List of Historical Drama Films - Films Set in The Early/mid 20th Century

Films Set in The Early/mid 20th Century

See also: List of World War I films See also: List of films about the Romanovs See also: List of World War II films
Sortable table
Title Release date Time period Notes on setting
55 Days at Peking 1963 1900 Battle of Peking during the Boxer Rebellion
Breaker Morant 1980 1901 an Australian Lieutenant, Harry "Breaker" Morant, who ordered the summary execution of several prisoners during the Second Boer War
Meet Me in St. Louis 1944 1904 life of a middle-class American family at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Battleship Potemkin 1925 1905 the Battleship Potemkin uprising
A Dangerous Method 2011 1904–1912 covers personal and professional relationship between Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Sabina Spielrein
A Night to Remember 1958 1912 the Titanic disaster
Titanic 1997 1912 the Titanic disaster
Doctor Zhivago 1965 1912–1923 World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War
La Masseria Delle Allodole 2007 1915 World War I, the Armenian Genocide
Ararat 2002 1915 Turkey, the Armenian Genocide
All Quiet On The Western Front 1930 1914–1918 World War I
All Quiet On The Western Front 1979 1914–1918 Western Front of World War I
Gallipoli 1981 1914–1915 Gallipoli Campaign of World War I
Flyboys 2006 1914–1917 American volunteer combat pilots in service for the Allies during World War I
A Very Long Engagement 2004 1914–1920s Western Front of World War I
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 1916–1918 T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt
Michael Collins 1996 1916–1922 later life of Irish resistance leader Michael Collins and his participation in the Irish War of Independence
The Lighthorsemen 1987 1917 Battle of Beersheba
The Lost Battalion 1919 1918 units of the 77th Infantry Division penetrating deep into the Argonne Forest of France during World War I, under the command of Major Charles White Whittlesey are trapped and surrounded by the German army
The Lost Battalion 2001 1918 units of the 77th Infantry Division penetrating deep into the Argonne Forest of France during World War I, under the command of Major Charles White Whittlesey are trapped and surrounded by the German army
Nicholas and Alexandra 1971 1904-1918 last 14 years of Russia's last tsar, includes World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War and the royal family's deaths.
The Wind that Shakes the Barley 2006 1919–1923 the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War
Chariots of Fire 1981 1919–1924 British runners face prejudice and compete in the Paris Olympics
Evita 1996 1919–1952 Evita Peron
J. Edgar 2011 1919–1972 Life and career of J. Edgar Hoover, FBI-Director from 1935 to 1972
Legionnaire 1998 1920–1926 Second Moroccan War
Anastasia 1956 1920s based upon Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and the activities of Anna Anderson
The First of the Few 1942 1922-1936 aircraft engineer R.J. Mitchell designs the Spitfire despite his failing health
The King's Speech 2010 1924-1939 The quest of King George VI to overcome his stammer.
The Ogre 1996 1925-1945 The account of a simple Frenchman who recruits children to the Nazis in the belief that he is protecting them
Road to Perdition 2002 winter 1931 A man seeks vengeance against a mobster
The Legend of Bagger Vance 2000 1931 set in Savannah, Georgia; loosely based on the Bhagavad Gita
Bonnie and Clyde 1967 1931–1934 Bonnie and Clyde
A Pearl in the Forest 2008 1934–1938 set during the Great Purges initiated by Joseph Stalin in Mongolia
Atonement 2007 1935–1940 A romantic suspense war film, set in the late 1930s and 1940 in Britain.
The Hindenburg 1975 1937 the Hindenburg disaster
The Flowers of War 2012 1937 the Nanking Massacre
Schindler's List 1993 1939–1945 German industrialist Oskar Schindler's assistance to keep Jewish people from being interred in concentration camps during World War II
The Last Bastion 1984 1939–1945 Australia during World War II
The Pianist 2002 1939–1945 Poland during World War II
Battle of Britain 1969 1940 the Battle of Britain
Malèna 2000 1940–1944 Italy during World War II
The Way Back 2010 1941 escape from a Siberian Gulag
Sink the Bismarck! 1960 May 1941 World War II German battleship Bismarck
Tora! Tora! Tora! 1970 December 7, 1941 the attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor 2001 December 1941 the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and Doolittle Raid
The Pacific 2010 1942–1946 focuses on the United States Marine Corps' actions in the Pacific Theater of Operations within the wider Pacific War
Midway 1976 June 1942 the Battle of Midway
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 1942–1943 construction of the Burma Railway by British prisoners of war during World War II
The Thin Red Line 1998 August 1942-February 1943 The Battle of Guadalcanal
Band of Brothers 2001 1942–1945 centers on the combat experiences of E Company ("Easy Company") of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment assigned to the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army in WWII Europe
Stalingrad 1993 winter 1942-1943 The Battle of Stalingrad from a German perspective
Enemy at the Gates 2001 winter 1942-1943 Vasily Zaytsev in the Battle of Stalingrad
Cross of Iron 1977 spring 1943 Eastern Front
The Dam Busters 1955 May 1943 development of the Upkeep bouncing bomb and its use in Operation Chastise
Memphis Belle 1990 May 1943 a U.S. bombing mission over Germany during World War II
Patton 1970 1943–1945 the exploits of General George S. Patton during World War II
Red Tails 2012 1944 Tuskegee Airmen during World War II
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 2008 1944 The Holocaust
The Longest Day 1962 June 6, 1944 the D-Day invasion
Saving Private Ryan 1998 June 1944 D-Day and its aftermath
Valkyrie 2008 1944 set in Nazi Germany during World War II. It depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country.
A Bridge Too Far 1977 September 1944 Operation Market Garden
Kanal 1956 September 1944 Warsaw Uprising
Flags of Our Fathers 2006 February–March 1945 the Battle of Iwo Jima
Letters from Iwo Jima 2006 February–March 1945 the Battle of Iwo Jima
Downfall 2005 April–May 1945 the last days of the Third Reich
Ashes and Diamonds 1958 May 1945 Polish Home Army soldiers assigned to assassinate a Communist commissar
The Good German 2006 July–August 1945 during the Potsdam Conference
Nuremberg 2000 November 1945-October 1946 the first of the Nuremberg Trials
Judgment at Nuremberg 1961 1947 the Judges' Trial
Exodus 1960 1947–1948 foundation of Israel
Cast a Giant Shadow 1966 1948 U.S. Colonel Mickey Marcus's involvement in the Israeli war of independence

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Famous quotes containing the words films, set, early, mid and/or century:

    “The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
    —Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)

    “But now I see I was not plucked for naught,
    And after in life’s vase
    Of glass set while I might survive,
    But by a kind hand brought
    Alive
    To a strange place.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
    —Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)

    “There, on the mountain and the sky,
    On all the tragic scene they stare.
    One asks for mournful melodies;
    Accomplished fingers begin to play.
    Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes,
    Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce.”
    —Sun Tzu (6–5th century B.C.)