Best History Movies of 1979

Three and a half years of Jesus' ministry, as told in the Gospel of Luke.

At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.

The perversion behind imperial Rome, the epic story of Rome's mad Emporer. All the details of his cruel, bizarre reign are revealed right here: His unholy sexual passion for his sister, his marriage to Rome's most infamous prostitute, his fiendishly inventive means of disposing those who would oppose him, and more.

The death of King Henry the Fourth and the coronation of King Henry the Fifth.

In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership.

Henry Bolingbroke has now been crowned King of England, but faces a rebellion headed by the embittered Earl of Northumberland and his son (nicknamed 'Hotspur'). Henry's son Hal, the Prince of Wales, has thrown over life at court in favour of heavy drinking and petty theft in the company of a debauched elderly knight, Sir John Falstaff. Hal must extricate himself from some legal problems, regain his father's good opinions and help suppress the uprising.

In this fascinating adventure of the England of the 1750s, the huge Frenchman Black Jack (Jean Franval) miraculously survives a hanging by the British authorities in Yorkshire and escapes from the grim jaws of "justice." He takes to the countryside in the company of Tolly, a teenaged boy who is able to translate Black Jack's odd speech into something comprehensible. They join up with Belle, an aristocratic teenager who has escaped from the madhouse her family imprisoned her in when she grew troublesome. Together, the three join a carnival. However, as it becomes clear that the girl is far from crazy, love between Tolly and Belle grows. This story, set in the mid-18th century, is based on a novel by Leon Garfield.

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.

Depicts assorted natural and human disasters, including the crash of the Hindenburg (1937), earthquakes in Alaska (1964) and Long Beach (1933), the LeMans auto racing crash at which 82 people were killed (1955), Hurrican Camille (1964), the eruption of the Mt. Etna volcano (1971), a tornado (1974), the collapse of Idaho's Teton Dam (1976), the sinking of the Andrea Doria (1956) and the Texas City explosion which devastated Galveston (1947).

Eisenhower the military man is the focus of this mini-series, his relationships with the other wartime leaders, and, very discreetly, his personal relationship with his driver, Kay Summersby.

In 1620, the Assembly of the Pilgrims decides to emigrate to the young America because of the persecution they suffer by the English crown. The film tells the adventurous journey of the Pilgrims to an unknown land and future.

This short animated film is about Wop May, one of Canada's leading bush pilots in the 1920s.

Oscar François de Jarjayes was born female, but her father insisted she be raised as a boy as he had no sons. She becomes the captain of the guards at Versailles under King Louis XVI and Marie Antonette. Her privileged, noble life comes under fire as she discovers the hard life of the poor people of France. She is caught up in the French Revolution, and must choose between her loyalty and love.

King Louis XIV has without his knowledge a twin brother, Philippe, but when he is told, he immediately locks up his brother in the Bastille. The king wants to increase his popularity and stages an assassination against himself where Philippe is dressed as king Louis. But Philippe manages to escape the assassination and everybody believes him to be the real king...

The late Andy Milligan never completed his Reconstruction-era melodrama, leaving behind a single unfinished workprint. Shot on Staten Island, yet packed full of Southern gothic touches, it’s more than just a curio; As MIlligan said, “It’s all there, except the finale I was unable to shoot.” Thus, it may be left to the viewer to imagine the ending to his screeching, sinful epic.

The story of Anarkali and Saleem retold.

The complicated relationship between Winston Churchill and the leaders of the British army during World War II.

A video recording of a New York Shakespeare Festival 1979 stage production of Coriolanus with an all-black and Hispanic cast. Producer Joseph Papp intended to provide professional opportunities for actors of minority ethnic backgrounds. A banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city.

During World War II, a wealthy Canadian uses his own money to help the Allies form an espionage network.

This sequel to "The Bastard" continues the saga of Philip Kent, the illegitimate son of an English nobleman, who has renounced his patrician birthright to become a Colonial soldier fighting for America's independence, befriending a Southern aristocrat and his earthy buddy to help thwart a plot to assassinate George Washington. (Episodes 3 and 4 of the Kent Chronicles miniseries.)

A film about the actions of the Metis rebel leader who opposed the Canadian government in two seperate rebellions. (Taken from the imdb page)

In order to understand the works and ideas of Karl Marx, this animation takes an ordinary man through several different periods of history, from the cavemen to the philosophers of the world to better comprehend Marx ideals for the proletarian and why the world is an unfair contradiction of all sorts.

An anthropological fable surrounding the clash of two cultures in the conquest of America.

A film documenting work shortages during the Depression of the 1930s and the attempts to deal with the unemployed, in particular young men. The film discusses the establishment of relief camps and projects, where men were paid twenty cents per day; the founding of organizations such as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), Workers' Unity League, and Relief Camp Workers' Union; general unionization and protest of the unemployed, including the On To Ottawa Trek, Regina Riot, sit-in strike from May to June 1938 at the Vancouver Main Post Office, Vancouver Art Gallery and Hotel Georgia, and the resulting Bloody Sunday of June 19.

Essie Coffey gives the children lessons on Aboriginal culture. She speaks of the importance of teaching these kids about their traditions. Aboriginal kids are forgetting about their Aboriginal heritage because they are being taught white culture instead.

Many people think the religious right arose as a response to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, but that’s not true, it began when religious leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich arbitrarily chose abortion as an issue which could unite conservative evangelicals and Catholics as a political force. While Catholics believe in the pre-existence of the soul, evangelicals prior to this had embraced family planning and had largely welcomed Roe. Evangelicals had mainly viewed the government with distrust and believed the life of the mother took precedence in any ethical determination without interference from the state. This provocative series of five programs examines the sanctity/holiness of life as a social, moral and spiritual issue in emotive, visual terms that created a political movement.