Here is a list of historical movies you might enjoy that try and capture the essence of the time period. Remember that these are historical fiction and some license will have been taken by the director so it will not be 100% accurate. None-the-less they do try their best.
Extra Credit Assignment: Compose a standard LEQ for the prompt below for extra credit over Christmas Break. Choose one movie or two episodes from TV series and watch. It must be viewed with a parent (who can help you on the essay) or older sibling and the essay signed by them. Up to 8% can be earned and put into your “bank”
Evaluate the historical accuracy of your chosen film/show.
OK – this first one is more me being a fantasy/history geek and Anglophile but thought I would share a bit of Game of Thrones with you as well.
Also some of the movies/TV series are rated R so please ask your parent/gaurdian before viewing.
The Crown:
Follows the political rivalries and romances of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign
The White Queen
War ravages England in 1464 during a blood feud between the House of York and the House of Lancaster over who is the country’s true king.
The Great
A comedic look at Catherine’s rise from outsider to Russia’s powerful Empress.
Outlander:
In 1945, former WWII nurse Claire Randall and her husband Frank are visiting Inverness, Scotland, when she is carried from the standing stones at Craigh na Dun back in time to 1743. She falls in with a group of rebel Highlanders from Clan MacKenzie, who are being pursued by Britishredcoats led by Captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, who turns out to be Frank’s ancestor. She marries a Highlander, Jamie Fraser, out of necessity, but they quickly fall in love. The Clan suspect her of being a spy, and retain her as a healer, preventing her from attempting to return to her own time. Knowing that the Jacobite cause is doomed to fail, Claire tries to warn them against rebellion.
Tudors:
Season 1 chronicles the period of Henry VIII’s reign in which his effectiveness as king is tested by international conflicts and political intrigue in his own court. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey plays a major part, acting as Henry’s trusted advisor.
Downtown Abbey:
The first series explores the lives of the fictional Crawley family, the hereditary Earls of Grantham, and their domestic servants. The storyline centres on the fee tail or “entail” governing the titled elite, which endows title and estate exclusively to male heirs.
Dunkirk:
In 1940, during the Battle of France, Allied soldiers have retreated to Dunkirk. Tommy, a young British private, is the sole survivor of a German ambush.
The King’s Speech:
The story of King George VI, his impromptu ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
Goodbye Lenin
Comedy: In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Chernobyl:
In April 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics becomes one of the world’s worst man-made catastrophes.
Wind That Shakes the Barley
Against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.
Catherine the Great (2019 series)
The life and times of the woman who reformed the Russian empire.
1917
April 6th, 1917. As a regiment assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.
Schindler’s List
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Elizabethand Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Elizabeth: The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
Elizabeth the Golden Age: A mature Queen Elizabeth endures multiple crises late in her reign including court intrigues, an assassination plot, the Spanish Armada, and romantic disappointments.
Pride and Prejudice
While the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy
Lawrence of Arabia
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Gunpowder
Foreign mercenary Guido Fawkes, and a group of English Catholic traitors plan to blow up the Palace Of Westminster and kill King James I in the early 17th century.
The Iron Lady
An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene.
Das Boot
The claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth and sheer terror.
Gandhi
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
Enemy at the Gates
A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.
Master and Commander
During the Napoleonic Wars, a brash British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America.
Rebellion
Rebellion is a five part serial drama about the birth of modern Ireland. The story is told from the perspectives of a group of fictional characters who live through the political events of the 1916 Easter Rising.
The Trench
A story about a group of soldiers’ last days before the battle of the Somme in 1916.
Boy in Stripped Pajamas
Through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.
Joyeux Noel
In December 1914, an unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front allows soldiers from opposing sides of the First World War to gain insight into each other’s way of life.
To Kill a King
A recounting of the relationship between General Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, as they try to cope with the consequences of deposing King Charles I.
Dangerous Liaisons
A scheming widow and her manipulative ex-lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman in Palace of Versaille
Gallipoli
Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I
Peeky Blinders Season 1
A gangster family epic set in 1900s England, centering on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby.
AP European History 