History films 305 films

Every history film we have reviewed that is out now, with the score and where it is streaming. How we rate.

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History 1

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A history film is not a lesson, and we do not score it as one. What we are looking for is the sense that the past was once the present: that the people on screen did not know how it would end and were frightened accordingly. The weak ones dress actors in the right coats and have them explain the century to each other. The strong ones let the period be ordinary and the fear be real. Our shelf leans hard towards war, and much of the best of it was not made in English.

Start with The Passion of Joan of Arc, silent and nearly a century old, still the most immediate trial we have seen, at 94. Then The Battle of Algiers, 93, a reconstruction shot so plainly the violence feels close enough to touch. Then Grand Illusion, 92, the gentlest war film we know and one of the wisest. After those, Spielberg's Schindler's List, when you have the evening and the stomach for it.

305 films out now matching your filters, newest release first.Scores are Fi1m scores; critics’ and audience scores are on each page.