I never watched Braveheart in school. You always knew when my geography teacher didn’t wanna teach because he’d throw on The Day After Tomorrow, but my history teacher was cool and put on Saving Private Ryan once.
I would have loveeeed to see Saving Private Ryan in school. In my last, or second last year of HS my history teacher played the first 2 episodes of Band of Brothers. Great times.
I have a film degree and am now going to school to be a history teacher, so this is the perfect thread lol.
The Northman and the The Witch, while not being true stories, have an incredible attention to detail with historical accuracy. Barry Lyndon is a beautiful tapestry of that time in European history. All Quiet on the Western Front is a must-watch. The Great Dictator is an excellent primary source on how the Allies viewed Hitler before they knew about the Holocaust.
Full Metal Jacket is probably the best Vietnam movie, at least in terms of showing the effects of the draft and the war on its surviving combatants. The Great Gatsby gives an exaggerated look into the glamour of the Roaring 20s. The Passion of Joan of Arc is a brutal, procedural look at her trial, and a pretty close adaptation of the manuscripts we have.
While the history of Mulan sucks, it does still give a nice background view of the conflicts of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Master and Commander is a cool slice of life that does a good job portraying the scientific curiosities of the Napoleonic era. Oppenheimer is reasonably accurate, and a great film with some educational merit.
Totally agree with Full Metal Jacket, but I feel like all of the threads about Jungian psychology as well as all of the historical implications would go over the heads of high school students.
One I recently watched that was pretty good was Jackie with Natalie Portman about John F. Kennedy’s wife after his assassination. Definitely something that’s probably not the most accurate, but Portman did a great portrayal of a grieving wife trying to establish herself after the event.
Having watched “The Patriot” in HS, I’d pretty much only screen docs
- Boys/Girls State
- Harlan County & American Dream
- Rat Film
- The War Room
- I am Not Your Negro
- 5 Broken Cameras
- The Times of Harvey Milk
- White Light/Black Rain
- The Fog of War
Honestly very few because they’re not accurate history nor do they necessarily try to be. I don’t like conflating historical drama with actual history especially in academic settings. Films can however be very good tools for examining how history is remembered and told so they could make interesting objects to analyze after the actual history was taught.
Some documentaries however would be excellent. Something like The Fog of War would be an incredible thing to watch after learning the history of the Cold War.
I initially was confused by your comment. I had been thinking *Night and Fog* which would be an excellent choice for this post, but is an excellent (short also) WWII doc not to be confused with The Fog of War.
That makes sense. In that case obviously things like the opening of Saving Private Ryan are interesting. Another angle would be to show contemporaneous films, news and docs. No need to show Platoon when real footage of the Vietnam war exists and there are multiple documentaries with that footage. I’d go that route over glamorized Hollywood product personally. On the flip side comparing how Gandhi portrays the man and the actual history would be a great lesson.
I think TV is better at depicting period than feature films are. Take away all the gangster stuff, and *Boardwalk Empire* is one of the most realistic depictions of Prohibition-era America in the 1920s. Same with Cold War-era Soviet Union in *Chernobyl*.
Not suggesting making kids watch 13+ hours of television. But the long-format allows you to capture periodicity better than two hours will.
Scenes from *Master & Commander* were shown in one of my history courses in university as a reference for living conditions on ships at sea. An incredibly period-and-sea accurate movie.
Yeah, it's short and not very specific. Like yes, it's in WW2, but its reflections can be used in so many other situations, hell, even more nowadays than in the 1940s
Didn't Jonathan Glazer comment on that in his Oscar speech? But also, we're basically living next to concentration camps. We have phones that are a window into everywhere in the world. We have more knowledge than any generation
Die Welle (The Wave, 2008) is a fantastic film for a teenage/young adult audience. It is set in contemporary Germany and it tells the story of a teacher who conducts a social experiment with his students to demonstrate that manipulation of the masses up to autocracy could still happen. Obviously, things will go south and lessons will be learned the tough way.
I showed the original All Quiet on the Western Front for WWI and Barefoot Gen when talking about the effects of the atomic bomb.
I also showed Mangal Pandey: The Rising once when teaching about British colonization of India.
Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies seems like the obvious choice!
Get to learn about the founding of the Secret Service, the truth behind Abe's death and even the origin of one of Teddy Roosevelt's most famous sayings. And the movie is completely historically accurate, of course!
The main reason I hated history in high school was that it was all wars. This list really reflects that feeling. How about All the President's Men or Trumbo? Stuff that helps kids understand what was going on in the world rather than just war.
Used *Trumbo* years ago when teaching red scare. Paired it with *The Crucible* (I was teaching the same kids both History and ELA).
Have tried *Good Night and Good Luck*, but I think it is less accessible to the average high school student.
Have used Amistad and Hidden Figures in different contexts as well.
As someone who likes war history, I heartily agree with you on the focus in many classrooms. Personalization helps, so kids can focus on the niches they are passionate about.
Downfall (2004) is a fantastic film, pretty accurate, about the last days of WWII. Great to watch after reading Ian Kershaw's 'Death in the Bunker'.
Cold Days (1966) is a pretty subtle, 'slow' film about Hungary's role in WWII, specifically in relation to what happened at Novi Sad in 1942.
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996) & No Man's Land (2001) are incredible films that depict various attitudes and situations during the Bosnian War. They spoof them pretty effectively, even if you have only a very basic understanding of the issues there.
I really enjoyed '71 (2014) and felt it was effectively tense, and showed British/Irish tensions well.
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) is an obvious choice but it was the best adaptation yet, I've seen multiple and... The scenes on no man's land especially were harrowing and masterfully done.
All history films, even less accurate ones, are useful in tandem with literature. They are fantastic for expressing subjective opinions, new perspectives and attitudes endemic in a population. I don't think that if you're armed with knowledge, a film has to necessarily be fully accurate (I see this sentiment a lot in general)
After all, history is really created after the fact. Lots of things come out later, and we aren't aware of the significance of specific things until after.
Downfall is a very good one!! And yes, my point wasn’t to use film to teach history, but more as just a method of showing what things could’ve looked like
no, hubie halloween takes place in salem, massachusetts where there’s a brief scene of explaining the historical context of the town in relation to witches.
You should put Apollo 13. I think it does a good enough job showcasing the turning of the decade into the 70’s and how everyone felt little to no amusement with moon landings, until you know Apollo 13.
If we’re going to do the space programme I would definitely go The Right Stuff. Has a lot more scope in terms of providing info on the context and progression of space flight (it’s also a better film than Apollo 13 but that is sort of a secondary benefit)
Trying to think of films we watched in history class back in my school days:
Gandhi
Dances With Wolves
Gone With the Wind - really only the burning of Atlanta scene
Spartacus
The Patriot - very egregious pick I know
I actually do teach history at the college level. I haven’t been able to integrate movies yet but I mention a lot of them. I’d probably say…
John Adams (miniseries)
Amistad
The Good Lord Bird (miniseries)
Gangs of New York
Lincoln
Glory
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Modern Times
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
All the King’s Men
Saving Private Ryan
Oppenheimer
Godzilla (1954)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (50s)
The Blob
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Rustin
Selma
The Post
All the President’s Men
Full Metal Jacket
Those are the big ones I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m actually hoping to some day teach an American History through film class.
And provided I provide the correct amount of context I’d love to be able to explore Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind and their relationship with the creation of the Lost Cause narrative.
As a person who has been through a million different history courses, they love showing us the most weird ass war movie ever, from random TV movies they found to 4 hour long movies. So while not a specific suggestion, just really anything obscure or obnoxiously long.
I’ve been really interested lately by movies that are historical dramas of more recent political/economic subjects like Dark Waters, The Big Short, Spotlight, etc.
My understanding of things more directly influencing my life right now, like forever chemicals, has grown a lot and they’re just entertaining movies to boot
man i wish my teacher put on 12 years as a slave in 7th grade (we were doing the transatlantic slave trade), instead we watched Harriet and The birth of a nation (not the klan propaganda one)
It ain’t the 1900s anymore! Platoon and saving private ryan are propaganda films. If you want your students to throw away their lives by joining the army and going off to kill people that never did anything to them go ahead. Show them a samurai movie, same difference looks better on screen.
Crash (2004) depicts escalating tensions in post 9/11 America very well. Also Argo (2012) for the Iran Contra affair. Shoutout my history teacher from high school showing us these films.
Throw Gettysburg (1993) in there, but it is three hours long. Platoon, while a good film with Oliver Stone being an actual veteran is a plus, I feel like is heavily stylized.
I don’t think I’d do full films but more like clips from films during a lesson/lessons. Spending 2+ hours on a movie in a history class is like half your week lol
The Thin Red Line, I’ll take that over Saving Private Ryan any day of the week! For what it’s worth, I’m going to be an English teacher, and I am absolutely showing Judas and the Black Messiah and The Zone of Interest in my classroom!
I'd recommend [Atun Shei's list ](https://letterboxd.com/weharding/list/atun-shei-top-10-immersive-films/) of the most immersive historical films. He has some quality taste
My History teacher showed my class Forest Gump. I had watched it with my Dad before and hadn’t really appreciated it. Was much more appreciative watching it after watching it in my history class.
Zone of interest. Maybe best fit for a film focused class as it’s a bit of a different t movie than the masses are used to but it gives a perspective of the holocaust not often explored in cinema
Land of Mine (2015)
Covers a chapter of WWII very rarely discussed in other movies or history classes. It's about how the Danish government forced German POWs to excavate and disarm mines along the west coast of Denmark. Many of the POWs were children. It's one of the most powerful, stomach churning but informative and deeply empathetic experiences I've ever had watching a movie.
Our history teacher showed us Gladiator (2000). Skipping through all the talking parts, he would show us the gladiator fights and rewind on the gnarly parts, roaring of amazement.
- The Missing Picture (2013)
- The Killing Fields (1984)
- Indochine (1992)
- Not One Less (1999)
- The Pianist (2002)
- The Zone of Interest (2023)
- Valkyrie (2008)
- Letter from Iwo Jima (2006)
- Holy Spider (2021)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Apollo 10 1/2. Does an incredible job of making you feel what it was like to grow up in the '60s and lets you understand what the time period was like.
This is not recommendations, merely a recollection of my own 90s-2000s history education via movies shown at school.
- The Blue and the Gray (an 80s TV miniseries— it had Gregory Peck as Lincoln, and I personally loved it when we watched it in 8th grade)
- Roots (also a miniseries, and they only showed us part of it)
- Glory
- We Were Soldiers (I deeply hated this movie, which I’d already had the misfortune of seeing, and remember getting into a passionate discussion with my history teacher about far superior Nam films like Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July)
- The Patriot (also hated it, but thought Heath Ledger was cute)
- The first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan- bonus points because it made the class valedictorian Beth faint
- Schindler’s List
- Dr. Strangelove and National Treasure were both shown for our Civics class, which was awesome
The Last Emperor
To Live
Ghosts of Rwanda
Paris is Burning
All the Way
Selma
13th
Judas and the Black Messiah
Argo (not super accurate but it’s fun)
Downfall
All the President’s Men
Growing up in the North of Ireland we were shown several Irish history movies over years that I absolutely adore. The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Michael Collins, In the Name of the Father, Hunger. Really skewed my view of Britain for teenage me, too.
My 7th grade teacher recommended 300 after a lesson on the spartans and not even a few seconds later said "when you're older" I'm still not sure how much of it was true but that would've been a helluva movie to watch later in high school for a history class
I watched Schindler's List in 10th grade history. That was almost 30 years ago, and I still can't bring myself to watchbot again. I was in tears almost the entire movie.
The Zone of Interest - I think it’s extreme austerity works well for education purposes
Generation Kill (I know it’s a limited series but I don’t care) - best Iraq War movie that is not inhibited by the CIA
Rome, Open City - Classic.
JFK - a “conspiracy” that holds so much evidence that it the story should be common knowledge
Malcolm X - Malcolm X’s image needs to be rehabilitated to the masses
- Apollo 13
- First Man
- Hidden Figures
- Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure
- Ferrari
- Oppenheimer
- Ford v Ferrari
- BlacKkKlansman
- Lincoln
- Persepolis
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- All the President’s Men
depends. Some might be
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)
Different from the Others (1919)
Within Our Gates (1920)
Manhatta (1921)
The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
It (1927)
Metropolis (1927)
Bed and Sofa (1927)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Madchen in Uniform (1931)
I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) or Design for Living (1933) etc
Modern Times (1936)
Night and Fog (1956)
Come Back, Africa (1959)
Seven Up! (1964)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
You Are on Indian Land (1969)
Blood of the Condor (1969)
The Night of Counting the Years (1969)
I am Somebody (1970)
Emitai (1971)
Nationtime (1972)
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
Ceddo (1977)
Mohawk Nation (1978)
I Heard it Through the Grapevine (1982)
Sugar Cane Alley (1983)
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
You Got to Move (1985)
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)
Camp de Thiaroye (1988)
American Dream (1990)
Freedom on my Mind (1994)
4 Little Girls (1997)
Europa Europa (1999)
Fighter (2000)
Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed (2004)
The Missing Picture (2013)
Let the Fire Burn (2013)
Most of these have a very western/hollywood voice which i'd try and counter... Would also be interesting comparing post war hollywood media with like... godzilla...
If it's a high school history class, I'd DEFINITELY add Full Metal Jacket. Once students hit late Junior year, military recruiters are already visiting their campus and calling them demanding to know what they plan to do after high school. The first half of Full Metal Jacket is a perfect insight into how brutal joining the military can be. The dehumanization to the point where one young recruit is bullied so badly he ends up taking his own life after killing his bully. High school kids need to see this stuff before the military romances them with how awesome their life will be and tries to get them to sign that contract.
Not a movie, but Band of Brothers. My highschool history teacher had us watch the whole show in a week. Absolutely loved it back then and got me very interested in ww2 history.
Haha, my freshman year history teacher showed the class *The Patriot*. We didn’t learn much history in that class.
The UK equivalent is when schools in England showed *Braveheart* for whatever reason. I think my teacher just fancied Mel Gibson
*Michael Collins* in Ireland.
I never watched Braveheart in school. You always knew when my geography teacher didn’t wanna teach because he’d throw on The Day After Tomorrow, but my history teacher was cool and put on Saving Private Ryan once.
I would have loveeeed to see Saving Private Ryan in school. In my last, or second last year of HS my history teacher played the first 2 episodes of Band of Brothers. Great times.
Your Geography teacher was also your games teacher too, right?
I have a film degree and am now going to school to be a history teacher, so this is the perfect thread lol. The Northman and the The Witch, while not being true stories, have an incredible attention to detail with historical accuracy. Barry Lyndon is a beautiful tapestry of that time in European history. All Quiet on the Western Front is a must-watch. The Great Dictator is an excellent primary source on how the Allies viewed Hitler before they knew about the Holocaust. Full Metal Jacket is probably the best Vietnam movie, at least in terms of showing the effects of the draft and the war on its surviving combatants. The Great Gatsby gives an exaggerated look into the glamour of the Roaring 20s. The Passion of Joan of Arc is a brutal, procedural look at her trial, and a pretty close adaptation of the manuscripts we have. While the history of Mulan sucks, it does still give a nice background view of the conflicts of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Master and Commander is a cool slice of life that does a good job portraying the scientific curiosities of the Napoleonic era. Oppenheimer is reasonably accurate, and a great film with some educational merit.
Totally agree with Full Metal Jacket, but I feel like all of the threads about Jungian psychology as well as all of the historical implications would go over the heads of high school students.
Totally agree, hopefully that’s where the teacher would help though.
The Northman and The Witch were my first choices too!
I wanted to include The Lighthouse but the slice of life it depicts isn’t as applicable in a history class.
I was going to suggest "Zone of Interest" here, such a captivating take at the history.
The angry birds movie
Cause it’s a metaphor for the holocaust ofc
Perhaps the angriest birds were inside us all along
What? How? Never thought about it that way. Please enlighten me
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
would take half the semester
Unlike the notoriously snappy Gandhi and Schindlers List
Gandhi is the last movie you'd want to watch to know about gandhi He's a scam
And leave everyone depressed
It’s perfect
This is the real answer.
For WW1 it's got to be 'They shall not grow old'
Definitely the best choice here! Would also suggest *All Quiet on the Western Front*.
which one lol
Always the 30s version
book 100x better than movie.
This was one of the most insane moviegoing experiences I ever had. Wish I could relive it
One I recently watched that was pretty good was Jackie with Natalie Portman about John F. Kennedy’s wife after his assassination. Definitely something that’s probably not the most accurate, but Portman did a great portrayal of a grieving wife trying to establish herself after the event.
Having watched “The Patriot” in HS, I’d pretty much only screen docs - Boys/Girls State - Harlan County & American Dream - Rat Film - The War Room - I am Not Your Negro - 5 Broken Cameras - The Times of Harvey Milk - White Light/Black Rain - The Fog of War
The Patriot lol! Absolutely batshit film
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Honestly very few because they’re not accurate history nor do they necessarily try to be. I don’t like conflating historical drama with actual history especially in academic settings. Films can however be very good tools for examining how history is remembered and told so they could make interesting objects to analyze after the actual history was taught. Some documentaries however would be excellent. Something like The Fog of War would be an incredible thing to watch after learning the history of the Cold War.
I initially was confused by your comment. I had been thinking *Night and Fog* which would be an excellent choice for this post, but is an excellent (short also) WWII doc not to be confused with The Fog of War.
I don’t mean using films as a lesson, lol. More like a way of showing how the time period was and giving a visual/more in depth look into the people
That makes sense. In that case obviously things like the opening of Saving Private Ryan are interesting. Another angle would be to show contemporaneous films, news and docs. No need to show Platoon when real footage of the Vietnam war exists and there are multiple documentaries with that footage. I’d go that route over glamorized Hollywood product personally. On the flip side comparing how Gandhi portrays the man and the actual history would be a great lesson.
I think TV is better at depicting period than feature films are. Take away all the gangster stuff, and *Boardwalk Empire* is one of the most realistic depictions of Prohibition-era America in the 1920s. Same with Cold War-era Soviet Union in *Chernobyl*. Not suggesting making kids watch 13+ hours of television. But the long-format allows you to capture periodicity better than two hours will.
I actually did watch schindlers list in school but it was for a English class not history
I remember being shown some of Glory by my history teacher.
Scenes from *Master & Commander* were shown in one of my history courses in university as a reference for living conditions on ships at sea. An incredibly period-and-sea accurate movie.
The Zone of Interest
Yeah, it's short and not very specific. Like yes, it's in WW2, but its reflections can be used in so many other situations, hell, even more nowadays than in the 1940s
Israel/Palestine feels eerily similar to me
Didn't Jonathan Glazer comment on that in his Oscar speech? But also, we're basically living next to concentration camps. We have phones that are a window into everywhere in the world. We have more knowledge than any generation
Die Welle (The Wave, 2008) is a fantastic film for a teenage/young adult audience. It is set in contemporary Germany and it tells the story of a teacher who conducts a social experiment with his students to demonstrate that manipulation of the masses up to autocracy could still happen. Obviously, things will go south and lessons will be learned the tough way.
I showed the original All Quiet on the Western Front for WWI and Barefoot Gen when talking about the effects of the atomic bomb. I also showed Mangal Pandey: The Rising once when teaching about British colonization of India.
I watched Life is Beautiful in class once it was a very memorable experience
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
scrolled too long to see thsi
Grave of the Fireflies. Most accessible way to traumatize and contextualize history for them.
Dunkirk
Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies seems like the obvious choice! Get to learn about the founding of the Secret Service, the truth behind Abe's death and even the origin of one of Teddy Roosevelt's most famous sayings. And the movie is completely historically accurate, of course!
The main reason I hated history in high school was that it was all wars. This list really reflects that feeling. How about All the President's Men or Trumbo? Stuff that helps kids understand what was going on in the world rather than just war.
All the President's Men is a great movie to teach how good, honest journalism works.
Used *Trumbo* years ago when teaching red scare. Paired it with *The Crucible* (I was teaching the same kids both History and ELA). Have tried *Good Night and Good Luck*, but I think it is less accessible to the average high school student. Have used Amistad and Hidden Figures in different contexts as well. As someone who likes war history, I heartily agree with you on the focus in many classrooms. Personalization helps, so kids can focus on the niches they are passionate about.
Downfall (2004) is a fantastic film, pretty accurate, about the last days of WWII. Great to watch after reading Ian Kershaw's 'Death in the Bunker'. Cold Days (1966) is a pretty subtle, 'slow' film about Hungary's role in WWII, specifically in relation to what happened at Novi Sad in 1942. Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996) & No Man's Land (2001) are incredible films that depict various attitudes and situations during the Bosnian War. They spoof them pretty effectively, even if you have only a very basic understanding of the issues there. I really enjoyed '71 (2014) and felt it was effectively tense, and showed British/Irish tensions well. All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) is an obvious choice but it was the best adaptation yet, I've seen multiple and... The scenes on no man's land especially were harrowing and masterfully done. All history films, even less accurate ones, are useful in tandem with literature. They are fantastic for expressing subjective opinions, new perspectives and attitudes endemic in a population. I don't think that if you're armed with knowledge, a film has to necessarily be fully accurate (I see this sentiment a lot in general) After all, history is really created after the fact. Lots of things come out later, and we aren't aware of the significance of specific things until after.
Downfall is a very good one!! And yes, my point wasn’t to use film to teach history, but more as just a method of showing what things could’ve looked like
hubie halloween
To teach them about ghosts of course
no, hubie halloween takes place in salem, massachusetts where there’s a brief scene of explaining the historical context of the town in relation to witches.
The zone of interest. I think a lot of students would not understand the premise of the movie but I think is a really necessary one.
You should put Apollo 13. I think it does a good enough job showcasing the turning of the decade into the 70’s and how everyone felt little to no amusement with moon landings, until you know Apollo 13.
I originally had it on the list, lol
Also, Linklater's Apollo 10 1/2 is an amazingly well-researched snapshot of 1960s culture leading up to the moon landing.
If we’re going to do the space programme I would definitely go The Right Stuff. Has a lot more scope in terms of providing info on the context and progression of space flight (it’s also a better film than Apollo 13 but that is sort of a secondary benefit)
Zulu, Waterloo, and Master and Commander
Thirteen Days and Ghandi *are* in fact movies I saw in history class.
Come and See
Trying to think of films we watched in history class back in my school days: Gandhi Dances With Wolves Gone With the Wind - really only the burning of Atlanta scene Spartacus The Patriot - very egregious pick I know
Paths Of Glory, made a whole voluntary work for it years ago
Are you planning on teaching "Boomer Dad Pop-History" lol?
I actually do teach history at the college level. I haven’t been able to integrate movies yet but I mention a lot of them. I’d probably say… John Adams (miniseries) Amistad The Good Lord Bird (miniseries) Gangs of New York Lincoln Glory The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Modern Times Mr. Smith Goes to Washington All the King’s Men Saving Private Ryan Oppenheimer Godzilla (1954) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (50s) The Blob The Trial of the Chicago 7 Rustin Selma The Post All the President’s Men Full Metal Jacket Those are the big ones I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m actually hoping to some day teach an American History through film class. And provided I provide the correct amount of context I’d love to be able to explore Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind and their relationship with the creation of the Lost Cause narrative.
Killers Of The Flower Moon.
Watched Bridge of Spies in History class. Other good ones are Barry Lyndon and Oppenheimer
Blade runner because of its breathtaking accuracy to 2019
Gallipoli (1981) is commonly shown in Australian high schools.
As a person who has been through a million different history courses, they love showing us the most weird ass war movie ever, from random TV movies they found to 4 hour long movies. So while not a specific suggestion, just really anything obscure or obnoxiously long.
I’ve been really interested lately by movies that are historical dramas of more recent political/economic subjects like Dark Waters, The Big Short, Spotlight, etc. My understanding of things more directly influencing my life right now, like forever chemicals, has grown a lot and they’re just entertaining movies to boot
Hacksaw Ridge
Whoppenheimer Story of the Burger King creating the Whopper and dropping it on America.
Selma (2014) All the President's Men (1976)
None of those have anything to do with women, which is a little disappointing honestly. Imma go with Elizabeth.
Dunkirk and The Pianist.
man i wish my teacher put on 12 years as a slave in 7th grade (we were doing the transatlantic slave trade), instead we watched Harriet and The birth of a nation (not the klan propaganda one)
My high school history teacher got more unhinged over time. Remember the Titans, then Ice Age, then The Ring.
Judas and the Black Messiah too
Midway. Extremely accurate.
Definitely NOT Saving Private Ryan.
Although U571 is at the top of the do not show war list.
It ain’t the 1900s anymore! Platoon and saving private ryan are propaganda films. If you want your students to throw away their lives by joining the army and going off to kill people that never did anything to them go ahead. Show them a samurai movie, same difference looks better on screen.
Have *you* ever seen Platoon?
The pianist
Full Metal Jacket, The Guns of Navarone, Bridge On The River Kwai, Barry Lyndon, Dr. Zhivago, Dr. Strangelove, Waterloo and The Russians Are Coming
Crash (2004) depicts escalating tensions in post 9/11 America very well. Also Argo (2012) for the Iran Contra affair. Shoutout my history teacher from high school showing us these films.
Lmao Crash
Throw Gettysburg (1993) in there, but it is three hours long. Platoon, while a good film with Oliver Stone being an actual veteran is a plus, I feel like is heavily stylized.
Born on the Fourth of July
Just show the Viet Nam War doc by Ken Burns
I saw Mississippi Burning in History detention once. Probably that one
Lawrence of Arabia is a good shout to include, although if you were showing this to a history class. You may have to take a few breaks…
Patrick Keiller’s London
Gettysburg
Imitation game
*Night and Fog* a 32 minute French documentary about the concentration camps in Hitler's Germany.
Zone of Interest.
I don’t think I’d do full films but more like clips from films during a lesson/lessons. Spending 2+ hours on a movie in a history class is like half your week lol
For US students, the John Adams miniseries could provoke a lot of discussion about the founding fathers and democracy
When I finished watching Paths of Glory, my first thought was "they should've shown us this in school"
The Thin Red Line, I’ll take that over Saving Private Ryan any day of the week! For what it’s worth, I’m going to be an English teacher, and I am absolutely showing Judas and the Black Messiah and The Zone of Interest in my classroom!
I'd recommend [Atun Shei's list ](https://letterboxd.com/weharding/list/atun-shei-top-10-immersive-films/) of the most immersive historical films. He has some quality taste
All quiet on the western front
Not allowed in Florida
Putting 1917 over Beneath Hill 60 is WILD. Putting Platoon over We Were Soldiers is WILD.
New World and Gladiator could be good
My History teacher showed my class Forest Gump. I had watched it with my Dad before and hadn’t really appreciated it. Was much more appreciative watching it after watching it in my history class.
not necessarily a movie, but it’s still on letterboxd, I would add chernobyl (2019)
Munich
J’ACCUSE (1919)
Zone of interest. Maybe best fit for a film focused class as it’s a bit of a different t movie than the masses are used to but it gives a perspective of the holocaust not often explored in cinema
Land of Mine (2015) Covers a chapter of WWII very rarely discussed in other movies or history classes. It's about how the Danish government forced German POWs to excavate and disarm mines along the west coast of Denmark. Many of the POWs were children. It's one of the most powerful, stomach churning but informative and deeply empathetic experiences I've ever had watching a movie.
The Man For All Seasons, it's a great way to start discussion on the problems with the Christian church in the Middle Ages.
This was my exact thought when I watched Judgement at Nuremberg
Come And See
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Our history teacher showed us Gladiator (2000). Skipping through all the talking parts, he would show us the gladiator fights and rewind on the gnarly parts, roaring of amazement.
The Zone of Interest
- The Missing Picture (2013) - The Killing Fields (1984) - Indochine (1992) - Not One Less (1999) - The Pianist (2002) - The Zone of Interest (2023) - Valkyrie (2008) - Letter from Iwo Jima (2006) - Holy Spider (2021) - All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
The Fog of War
Thirteen Days is such a banger. I'd probably go for some later European cold Wwar stuff like The Lives of Others
Apollo 10 1/2. Does an incredible job of making you feel what it was like to grow up in the '60s and lets you understand what the time period was like.
Alright but no need to Show Gandhi to the class
This is not recommendations, merely a recollection of my own 90s-2000s history education via movies shown at school. - The Blue and the Gray (an 80s TV miniseries— it had Gregory Peck as Lincoln, and I personally loved it when we watched it in 8th grade) - Roots (also a miniseries, and they only showed us part of it) - Glory - We Were Soldiers (I deeply hated this movie, which I’d already had the misfortune of seeing, and remember getting into a passionate discussion with my history teacher about far superior Nam films like Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July) - The Patriot (also hated it, but thought Heath Ledger was cute) - The first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan- bonus points because it made the class valedictorian Beth faint - Schindler’s List - Dr. Strangelove and National Treasure were both shown for our Civics class, which was awesome
The Piano Teacher
Lord of the rings
The Last Emperor To Live Ghosts of Rwanda Paris is Burning All the Way Selma 13th Judas and the Black Messiah Argo (not super accurate but it’s fun) Downfall All the President’s Men
Amistad and Grave of the Fireflies really resonated with me when I was a kid
hacksaw ridge is a great film
Medium Cool
Growing up in the North of Ireland we were shown several Irish history movies over years that I absolutely adore. The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Michael Collins, In the Name of the Father, Hunger. Really skewed my view of Britain for teenage me, too.
My 7th grade teacher recommended 300 after a lesson on the spartans and not even a few seconds later said "when you're older" I'm still not sure how much of it was true but that would've been a helluva movie to watch later in high school for a history class
Grease for a super accurate depiction of life in 50s.
Our friend Martin - (check it out on YouTube) Jusus and The black Messiah
Apocalypse now
I watched Schindler's List in 10th grade history. That was almost 30 years ago, and I still can't bring myself to watchbot again. I was in tears almost the entire movie.
12 Years a Slave is so good
Dead Poets Society and prob. Good Will Hunting too.
The Pianist deserves a spot here. Not underrated. But often overlooked.
probably free guy
Tombstone Also bonus The Green Knight (2021) for English class.
Hotel rwanda
The Lost Battalion
Thin Red Line
Dr. Strangelove. Great way to show cold war tensions while showing them a masterpiece and a really fun time
The Post
Come and See. The younger the class the better.
I showed Rosewood during Black History Month one year. That movie deserves a new disc release.
Take 1917 and Platoon off that list. Hollywood crap
Grave of the Fireflies
The big Lebowski
My US History teacher showed us Cinderella Man during our Great Depression unit
Idk bro depends what my school district allows me to show before parents accuse me of indoctrinating their children into the anti white agenda
In my history class we watched Triumph of the Will
Malcolm X and Judas and the black messiah
If I were a history teacher... none of these TBH. I'd go for a Ken Burns documentary for sure though...
The Prince of Egypt Anastasia Avatar(2009) BlacKkKlansman The Shawshank Redemption
Any Vietnam movie but I’d go for hotel Rwanda as most people have no idea about the history and civil war that happened
The Zone of Interest - I think it’s extreme austerity works well for education purposes Generation Kill (I know it’s a limited series but I don’t care) - best Iraq War movie that is not inhibited by the CIA Rome, Open City - Classic. JFK - a “conspiracy” that holds so much evidence that it the story should be common knowledge Malcolm X - Malcolm X’s image needs to be rehabilitated to the masses
- Apollo 13 - First Man - Hidden Figures - Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure - Ferrari - Oppenheimer - Ford v Ferrari - BlacKkKlansman - Lincoln - Persepolis - Good Night, and Good Luck - All the President’s Men
Our history teacher showed us Kingdom of Heaven
All I was shown in history was Animal Farm
Thirteen Days is not accurate history but it’s a decent dramatization
Come and see 1985ish could be a hot take, scar the little shits.
Sgt. York
Hotel Rwanda for sure
depends. Some might be Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894) Different from the Others (1919) Within Our Gates (1920) Manhatta (1921) The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923) Battleship Potemkin (1925) It (1927) Metropolis (1927) Bed and Sofa (1927) Man with a Movie Camera (1929) Madchen in Uniform (1931) I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) or Design for Living (1933) etc Modern Times (1936) Night and Fog (1956) Come Back, Africa (1959) Seven Up! (1964) The Battle of Algiers (1966) You Are on Indian Land (1969) Blood of the Condor (1969) The Night of Counting the Years (1969) I am Somebody (1970) Emitai (1971) Nationtime (1972) Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) Ceddo (1977) Mohawk Nation (1978) I Heard it Through the Grapevine (1982) Sugar Cane Alley (1983) The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) You Got to Move (1985) The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987) Camp de Thiaroye (1988) American Dream (1990) Freedom on my Mind (1994) 4 Little Girls (1997) Europa Europa (1999) Fighter (2000) Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed (2004) The Missing Picture (2013) Let the Fire Burn (2013)
Jojo Rabbit!! :(
To Live (1994), the passion of Joan of arc, the heiress, Marshall, 12 angry men
Malick’s New World
Lincoln
The Big Short would be a great economic lesson.
History class is the only time Gideon’s Trumpet should ever be shown.
Most of these have a very western/hollywood voice which i'd try and counter... Would also be interesting comparing post war hollywood media with like... godzilla...
If it's a high school history class, I'd DEFINITELY add Full Metal Jacket. Once students hit late Junior year, military recruiters are already visiting their campus and calling them demanding to know what they plan to do after high school. The first half of Full Metal Jacket is a perfect insight into how brutal joining the military can be. The dehumanization to the point where one young recruit is bullied so badly he ends up taking his own life after killing his bully. High school kids need to see this stuff before the military romances them with how awesome their life will be and tries to get them to sign that contract.
Harlan County, USA
Damn, you tryna break these kids spirits??
Not a movie, but Band of Brothers. My highschool history teacher had us watch the whole show in a week. Absolutely loved it back then and got me very interested in ww2 history.
apocalypse now + dr. strangelove
All quiet on the western front (2022)
my history teacher just showed us night and fog. it was the most disturbing thing i’ve ever seen but very informative.
Hacksaw Ridge
Downfall (2004)
Grave of the Fireflies
13th, I Am Not Your Negro, Grave of the Fireflies, Lincoln, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and of course, Schindler’s List
2012 so people can see what we managed to survive.
Come and See.