
The true story of Operation Market Garden, the Allies attempt, in September 1944, to hasten the end of WW2 by driving through Belgium and Holland into Germany. The idea was for US airborne divisions to take the towns of Eindhoven and Nijmegen and a British airborne division, reinforced by a Polish airborne brigade, to take the town of Arnhem. They would be reinforced, in due course and in turn, by the British XXX Corps, land-based and driving up from the British lines in the south. The key to the operation was the bridges, as if the Germans held or blew them, the paratroopers could not be relieved. Faulty intelligence, Allied high command hubris and stubborn German resistance would ensure that Arnhem was a bridge too far.
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History
The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) Mike Newell, Richard Chamberlain, Patrick McGoohan, Louis Jourdan, Adventure, Drama, History

Fed up with the the insufferably cruel behavior of Louis XIV (Richard Chamberlain), a group of musketeers plot to replace the king with his twin brother, Philippe (also Chamberlain). They kidnap Phillipe and temporarily lock him in the Bastille, where he is inevitably recognized as a dead ringer for Louis. Word gets back to the king and, fearing for his safety, he decides to have his brother locked in an iron mask and subsequently imprisoned for life.
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Richard III (1955) Laurence Olivier, Cedric Hardwicke, Nicholas Hannen, Biography, Drama, History, War

Richard’s military skills have helped to put his older brother Edward on the throne of England. But jealousy and resentment cause Richard to seek the crown for himself, and he conceives a lengthy and carefully calculated plan using deception, manipulation, and outright murder to achieve his goal. His plotting soon has tumultuous consequences, both for himself and for England.
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The Return of Frank James (1940) Fritz Lang, Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney, Jackie Cooper

Frank James, the brother of Jesse James, has been laying low, living as a farmer and taking care of Clem Read More »
Caligula II: The Untold Story (1982) Joe D’Amato, David Brandon, Laura Gemser, Luciano Bartoli, Adult, Drama, History, Erotic

The deranged Roman emperor Gainus ‘Caligula’ (Little Boots) Caesar (12-41 A.D.) rules Rome with an iron fist and has anyone tortured and exectued for even the slightest insubordination. Mostly set during his last year of his reign, as Caligula loses support due to his brutal and crazed excess, a young Moor woman, named Miriam, becomes his lover while ploting to kill him to avenge the murder of a friend which Caligula was responsible for. But Miriam is torn between her personal vandeda against Caligula and her own personal feelings towards him despite his madness and debauched lifestyle of orgies and bloody torture murders.
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Zulu (1964) Cy Endfield, Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, Drama, History, War

Two Lieutenants, Chard of Engineers and Bromhead find that their 140 man contingent in Natal has been isolated by the destruction of the main British Army column and that 4,000 Zulu warriors will descend on them in hours. Each has a different military background in tactics and they are immediatly in conflict on how to prepare for the attack. Nearly a third of the men are in the infirmary, as the welsh company tries to somehow survive with no help in sight. Based on a true story.
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Oda az igazság / So Much for Justice! (2010) Miklós Jancsó, Daniel Olbrychski, Kornél Mundruczó, György Cserhalmi, History

Concerning the Mátyás era in Hungarian history, during the reign of Matthias Corvinus, the film focuses on three eras of the king’s life: the young Mátyás fights for the throne, the older Mátyás as king, and the fate of the royal crown and the royal heir after his death.
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Helen of Troy (1956) Robert Wise, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Brigitte Bardot, Adventure, Drama, History

Prince Paris of Troy, shipwrecked on a mission to the king of Sparta, meets and falls for Queen Helen before he knows who she is. Rudely received by the royal Greeks, he must flee…but fate and their mutual passions lead him to take Helen along. This gives the Greeks just the excuse they need for much-desired war.
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Il Messia / The Messiah (1975) Roberto Rossellini, Pier Maria Rossi, Mita Ungaro, Carlos de Carvalho, Biography, History

Rossellini’s final film relates the story of Christ in the director’s unsentimental, realistic style.
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Francis of Assisi (1961) Michael Curtiz, Bradford Dillman, Dolores Hart, Stuart Whitman, Biography, Drama, History

Francis Bernardone (Bradford Dillman) is the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, who gives up all his worldly goods to dedicate himself to God. Clare (Dolores Hart) is a young aristocratic woman who, according to the film, is so taken with St. Francis that she leaves her family and becomes a nun. By this time (1212 A.D.), St. Francis has a well-established reputation for his vows of poverty. The movie goes on to note miracles (such as the appearance of the stigmata on Francis’s hands and feet) and other aspects of his life, up to and including his death on October 3, 1226.
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