Top Rated History Movies on Kanopy - Page 25

The Wedding of Palo

1934

The Wedding of Palo

1934
5
The movie tells of the contest between two rivals for the love of an Inuk woman. The forces of nature will decide the winner.
Girls in Gingham

1949

Girls in Gingham

1949
6.5
A moving saga focusing on the women in a family that spans three generations and almost 70 years of German history, from the Wilhelmine period through the end of WWII. This film shows that it takes a combination of hard work, political consciousness and family work in tandem to face the tragedies of war, economic hardship and death.
Henry VIII

1979

Henry VIII

1979
6.5
Henry is a proud monarch who flies in the face of the church in seeking to divorce Queen Katherine and marry Anne Bullen. As cardinal Wolsey, the powerful Lord Chancellor of England, attempts to bend Rome to the King's wishes, the court reverbates with political intrigue and accusations of treachery.
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

2011

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

2011
4.5
A story of destinies joined by Guatemala's past, and how a documentary film intertwined with a nation's turbulent history emerges as an active player in the present.
Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World

2011

Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World

2011
5.9
In this fascinating documentary, historian Bettany Hughes travels to the seven wonders of the Buddhist world.Her journey begins at the Mahabodhi Temple in India, where Buddhism was born; here Hughes examines the foundations of the belief system - the three jewels.At Nepal's Boudhanath Stupa, she looks deeper into the concept of dharma - the teaching of Buddha, and at the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, Bettany explores karma, the idea that our intentional acts will be mirrored in the future.At Wat Pho Temple in Thailand, Hughes explores samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death that Buddhists seek to end by achieving enlightenment, before travelling to Angkor Wat in Cambodia to learn more about the practice of meditation.In Hong Kong, Hughes visits the Giant Buddha and looks more closely at Zen, before arriving at the final wonder, the Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles, to discover more about the ultimate goal for all Buddhists - nirvana.
Sorceress

1987

Sorceress

1987
5
Dominican friar Etienne de Bourbon visits a 13th-century French village in search of heretics for the Inquisition. Despite the opposition of the local priest and the indifference of the villagers, he finds a seemingly perfect suspect: a young woman who lives in a forest outside the village and cures people with herbs and folk remedies. In the process, he discovers the cult of the greyhound "Saint" Guinefort, and confronts his own troubled past.
Double Headed Eagle: Hitler's Rise to Power 1918-1933

1973

Double Headed Eagle: Hitler's Rise to Power 1918-1933

1973
8
Presents a unique and disturbing look at the rise of the Nazi party. The documentary, directed by Lutz Becker, attempts to remain as objective as possible, serving as a neutral observer of the years 1918 through 1933 in Germany. Via newsreel footage and clips of features from the era, the film offers a kaleidoscopic view of the many elements that fueled the rise of the Socialist Nationalist Party, including post-WWI poverty. Hitler occupies a central place in the documentary.
The Royal

2022

The Royal

2022
5
The promising career of former Kansas City Royal slugger Willie Mays Aikens quickly turned disastrous because of drug addiction.
William The Conqueror

2015

William The Conqueror

2015
5.8
Blending drama with the explanations of passionate historians and specialists, this enriched historical reconstruction traces 60 years in the life a man who transformed the Middle Ages and laid the foundation of modern Europe, William The Conqueror.
Holy Silence

2020

Holy Silence

2020
6
As World War II looms, Pope Pius XI calls on a humble American priest to help him challenge the evils of Nazism and anti-Semitism. But death intervenes, and Pope Pius XII now carries out a very different response to Hitler and the Holocaust.
Tehlirian on Trial: Armenia's Avenger

2015

Tehlirian on Trial: Armenia's Avenger

2015
8
On 15 March 1921, Talat Pasha, a high-ranking Turkish dignitary, was shot dead in a Berlin street by a young Armenian. A few months later, Soghomon Tehlirian, his assassin, appeared before a German court. He faced the death penalty. Yet, during the trial, the victim gradually changed into the guilty party, and the accused was finally acquitted.
McCarthy

2020

McCarthy

2020
8
"McCarthy" chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who came to power after a stunning victory in an election no one thought he could win. Once in office, he declared that there was a vast conspiracy threatening America — emanating not from a rival superpower, but from within. Free of restraint or oversight, he conducted a crusade against those he accused of being enemies of the state, a chilling campaign marked by groundless accusations, bullying intimidation, grandiose showmanship and cruel victimization. With lawyer Roy Cohn at his side, he belittled critics, spinning a web of lies and distortions while spreading fear and confusion. After years in the headlines, he was brought down by his own excesses and overreach. But his name lives on linked to the modern-day witch hunt we call “McCarthyism.”
The Village Detective: A Song Cycle

2021

The Village Detective: A Song Cycle

2021
4
Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Iceland, July 9, 2016. The surprising discovery of a canister —containing four reels of The Village Detective (Деревенский детектив), a 1969 Soviet film—, caught in the nets of an Icelandic trawler, is the first step in a fascinating journey through the artistic life of film and stage actor Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov (1899-1981), icon and star of an entire era of Russian cinema.
Secrets in the Sky: The Untold Story of Skunk Works

2019

Secrets in the Sky: The Untold Story of Skunk Works

2019
8
In 1943, in a circus tent in Burbank, CA, a bunch of revolutionary thinkers first gathered together in secrecy to build America's first jet fighter. They were rule benders, chance takers, corner cutters-people who believed that nothing was impossible. I
The Poisoner's Handbook

2014

The Poisoner's Handbook

2014
7.7
In 1918, when New York City hired its first scientifically trained medical examiner Charles Norris. Over the course of a decade and a half, Norris and his extraordinarily driven and talented chief toxicologist, Alexander Gettler, would turn forensic chemistry into a formidable science, sending many a murderer to the electric chair and setting the standards that the rest of the country would ultimately adopt.
CIA Covert Experiments

2015

CIA Covert Experiments

2015
7.3
It is August 1951 and an entire French village goes crazy. People are screaming in the streets and throwing themselves out of windows. 300 people are affected and 7 end up dead. Wild theories start circulating to explain the tragedy. 60 years later declassified documents from the United States reveal that the CIA conducted experiments on unsuspecting citizens.
The Big Burn

2015

The Big Burn

2015
7.5
The dramatic story of an unimaginable wildfire that swept across the Northern Rockies in the summer of 1910.
Acorn and the Firestorm

2017

Acorn and the Firestorm

2017
5
For 40 years, the community-organizing group ACORN advocated for America’s poorest communities, while its detractors accused it of promoting the worst of liberal policies. Riding high on the momentum of Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2008, ACORN was at its political zenith when a hidden-camera video sparked a national scandal and brought it crashing down. The story involves voter fraud, a fake prostitute, and the rise of Breitbart.com.
Decoding Neanderthals

2013

Decoding Neanderthals

2013
8
Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans left their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundreds of thousands of years. So what happened when the first modern humans encountered the Neanderthals? Did they make love or war?
The Last Supper

2019

The Last Supper

2019
7
On the day Hitler assumes power, the German-Jewish Glickstein family come together for dinner. Most of them—like many Germans at the time—do not take the Nazis seriously. When Leah announces her plans to emigrate to Palestine, her family talks her down. But when Michael indicates he’s actually an admirer of the National Socialist Movement, the family is on the brink of being torn apart.