New History Movies on Free Services - Page 81

Trail of Hope

1997

Trail of Hope

1997
Hal Holbrook narrates this breathtaking documentary. Produced for national release on PBS Television, Trail of Hope captures the 22-year history of the Mormon Trail, a singular saga in American history. This conduit to the West was used by more than 70,000 emigrants - most of them migrating for religious reasons on their journey to the Great Basin. The great majority of these pioneers made the trek on foot across windblown plains, sunbaked deserts and frozen mountain valleys; each step a triumph in the face of tragedy, and a testament to unwavering faith.
Part Three: Born Under the Red Flag 1976–1997

1997

Part Three: Born Under the Red Flag 1976–1997

1997
6
What happened next could never have been anticipated and forms the story line for the final film of the trilogy; Born Under The Red Flag examines China’s remarkable transformation after Mao’s death. In just 15 years, under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership, China raced forward at an astonishing pace to become a never-before-seen hybrid of communism and capitalism. The world’s most populous nation has reinvented itself, changing from a relatively undeveloped and isolated nation into an economic giant and a major international power. For many Chinese, this transformation has brought unprecedented prosperity, but it has also raised troubling questions of national identity and social inequality.
The Rise and Fall of the Russian Space Program

1997

The Rise and Fall of the Russian Space Program

1997
The history of the Russian Space Program from being the first to send a satellite into space through its downward spiral due to the demise of the Soviet Union.
Welcome to Sarajevo

1997

Welcome to Sarajevo

1997
6.4
Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.
Rosewood

1997

Rosewood

1997
6.5
Spurred by a white woman's lie, vigilantes destroy a black Florida town and slay inhabitants in 1923.
Mandela and de Klerk

1997

Mandela and de Klerk

1997
6.5
Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine both received Emmy nominations for their performances in this made-for-TV movie. The plot follows Nelson Mandela's 27-year struggle to end apartheid.
The Truce

1997

The Truce

1997
6.1
After the liberation of Auschwitz, an Italian prisoner of War begins a torturous voyage home to Turin, through a Europe caught between war and peace.
Paradise Road

1997

Paradise Road

1997
6.4
A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.
Old Man

1997

Old Man

1997
6.3
A prisoner set on serving his time gets recruited to save a pregnant woman trapped in a tree during the Great Flood of 1927. A massive storm drives them farther from their destination and they soon must decide to go off on their own or find their way home.
The Last of the Nomads

1997

The Last of the Nomads

1997
Like an antipodean version of Romeo and Juliet, it emerges that Warri and Yatungka became the last nomads because they had married outside their tribal laws and eloped to the most inaccessible of regions. In 1977 the land was stricken by a severe drought and their tribal elders mounted a search for them with the help of a party of white men led by Dr Bill Peasley and one of their own number, a childhood friend named Mudjon. The film takes Dr Peasley back into the desert to relive his momentous journey with Mudjon and culminates with poignant archival footage of the elderly couple found naked and starving.
Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

1997

Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

1997
6.9
An acclaimed hijacking documentary that eerily foreshadowed 9/11. We meet the romantic skyjackers who fought their revolutions and won airtime on the passenger planes of the 1960s and '70s. By the 1990s, such characters were apparently no more, replaced on our TV screens by stories of anonymous bombs in suitcases. Director Johan Grimonprez investigates the politics behind this change, at the same time unwrapping our own complicity in the urge for ultimate disaster.
Ghosts of Mississippi

1996

Ghosts of Mississippi

1996
6.6
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
Kuksu

1996

Kuksu

1996
It is 1925. Caroline has become uncontrollable, and psychiatrists can't contain her wild, nocturnal rituals. A writer reconstructs the phenomenon from old photographs and becomes possessed by the story that invades her dreams.
The Crucible

1996

The Crucible

1996
6.6
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Mother Night

1996

Mother Night

1996
6.6
An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.
Michael Collins

1996

Michael Collins

1996
6.9
Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.
The Ghost and the Darkness

1996

The Ghost and the Darkness

1996
6.8
Sir Robert Beaumont is behind schedule on a railroad in Africa. Enlisting noted engineer John Henry Patterson to right the ship, Beaumont expects results. Everything seems great until the crew discovers the mutilated corpse of the project's foreman, seemingly killed by a lion. After several more attacks, Patterson calls in famed hunter Charles Remington, who has finally met his match in the bloodthirsty lions.
Some Mother's Son

1996

Some Mother's Son

1996
6.7
Based on the true story of the 1981 hunger strike in a British prison, in which IRA prisoner Bobby Sands led a protest against the treatment of IRA prisoners as criminals rather than as prisoners of war. The film focuses on the mothers of two of the strikers, and their struggle to save the lives of their sons.
Rats in the Ranks

1996

Rats in the Ranks

1996
7
Every September Sydney's inner-suburban Leichhardt Council re-elects it mayor. Incumbent Larry Hand was popular with the citizenry but they don't vote for mayor - the 12 councillors do - and after three years of Larry, at least four councillors were after his job. When film-makers Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson settled in at Leichhardt Council in early 1994 the knives were already being sharpened. A battle royal was in the making, and so it came to pass. By the end of September Larry had fought the fight of his life, with Connolly and Anderson documenting every bit of it on film. Ambition, courage, envy, hatred, loyalty, betrayal, disaster, triumph... in other words, a classic study in politics.
Red Hollywood

1996

Red Hollywood

1996
6.1
A documentary that examines the films made by the victims of the Hollywood Blacklist and offers a radically different perspective on a key period in the history of American cinema.