Period Dramas by Rating, a list by Mark Gauci

9.0

/1567942/

88

/25430/

86

/16980/

4.5

/1253752/

98

/135/

97

/22910/

95

/30/

4.0

age 15+

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

83

8.6

/802823/

86

/13315/

84

/13713/

4.4

/670938/

80

/92/

96

/15224/

58

/32/

3.5

age 13+

A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.

80

8.5

/1564471/

83

/36070/

82

/17095/

4.3

/1609958/

77

/206/

92

/43661/

66

/36/

3.0

age 14+

A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.

85

8.5

/1854353/

84

/52964/

81

/27409/

4.3

/2853703/

87

/295/

92

/16024/

81

/42/

age 18+

With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

77

8.5

/1821791/

84

/43708/

82

/20383/

4.2

/1872910/

80

/260/

87

/1652336/

67

/46/

2.0

age 16+

After the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, his devious son takes power and demotes Maximus, one of Rome's most capable generals who Marcus preferred. Eventually, Maximus is forced to become a gladiator and battle to the death against other men for the amusement of paying audiences.

87

8.4

/463137/

81

/7930/

80

/4588/

4.3

/476825/

90

/159/

95

/7757/

87

/28/

4.0

age 15+

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

79

8.3

/1151107/

82

/22432/

79

/10792/

3.9

/460497/

76

/131/

85

/1198232/

68

/20/

3.5

age 17+

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

87

8.2

/353560/

78

/5178/

79

/4273/

3.9

/234765/

90

/103/

92

/18576/

97

/19/

4.0

age 10+

The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

87

8.2

/464259/

80

/8860/

79

/4779/

4.2

/285639/

96

/108/

93

/6478/

85

/34/

4.0

age 18+

William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff.

86

8.2

/697596/

80

/13445/

81

/7166/

4.5

/1153051/

91

/244/

86

/36700/

93

/42/

3.5

age 16+

Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.

86

8.2

/396857/

80

/7278/

78

/4150/

4.1

/149519/

90

/137/

94

/5141/

82

/35/

4.0

age 17+

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

80

64

8.1

/6474/

78

/46/

75

/54/

3.8

/1625/

92

/57/

Portsmouth, 1794. Under thundery skies and in lashing rain, 17-year-old midshipman Horatio Hornblower takes the first tentative steps of his naval career, but a feud with a shipmate causes complications.

78

59

8.0

/4824/

78

/45/

74

/44/

3.7

/1224/

89

/41/

Acting Lieutenant Hornblower attempts to study for his promotion examination, but becomes distracted by the serious supply problems that face his crew.

79

53

8.1

/4710/

76

/36/

72

/42/

3.8

/1073/

92

/24/

Hornblower and his comrades come under the command of a revered but mentally unstable captain and are forced to mutiny in order to save their ship, the HMS Renown.

79

55

8.1

/4144/

77

/36/

73

/38/

3.8

/960/

92

/34/

Hornblower and the other officers of the Renown must return to Jamaica to face a court-martial and possible execution for their actions in relieving their unstable captain.

84

8.1

/201094/

79

/3557/

79

/3067/

4.4

/364492/

78

/152/

92

/2590/

89

/21/

3.5

age 12+

An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.

77

8.1

/1304439/

80

/42266/

78

/21740/

4.0

/1679140/

79

/216/

86

/1450985/

63

/40/

3.0

age 12+

When wily Captain Barbossa steals Jack Sparrow's ship and kidnaps the governor's beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, her childhood friend Will Turner joins forces with Jack to save her and recapture Jack's ship, the Black Pearl.

86

8.1

/779328/

80

/18759/

79

/11744/

4.2

/657927/

95

/376/

90

/6135/

96

/57/

3.5

age 15+

In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.

79

53

8.0

/3805/

78

/32/

71

/37/

3.7

/916/

93

/34/

Hornblower must deliver a French nobleman to a secret rendezvous near Brest, all while coping with enemy agents in his own ranks.

82

8.0

/306941/

78

/7065/

78

/4543/

3.9

/148249/

87

/132/

87

/7016/

72

/20/

4.0

age 15+

Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

77

57

7.9

/4530/

71

/42/

71

/46/

3.6

/1074/

93

/37/

Lieutenant Hornblower and his shipmates are sent to accompany a doomed royalist invasion of revolutionary France.

76

48

7.9

/3614/

73

/31/

72

/33/

3.6

/852/

87

/27/

Admiral Pellew interrupts Hornblower's wedding reception and tasks him to locate a British ship which has disappeared off the French coast, where Napoleon's troops are engaged in covert activities.

86

7.9

/292360/

77

/7435/

74

/3454/

4.1

/246147/

98

/169/

86

/13676/

94

/32/

4.0

age 12+

Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman's daughter, who is at a crossroads in her life.

83

7.9

/193023/

77

/4185/

75

/2416/

4.0

/109663/

94

/210/

87

/11059/

85

/42/

3.5

age 14+

During China's Warring States period, a district prefect arrives at the palace of Qin Shi Huang, claiming to have killed the three assassins who had made an attempt on the king's life three years ago.

80

7.9

/1374492/

77

/37645/

79

/26641/

3.8

/2566018/

88

/254/

69

/2889107/

75

/35/

4.0

age 13+

101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.

76

51

7.8

/4436/

75

/42/

71

/38/

3.6

/1165/

86

/24/

Acting Lieutenant Hornblower and his crew are captured by the enemy while escorting a Duchess who has secrets of her own.

82

7.8

/152196/

77

/3144/

74

/1742/

3.8

/82099/

95

/60/

93

/3608/

78

/22/

3.5

age 16+

Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.

72

7.8

/713538/

77

/31971/

77

/14904/

4.0

/1153379/

74

/332/

77

/4685/

68

/51/

2.0

age 18+

Bounty hunters seek shelter from a raging blizzard and get caught up in a plot of betrayal and deception.

83

7.8

/278881/

78

/10286/

78

/6654/

4.2

/2525674/

95

/441/

92

/3346/

91

/57/

3.0

age 10+

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

84

7.8

/254395/

76

/4701/

74

/3421/

3.8

/166117/

95

/321/

87

/6582/

89

/41/

4.0

age 13+

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

82

7.8

/91537/

74

/1665/

73

/1431/

4.0

/71321/

96

/48/

89

/1129/

86

/12/

3.5

age 10+

A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

73

7.8

/353339/

76

/9315/

75

/6031/

3.8

/229435/

65

/199/

79

/26583/

68

/37/

age 16+

Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

82

7.8

/324180/

76

/6130/

76

/4562/

4.0

/652258/

83

/218/

80

/31907/

85

/36/

4.0

age 16+

A young girl irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

85

7.8

/369590/

80

/9938/

81

/8555/

4.1

/1826584/

87

/190/

90

/33012/

82

/38/

4.0

age 10+

A story of love and life among the landed English gentry during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is a gentleman living in Hertfordshire with his overbearing wife and five daughters, but if he dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family's future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages.

75

73

7.7

/16886/

73

/294/

71

/193/

3.8

/8150/

75

/28/

87

/390/

68

/10/

Thomas Becket, Henry II's longtime advisor, finds his friendship with the debauched king corroding when he is unwillingly appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in an attempt to gain absolute loyalty from the Church.

78

7.7

/39697/

73

/617/

73

/474/

3.8

/22605/

89

/80/

87

/711/

72

/11/

age 10+

A depiction of the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who refuses to swear the Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church in England.

85

7.7

/67859/

74

/1400/

74

/1108/

4.1

/152080/

94

/66/

89

/1297/

94

/20/

4.0

age 14+

In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.

71

7.7

/125695/

77

/4281/

74

/3222/

3.7

/95926/

72

/25/

85

/1305/

54

/12/

2.5

14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.

75

37

7.6

/2209/

66

/16/

79

/14/

3.4

/367/

87

/72/

Thomas Hardy's classic epic remains one of the most popular novels, this TV adaptation vividly depicts the powerful tale of a peasant girl whose life is torn apart by the love and jealousy of two men. Justine Waddell stars as the hapless Child of Nature who is tossed around by the dark forces of fate. Jason Flemyng is the dark and sinister Alec D'Urberville whose relentless pursuit of Tess triggers the heroine's downfall. Oliver Milburn plays the handsome young Angel Clare, the caring rebel who falls deeply in love with Tess.

72

16

7.7

/704/

74

/12/

70

/10/

3.4

/366/

Popcorn

72

/12/

British filmmaker Simon Cellan Jones directs the BBC drama Eroica, starring Ian Hart as Ludwig van Beethoven. Shot on digital video, this TV film depicts the first performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony, June 9th, 1804, in Vienna, Austria. Prince Lobkowitz (Jack Davenport) has invited friends to listen to Beethoven conduct his new symphony for the first time. Among the aristocratic attendees are Count Dietrichstein (Tim Pigott-Smith), Countess Brunsvik (Claire Skinner), and composer Josef Haydn (Frank Finlay). The actual musical score is performed by the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique, under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner.

74

7.7

/273652/

75

/5788/

76

/4380/

3.7

/106621/

61

/207/

82

/11287/

63

/38/

3.5

age 17+

Los Angeles, 1928. When single mother Christine Collins leaves for work, her son vanishes without a trace. Five months later, the police reunite mother and son. But when Christine suspects that the boy returned to her isn't her child, her quest for truth exposes a world of corruption.

74

7.7

/269786/

78

/9449/

78

/7489/

3.7

/793483/

65

/144/

84

/5571/

55

/28/

3.5

age 14+

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

75

7.7

/158213/

78

/4536/

76

/1939/

3.8

/81800/

74

/142/

88

/8319/

61

/33/

3.0

age 12+

Edmond Dantés's life and plans to marry the beautiful Mercedes are shattered when his best friend, Fernand, deceives him. After spending 13 miserable years in prison, Dantés escapes with the help of a fellow inmate and plots his revenge, cleverly insinuating himself into the French nobility.

81

7.7

/103090/

78

/2898/

77

/1909/

3.9

/130816/

73

/126/

94

/7799/

78

/7/

4.0

age 14+

An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing 'Mister' Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa.

75

7.7

/348504/

77

/9669/

73

/4434/

4.0

/459365/

78

/155/

89

/11519/

69

/30/

2.5

age 14+

In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.

79

7.7

/135622/

76

/2615/

74

/1795/

3.9

/193491/

97

/67/

90

/6620/

84

/21/

2.5

age 11+

The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, find that their chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. When Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son from his first marriage. But these circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's current wife and daughters without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.

69

7.6

/11051/

72

/195/

68

/81/

3.5

/6246/

68

/19/

84

/585/

2.0

age 10+

Colonial representatives gather in Philadelphia with the aim of establishing a set of governmental rules for the burgeoning United States. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams charge Thomas Jefferson with the task of writing a statement announcing the new country's emancipation from British rule.

76

7.6

/33115/

75

/765/

69

/315/

3.6

/12931/

81

/21/

89

/1336/