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DVD's: Historical Movies

RU Library - Level 1

The Post

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This historical drama is based on the events surrounding the release of the Pentagon Papers, documents which detailed the history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam. The story centers on Kay Graham, the first female newspaper publisher in the country (specifically of the Washington Post), as well as her tough editor, Ben Bradlee. The two become involved in an unprecedented power struggle between journalists and the government, exposing a cover-up that has spanned four different American presidencies.

Emperor

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Immediately after Emperor Hirohito's World War II surrender, General MacArthur suddenly finds himself the de facto ruler of a foreign nation. 

The Crimson Field (Series)

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The story of World War One front line medics - their hopes, fears, triumphs and tragedies.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Produced by Norman Rosemont 2003

Directed by Delbert Mann

 

La Commune (Paris 1871)

Directed by Peter Watkins 2010

Icarus Films

Birdsong

Directed by Philip Martin 2012

Written by Sebastian Faulks

I Claudius

Produced by Martin Lisemore 2002

Directed by Herbert Wise

Charles II

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BBC 2004

Saving Private Ryan

Produced by Steven Spielberg, Ian Royce, Gary Levinson and Mark Gordon 1998

Directed by Steven Spielberg

 

Bomber Harris

Directed by Michael Darlow 1989

The Winds of War

Production designer Jackson De Govia 1983

The Longest Day

Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck 1962

Directed by Ken Annakin

Schindler's List

Directed by Steven Spielberg 1993

Screenplay by Steven Zaillian

Rescue Dawn

Produced by Steve Marlton, Elton Brand and Harry Knapp 2007

Directed by Werner Herzog

War Horse

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Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War

Journey's End

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The Great War, March 1918. C-company arrives to take its turn in the front-line trenches of northern France, led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope. With a German offensive imminently approaching, the company anxiously awaits their unknown fate.

Based on the play by R.C. Sherriff

Krotoa

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"Krotoa, a feisty, bright, young 11 year old girl is removed from her close-knit Khoi tribe to serve Jan van Riebeeck, her uncle's trading partner. She is brought into the first Fort established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. There she grows into a visionary young woman who assimilates the Dutch language and culture so well that she rises to become an influential interpreter for van Riebeeck who became the first Governor of the Cape Colony. As such Krotoa ends up being rejected by her own Khoi people and destroyed by the Dutch when she tries to find the middle way between the two cultures."

A United Kingdom

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The inspiring real-life romance of Seretse Khama, King of Bechuanaland (later Botswana), and Ruth Williams, the London office worker he married in 1948 in the face of fierce opposition from their families and the British and South African governments.

The Pianist

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True-life story of brilliant pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, the most acclaimed young musician of his time until his promising career was interrupted by the onset of World War II.

Rome (complete series)

Produced by Robert Papazian and James Hirsch 2009

A Royal Affair

Directed by Nicolaj Arcel 2012

Lawrence of Arabia

Produced by Sam Spiegel

Directed by David Lean

The Lost Prince

A Talkback/BBC production 2003

Produced by John Chapman

Written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Produced by David Heyman 2008

Written for screen and directed by Mark Herman

The Battle of Britain

Produced by Harry Salzman and S. Benjamin Fisz 1969

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Produced by Elmo Williams 1970

Directed by Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasku

 

The Last King of Scotland

Produced by Lisa Bryer Andrea Calderwood and Charles Steel 2007

Directed by Kevin MacDonald

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath tells the specific story of the Joad family in order to illustrate the hardship and oppression suffered by migrant laborers during the Great Depression 1940

Bent

In Thirties Berlin, Max and Rudy are lovers. But the Nazis have decided that homosexuals should be persecuted as well as Jews and, when a group of soldiers burst in on Greta's Club, Rudy and Max are lucky to escape. They are eventually caught and are due to be transported to Dachau concentration camp

Black Book

 

Rachel, a young Jewish girl, hides from the Nazis during World War II in The Netherlands. She sees her hiding place blown up and escapes with her rescuer, a young sailor, but their boat sails into a trap set by the Germans.

Gallipoli : the Frontline Experience

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"The Gallipoli campaign of World War I was so controversial and devastating, it changed the face of battle for ever"

Les Miserables

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As a young man, Jean Valjean is convicted of stealing. After escaping prison, he rises, against all odds to become mayor, but he cannot escape his past or Javert, the fanatical police inspector who is determined to recapture him.

The Exception

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A German soldier tries to determine if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to infiltrate the home of Kaiser Wilhelm in Holland during the onset of World War II, but falls for a young Jewish Dutch woman during his investigation.

 

The Man with the Iron Heart

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1942: The Third Reich is at its peak. The Czech resistance in London decides to plan the most ambitious military operation of WWII: Anthropoid. Two young recruits in their late twenties, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader - Reich-protector Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the SS, the Gestapo, and the architect of the Final Solution

Bridge of Spies

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Produced by Steven Spielberg

American Sniper

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Based on the book by Chris Kyle

The Borgias (series)

Created by Neil Jordan 2011

Doctor Zhivago

Produced by Carlo Ponti 1965

Directed by David Lean

The Gathering Storm

Directed by Richard Loncraine 2003

The King's Speech

Produced by Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, and Gareth Unwin 2010

Directed by Tom Hooper

Flags of our Fathers

Produced by Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg 2007

Directed by Clint Eastwood

The Dambusters

Produced by Robert Clark 1955

Directed by Michael Anderson

Hotel Rwanda

Produced by A. Kitman Ho 2004

Directed by Terry George

Joyeux Noel

Nord-Ouest présente ; une co-production France-Allenagne-Angleterre-Belgique-Roumanie ; entre Nord-Ouest Production ... [et al.] et TF1 Films Production, Les Productions de La Guéville ; avec la participation de Canal+ 2006

A Dry White Season

"Ben du Toit is a schoolteacher who always has considered himself a man of caring and justice... When his gardener's son is brutally beaten up by the police at a demonstration by black school children, he gradually begins to realize his own society is built on a pillar of injustice and exploitation."

Betrayal

"Shot over a number of years, this ... film pays tribute to an unsung heroine of the armed struggle against apartheid. This is the story of Nokuthula Simelane, a 23 year old student who was unofficially held captive and then disappeared in 1983. Her fate remains locked in diffusing memories and suspicions, admissions and denials, woven through with the thread of betrayal.