History through Movies

This will be a dynamic post, edited by me and with help from the crowd-sourcing skills of the Movie Fans site. I'm organizing lush period pieces/historical dramas by timeline. I wouldn't expect these films -- sometimes with questionable factual accuracy -- to replace research and reading for students, but dang if they don't help bring history to life, help visualize the epoch, and serve as a decent starting point. 

Many of these are R-rated, so i wouldn't just hand the list over to a bunch of middle-school students. But with a little teacher-vetting and parental guidance, this is a fun historical curriculum.

1193 BC           Trojan War with Greece          Troy  (R)

480 BC             Battle of Thermopylae                        300  (R)
32AD                The Crucifixion of Christ             The Passion of the Christ (R)
50AD                The First 5 Emperors of Rome                        I, Claudius  (TV Series)

100                  Roman Empire at its height    “Gladiator” (R)

400                 The Library of Alexandria       "Agora" (R)

1100                English crusades to Jerusalem            “Kingdom of Heaven” (R)

1100s              Arthurian legend         “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (PG)* snicker

1150:               Scots break from England       "Braveheart" (R)

1420s              Story of Joan of Arc     “The Messanger” (R)

900-1502        (Late) Mayan civilization       "Apocalypto" (R)

1533                Ascendancy of Elizabeth I in England “Elizabeth” (R)
1592                Shakespeare's England   "Anonymous" (PG-13)

1607                Founding Jamestown   “The New World” (PG-13)
1640                English Civil War   "Cromwell"

1692                Witch Trials in American Colonies      “The Crucible” (PG-13)
1700s               European Ages of Discovery     "Longitude" (NR)

1775                American Revolution   “The Patriot” (R)

1779                British-French War in the colonies     “Last of the Mohicans” (R)

1790s              Jesuit missionaries in Brazil   “The Mission” (PG)

1820s              Napoleonic war (France-Britain at sea)           “Master and Commander” (PG-13)

1839                Slave ships to the new world  “Amistad”
1850s               American Civil War   “Glory”

1860s:             End of Native culture in America        "Dances with Wolves" (PG-13)

1860s              End of Samurai culture in Japan            “The Last Samurai” (R)

1861                Queen Victoria in UK gets a bff          “Mrs. Brown” (PG)

1867                Assassination of Lincoln            “The Conspirator” (PG-13)

1910-30          End of China Empire    “The Last Emperor” (PG-13)

1910                Story of Gandhi           “Gandhi” (PG)
1918                WWI British vs Turks  “Gallipoli” (PG)

1920s              After the years of slavery in America “The ColorPurple” (PG-13)

1942                WWII, Normandy Invasion       “Saving Private Ryan” or “The Longest Day”

1950s              The Space Race           “The Right Stuff”

I'm really not going to hit the 20th Century. Too much to weed through.

Post suggestions, edits, and so forth. I'll keep incorporating fixes...

The original thread was here: http://netflixcommunity.ning.com/forum/topics/history-from-the-movies-list