Best History Movies of 1984

The real-life story of a friendship between two journalists, an American and a Cambodian, during the bloody Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in 1975, which led to the death of 2-3 million Cambodians during the next four years, until Pol Pot's regime was toppled by the intervening Vietnamese in 1979.

Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam war. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?

Set during the period of growing influence of the Indian independence movement in the British Raj, the story begins with the arrival in India of a British woman, Miss Adela Quested, who is joining her fiancé, a city magistrate named Ronny Heaslop. She and Ronny's mother, Mrs. Moore, befriend an Indian doctor, Aziz H. Ahmed.

The familiar story of Lieutenant Bligh, whose cruelty leads to a mutiny on his ship. This version follows both the efforts of Fletcher Christian to get his men beyond the reach of British retribution, and the epic voyage of Lieutenant Bligh to get his loyalists safely to East Timor in a tiny lifeboat.

The Jesse Owens Story is a biographical film about the black athlete Jesse Owens. Dorian Harewood plays the Olympic gold-winning athlete. The drama won a 1985 Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for two more.

BBC rendition of Shakespeare's Coriolanus

Bio-drama tracing the life and career of Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla from his days as a young activist in Poland to his rise and installation in 1978 as Pope of the Catholic world.

New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots.

Based on the true story of Morris Frank and the first U.S. Seeing Eye Dog, Buddy.

The reign of England's King John is threatened by Philip of France who demands that John's nephew Arthur be placed on the throne. Pragmatic and decisive, King John moves to plactate the French, but there are others who seek disputre his authority.

This is based on a true story. Solomon Northrop is a black man in the mid 19th century before slavery was abolished. He's a born freeman who works as a carpenter and is also a part time musician. One day he is approached by some men who want him to play for them. However, that is not their intention; they have kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. Now he has to endure the hardships that he has been spared because of his status as a freeman. And his family who don't know what happened to him is searching for him but where do they go? And Solomon also wishes to let them know where he is so that they could get him but unfortunately no one believes his story or is willing to help him.

Three sisters live in a paradise where men are metaphorically and literally serpents of temptation.

Via the New York Times: "...reconstructs the true story of a coal miners' strike in the small town of Korumburra in the mid-30's... based on the real-life story of two remarkable characters, Wattie Doig, a miner who became a militant Communist activist, and his wife, Agnes, who progressed from staunch Presbyterianism to membership in the Salvation Army and, finally, to labor organization."

In the German-occupied Paris, Helene is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection.

Based on the official transcripts of the investigation that followed after the very suspicious notorious death in prison of one of the most important leading men of the South African anti-apartheid movement, Steven Biko.

Piaf is a play by Pam Gems that focuses on the life and career of French chanteuse Edith Piaf. This biographical drama with music portrays the singer in as a self-destructive, promiscuous alcoholic and junkie who, in one controversial scene, urinates in public.

The story of Amy Johnson who disappeared while piloting a RAF Wellington Bomber

The story of Anne Devlin, who was caught up in the revolt of the Irish under Robert Emmett in 1803, told exclusively from the woman's point of view.

Saga about a proud band of Sioux Indians, and the efforts of one brave to save his people from destruction through the use of mysterious powers handed down by ancestors.

In 1949, at the height of the Cold War, the British and American Governments decided to fight back at the growing Soviet Empire with a secret plan, the Albanian Subversion, in which the CIA and MI6 attempted to overthrow the Albanian government and to weaken the Soviet Union and the role of double agent Kim Philby.

James Scott's biopic of his father William Scott, his childhood and his origins as a painter.

After World War II, 4,000 Polish families came to Australia. They were Jews, Fascists, anti-Communists, and others dispossessed. In a large hostel, where even married men and women were housed in separate barracks, the adults lived for two years while they worked off the government's payment of their passage. Even though he is married to Anna and has a son, Julian falls in love with Nina and she with him. As they and others face the new situations and prejudices that await immigrants and as they take on aspects of Australian culture, old-country values reassert themselves. Julian decides what to do about love and family, and Nina must find a way to move on.

In this video, visit Yorktown, Virginia, scene of the culminating battle of the American Revolution. Relive the dramatic events leading to the capture of General Lord Cornwallis and the British defeat in the autumn of 1781. As the narrator relates the historical significance, strategy, and tactics of this intense siege, regiments in period costume re-enact scenes of the battle between the British Army, and the combined American and French forces led by General George Washington.

An Animated Retelling of the Miracle of Chanukah

Divided into three parts — The Awakening, The Struggle, and Freedom — this is a biographical film on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India. Relying on Nehru's writings and speeches, the film traces the evolution of Nehru from his birth through his life. It also deals with the effect of history on Nehru and in turn his impact on the world.

A view of the life and works of the late Alex Colville, the celebrated Canadian painter. Shows the influence on his life and works of his experience as an artist during World War II, and of his relationship with his wife, Rhoda. Friends and critics speak of the construction and sense of menace in his work, and Colville comments on his sense of order, goodness, and contingency.

The daughter of a Nebraska minister, Anna Louise Strong earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Chicago. But it was in the Pacific Northwest, where she witnessed the 1916 Everett massacre and chronicled the 1919 Seattle General Strike, that her political vision took shape. In Moscow she helped found the first English language newspaper, in Spain her many visits resulted in her book, Spain in Arms; and in China she interviewed Mao in a Yan'an cave in 1946. She is buried in Beijing in a special cemetery for martyrs of the revolution.

Time Fighters is the first film cut from Tatsunoko's Time Bokan by Jim Terry's Kidpix Productions. It is mostly made up of early episodes of the show, including the premiere. The film saw release in America on VHS in the 1980s alongside its sequel Time Fighters in the Land of Fantasy.