Best History Movies of 1988

A dramatization of the Black Sox scandal when the underpaid Chicago White Sox accepted bribes to deliberately lose the 1919 World Series.

The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.

Pleasant Ebenezer Blackadder is turned into a cruel and witty miser after seeing visions of his ancestors and descendants.

Tony Roper wrote 'The Steamie' for Glasgow's Mayfest in 1987. Return to Hogmany 1957 when a fiesty group of Glasgow women; Mrs Culfeathers, Dolly, Doreen and the irrepressible Magrit, all meet at The Steamie to do the traditional family wash before the New Year. The Steamie is a hilarious cameo of Glasgow's social history where the washing was always easier to do when the Women shared their laugher and sorrow and a scandalous supply of gossip. This is the definitive version of the most popular play of the last 20 years with the all star cast of Dorothy Paul as Magrit, Eileen McCallum as Dolly, Kate Murphy as Doreen, Sheila McDonald as Mrs Culfeathers and a very young Peter Mullan as Andy, the whisky loving handy man.

After a genial spirit shows the benevolent Ebenezer Blackadder visions of his unscrupulous ancestors, he resolves to mend his generous ways.

A young priest speaks out against the Communist regime in Poland and is killed for it.

The three protagonists listen to a storyteller recount the creation as well as the Fall. At the same time, they learn their own lessons in honesty after tricking a gardener into giving them fruit for free.

A dramatization of the race to the four-minute mile.

Abelard, a famous teacher of philosophy at the cathedral school of Notre Dame, falls in love with one of his students, Héloïse d'Argenteuil. A sixteen-year old girl raised in a convent, Héloïse has an intellectual curiosity and rebels against the status of women in 12th century Europe. When others begin to suspect their relationship, Heloise's uncle Fulbert and the bishop of Paris work together to put a stop to it. Héloïse becomes pregnant with Abelard's child, and they are married in secret. Abelard struggles for acting against the will of God, yet is unable to escape his love for Heloise.

On Christmas Eve 1770, a young African warrior, who three years prior had been captured and sold into slavery in America, leads a desperate group of runaway slaves as they attempt to reach freedom in the North.

In 1836, a small band of soldiers sacrifice their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.

The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin.

During the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Otto Frank decides to hide his family, who are Jewish, after his daughter Margot is called to appear for transport to a Nazi labour camp. Miep Gies, Otto Frank's office assistant hides them in the attic above the office. The film tells the true story of Gies' struggle to keep the family hidden and safe, as the Nazis turn Amsterdam upside-down. Based upon Gies' memoirs and Anne Frank's famous diary.

Gullah Tales is a 1988 short film directed by Gary Moss. It follows a an elder woman on a slave plantation in 1830 and tells the story of John Hayes and his literal fight to obtain his freedom. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

Investigative reporter Jack Anderson hosts a two-hour investigation of the Kennedy Assassination featuring interviews with experts, eyewitnesses, government officials and authors. Includes dramatic recreations of key events.

The third part of Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible Trilogy.

TV movie about the children crusade of the Middle Ages.

Initially set during the late 19th century when the privileged Elizabeth Patterson elopes with German immigrant Stefan Mueller. The pair start their own vineyard but later world war one threatens to tear apart their lives.

Jack the Ripper was a prince, a pauper, a mason, a madman... A host of more and more bizarre theories have surrounded the unexplained killings in Whitechapel since they hit the headlines in 1888. This film dispels the grisly fiction, revealing for the first time the true contents of the police and Home Office files on the case, drawing on the expertise of historians and of those who have encountered today's killers - on the street or behind bars.

Inge Dournenvald and Lise Mueller are best friends in pre-WW2 Austria, despite the fact that Inge is Jewish and Lise is the daughter of a Nazi sympathizer. When they are forbidden to see each other, they meet secretly. After the Germans invade Austria in 1938, Inge and her family escape to America with the help of Lise

With an all-female cast, featuring Suzie Bright as John Lennon, Cecilia Dougherty's Grapefruit plays with the romanticized history of the iconic Fab Four, gently mocking John and Yoko’s banal squabbles and obsessive rituals of self-display. Based obliquely on Yoko Ono’s book, the piece works on many levels to reposition this mythic tale of the Beatles by casting '80s women in mod drag—effectively mapping the lesbian sub-culture onto heterosexual mass culture. Discounting the importance of reproducing facts and historical accuracy, Dougherty gives an incisive reading of the creation of pop culture icons: it doesn’t matter who plays John Lennon because ultimately John Lennon is not a person anymore. As a star, he is a projection of our society’s collective needs and desires.

Share in the joyful sights and sounds of Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg. The extensive preparations, elaborate decorations, festive foods and music of the holiday are presented ending with the spectacular fireworks of Williamsburg's Grand Illumination.

In 1812 there were violent disturbances in Yorkshire when new machines were introduced into the wool industry. This film is an interpretation of those events made in the style of a documentary.

A fascinating, fun-filled trip with segments on the 1884 courthouse riots, the 1937 Ohio River flood, Tony Trabert, Ezzard Charles, the Reds, the Bengals, the Stingers, the Royals, Coney Island's Shooting Star, and the Island Queen steamboat. Relive the Beatles' Cincinnati visits and discover the Cincinnati connection to Charles Manson, Annie Oakley, Jim Thorpe, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

The dramatic story of two youths--one French and one Indigenous--who share a pivotal time in Canada's history: the first contact between European and First Nations peoples.