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Historical Epics Movies
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Starring Leonardo DiCaprioKate WinsletBilly Zane
By James Cameron, 1997.
Winner of 11 Oscars, director James Cameron's effects-filled blockbuster weds the historical tale of the doomed ocean liner with a fictional romance between two of the ship's ill-fated passengers -- putting a human face on a tragedy of epic proportions.
- Saving Private Ryan
Starring Tom HanksTom SizemoreMatt Damon
By Steven Spielberg, 1998.
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain Tom Hanks and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home. Steven Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz...
- Braveheart
Starring Mel GibsonSophie MarceauPatrick McGoohan
By Mel Gibson, 1995.
Enraged at the slaughter of Murron (Catherine McCormack) -- his new bride and childhood love -- legendary Scottish warrior William Wallace (Mel Gibson, who also directed the film) slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire...
- Schindler's List
Starring Liam NeesonBen KingsleyRalph Fiennes
By Steven Spielberg, 1993.
Liam Neeson stars as Oskar Schindler, a greedy German factory owner made rich by exploiting cheap Jewish labor. But as World War II unfolds, he becomes an unlikely humanitarian, spending his entire fortune to help save 1,100 Jews from Auschwitz. Co-starring Ralph Fiennes, Steven Spielberg's...
- Gangs of New York
Starring Leonardo DiCaprioDaniel Day-LewisCameron Diaz
By Martin Scorsese, 2002.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis star in this epic tale of vengeance and survival! As waves of immigrants swell the population of New York, lawlessness and corruption thrive in lower Manhattan's Five Points section. After years of incarceration, young Irish immigrant Amsterdam...
- Glory
Starring Matthew BroderickMorgan FreemanDenzel Washington
By Edward Zwick, 1989.
Loosely based on the letters of Boston-born Union commander Col. Robert G. Shaw (Matthew Broderick), this Academy Award-winning war film follows the first group of African-Americans to serve in combat during the Civil War. The heroics of Shaw's volunteer regiment of black soldiers -- including a...
- The Last Samurai
Starring Tom CruiseBilly ConnollyTony Goldwyn
By Edward Zwick, 2003.
Tom Cruise stars as Captain Nathan Algren in 1870s dynastic Japan. Disillusioned after the American Civil War, Algren agrees to instruct the country's new army in the ways of modern (Western) warfare. In the process, he learns to respect the samurai's principles, culture of loyalty, selflessness...
- The English Patient
Starring Ralph FiennesJuliette BinocheWillem Dafoe
By Anthony Minghella, 1996.
Anthony Minghella wrote and directed this award-winning adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel about a doomed and tragic romance set against the backdrop of World War II.
- Elizabeth
Starring Cate BlanchettChristopher EcclestonGeoffrey Rush
By Shekhar Kapur, 1998.
England's Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) took the throne of a Roman Catholic country as a young woman, declared the nation Protestant and ruled for 45 years -- but at great personal cost. Director Shekhar Kapur's Oscar-winning treatise on absolute power and its human toll sees the virgin queen...
- The Passion of the Christ
Starring Jim CaviezelMonica BellucciMaia Morgenstern
By Mel Gibson, 2004.
Oscar-winning actor-director Mel Gibson helms this controversial epic film that focuses on the last 12 hours of Jesus's life -- from the betrayal, trial and death of Jesus to his brutal Crucifixion and resurrection from the tomb. Starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus, Maia Morgenstern as Jesus's mother...
- Lawrence of Arabia
Starring Peter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony Quinn
By David Lean, 1962.
An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name.
- The Last Emperor
Starring John LoneJoan ChenPeter O'Toole
By Bernardo Bertolucci, 1999.
Everything that was good about the 163-minute theatrical release of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 is even better in this new 218-minute director's cut. By contrast, much that was peculiarly distant and lifeless the first time around isn't really better or worse in this edition.
- The Ten Commandments
Starring Charlton HestonYul BrynnerAnne Baxter
By Cecil B. DeMille, 1956.
To escape the edict of Egypt's Pharoah, Rameses I, condemning all first-born Hebrew males, the infant Moses is set adrift on the Nile in a reed basket. Saved by the pharaoh's daughter Bithiah, he is adopted by her and brought up in the court of her brother, Pharaoh Seti.
- Gandhi
Starring Ben KingsleyCandice BergenEdward Fox
By Richard Attenborough, 1982.
This awe-inspiring biopic about Mahatma Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) -- the diminutive lawyer who stood up against British rule in India and became an international symbol of nonviolence and understanding -- brilliantly underscores the difference one person can make.
- Ben-Hur
Starring Charlton HestonCathy O´DonnellFinlay Currie
By William Wyler, 1959.
Having swept the board at the Academy awards,, Ben Hur, achieved an outstanding feat in film history, winning eleven oscars in 1959 including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. After a ten month production schedule and a then massive $15 million budget, this 1950´s epic movie has always...
- Alexander
Starring Colin FarrellAngelina JolieVal Kilmer
By Oliver Stone, 2004.
Oliver Stone takes on the saga of Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell), the legendary Macedonian warrior. Although Alexander's leadership was unflinching and his politics cunning, his interior life was as complicated as he was and included a strangely twisted relationship with his mother (Angelina...
- Cleopatra
Starring Richard BurtonCesare DanovaHume Cronyn
By Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963.
This epic saga of love, greed and betrayal -- which won four Oscars -- stars Elizabeth Taylor as the passionate and ambitious Egyptian queen. Determined to hold on to the throne, she seduces the Roman emperor Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison). When Caesar is murdered, however, she redirects her...
- Doctor Zhivago
Starring Omar SharifJulie ChristieGeraldine Chaplin
By David Lean, 1965.
A young physician (Omar Sharif) and his beautiful mistress (Julie Christie) get swept up in the danger and drama of the Bolshevik Revolution in this Oscar-winning epic based on the classic novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Boris Pasternak. The film earned five Academy Awards in all, including...
- The Last Temptation of Christ
Starring Willem DafoeHarvey KeitelBarbara Hershey
By Martin Scorsese, 1988.
The carpenter Jesus of Nazareth, tormented by the temptations of demons, the guilt of making crosses for the Romans, pity for men and the world, and the constant call of God, sets out to find what God wills for him. But as his mission nears fulfillment, he must face the greatest temptation: the...
- Kundun
Starring Tenzin Thuthob TsarongGyurme TethongTulku Jamyang
By Martin Scorsese, 1997.
A change of pace for director Martin Scorsese, this biopic about the life of the Dalai Lama was filmed with a cast of unknowns in Morocco when film crews were forbidden to enter Tibet. The Lama's escape during the Chinese invasion, meetings with Chairman Mao and eventual exile in India are vividly...
