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Best movies about British history?

angrysoba

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angrysoba
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What are the best movies on British history?

These are movies that I may be able to recommend to university students taking a course on British culture as an elective subject.

I understand that movies such as Braveheart and maybe The Patriot are very inaccurate, but I am looking for movies of two particular kinds:

Those about British history in general (including the British Empire), and perhaps biopics of the kings and queens.

Here are a few possibilities:

Elizabeth (Gwyneth Paltrow)
Madness of King George
The King's Speech

Also,
The Man Who Would be King (fiction, yes, but enjoyable)
Wind That Shakes the Barley (for Ireland)

Do you recommend any others, or would you warn off any of my choices so far?
 
Some of these will be a bit epic, but off the top of my head
Gandhi.
A Man For All Seasons
Mrs Brown



Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk
 
angrysoba said:
What are the best movies on British history?

These are movies that I may be able to recommend to university students taking a course on British culture as an elective subject.

I understand that movies such as Braveheart and maybe The Patriot are very inaccurate, but I am looking for movies of two particular kinds:

Those about British history in general (including the British Empire), and perhaps biopics of the kings and queens.

Here are a few possibilities:

Elizabeth (Gwyneth Paltrow)
Madness of King George
The King's Speech

Also,
The Man Who Would be King (fiction, yes, but enjoyable)
Wind That Shakes the Barley (for Ireland)

Do you recommend any others, or would you warn off any of my choices so far?
Click to expand...

Ah yes, "British culture". What's that when it's at home. I'd hate to have to convey the essence of anything so impenetrable as British culture, if only that the class divide makes it well nigh impossible to make generalizations.

Forget about culture. Think more about values and other characteristics that are more or less shared, correction, paid lip service to, across the social spectrum, seen best when under pressure.

If I had to name one, it would be doggedness in pursuit of what is instinctively perceived as the decent and upright thing to do.

Film? Braveheart? You have to be kidding (recalling the defenestration tendencies of that ruthless Anglo-Norman (not true-blue English!) monarch, King Edward ("Longshanks") to say nothing of ordering his archers to fell the charging Scots and Irish, knowing his own front-line foot-soldiers would also get skewered).

For doggedness under fire, one could do a lot worse than show "The Battle of Britain. Ask whether "dogged" Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh ("Stuffy") Dowding was really the man for the job, or just lucky to have had Spitfires and a fast-dwindling number of fearless, chummy pilots at his disposal....

Ah yes: chumminess and informality, those essential factors in social inter-class cohesion, less in evidence these days but not extinct. Add those to the list of hard-to-pin-down "cultural" traits.
 
Can't believe I didn't mention The Up series of documentaries. Revisiting a group of children every 7 years from 1964 to 2012

One that occurs to me, but is perhaps a bit specific, is an animated movie called 'Great' about Isambard Kingdom Brunel that we watched in history lessons at school.

https://bobgodfreyfilms.com/great/

Pride
Withnail & I
Trainspotting

Britain is probably better represented on TV to be honest. There are some cracking documentary series that give insight.
 
Warriors (Peter Cosminsky)
Bloody Sunday (the Michael Greengrass one)
Contact (the Alan Clarke one)
Dog Soldiers ;)
 
"Whisky Galore", based on a real ship wreck during WW2 and the fate of its cargo of whisky.
"Zulu". Pretty accurate and I love when the soldiers sing Men of Harlech in response to the impi.
"Edge of the World", not factual but a good movie about the end of a way of life in the Western Isles, filmed around about the time Saint Kilda was evacuated.
 
Carry on at your convenience.
I'm all rights Jack.
Battle of Britain
Zulu
Waterloo
The Ladykillers
Hobsons Choice
Went the day well
 
lionking said:
Month Python's Holy Grail.








Sorry......
Click to expand...

The Meaning of Life is more apt to the OP.

Young Victoria and/or the Victoria BBC series.
HBO did a series of shows on Churchill during WWII which are on Netflix or Amazon.

Most of the following take liberties with accuracy.
Lawrence of Arabia
Breaker Morant
The Madness of King George
A Man for All Seasons
The Lion in Winter

Some non-historical:
Brassed Off
Trainspotting
A Hard Days Night
 
meccanoman said:
For doggedness under fire, one could do a lot worse than show "The Battle of Britain. Ask whether "dogged" Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh ("Stuffy") Dowding was really the man for the job, or just lucky to have had Spitfires and a fast-dwindling number of fearless, chummy pilots at his disposal....
Click to expand...
Not a bad film, and made with real Spitfires, Hurricanes, Heinkel 111's and ME-109's (actually later model Spanish versions).
 
Zulu has been recommended, and it is among my favorite movies, and as Hollywood goes it is more accurate than most. Still, it isn't really accurate about the details at all, though it does a marvelous job of the overall feel and the general tenor of the battle.
 
Garrette said:
Zulu has been recommended, and it is among my favorite movies, and as Hollywood goes it is more accurate than most. Still, it isn't really accurate about the details at all, though it does a marvelous job of the overall feel and the general tenor of the battle.
Click to expand...

I thought of Zulu but, while it is the quintessential British war movie, I don't know that it really says much about British history or culture in general.

(I suppose The Bridge on the River Kwai is right out?)

Perhaps a classic tale from Bitish myth: Excalibur or Robin Hood: Men in Tights? (Actually, the Errol Flynn Robin Hood might not be a bad idea!)
 
lionking said:
Month Python's Holy Grail.

Sorry......
Click to expand...
I remember seeing some interview with a historian, and according to him, of all the "King Arthur" movies, Holy Grail may actually be the most realistic. Why? Because it showed people's living standards more accurately... problems with disease, the divide between rich and poor, etc.
 
Segnosaur said:
I remember seeing some interview with a historian, and according to him, of all the "King Arthur" movies, Holy Grail may actually be the most realistic. Why? Because it showed people's living standards more accurately... problems with disease, the divide between rich and poor, etc.
Click to expand...

An historian, eh? Maybe the middle ages aren't his specialty.
 
angrysoba said:
What are the best movies on British history?
Click to expand...
How about Belle? Supposedly based (very loosely) on a true story about a woman who's father was part of an upper-class family, and her mother was a slave, so she was sort of 'stuck' between the 2 classes... she ended up living with the wealthy family, but is still treated differently than the other family members.

Deals with several issues... class differences in 1700s Britain, race relations, and the Zong Massacre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_(2013_film)

You could also try the movie Hysteria, a movie set in Victorian-era Britain during some of their most important scientific discoveries.

The invention of the vibrator.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteria_(2011_film)
 
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