Best History Movies of 2001

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.

The lifelong friendship between Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker is put to the ultimate test when the two ace fighter pilots become entangled in a love triangle with beautiful Naval nurse Evelyn Johnson. But the rivalry between the friends-turned-foes is immediately put on hold when they find themselves at the center of Japan's devastating attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The historical recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which Nazi and SS leaders gathered in a Berlin suburb to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Led by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, this group of high ranking German officials came to the historic and far reaching decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would come to be known as the Holocaust.

In 1961, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle played for the New York Yankees. One, Mantle, was universally loved, while the other, Maris, was universally hated. Both men started off with a bang, and both were nearing Babe Ruth's 60 home run record. Which man would reach it?

Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon (Ciaran McMenamin), Lt. Jim Reardon (Kiefer Sutherland) and Maj. Ian Campbell (Robert Carlyle) are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.

This is a drama set in Nazi-occupied France at the height of World War II. Charlotte Gray tells the compelling story of a young Scottish woman working with the French Resistance in the hope of rescuing her lover, a missing RAF pilot. Based on the best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks.

When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.

In the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, Jews rise against the Nazis.

Following the defeat of Germany in WWII, the Allies determine that there must be an accounting of German war crimes. Twenty-four Nazis, representative of all sections of military and civilian life are chosen to stand trial for the crimes of conspiracy to commit aggression, commission of aggression, crimes during war and crimes against humanity. The preparations for the trial, the trial itself and its aftermath are shown through the eyes of Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson and through the eyes of Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering, the ranking Nazi defendant.

Fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I.

A romanced story of Attila the Hun, since his childhood, when he lost his parents until his death. Attila is disclosed as a great leader, strategist and lover and the movie shows his respect to the great Roman strategist Flavius Aetius, his loves and passions, the gossips, intrigues and betrayals in Rome, all of these feelings evolved by magic and mysticism.

Based on the book by Julia Alvarez. Three sisters become activists during the Dominican Republic's Trujillo regime when members of their family are killed by the government's troops.

Between 1964 and 1973 the United States conducted a secret air war, dropping over 2 million tons of bombs and making tiny Laos the most heavily bombed country in history. Millions of these 'cluster bombs' did not explode when dropped, leaving the country massively contaminated with 'bombies' as dangerous now as when they fell 30 years ago. Bombies examines the problem of unexploded cluster bombs through the personal experiences of a group of Laotians and foreigners and argues for their elimination as a weapon of war. Unfortunately they are still a standard part of the US arsenal and were dropped in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In pre-Revolutionary France, a young aristocratic woman left penniless by the political unrest in the country, must avenge her family's fall from grace by scheming to steal a priceless necklace.

A documentary on the marketing of pop culture to Teenagers.

Veterans of the Vietnam War tell about their experiences. The disasters but also the glorious moments of war. The central figure in the documentary is the scenario writer of Full Metal Jacket, Michael Herr. The veterans describe how it felt to kill for the first time and how those feelings still hunt them.

The dramatic stories of Fritz Wiessner’s 1939 K2 expedition and Charlie Houston’s return in 1953. K2 is one of the hardest mountains in the world to climb. This film focuses on the expeditions of Fritz Wiessner and Charlie Houston in 1953. An award winner at the Banff, Telluride, Trento and Prague film festivals.

Documentary about Fidel Castro, covering 40 years of Cuban Revolution. Rare Fidel Castro footage: he appears swimming with a bodyguard, visiting his childhood home and school, playing with his friend Nelson Mandela, meeting kid Elián Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with the Buena Vista Social Club group.

In 1944, in the Belgian - German border, seven German soldiers survive an American attack in the front and lock themselves in a bunker to protect the position. Under siege by the enemy and with little ammunition, they decide to explore underground tunnels to seek supplies and find an escape route. While in the tunnel, weird things happen with the group.

This made-for-TV movie dramatizes the historic boycott of public buses in the 1950s, led by civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Search of Peace: 1948-1967 chronicles Israel's first two decades, offering new insights on the origins of the Middle East conflict. Combining a rich tapestry of rare archival film and photos, the film offers a unique global perspective on one of the seminal events in the 3,500-year history of the Jewish people. Featuring the voices of Edward Asner, Anne Bancroft, Richard Dreyfuss, Miriam Margolyes and Michael York. "An unabashedly emotional and stirring inspirational history of Israel..."

A mismatched team of British Special Services agents led by an American must infiltrate, in disguise, a female-run Enigma factory in Berlin and bring back the decoding device that will end the war.

When Jesus is taken off the cross at Golgotha, THOMAS arrives there. Like most of the other disciples, he had worriedly taken refuge with friends in Jerusalem after Jesus's arrest. After Jesus's burial, the disciples decide to leave Jerusalem quickly, but Thomas refuses to leave Jesus' body behind, as he fears that the tomb may be desecrated.

This feature documentary is a portrait of Peter Watkins, an Oscar®-winning British filmmaker who, for the past 4 decades, has proved that films can be made without compromise. With the proliferation of TV channels, documentaries are enjoying an unprecedented boom fuelled by audiences seeking an alternative to infotainment. But now documentary filmmaking, too, finds itself constrained by the imperatives of television. However, there is a rebel resisting this uniformity of the spirit. Pre-eminent among today's documentary filmmakers concerned about this mind-numbing standardization, Peter Watkins has never strayed from either his principles or the cause.

An archaeologist extracts a box from the sea which contains mystical powers. However, evil people are in pursuit of the box and create trouble for the former.

The Concert for New York City took place on October 20, 2001 at Madison Square Garden. It was a celebration of the strength of New York and a thank-you to the heroic firefighters, police officers and rescue workers who saved tens of thousands of lives on September 11th. More than 6000 firefighters, police officers and rescue workers attended as guests.

Since 1950, there have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents, known as "Broken Arrows." A Broken Arrow is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapon. To date, six nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered.Now, recently declassified documents reveal the history and secrecy surrounding the events known as "Broken Arrows". There have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents since 1950. Six of these nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered. What does this say about our defense system? What does this mean to our threatened environment? What do we do to rectify these monumental "mistakes"? Using spectacular special effects, newly uncovered and recently declassified footage, filmmaker Peter Kuran explores the accidents, incidents and exercises in the secret world of nuclear weapons.

Portrait of God is a documentary road movie about the manhunt for the most wanted person in the world. The film is constructed as a classic detective story. A middle-aged detective shadows the suspect through the highs and lows of South African society until he ends up in a gigantic prison in Cape Town bursting with murderers, thieves, and rapists.

For Muslims everywhere, the ultimate goal is to make the Hajj at least once during their lifetime. This spiritual journey is the basic premise of an entire religion and sees impoverished African Muslims mixing with their incredibly wealthy Western counterparts. This documentary follows some of the 20,000 Britons who make the journey to Mecca, unravelling the mysterious aura that surrounds this remarkable event. Combining the wondrous backdrop of Mecca with intriguing interviews that provide a previously undocumented view of Islam, Hajj will enchant both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Discover the secrets of the Confederate hand-powered submarine, the H.L. Hunley, as researchers raise it and open it for the first time in more than a century.

Pains in the butt, or super heroes of the computer revolution? How about both. The documentary Hackers: Computer Outlaws takes a look at the world of hackers, from Draper to Woz to Mitnick.

Two thousand years ago, at the dawn of the first century, the ancient world was ruled by Rome. Through the experiences, memories and writings of the people who lived it, this series tells the story of that time - the emperors and slaves, poets and plebeians, who wrested order from chaos, built the most cosmopolitan society the world had ever seen and shaped the Roman empire in the first century A.D.

A detailed military history of the Korean War and preceding events, from 1945 to 1953.

Martin Bormann, the man who, at the end, controlled all access to Hitler, was regarded by his Fuhrer as his most loyal comrade and was named as the executor of Hitler's will.

Twenty years prior to the Revolutionary War, the British, French and Native American Empires seek to possess the American wilderness. Conflict ignites as 22-year-old George Washington steps onto the world stage as the murderer of a French emissary. In the subsequent battle of Fort Necessity, the emissary's brother leads a French army that defeats Washington. These events lead to the 1755 campaign of British General Edward Braddock and George Washington against the French in the wilderness. With the British a day away, a charismatic French officer leads his French/Indian force in an improbable attack on Braddock's column. The resulting battle will change American history.

This video documentary centers on the questions of civil liberties and cultural differences in a society beginning to open as one woman searches for her own ethnic roots, identity and family history in Ukraine. Issues of human rights, anti-Semitism, homophobia, feminism and a divided and economically-depressed country are encountered as Barbara Hammer, a feminist activist and pioneer of lesbian cinema, return to a “homeland” full of struggling as people search for a new post-glasnost identity.

The history of the world for those in a hurry: Bruno Bozzetto shows us that sometimes just a few minutes are enough to tell great stories!

Almost every major culture includes an ancient flood story. What if evidence of the Great Flood could be found? Join Dr. Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, on an odyssey to find the submerged truth about the Great Flood. Dr. Ballard sets off to look for ancient shipwrecks, and search for evidence supporting a controversial theory that links the legend of the Great Flood with the catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea around 5500 B.C. As his sonar scans the desolate sea floor, and robotic submersibles search the haunting darkness of the Black Sea's "dead zone," the truth begins to emerge from the murky depths of myth and legend.

Rummaging for Pasts is an experimental juxtaposition of two cinematic documents: the video diary of an international archaeological excavation and a collection of assorted eight millimeter found footage of Indian weddings.

Stories of eight prominent Lake Michigan shipwrecks from 1912-1958; Rouse Simmons (1912), Eastland (1915), Lakeland (1924), Milwaukee (1929), S.S. Wisconsin (1929), Senator (1929), Prins Wilhelm V (1954), Carl D. Bradley (1958).

Sixty years ago, while in the prime of their youth, thousands of young Latter-day Saints humbly stepped forward, prepared to sacrifice their lives so that the nightmare of tyranny might end. The second world war brought untold horrors, degradation, and the tragic loss of life. The Faith, service, and sacrifice of these stalwart Church members changed the face of the world…and influenced the next generations in profound ways. These are the scoutmasters, the choristers, the bishops, and the home teachers–ward members who went about their daily work with the same diligence and passion that defined their generation. Drawing on hundreds of oral and written histories from Church leaders and veterans around the world, this stunning video chronicles the harsh realities of war and the miracles that seemed both abundant and ever present–the remarkable stories of Saints at War.

Mesopotamia was the site of the Sumerian civilisation, which flourished at the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. From 5000 to 2000 BC, the Sumerians flourished in a hostile environment by developing agriculture and irrigation and they opened up the trade routes of the ancient world. It was the Sumerians who invented writing and the wheel, and they first divided time into minutes and seconds. In the end however the Babylonian civilisation took the place of the Sumerians. However their heritage and myths live on in the Mediterranean and Western worlds to this day.

Digging into faith is always a delicate and difficult proposition, but In search of Christmas is a fascinating survey balancing belief, tradition and archeology to examine the familiar stories surrounding Christmas. Find out why many biblical scholars believe that the three wise men were astrologers, not kings. Discover what natural phenomenon might account for the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem. And hear from the growing number of experts who believe that Christ was not born in Bethlehem, but in Nazareth, and that His true birthday was in April, six years before the long-accepted date.

Celebrating Walt Disney's pioneering efforts in the medium of television. Disneyland U.S.A. features 4 vintage episodes of Walt's beloved prime-time program. Take a wonderful look back at the origins of the park., beginning with the very first episode of the Disneyland TV series, as Walt Disney leads a tour of the studio and lifts the curtain on a model of the under-construction Disneyland Park.

Looks at Hitler's plan for Germany's conquest of Europe and the wealth of secret associations that helped him.

An exploration of iconography of the Virgin Mary from Early Christian to Modern painting. The way your eye would travel over a single painting, the camera travels over hundreds of images of Mary, discovering the many ways artists have revered her smile, hands, eyes, and the baby Jesus himself.

This major Documentary reveals the true story of the first victory of the Allies over the Axis powers. It is the Victory at the Battle of Greece! The Documentary portrays the tenacity of the Greek soldiers during WW2, which forced Hitler to disperse his forces in a manner unfavorable to his strategic objectives. It catalyzed the alliance between Britain and the United States and resulted in aborting the Axis plans in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and the Eastern Front. During the first thirteen months of the war, Hitler's unstoppable war machine had occupied seven European countries and had enslaved a population of 120 million by fighting for less than three months. The surprising seven-month-long Greek resistance to the invading armies of Italy and Germany that followed in 1940-194, gave the Greeks the first Allied victories on land and became a beacon of hope and an inspiration to freedom-loving countries everywhere.

ORGANIZED CRIME: A WORLD HISTORY travels the globe to get an insider's view of some of the most active, dangerous and diabolical criminal syndicates in existence. The five episodes in this documentary each focus on a different region, examining the conditions that helped create these groups, talking to law enforcement specialists about how they are being fought, and relating true stories of famous cases.

What a season! Records tumbled, new boys rocked the establishment and a 22-year old British rookie wrote his name into the history books by almost becoming the first ever driver to win the Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship in his debut season! How about watch it all over again and keep that terrific F1 season treasured at home?