Era: Late Modern
18th Century – 19th Century
The Industrial Revolution and the wealth generated by colonialism spur Europe and the nascent United States to unexpected dominance, destabilizing older world powers in the process. Rising levels of literacy worldwide create schisms in local cultures and between religious communities. With the birth of the nation-state, nationalism moves onto the world stage, sparking revolutions and rebellions and pushing a world-wide shift from “subject” to “citizen.”
'Breaker' Morant (Breaker Morant)
- Director: Bruce Beresford
- Release Date: 1980
- Production Country: Australia
Three Australian enlisted men find themselves on trial for war crimes after they execute several Boer prisoners and the German missionary who was the only witness. The men insist they were acting under orders, while their officers want to convince the military establishment that the three men were loose cannons operating outside both the law and human decency.
15 Février 1839 (February 15, 1839)
- Director: Pierre Falardeau
- Release Date: 2001
- Production Country: Canada
Sentenced to death for rebelling against the oppressive, British-backed government in Montreal, two French Canadians have one last day to look back upon their lives and reflect on what they wanted to achieve by revolting—and what they actually accomplished.
1776
- Director: Peter H. Hunt
- Release Date: 1972
- Production Country: United States
Improvisation and compromise are the games of the day, as John Adams and Benjamin Franklin coerce a reluctant Thomas Jefferson into authoring the Declaration of Independence as a desperate stalling tactic while they scramble to convince enough of their fellow landholders to vote for separation from Great Britain–a tall order, since the one man who insisted the vote must be unanimous is not inclined to agree with their notion that independence is the future for the Colonies.
A Man Called Horse
- Director: Elliot Silverstein
- Release Date: 1970
- Production Country: United States
After years of enslavement by a band of Lakota, an English aristocrat realizes that his only chance of freedom is to adopt the ways of his captors—but freedom is not the same as escape. If he becomes civilized according to Lakota culture, enough so that he can move freely among them, will that render him unfit for England and her idea of "civilized" life if he should ever have the chance to return?
Abraham Lincoln
- Director: D.W. Griffith
- Release Date: 1930
- Production Country: United States
The infamous director D.W. Griffith takes on both the myth of Lincoln and a new technology: sound in movies.
Adieu Bonaparte
- Director: Youssef Chahine
- Release Date: 1985
- Production Country: Egypt, France
The French invasion of Egypt in 1798 – 1804 by Napoleon Bonaparte provides a backdrop for this nationalistic story.
Adwa: An African Victory
- Director: Haile Gerima
- Release Date: 1999
- Production Country: United States, Germany, Ethiopia
An Italian army, desperately low on morale and supplies, plans one last attack against an Ethiopian force despite being inferior in numbers, leadership, and armament. The decisive victory of Africans over Europeans became a near mythical event in African history and left Ethiopia as the only African country that was not overrun by colonial powers.
Against All Flags
- Director: George Sherman
- Release Date: 1952
- Production Country: United States
British naval officer Brian Hawke infiltrates a band of pirates in the Indian Ocean and proceeds to save the princess, out-duel the pirate captain, and convince the beautiful Spitfire that a pirate's life is not for her.
Against the Wind
- Director: George Miller, Simon Wincer
- Release Date: 1978
- Production Country: Australia
A young Irish girl is unjustly sentenced to prison and deported to Australia. She must survive not only the horrific voyage there, but also her years of service before she can be free. While there, the lower classes and other convicts protest and occasionally outright rebel against the power and privilege the moneyed classes hold over them.
Alvarez Kelly
- Director: Edward Dmytryk
- Release Date: 1966
- Production Country: United States
Empty stomachs prove too great a force for starving Confederate soldiers who hatch a desperate plan to steal four thousand head of cattle headed for Union from under the noses of the enemy.
Amadeus
- Director: Milos Forman
- Release Date: 1984
- Production Country: United States
Believing that musical ability is a reward for a godly life, court composer Salieri is appalled at the boorish, yet genius Mozart and his compositions, so much that, as Mozart’s fame grows, Salieri becomes increasingly jealous of Mozart, especially as he is unable to reconcile his beliefs with the reality of his own mediocrity. Salieri finally hatches a desperate scheme to commission a work from Mozart with the intention to present it as his own–a requiem mass for the death of the great composer, Mozart.
Amalia
- Director: Enrique García Velloso
- Release Date: 1914
- Production Country: Argentina
Life under a dictator is repressive and harsh, but who is truly to blame for the rise of such people: the dictator himself or the society that birthed and nurtured him?
Amazing Grace
- Director: Michael Apted
- Release Date: 2006
- Production Country: United Kingdom, United States
After an intense religious experience, a young English politician debates taking up a more spiritual religious career. His friends, however, persuade him that politics can also be spiritually fulfilling—especially when one devotes their attention and talents to ending the practice of slavery in England.
America
- Director: D.W. Griffith
- Release Date: 1924
- Production Country: United States
Patriot Nathan Holden falls for the beautiful Tory Nancy Montague, but before they can work out their political differences, she is taken prisoner by a renegade British officer who plans to massacre the colonists who have taken refuge at a nearby fort with an army of Iroquois warriors–and Nathan is the only one who can warn the fort.
America: A Personal History of the United States (Alistair Cooke’s America)
- Director: Michael Gill, David Heycock, Tim Slessor, Ann Turner
- Release Date: 1972
- Production Country: United Kingdom, United States
Veteran correspondent Alistair Cooke takes an in-depth comparative look at the history and the national mythology of the United States.
Amistad
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Release Date: 1997
- Production Country: United States
Thinking they are free when they escape their chains and overthrow their Spanish captors, a group of kidnapped Africans who were to be sold as slaves instead find themselves trapped in a Virginia courtroom where they are caught between the laws of three nations and must fight to prove their status as free human beings.
Anna and the King
- Director: Andy Tennant
- Release Date: 1999
- Production Country: United States
Hired to teach English to the children of King Mongkut, Anna Leonowens' lessons to the court also eventually includes monogamy, the abolition of slavery, the importance of a masterful fireworks display at the right time and the right place, and others that ultimately help the king rule even more effectively.
Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel)
- Director: Kevin Sullivan
- Release Date: 1987
- Production Country: United Kingdom, Canada, United States
Having left Matthew and Marilla's home to make her own way in the world, Anne takes a teaching position at the Kingsport Ladies College, determined to inspire and enlighten those around her, only to find that not everyone understands or appreciates her belief that there can be more to a girl's life than the traditional expectations of marriage and motherhood–until she, too, is forced to admit that she may have made the biggest mistake of her own life when she refused Gilbert Blythe's marriage proposal before leaving Avonlea.
Anne of Green Gables
- Director: Kevin Sullivan
- Release Date: 1985
- Production Country: Canada, West Germany, United States
When elderly siblings Matthew and Marilla decide to take in an orphan boy to help on their farm, not only are they sent a young girl by mistake, the girl, Anne Shirley, turns out to be a dreamer with a positive genius for getting into trouble. Marilla, however, remains especially unconvinced that Anne is worth the chaos that follows her, no matter how desperate the child is for a place and people to call home, or how needy Marilla and Matthew's own lives are for the kind of joyful chaos that only family can bring.
Austerlitz (The Battle of Austerlitz or La battaglia di Austerlitz)
- Director: Abel Gance
- Release Date: 1960
- Production Country: France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Liechtenstein
Napoleon is crowned Emperor of France and then proves his mastery of Europe in battle against the Prussians and the Russians.