in Jeff Nichols’s Film about the Lovings by Arica L. Coleman on History News Network
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Loving v. Virginia by history.com editors
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Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) full text opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court. Primary holding: "A unanimous Court struck down state laws banning marriage between individuals of different races, holding that these anti-miscegenation statutes violated both the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment."
TV-PG | Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Education, Family | On November 14, 1960, at the age of six, Ruby Bridges is one of the first black children to attend an all-white school in the deep south in New Orleans.
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Trailers and Reviews:
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IMDb
Facts:
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Ruby Bridges biography on National Women's History Museum, biography.com, and National Park Service.
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Let's Read About...Ruby Bridges autobiographical third person narrative children's book by Ruby Bridges and Grace Maccarone, part of Scholastic First Biographies, on Internet Archive, where eBooks are free to borrow with a free account
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Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story autobiographical first person narrative children's book by Ruby Bridges, free eBook on FlipHTML5
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Ruby Bridges Free Lessons: Teach with Movie educational materials for teachers, parents, and students from True Story Movies on Pinterest
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R | True Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller | In June 1964 Mississippi, a group of civil rights activists disappears, prompting two F.B.I. agents to investigate, but the agents clash over their strategies when dealing with a refusal to cooperate from both the small town's local authorities and its Black community.
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The Horrific True Story Behind 'Mississippi Burning' article by Lloyd Farley on Collider
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Mississippi Burning Scorches Historians article by Robert Brent Toplin on Historians.org​​
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Murder in Mississippi article by PBS.org
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Case Document: Michael Schwerner - James Chaney - Andrew Goodman case document dated June 21, 1964, about the investigation of their murders, written by U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division; United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Mississippi; and Federal Bureau of Investigation on the DOJ website
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Mississippi Burning – Inspired by the Murders of James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner on Inspired by a True Story podcast
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, History | In 1965, an Alabama city became the battleground in the fight for the right to vote for African Americans. Despite violent opposition, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers pressed forward on an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, culminating in President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts: ​
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Martin Luther King, Jr. on Biography.com
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Martin Luther King, Jr. on History.com
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Based on a True Story? Scene-by-scene Breakdown of Hollywood Films on information is beautiful
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How Accurate Is Selma? on Slate
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The movie ‘Selma’ has a glaring flaw by Joseph A. Califano Jr. on The Washington Post. The author was President Lyndon Johnson’s top assistant for domestic affairs.
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When History is not Good Enough for Hollywood by Kent Germany on historians.org
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‘Selma’ vs. History by Elizabeth Drew on The New York Review
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"If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But by all means, keep moving." - Martin Luther King, Jr., speech "What Is Your Life's Blueprint?" delivered to students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967. Full speech on YouTube.
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, History | The biography of Black nationalist leader Malcolm X dramatizes his teenage years in the 1940s and career as a small-time gangster, his imprisonment in the 1950s when he became a Muslim, his membership in the Nation of Islam, his struggle for black liberation, and assassination in 1965.
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Facts:
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Malcolm X biography by history.com editors​
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Malcolm X True Story: What Spike Lee's Movie Changes & How Accurate It Is article by Grace Bayliss on Screen Rant
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama | The story of Cecil Gaines, the butler who served eight presidents at the White House during the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, and other major events.
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True Story Films
Set in the World War II Era (1939-1945)
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, History, War | In May 1940, the fate of World War II and world history weighs on Winston Churchill, who is faced with the decision to negotiate with Adolf Hitler or to continue fighting and risking the end of the British Empire.
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Did Darkest Hour get much right? video by Churchill biographer Ashley Jackson.​
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PG-13 | Action, Drama, History, Thriller, War | In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk, followed by troops evacuating from the beach during battle.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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Fact v Fiction: Did Dunkirk get much right? video by Tim Benbow, a naval historian
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
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Unrated | Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller, War | Sophie Scholl was a student activist in Germany's anti-Nazi resistance group, The White Rose. She and fellow members distribute anti-war and anti-Nazi propapanda in Munich, leading to their arrest in 1943. The film re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl's life.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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This Day in History: February 18 - Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders on History.com
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History of Student Protests on History.com (White Rose Society of Nazi Germany is #3)
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Sophie Scholl biography on Wikipedia
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White Rose on Wikipedia
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Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Tanja B. Spitzer on The National WW2 Museum website
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Sophie Scholl on Wikiquote
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"Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did." - Sophie Scholl, statement to the Volksgerichtshof [People's Court] of Judge Roland Freisler (February 21, 1943).
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"How can we expect a righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone who will give himself up undividedly to a righteous cause?"- Sophie Scholl, as quoted in Seeking Peace: Notes and Conversations Along the Way (1998) by Johann Christoph Arnold, p. 155
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Unrated | Adventure, Drama, History, Thriller, Survival | In March 1943, there were 12 men on an anti-Nazi sabotage mission in Norway. The Nazis killed 11 of them. This is the true story of Jan Baalsrud, the 12th man, showing his time on the run in the icy wilderness.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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The 12th Man book by Astrid Karlsen Scott and Tore Haug on Amazon
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We Die Alone: A WWII Epic Of Escape And Endurance by David Howarth and Stephen Ambrose on Amazon
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Following in the tracks of Jan Baalsrud article on the Visit Lyngenfjord website
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PG-13 | Action, Drama, History, Romance, War | In Nazi-occupied Hungary in 1944, a young Hungarian man disguises himself as a Nazi S.S. officer to save his family and countrymen from the death camps.
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Coming soon!
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R | Drama, War, History | After the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, a battalion of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve Private James Ryan, a paratrooper whose three brothers have been killed in action.
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Facts:
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History vs Hollywood article
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The Real Guy who Saved Private Ryan | True Story of Francis L. Sampson History vs Hollywood video on YouTube
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​History Buffs: Saving Private Ryan video on YouTube
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PG-13 | Drama, History, Thriller, War | Col. Claus von Stauffenberg joins other high-ranking German Army officers in a political coup to assassinate Adolf Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime on July 20, 1944.
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PG-13 | Action, Drama, History, Thriller, War | Long-buried letters are discovered, telling the stories and perspectives of Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19-March 16, 1945), a World War II conflict between the United States and Japan.
Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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The battle for Iwo Jima: why did it happen and why was it so hard fought? on History Extra
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Battle of Iwo Jima on Naval History and Heritage Command
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Letters From Iwo Jima book by Kumiko Kakehashi
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R | Biography, Drama, History, War | Adolf Hitler's private secretary, Traudl Junge, narrates Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker near the end of World War II in April 1945. Based on Traudl Junge’s memoir Until the Final Hour, historian Joachim Fest’s Inside Hitler’s Bunker, and other memoirs.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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Is Downfall historically correct? on Axis History Forum
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Blind Spot (2002) is the documentary source of the opening and closing interviews with Junge. Read the documentary reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb.
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Unearthed Eyewitness Reports of Hitler's Final Days from The Smithsonian Channel on YouTube
Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (1990)
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PG-13 | Drama, History, War | The film dramatizes the aftermath of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945 during World War II by following the perspectives of multiple characters, including Japanese victims, soldiers, American prisoners of war, and more.
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes has eyewitness accounts at the end of the book
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Eyewitness Account of Hiroshima by Father John A. Siemes, professor of modern philosophy at Tokyo's Catholic University
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R | Biography, Drama, History, War | The film tells story of Marcel Marceau, a Jewish aspiring actor before he becomes the world-famous mime, who joins the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II. The film takes place from 1939-1945.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts: ​
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Marcel Marceau biography on Biography.com and Wikipedia​
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9 People You May Not Know Were WWII Veterans (Marcel Marceau is # 6) on history.com ​
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The French Resistance's Secret Weapon? The Mime Marcel Marceau on history.com
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Marcel Marceau quotes with sources on Wikiquote
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R | Biography, Drama, History | In German-occupied Poland, businessman Oskar Schindler aims to profit from World War II and staffs his factory with Jewish workers, but he gradually becomes concerned for them upon witnessing their persecution by the Nazis. The film takes place primarily between 1939-1945.
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R | Biography, Drama, Music, War | A Polish Jewish musician, Wladyslaw Szpilman, is forced into the Warsaw Ghetto at the beginning of World War II and later becomes separated from his family, going into hiding. The film takes place from 1939-1945.
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The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 autobiography by Wladyslaw Szpilman that inspired the film
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, Thriller, War, LGBTQ+ | In 1939, the new British intelligence agency MI6 recruits mathematical genius Alan Turing to crack Nazi codes, including Enigma. In 1952, he encounters disgrace when authorities reveal he is gay.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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Alan Turing articles on Biography.com
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Alan Turing articles on History.com
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Alan Turing biography on Wikipedia
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Based on a True Story? Scene-by-scene Breakdown of Hollywood Films on information is beautiful
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Alan Turing quotes with sources on Wikiquote
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R | Biography, Drama, History, War | American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss serves during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II, where he is a conscientious objector who refuses to kill and who risks his life to save other soldiers, becoming the first person in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
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Based on a True Story? Scene-by-scene Breakdown of Hollywood Films on information is beautiful
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PG-13 | Animation, Biography, Drama, Romance, War | The film chronicles the life of Jiro Horikoshi, an innovative Japanese airplane designer, who lived through historical events such as the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, the tuberculosis epidemic, and World War II.
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The Wind Rises remixes history to make a deeper, more personal point on polygon.com
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The Wind Rises (2013): Separating Fact from Fiction on the Artifice
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Jiro Horikoshi biography on World War II Database
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R | Biography, Drama, Romance, War | Eric Lomax is a former British Army officer who was tortured as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II. The film takes place from 1942 to decades after the war when he discovers that the man responsible for his torture is still alive.
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The Railway Man by Eric Lomax - autobiographical book
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, History | Maria Altmann, an elderly Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government with the aid of her attorney to recover a Klimt painting of her aunt stolen from her home by the Nazis during World War II.
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Art of the Heist: The Lady In Gold documentary free to view in full on attorney Randol Schoenberg's YouTube channel
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Unrated | Drama, Music, War | After the end of World War II, famous German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler is accused of loyalty to the Nazi regime and investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification program. He argues that art and politics are separate.
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The April 4, 1942 concert - the final minutes of Furtwanger conducting Beethoven's 9th Symphony before Hitler's birthday, and Goebbels shaking his hand
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Album notes for FURTWÄNGLER Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 "Choral" (1942) - "The history of this recording is well known and takes us deep into one of the darkest eras of human history: Nazi Germany, the performances around the celebration of Hitler's birthday in March 1942, and a conductor who some saw as a collaborator, others an a naive tool of the regime, others still as someone who chose to oppose from within rather than leave Germany like so many other top-ranking musicians."
True Story Films
Set in the U.S. Civil War Era (1861-1865)
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R | Biography, Drama, History, War | Col. Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer regiment, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army and the Confederates.
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PG | Drama, Family, Romance | In this adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic, the March sisters confront growing pains, financial shortages, family tragedies and romantic rivalries in 1860s Massachusetts.
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The Real-Life Inspirations of Little Women on the PBS website, featuring side-by-side comparisons between the characters and real individuals. Excerpt: "Although the March family is fictional, the characters—including the four sisters whose stories have captivated generations of girls—are heavily based on Louisa May Alcott’s real-life family. Get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with the Marches and the Alcotts, two families with big hearts and incredible stories."​
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, History, War | During the Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln struggles against members of his own cabinet and makes the decision to end the war and abolish slavery through the 13th Amendment.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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How Accurate Is Lincoln? by Forrest Wickman on Slate
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How Historically Accurate is "Lincoln"? by Kelsey McKernie on History News Network