30 Best Historical Movies of the 2010s You Must Watch
From sweeping war epics to intimate portraits of extraordinary lives, the 2010s delivered a treasure trove of historical cinema. These films don’t just recreate the past—they interrogate it, illuminating the choices, compromises, and sparks of courage that shaped real events.
Below is a curated countdown of essential titles from that decade. Each pick balances gripping storytelling with textured period detail, inviting you to revisit turning points in politics, science, culture, and conflict from fresh perspectives.
30. ‘War Horse’ (2011)
Steven Spielberg tracks a boy’s bond with his horse across the ravages of a world at war, weaving battlefield spectacle with human-scale emotion. The story moves through farmers, soldiers, and medics whose paths intersect in surprising, affecting ways.
Lavish production design and classical cinematography give the film an old-school sweep. Underneath the grandeur is a tender meditation on loyalty and resilience amid chaos.
29. ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ (2011)
A master spy is coaxed from retirement to unmask a traitor inside his own ranks, and the hunt becomes a chess match of whispers. The film swaps car chases for conference rooms, where every glance could be a confession.
Muted tones, meticulous period texture, and controlled performances create a slow-burn symphony of suspicion. It’s a study in how bureaucracies wage their own cold wars.
28. ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ (2013)
A Texas electrician’s diagnosis pushes him to smuggle unapproved medications, forming an unlikely alliance that defies institutions. What begins as self-preservation grows into community activism and a challenge to gatekeepers.
Raw, lived-in performances ground the story’s anger and empathy. It’s a reminder that policy debates land on real bodies first.
27. ‘American Sniper’ (2014)
A Navy marksman becomes a legend overseas while wrestling with invisible wounds at home. The film juxtaposes split-second battlefield decisions with the quiet, disorienting aftershocks of returning to family life.
Taut set pieces are framed by a portrait of identity under strain. It interrogates heroism without easy answers.
26. ‘Silence’ (2016)
Two missionaries trek into a closed society to find their mentor, confronting faith, doubt, and the toll of cultural collision. The journey becomes a crucible where belief is tested through endurance rather than miracles.
Spare imagery and long, contemplative scenes invite reflection over judgment. History here is not just dates and edicts, but the echo of conscience.
25. ‘The Revenant’ (2015)
After a brutal betrayal in the wilderness, a frontiersman claws his way back through unforgiving terrain. Nature itself becomes an antagonist as much as any human foe.
Immersive, natural-light photography turns landscapes into pure cinema. It’s a survival saga that doubles as a myth about perseverance.
24. ‘First Man’ (2018)
A stoic engineer pursues an audacious goal that will stretch technology and human endurance alike. The film keeps its gaze inside cockpits, workshops, and living rooms, where risk is calculated in heartbeats.
Shaking metal and close-miked breaths bring the tactile reality of early spaceflight to life. It’s intimate where you expect grandiosity, and that’s its power.
23. ‘The Favourite’ (2018)
Courtly alliances shift like quicksand as rivals scheme for a monarch’s favor. Barbed dialogue slices through powdered wigs and lavish halls.
Fish-eye lenses and candlelit rooms create a world both decadent and claustrophobic. The film treats palace intrigue as a contact sport, wry and brutal.
22. ‘Roma’ (2018)
A domestic worker navigates love, loss, and upheaval within a middle-class household. The camera drifts through kitchens, streets, and beaches, finding the epic inside the everyday.
Luminous black-and-white images render memory with aching clarity. It’s history at ground level, attentive to the quiet labor that keeps families intact.
21. ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ (2019)
An aging star and his stunt double wander a changing industry as counterculture swells. The film lingers on backlots, neon boulevards, and the small rituals of work.
It’s both elegy and daydream, reframing a cultural pivot with tenderness and bite. The period detail crackles with texture and melancholy.
20. ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013)
A stockbroker rockets from hustler to ringleader, surfing waves of greed and excess. Parties blur into depositions as appetite outruns accountability.
Kinetic editing and ferocious comedy make vice hypnotic—and exhausting. By the end, the hangover feels like a historical case study in moral drift.
19. ‘Spotlight’ (2015)
A newsroom team methodically unearths a system of abuse and silence. File folders, court records, and shoe-leather interviews become instruments of revelation.
The film’s restraint honors the grind of verification. It champions institutions at their best: skeptical, patient, and dogged.
18. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (2012)
An analyst fixates on a thread that might lead to a fugitive mastermind, and the chase spans continents and agencies. The process is messy, incremental, and fraught.
Documentary-like clarity meets thriller tension. It asks what long pursuits cost, not just what they achieve.
17. ‘Bridge of Spies’ (2015)
A lawyer negotiates a delicate swap between adversaries who refuse to trust each other. Diplomacy unfolds in smoky rooms where words weigh more than weapons.
Measured pacing and meticulous design invite you to savor procedure. It’s a civics lesson wrapped in a cloak-and-dagger fable.
16. ‘The Post’ (2017)
A publisher and editor weigh whether to defy the government in the public’s interest. Boardrooms and printing presses become battlegrounds for transparency.
The film pulses with deadlines and ethics under pressure. It celebrates the courage to choose sunlight over comfort.
15. ‘Hidden Figures’ (2016)
Mathematicians at a space agency compute the impossible while navigating barriers at home and work. Chalkboards and punch cards become tools of liberation.
Buoyant energy and ensemble warmth make the triumphs contagious. It’s an ode to brilliance that history nearly forgot.
14. ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ (2016)
A medic vows to save without taking a life, and the promise is tested under fire. The quiet conviction of one man ripples through a unit.
Gruesome combat contrasts with a gentle core of belief. It’s a story of conviction weaponized into mercy.
13. ‘Argo’ (2012)
A far-fetched plan smuggles innocents out of danger under the guise of moviemaking. Suspense hangs on forged identities and razor-thin margins.
Wry humor lightens tightly wound stakes. It’s a caper that doubles as a lesson in improvisation under pressure.
12. ‘Selma’ (2014)
A movement converges on a small city to demand rights long denied. Strategy sessions, church pews, and bridges frame the campaign’s heartbeat.
Rousing speeches meet quiet, courageous organizing. The film honors collective action as history’s engine.
11. ‘The Imitation Game’ (2014)
A brilliant, difficult mind tackles an unbreakable problem while hiding parts of himself from a hostile world. Teamwork forms despite sharp edges and secrecy.
The clock-tick of codebreaking pairs with a moving personal portrait. Genius comes wrapped in paradox and cost.
10. ‘The King’s Speech’ (2010)
A reluctant leader confronts a debilitating impediment with the help of an unconventional therapist. The sessions are prickly, funny, and transformative.
Stately sets and intimate close-ups converge on vulnerability. It’s a story about finding a voice—literally and figuratively.
9. ‘The Social Network’ (2010)
A campus project metastasizes into a global platform, and friendships fracture under the strain of success. Depositions become the arena where origin myths are contested.
Surgical dialogue and propulsive structure make corporate formation feel operatic. The film captures ambition as both fuel and solvent.
8. ‘Lincoln’ (2012)
A seasoned politician corrals votes for a measure that could redefine a nation. Deals are struck in parlors, corridors, and candlelit rooms where history is bartered.
The portrait favors craft over hagiography. It’s politics as persuasion, patient and unsentimental.
7. ‘Darkest Hour’ (2017)
A new prime minister must rally a wary government while a storm gathers. Speeches, subways, and war rooms chart the arc from doubt to resolve.
Grandstanding is tempered by private uncertainty. The film understands leadership as performance, will, and listening.
6. ‘BlacKkKlansman’ (2018)
An undercover investigation exposes a hateful network through a daring, improbable partnership. The tonal blend of satire and suspense lands like a jolt.
It’s fiercely entertaining and pointedly contemporary. History rhymes here, and the echo is unmistakable.
5. ‘The Irishman’ (2019)
A labor enforcer recounts decades of loyalty, violence, and regret. Time erodes bravado until only memory remains.
Measured pacing and elegiac framing build a funeral for a way of life. It’s a gangster chronicle turned confession.
4. ‘Ford v Ferrari’ (2019)
Engineers and drivers chase speed while wrestling with corporate egos. Workshops, wind tunnels, and pit lanes become theaters of obsession.
The racing sequences are visceral without losing character focus. It’s about craft, competition, and the joy of doing something brilliantly well.
3. ’12 Years a Slave’ (2013)
A free man is kidnapped into bondage and must endure unimaginable cruelty to reclaim his life. The camera refuses to look away, demanding the same of viewers.
Beauty and brutality share the frame, never canceling each other. It’s a landmark that insists on witness.
2. ‘Dunkirk’ (2017)
Soldiers wait, pilots dive, and civilians steer toward danger as a desperate evacuation unfolds. Timelines braid into a single, throbbing pulse.
Minimal dialogue and muscular sound design create pure cinematic abstraction. Survival becomes the only plot, and it’s riveting.
1. ‘1917’ (2019)
Two messengers cross hostile territory on a mission measured in inches and breaths. The illusion of a single, unbroken take traps you inside the journey.
Every trench, orchard, and river feels perilously real. It’s a technical marvel with a beating human heart.
Share your own must-watch historical picks from the decade in the comments—what did we miss, and which entries would you move up or down?
