Movies that are set in historical times

War movies have a special place in my heart. I feel War movies have an air of Intensity, Destruction, Anguish and Hope. I also take an underlying comfort that probably we are never going to face such as I watch those stories unravel.

Although what we are seeing in the movies is just the distant past, it is incredibly hard to digest the fact that humanity has gone through all of those struggles.

I initially watched war movies anticipating the action sequences and the missile strikes, they all seemed fancy to me and I used to get excited about the ticking bombs and the destruction involved.

It took years for me to subside that excitement and see those stories as the real struggle of the people who went through the darker side of history. Much of that realization came only after watching the distressing visuals in the day to day news when somewhere in the world the chaos happens and watching how people's lives are shattered in a fraction of seconds in real-time.

I grew up watching the Star Movies channel, the only English movie channel we had access to and most of the movies are Hollywood, so much of my perception has been shadowed by the American narrative. I was always under the impression that whenever a Non-American guy pops up on the screen he is a Bad Guy.

But later on during my graduation, I was fortunate that I met a few people who were more nearer to internet exploration and helped me come out of the logic bubble. "Every Story Has Two Sides", to understand this phrase it took years for me.

Of course, we were taught about World war history in the school but as far as I can see that didn’t help to change my notion towards individual nations freedom movement and acknowledge their struggle, btw, I was the top scorer in social.

Watching movies that are set in world war times and freedom movements is important, it changes everything, we need to discuss more and more about the timeline of events that unwrapped and how we got here.

I believe this helps us to have a wider perspective, at least in casual conversations this makes us a conscious individual. When it comes to the internet, that's a whole new absurdity. It's funny how people pass on the impulsive statements of having a war on their social wall. War destroys lives and leaves us years of trauma.

Here are the movies I watched on Prime Video:

The Imitation Game: Link

I am an Engineer by profession and my best interests lie in anything that has to do with Engineering and in recent years one thing that most excited me is Engineering history, one such movie related to is the Imitation Game.

The Imitation Game is a historical drama based on the life of the genius British mathematician Alan Turing, who played an important role as a crypto analyst in deciphering the Enigma machine. Even after cracking the code, they had to keep it a secret and act strategically by which they saved millions of lives. Regardless of his contributions, he was punished for his homosexuality and he had to commit suicide. I wouldn’t say things are better for the LGBT community now but at least he would have been alive.

 

Sobibor: Link

"Sobibor," tells the story about the only successful revolt in a Nazi death camp during World War 11, this movie also corrects the notion that Jews didn't fight. 20 mins into the movie you will get to see how the happy faces are choked to death in the Nazi regime, the mass executions and the dire situation in the concentration camps. As the rebellion evokes it spurs an emotion in us and this movie is a must-watch.

T-34: Link

The film kicks in with heavy action scenes manoeuvring with tanks and packed with a couple of slow-motion scenes which I feel those elements helped the action to sink in. The whole movie hinges on how one man outsmarts the Nazi officers and devises an escape plan from the concentration camps. There is one particular scene that I will remember forever in which  captured Russian women from the camp who helps the protagonist, says to him “maybe for this moment I waited my whole life”. 

Operation Chromite: Link

The protagonist quotes how people were made to believe "ideology is thicker than blood" and how it took his father' life. That particular scene clarifies a teenager who struggles to pick sides as her uncle's life is at stake. Although there are some really bad reviews of the movie, I didn't find any flaws in it. I was hooked on the storytelling and was surprised how far human grit goes to take vengeance.

The Man With the Iron Heart: Link

This movie is a story about Reinhard Heydrich, one of the gruesome leaders in the Nazi regime and how the young Czechoslovakians plan the resistance group and will set on an impossible mission of his assassination. When the two young men from the resistance group got trapped by the Nazi army, they try for a desperate escape and as their attempt turns futile they take their lives holding their hands, vaporizing all their dreams of life after the war. The movie is also filled with great camera work which gives us the first man perspective of the Nazi troops and what it's like to be in the shoes of their inhuman acts.

Ghazi: Link

Standing on the shores of Visakhapatnam one can watch the Ghazi submarine standing still, non-functional and mistaken as India’s vessel for the uninformed. Ghazi movie tells the story of the bravery of the Indian army in capturing Pakistan's submarine-Ghazi and bringing it down to its heels. Very thankful for the director Sankalp Reddy for bringing this story alive with his brilliant and captivating storytelling.

Roaring Currents: Link

13 battleships against 300 Japanese enemy ships and that establishes the movie premise and the direction it is heading, this is the tale that fills courage. The movie is heart-wrenching as the soldiers the heroic fight.