Subject: Rebellions & Revolutions
The oppressed rise up against their oppressors, or the irate rebel against their government, with the intention of changing it—permanently. These uprisings are usually rooted in oppression, economic disparity, or social inequality.
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.
55 Days at Peking
- Director: Nicholas Ray
- Release Date: 1963
- Production Country: United States
Europeans from different backgrounds and various factions unite to defend themselves from the Siege of the International Legations in Peking (Beijing) during the Boxer Rebellion.
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.
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.
Amigo
- Director: John Sayles
- Release Date: 2010
- Production Country: United States
Rafael's village is occupied by United States troops and his brother a leader of the local guerrilla troops, so Rafael finds himself facing impossible choices as both sides threaten to destroy his village if he does not cooperate with each side's plans.
Baler
- Director: Mark Meily
- Release Date: 2008
- Production Country: The Philippines
Alerted to an imminent attack by local Filipinos, the Spanish soldiers in Baler seek temporary refuge in the local church. But as the siege drags on, Celso's worries about reuniting with his love, Feliza, begin to take second place to the realities of disease, rotten food, and a Sergeant who really doesn't understand how to lead—and who refuses to believe that the war is over, no matter what proof is presented.
Bronenosets Potyomkin (Battleship Potemkin)
- Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
- Release Date: 1925
- Production Country: Soviet Union
Rotten meat given to soldiers on a battleship may represent the dissolute condition of the Tsar's regime, but the brutal tactics taken by the regime to suppress the soldiers (and their supporters) when they object are the undeniable evidence of the government's corruption.
Chronique des années de braise (Chronicle of the Years of Fire)
- Director: Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina
- Release Date: 1975
- Production Country: Algeria
After the French government builds a dam that deprives a village of water, one man takes his family to the city in hopes of a better life. Instead they find years of struggle and the man is drafted to fight for the French in World War II. When he returns a seasoned warrior, he is more than ready to continue the fight for freedom from racism and totalitarianism. Only, this time, his enemy is the French government that trained him to fight—and that so callously destroyed his village so many years ago.
Corazón del tiempo (Heart of Time)
- Director: Alberto Cortés
- Release Date: 2009
- Production Country: Mexico
Sonia is engaged to a local leader but she falls in love with another, a Zapatista rebel, resulting in a conflict between duty and passion that ultimately embroils her entire community—including the soldiers camped on the mountain above their small village. As villagers and rebels try to reconcile Mayan tradition with outside teachings and political thought, it becomes obvious that the answer to Sonia's dilemma applies to more than just one woman or even one village—but can they come to a resolution before the Mexican Army descends upon them all?
Cuban Rebel Girls (Assault of the Rebel Girls)
- Director: Barry Mahon
- Release Date: 1959
- Production Country: United States
A teen-aged American beautician delivers cheese and rifles to her boyfriend in Cuba and stays to fight with Castro's troops in the Revolution.
Der Tunnel (The Tunnel)
- Director: Roland Suso Richter
- Release Date: 2001
- Production Country: Germany
Two East German defectors are determined to bring their families over from East Berlin, leading to their quest to dig a tunnel under the Berlin Wall, which requires them to bring in an ever larger circle of conspirators, with ever larger risks, until no one is certain who can be trusted and if anyone will ever get to use the tunnel.
Doctor Zhivago
- Director: David Lean
- Release Date: 1965
- Production Country: United States, Italy
The famous Russian love story of the poet-doctor, Yuri Zhivago, shows him stumbling between his wife, Tonya, and his mistress, Lara, all of them trying to survive and make their way through the political and personal turmoil that was life in early 20th-century Russia.
Drums Along the Mohawk
- Director: John Ford
- Release Date: 1939
- Production Country: United States
After the Colonies declare their independence and Britain declares war in retaliation, new homesteaders Martin and Lana Gilbert are caught unaware and unprepared when the British lead the Mohawk in a series of devastating raids along the frontier, and they have to help everyone make it through before the fort falls to the British and their allies.
Égalité for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution
- Director: Noland Walker
- Release Date: 2009
- Production Country: United States
In the late 1700s, Toussaint Louverture led the slaves of Haiti in what would be the only successful slave revolt in history, eventually resulting in the establishment of the only black state in the New World: Haiti.
El Atentado (The Attempt Dossier)
- Director: Jorge Fons
- Release Date: 2010
- Production Country: Mexico
The attempted assassination of Mexico's "President-for-life," Porfirio Diaz, by a disgruntled, alcoholic peasant is a symptom of the vast problems created by the rampant corruption and greed of the Mexican ruling elite. As various citizens and officials deal with the subsequent trial and fallout, the seeds of a greater revolution are sewn.
El Cid
- Director: Anthony Mann
- Release Date: 1961
- Production Country: Italy, United States
In 11th century Spain, Rodrigo Diaz leads a Spanish Catholic army against the Muslim Moors.
El húsar de la muerte (The Hussar of the Death)
- Director: Pedro Sienna
- Release Date: 1925
- Production Country: Chile
During the Chilean Reconquest, Manuel Rodriguez leads the people in a guerrilla war, though his best skills are as a spy, infiltrating the enemy armies and occupied cities, and even begging alms from the enemy general.
Fetih 1453 (Conquest 1453)
- Director: Faruk Aksoy
- Release Date: 2012
- Production Country: Turkey
The young Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet II, is determined to accomplish the one task he believes is his destiny: conquering Constantinople, the last bastion of Rome and heart of the once magnificent Byzantine Empire. However, in doing so he risks not only war with the entirety of Christian Europe, but also the wrath of his own advisers in his quest for victory.
Huang tu di (Yellow Earth)
- Director: Kaige Chen
- Release Date: 1984
- Production Country: China
Sent to the northern province to record upbeat folk songs for the use of the Communist armies, Gu Qing discovers that there are no joyous songs about the often harsh realities of peasant life; even the bleak life of a communist soldier can appear to be a better option, especially to a young girl forced to marry against her will.