Some of the best historical films, sorted by period depicted and by author:

Ancient History

Howaks, Howard. Land of the Pharaohs, 1955. [Ancient Egypt]

Peterson, Wolfgang. Troy, 2004. [Ancient Greece, the Iliad]

DeMille, Cecil B. The Ten Commandments, 1956. [Israel, Moses]

Kubrick, Stanley. Spartacus, 1960. [Slave revolt against the Roman Republic]

Mankiewicz, Joseph L. Julius Caesar, 1953. [Adaptation of Shakespeare’s play]

Mankiewicz, Joseph L. Cleopatra, 1963. [The life of the Egyptian queen]

Pasolini, Pier Paolo. The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 1964. [The life of Jesus]

Gibson, Mel. The Passion of the Christ, 2004. [The Passion and death of Jesus]

Wyler, William. Ben-Hur, 1952. [A Jewish prince in Roman imperial times]

Wise, Herbert. I, Claudius, 1976. [Miniseries on the Roman emperor]

Scott, Ridley. Gladiator, 2000. [The Rome of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus]

Woo, John. Red Cliff (I and II), 2008-2009. [Epic battle in China, 3th century A.D.]

Middle Ages

Akkad, Moustapha. The Message, 1976. [Muhammad and early Islamic history]

Mann, Anthony. El Cid, 1961. [Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, a.k.a. “El Cid”]

Harvey, Anthony. The Lion in Winter, 1968. [England, King Henry II]

Glenville, Peter. Becket, 1964. [England, assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket]

Gibson, Mel. Braveheart, 1995. [Scottish independence leader William Wallace]

Rossellini, Roberto. The Flowers of St. Francis, 1950. [St. Francis and the early Franciscans]

Eisenstein, Sergei M. / Vasilyev, Dmitri. Alexander Nevsky, 1938. [The Russian warrior against the Teutonic Knights]

Tarkovsky, Andrei. Andrei Rublev, 1969. [Life of the great Russian painter]

Welles, Orson. Falstaff – Chimes at Midnight, 1965. [Late-medieval England]

Branagh, Kenneth. Henry V, 1989. [Adaptation of Shakespeare’s play]

Dreyer, Carl Theodor. The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928. [Trial of the French heroine]

Kurosawa, Akira. Kagemusha, la sombra del guerrero, 1980. [Feudal Japan]

Early Modern History

Gibson, Mel. Apocalypto, 2006. [Late Maya civilization]

Reed, Carol. The Agony and the Ecstasy, 1965. [Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel]

Zinnemann, Fred. A Man for All Seasons, 1966. [Life of Sir Thomas More]

Herzog, Werner. Aguirre, the Wrath of God, 1972. [A Spanish Conquistador in search of America’s El Dorado]

Vigne, Daniel. The Return of Martin Guerre, 1982. [Based on a real case, in the Spanish-French War, in 16th-century France]

Madden, John. Shakespeare in Love, 1998. [Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet]

Hughes, Ken. Cromwell, 1970. [Cromwell and the English Civil War]

Webber, Peter. Girl with a Pearl Earring, 2003. [A maid in the home of Dutch painter Vermeer]

Malick, Terrence. The New World, 2005. [European John Smith and Native American Pocahontas]

Rappeneau, Jean-Paul. Cyrano de Bergerac, 1990. [A poet and swashbuckler in 17th-century France]

Corneau, Alain. All the Mornings of the World, 1991. [A Jansenist musician at the court of Louis XIV]

Scorsese, Martin. Silence, 2016. [Jesuit priests in 17th-century Japan]

Kobayashi, Masaki. Harakiri, 1962. [A samurai requests to commit ritual suicide]

Kubrick, Stanley. Barry Lyndon, 1975. [Aristocratic 18th-century England]

Sternberg, Josef von. The Scarlet Empress, 1934. [Life of Catherine the Great]

Joffé, Roland. The Mission, 1986. [Jesuit missionaries in 18th-century South America]

Mann, Michael. The Last of the Mohicans, 1992. [Native Americans, British and French in colonial North America]

Forman, Milos. Amadeus, 1984. [The life of Mozart, as told by a distorted Salieri]

Emmerich, Roland. The Patriot, 2000. [American Revolutionary War]

Nineteenth Century (since 1789)

Rohmer, Éric. The Lady and the Duke, 2001. [French Revolution]

Wajda, Andrzej. Danton, 1982. [Danton and the French Revolution]

Gance, Abel. Napoleon, 1927. [First years of Napoleon]

Weir, Peter. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, 2003. [A British ship during the Napoleonic Wars]

Vidor, King. War and Peace, 1956. [Adaptation of Tolstoi’s novel]

Bondarchuk, Sergei. Waterloo, 1970. [Napoleon last defeat]

Holland, Agnieszka. Copying Beethoven, 2006. [Beethoven and Symphony No. 9]

Apted, Michael. Amazing Grace, 2006. [William Wilbeforce and the ending of slavery]

Wayne, John. The Alamo, 1960. [Siege at a Texas fort by thousands of Mexican soldiers]

Richardson, Tony. The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1968. [Crimean War]

Visconti, Luchino. The Leopard, 1963. [A noble amid the upheavals of 1860’s Sicily]

Madden, John. Her Majesty Mrs. Brown, 1997. [Queen Victoria]

Visconti, Luchino. Ludwig, 1972. [Ludwig, King of Bavaria, as a romantic hero]

Walsh, Raoul. They Died with Their Boots, 1941. [Life of George Armstrong Custer]

McQueen, Steve. 12 Years a Slave, 2013. [Slavery in the antebellum United States]

Scorsese, Martin. Gangs of New York, 2002. [Crime in New York, 1863]

Spielberg, Steven. Lincoln, 2012. [Lincoln during American Civil War]

Fleming, Victor. Gone with the Wind, 1939. [Romance during the American Civil War and Reconstruction periods]

Griffith, David W. The Birth of a Nation, 1915. [American Civil War]

Zwick, Edward. Glory, 1989. [American Civil War]

Maxwell, Ron. Gettysburg, 1993. [Main battle of the American Civil War]

Zwick, Edward. The Last Samurai, 2003. [American and Japanese cultures in 1870s]

Endfield, Cy. Zulu, 1964. [A group of British soldiers attacked by thousands of Zulu warriors]

Minnelli, Vincente. Lust for Life, 1956. [Life of painter Vincent Van Gogh]

Twentieth Century

Ray, Nicholas. 55 Days at Peking, 1963. [China, Boxer Rebellion]

Bertolucci, Bernardo. Novecento (1900), 1976. [Class struggle in twentieth century Italy]

Cameron, James. Titanic, 1997. [Sinking of the RMS Titanic]

Gavron, Sarah. Suffragette, 2015. [British women’s suffrage movement]

Eisenstein, Sergei M. Battleship Potemkin, 1925. [Russian Revolution of 1905]

Schaffner, Franklin J. Nicholas and Alexandra, 1971. [Russian Revolution]

Eisenstein, Sergei M. / Aleksandrov, Grigori. October, 1927. [Russian Revolution]

Lean, David. Doctor Zhivago, 1965. [Russian Revolution]

Kazan, Elia. ¡Viva Zapata!, 1952. [Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata]

Lean, David. Lawrence of Arabia, 1962. [Arab tribes’ revolt against the Turks]

Weir, Peter. Gallipoli, 1981. [World War I, Battle of Gallipoli]

Renoir, Jean. Grande Illusion, 1937. [World War I]

Milestone, Lewis. All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930. [World War I]

Kubrick, Stanley. Paths of Glory, 1957. [France, World War I]

Mendes, Sam. 1917, 2019. [World War I]

Lean, David. A Passage to India, 1984. [British colonial India, ca. 1920]

Jordan, Neil. Michael Collins, 1996. [Irish independence leader]

Ford, John. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940. [The Great Depression]

Penn, Arthur. Bonnie & Clyde, 1967. [Exploits of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker during the 30s]

Chuan, Lu. City of Life and Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!), 2009. [Nanjing Massacre, committed by Imperial Japanese troops]

Hooper, Tom. The King’s Speech, 2010. [A speech therapist helps British King George VI]

Nolan, Christopher. Dunkirk, 2017. [Dunkirk evacuation]

Petersen, Wolfgang. The Boat, 1981. [A german U-boat during World War II]

Fleischer, R. / Fukasaku, F. / Kikushima, R. Tora! Tora! Tora!, 1970. [Surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor]

Annaud, Jean-Jacques. Enemy at the Gates, 2001. [Battle of Stalingrad]

Spielberg, Steven. Saving Private Ryan, 1998. [Normandy landings]

Attenborough, Richard. A Bridge Too Far, 1977. [Operation Market Garden]

Noyce, Phillip. The Quiet American, 2002. [Vietnam, 1950s]

Schaffner, Franklin J. Patton, 1970. [The famous general during World War II]

Sturges, John. The Great Escape, 1963. [Escape of allied prisoners from a German camp during World War II]

Spielberg, Steven. Empire of the Sun, 1987. [Shanghai under Japanese occupation during World War II]

Lean, David. The Bridge over the River Kwai, 1957. [British POWs in Burma are employed by the Japanese to build a bridge]

Eastwood, Clint. Letters from Iwo Jima, 2006. [Battle of Iwo Jima]

Gibson, Mel. Hacksaw Ridge, 2016. [Battle of Okinawa]

Hirschbiegel, Oliver. Downfall, 2004. [Hitler’s final days in his Berlin bunker]

Spielberg, Steven. Schindler’s List, 1993. [Kraków, Holocaust]

Benigni, Roberto. Life is Beautiful, 1997. [Italy, Holocaust]

Polanski, Roman. The Pianist, 2002. [Warsaw, Holocaust]

Kramer, Stanley. Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961. [Alemania]

Mehta, Deepa. Earth, 1998. [Division of British India into India and Pakistan]

Preminger, Otto. Exodus, 1960. [The founding of the state of Israel]

Attenborough, Richard. Gandhi, 1982. [Biopic on the Indian leader]

Bertolucci, Bernardo. The Last Emperor, 1987. [The final Emperor of China]

Yimou, Zhang. To Live!, 1994. [Maoist China]

Kaige, Chen. Farewell My Concubine, 1993. [Pekin, 1925]

Egoyan, Atom. Ararat, 2002. [Armenia, 20th century]

Berlanga, Luis García. Wellcome Mr. Marshall!, 1953. [Failed welcome of Marshall Plan in Spain]

Camus, Mario. The Holy Innocents, 1984. [Campesinos en la España de la posguerra]

Donaldson, Roger. Thirteen Days, 2000. [Cuban Missile Crisis]

Kaufman, Philip. The Right Stuff, 1983. [American space program]

Parker, Alan. Mississippi Burning, 1988. [American Civil Rights]

Stone, Oliver. JFK, 1991. [The Kennedy assassination]

Coppola, Francis Ford. Apocalypse Now, 1979. [Vietnam War]

Stone, Oliver. Platoon, 1986. [Vietnam War]

Spielberg, Bridge of Spies, 2015. [Exchange of spies between the USA and the Soviet Union]

Spielberg, Steven. Munich, 2005. [Arab–Israeli conflict]

Spielberg, Steven. The Post, 2017. [A battle between the press and the US government over a Vietnam cover-up]

Pakula, Alan J. All the Pesident’s Men, 1976. [The Watergate scandal]

Greengrass, Paul. Bloody Sunday, 2002. [Massacre in Ireland by British troops]

Sheridan, Jim. In the Name of the Father, 1993. [Some Irish men are wrongfully imprisoned for the bombing of a London pub]

Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel von. The Lives of Others, 2006. [Stasi espionnage in East Germany during 1980s]

Scott, Ridley. Black Hawk Down, 2001. [Somalia, Battle of Mogadishu]

George, Terry. Hotel Rwanda, 2004. [Genocide against the Tutsi]

Eastwood, Clint. Invictus, 2009. [Nelson Mandela and the 1995 Rugby World Cup]