Historical Films and Television

Empires, courts, wars, voyages, revolutions and remembered lives retold through the choices of filmmakers.

This archive follows historical film and television from early cinema through period drama, war films, biography, political conflict and large-scale screen reconstructions of the past. Entries are organised chronologically so readers can compare how different generations have imagined history.

Start Here

• Battleship Potemkin — revolution, montage and one of silent cinema’s most influential historical films.
• The Passion of Joan of Arc — an intense close-focus interpretation of trial and martyrdom.
• Zulu — war, siege and the construction of military history on screen.
• Barry Lyndon — eighteenth-century society recreated through painterly composition.
• The Name of the Rose — medieval investigation, politics and learning.
• Gladiator — imperial spectacle and modern historical epic.
• Red Cliff — warfare, strategy and a major Chinese historical epic.

Browse the Chronological Archive

The collection remains organised by decade, with television separated where the archive already contains series.

Before 1920 — Historical Films

• 1903 – The Great Train Robbery
• 1906 – The Story of the Kelly Gang 

1920s Historical Films

1930s Historical Films

1950s Historical Films

1960s Historical Films

1960s Historical Television

1968 – The Caesars 

1970s Historical Films

1970s Historical Television

1976 – I, Claudius (TV series)

1980s Historical Films

1990s Historical Films

1990s Historical Television

1993 – 2008 Sharpe (TV series)

1998-2003 Hornblower

2000s Historical Films

2000s Historical Television

• 1993 – 2008 Sharpe (TV series)
• 2005 – Blackbeard: Terror at Sea, a mini-series
• 2005 – 2007 Rome

2010s Historical Films

2010s Historical Television

2011-14 – Borgia

2013 – present Vikings

2016 – 2019 – Medici

Historical Epics, War and Court Drama

• Spartacus — ancient rebellion and the large-scale historical epic.
• The Lion in Winter — dynastic politics, succession and royal family conflict.
• Braveheart — medieval war, nationalism and the reshaping of history for spectacle.
• Rome — political change and private lives across a collapsing republic.
• Vikings — long-form historical adventure built around warfare, travel and power.

Related Screen Collections

• Film & Television — return to the main screen archive.
• Action & Adventure Films — swashbucklers, warfare, pursuit and exploration.
• Western Films — frontier history, outlaws, settlement and contested landscapes.
• Fantasy Films — where historical settings cross into myth, magic and legend.
• Books, Comics & Graphic Novels — follow adaptations back to written sources.

Using Historical Drama as Inspiration

Historical film is strongest as a prompt for politics, material culture, travel, siege, court etiquette, factional loyalty and the consequences of power. Use the screen version as inspiration, then return to the site’s Geography and Timeline for the campaign’s own historical framework.