Films about National Wars in the 19th Century

This collection provides information on selected movies, TV productions and documentaries on the themes of gender, military and war in the period covered by the Oxford Handbook.

The most important wars included for this period are:

  • Mexican American War (1846–48)
  • European Civil Wars (1848–49)
  • Wars of Italian Independence (1848–49, 1859, 1866)
  • Crimean War (1853–56)
  • American Civil War (1861–65)
  • German Wars of Unifications (1864, 1866, 1870–71)
  • Russo-Japanese War (1904–05)

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Director(s): Risi, Dino
Year of Publication: 1949
Major Wars:
Abstract:

Before he became one of the renowned directors of Italian comedy, Dino Risi took on the origins of the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849), particularly the Five Days in Milan, the insurrection that prompted the war. This short film,...

Director(s): Blasetti, Alessandro
Year of Publication: 1934
Major Wars:
Abstract:

Alessandro Blasetti's masterpiece 1860 reveals Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand into Sicily from the perspective of a shepherd-turned-soldier and his wife. The campaign was a turning point in Italian unification. The film...

Director(s): Bornedal, Ole
Year of Publication: 2014
Major Wars:
Abstract:

This controversial TV series explores the meaning and legacy of 1864, when Denmark lost the Second Schleswig War as well as its world power status. Two brothers follow in their father's footsteps and enlist in the Danish Army to fight Prussia for...

Director(s): Masuda, Toshio
Year of Publication: 1980
Major Wars:
Abstract:

During the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the Japanese attack the Russian naval base Port Arthur and take the surrounding cliff known as Hill 203. The film depicts the lives and battles of the soldiers involved, emphasizing the...

Director(s): Taviani, Paolo
Year of Publication: 1974
Major Wars:
Abstract:

Allonsanfàn is a 1974 Italian historical drama film written and directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. The title of the film, which is also the name of a character, comes from the first words of the French Revolutionary anthem La...

Director(s): Egen, Brian James
Year of Publication: 2006
Major Wars:
Abstract:

Legendary writer Ambrose Bierce was known to be brilliant, cantankerous and romantic in all his life's passions, and was revered as one of the top storytellers of the late 19th Century. In 1890, he presented his recently published collection of...

Director(s): Eisenstein, Sergei M.
Year of Publication: 1925
Major Wars:
Abstract:

This international cinematic masterpiece portrays revolutionary events that preceded the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. In 1905 following the Sino-Russo War, sailors of the Potemkin protest poor conditions, stirring riots on board as...

Director(s): Vancini, Florestano
Year of Publication: 1972
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Abstract:

This controversial film reinterprets the Expedition of the Thousand, a key event in the Italian Risorgimento that brought Sicily into the Kingdom of Sardinia. After Garibaldi's conquest, villagers of Bronte revolt in early August 1860 after...

Director(s): Castle, William
Year of Publication: 1954
Major Wars:
Abstract:

Charge of the Lancers is a 1954 American adventure film directed by William Castle and starring Paulette Goddard and Jean-Pierre Aumont. During the Crimean War (1853–1856), Allied troops guard a new weapon, a super cannon, that can...

Director(s): Minghella, Anthony
Year of Publication: 2003
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Abstract:

Cold Mountain is a 2003 epic war film telling the story of a wounded deserter from the Confederate army close to the end of the American Civil War, who journeys home to reunite with the woman he loves. This Civil War saga addresses...

Director(s): Ron Maxwell
Year of Publication: 2013
Major Wars:
Abstract:

The drama film Copperhead is directed by Ron Maxwell and starsring Billy Campbell, Angus Macfadyen, Augustus Prew, Lucy Boynton, Casey Thomas Brown, and Peter Fonda. The film is based on the 1893 novel, The Copperhead, by Harold...

Director(s): Coletti, Duilio
Year of Publication: 1948
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Abstract:

Heart and Soul is a film adaptation of Edmondo de Amici's novel, Cuore. Initially published in 1886 and rising to immediate success, the book and film follow Enrico Bottini, a 10-year old primary school student in Turin with an...

Director(s): Käutner, Helmut
Year of Publication: 1959
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Abstract:

A comedy produced by West Germany and France. After the battle of Sedan in September 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) a pair of soldiers, one French and one German, become separated from their respective units. Taking shelter in a...

Director(s): Lezama, Luis
Year of Publication: 1939
Abstract:

Two friends enlist in the Mexican army to fight during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). Their perspective shows the United States as an invading colonizer seeking to expand the institution of slavery through its annexation of Texas....

Director(s): Wilcox, Herbert
Year of Publication: 1948
Major Wars:
Abstract:

Elizabeth of Ladymead is a 1948 British Technicolor drama film, charting the life of a British family between 1854 and 1945 and their involvement in four wars - the Crimean War (1853–1856), Boer War (1899–1902), First World War and ...

Director(s): Sean McNamara
Year of Publication: 2014
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Abstract:

Field of Lost Shoes is a 2014 American war drama film directed by Sean McNamara and written by Dave Kennedy and Thomas Farrell. The film stars Nolan Gould, Lauren Holly, Jason Isaacs, Tom Skerritt, Keith David and David Arquette. It is...

Director(s): Duke, Daryl
Year of Publication: 1985
Major Wars:
Abstract:

A biographical drama of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Born to an aristocratic British family, Nightingale volunteered to care for the wounded of the Crimean...

Director(s): Ross, Gary
Year of Publication: 2016
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Abstract:

Free State of Jones is a 2016 American historical war film inspired by the life of Newton Knight (1829-1922), an American farmer, soldier and Southern Unionist in Mississippi. Knight was, best known as the leader of the Knight Company, a...

Director(s): Wyler, William
Year of Publication: 1956
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Abstract:

The patriarch of a peace-loving Quaker family, Jess Birdwell (Gary Cooper), begins to question his pacifist values when the American Civil War (1861–1865) moves toward his close-knit Indiana community. Meanwhile, Jess's daughter, Mattie, is in...

Director(s): Scorsese, Martin
Year of Publication: 2002
Major Wars:
Abstract:

This historical drama was inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1927 non-fiction book, The Gangs of New York. The drama centers on the long-running Catholic–Protestant feud in New York, which erupts in 1863 into violence, just as an Irish...

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