History Goes to the Movies
These lists feature a variety of films – classic oldies, compelling dramas, award-winning international films, anime, and more. You may include one film on each Summer Reading log. (You can talk to your parents if you have questions about whether a film is appropriate you. (*** before the title of a film signifies that the film is rated R).
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes: Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972)
A band of Spanish conquistadors, led by Pizarro, go up the Amazon in search of gold. As the soldiers battle starvation, Indians, the forces of nature and each other, Don Lope de Aguirre (the self-styled "Wrath of God") is consumed by visions of conquering all of South America and leads a revolt, but Aguirre's megalomania turns the expedition into a death trip.
DVD / AGU
***Amistad (1997)
Steven Spielberg directs and Morgan Freeman stars in this epic film based on the true story of the 1839 mutiny aboard an African slave ship headed to the United States from Cuba and the abolitionist lawyer—John Quincy Adams—who advocated for the rebels' freedom.
DVD / AMI
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Recounts the problems faced by three returning veterans of WWII as they attempt to pick up the threads of their lives. Captain Derry is returning to a loveless marriage, Sergeant Stephenson is a stranger to a family that's grown up without him, and sailor Parrish is tormented by the loss of his hands.
DVD / BES
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2008)
A film of the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
DVD / ELI
4 Little Girls (1998)
The story of the four young girls who died when a bomb tears through the basement of a Birmingham, Alabama black Baptist church on September 15, 1963. This racially-motivated crime sparked the nation's outrage and helped fuel the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
DVD / 976.1781 / FOU
Matewan (1987)
A labor leader seeking to organize the workers of a company town sets off a powder keg of racial hostility, corruption, and betrayal in this tale of the bitter clash between union miners and tyrannical coal company owners in West Virginia in the 1920s.
DVD / MAT
Time of Fear (2005)
During World War II, more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans were forced into relocation camps across the U.S. This film traces the lives of the 16,000 people who were sent to two camps in southeast Arkansas.
DVD / 940.5317 / TIM
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2004)
The murder of teenager Emmett Till on a summer visit to the South in 1955 shocked the nation. In this documentary, director Keith Beauchamp shows dramatic archival film footage, photographs, and news clippings from the 1950s, and also interviews Till’s family and friends.
DVD / 364.1523 / UNT
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