Best tv shows like Shaka Zulu
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Framed around Queen Victoria's decision on England's political stance towards the Zulu Nation, this mini-series details King Shaka's rise and fall with mythic detail. Prophecy is mixed with recorded fact regarding Shaka's birth, exile, innovations in warfare, assumption of the throne, building of the Zulu Empire, first contact with Europe and the events that lead to his downfall.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, South Africa, West Germany, Australia, USA
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: tension, epic, serious, captivating, realistic, vintage
Best tv shows and movies like Shaka Zulu (1986):
Similar in 82%
The Opium War (1997)
Plot Summary:
The story of the Opium War between China, in the waning days of the Qing Dynasty, and the British Empire, in the 1830s, and the subsequent takeover of Hong Kong by Britain; through the eyes of the key figures, fiercely nationalistic Lin Zexu, and opportunistic British naval diplomat Charles Elliot.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 590
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: China
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: epic, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of events that led to the British involvement in the Crimean War against Russia and which led to the siege of Sevastopol and the fierce Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854 which climaxed with the heroic, but near-disastrous calvary charge made by the British Light Brigade against a Russian artillery battery in a small valley which resulted in the near-destruction of the brigade due to error of judgement and rash planning on part by the inept British commanders.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: epic, factual, harsh, serious, exciting, realistic, patriotic, light, romantic, depressing
Similar in 78%
1864 (2014)
Plot Summary:
When Austria and Prussia declare war on Denmark, two brothers are called to serve in the bloodiest battle in Denmark's history.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany
Duration: 460 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, stylized, noir, costume drama, epic
Similar in 81%
Madiba (2017)
Plot Summary:
A dramatization of Nelson Mandela's struggle to overturn apartheid in South Africa.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 308
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Canada
Duration:
Plot tags: dramatic, serious, political, realistic
Similar in 80%
Charlie (2015)
Plot Summary:
The political and personal life of Charlie Haughey during his time in office.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration:
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 78%
Edward the King (1975)
Plot Summary:
Edward the Seventh is a 1975 television drama series, made by ATV in 13 episodes. Based on the biography of Edward VII by Philip Magnus, it starred Timothy West as the elder Edward VII and Simon Gipps-Kent and Charles Sturridge as Edward in his youth, Annette Crosbie as Queen Victoria, Deborah Grant and Helen Ryan as Queen Alexandra, Robert Hardy as the Prince Consort, Alison Leggatt as the Duchess of Kent, and Felicity Kendal as Princess Vicky. It was directed by John Gorrie, who wrote episodes 7-10 with David Butler writing the remainder of the series. The series also featured John Gielgud as Benjamin Disraeli, Michael Hordern as William Ewart Gladstone, Harry Andrews as young Edward's tutor Colonel Bruce, Jane Lapotaire as Empress Marie of Russia, Christopher Neame as Kaiser Wilhelm II and, in one of his earliest roles, Charles Dance as Edward's eldest son Eddy, who died at the age of 28. Gielgud previously played Disraeli in the 1941 film The Prime Minister. The actresses playing Edward's mistresses include Moira Redmond as Alice Keppel and Carolyn Seymour as Daisy Greville. Francesca Annis was featured in two episodes as Lillie Langtry which led to Butler writing a full series about Mrs Langtry's life for Annis to star in, Lillie.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 539
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: costume drama, historical drama, epic, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, saga, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 80%
Napoleon (2002)
Plot Summary:
The year is 1816, and NAPOLEON, held prisoner by the British on the island of St. Helena, is telling the young English girl BETSY his life story.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: France, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA, UK, Hungary, Spain, Czech Republic
Duration: 380 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, realistic, epic, political, costume drama, stylized, period drama
Similar in 90%
The First Churchills (1969)
Plot Summary:
Based on Winston Churchill's biography of his ancestors.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 261
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: historical drama, epic, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 84%
Young Winston (1972)
Plot Summary:
This historical drama is an account of the early life of British politician Winston Churchill, including his childhood years, his time as a war correspondent in Africa, and culminating with his first election to Parliament.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: epic, serious, realistic, exciting, tense, factual, captivating, historical drama, tension, suspense
Similar in 88%
Roots: The Next Generations (1979)
Plot Summary:
The dramatization of Alex Haley's family line from post Civil War America to the writer's search for his roots.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 840 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, epic, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, family saga
Similar in 87%
Zulu Dawn (1979)
Plot Summary:
In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership. Cy Endfield co-wrote the epic prequel Zulu Dawn 15 years after his enormously popular Zulu. Set in 1879, this film depicts the catastrophic Battle of Isandhlwana, which remains the worst defeat of the British army by natives, with the British contingent outnumbered 16-to-1 by the Zulu tribesmen. The film's opinion of events is made immediately clear in its title sequence: ebullient African village life presided over by King Cetshwayo is contrasted with aristocratic artifice under the arrogant eye of General Lord Chelmsford (Peter O'Toole). Chelmsford is at the heart of all that goes wrong, initiating the catastrophic battle with an ultimatum made seemingly for the sake of giving his troops something to do. His detached manner leads to one mistake after another.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History, War
Country: Netherlands, USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: cult classic, action adventure, historical drama, exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 84%
Zulu (1964)
Plot Summary:
In 1879, during the Zulu wars, man of the people Lt. John Chard (Stanley Baker) and snooty Lt Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine) were in charge of defending the isolated Natal outpost of Rorke's Drift from tribal hordes, holding out during an Alamo-like siege until they are overwhelmed, losing the battle, but going down in history as heroes. 150 soldiers defended a supply station against some 4000 Zulus, aided by the Martini-Henry rifle "with some guts behind it". In the hundred years since the Victoria Cross was created for valour and extreme courage beyond that normally expected of the British soldier in face of the enemy only 1344 have been awarded. Eleven of these were won by the defenders of the mission station at Rorke's Drift, Natal, January 22nd to the 23rd 1879.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 42000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: realistic, epic, suspense, factual, psychological, exciting, serious, breathtaking, period piece, inspirational
Similar in 81%
The Book of Negroes (2015)
Plot Summary:
Kidnapped in Africa and subsequently enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata must navigate a revolution in New York, isolation in Nova Scotia and treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone, in an attempt to secure her freedom in the 19th century.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 265 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, emotional, disturbing, epic, serious, captivating, realistic, historical drama, stylized, uplifting
Similar in 83%
Julius Caesar (2002)
Plot Summary:
Twenty year-old Julius Caesar flees Rome for his life during the reign of Sulla but through skill and ambition rises four decades later to become Rome's supreme dictator.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Netherlands, Italy, Germany, USA
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: epic, serious, captivating, stylized, historical drama, realistic
Similar in 84%
Waterloo (1970)
Plot Summary:
After defeating France and imprisoning Napoleon on Elba, ending two decades of war, Europe is shocked to find Napoleon has escaped and has caused the French Army to defect from the King back to him. The best of the British generals, the Duke of Wellington, beat Napolean's best generals in Spain and Portugal, but now must beat Napoleon himself with an Anglo Allied army.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Action, Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, Soviet Union
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: epic, serious, exciting, emotional, stylized, patriotic, historical drama, historically accurate, realistic, period piece
Similar in 78%
Khartoum (1966)
Plot Summary:
English General Charles George Gordon, a devout Christian, is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: epic, realistic, factual, suspenseful, talky, serious, technicolor, retro, sad, spectacular
Similar in 89%
Sons of Liberty (2015)
Plot Summary:
The story of a group of very different men fighting in the American Colonies for freedom, and how they will shape the future for the United States of America.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 270 min
Plot tags: captivating, historical drama, exciting, serious, realistic, tense, suspenseful, political, period drama
Similar in 80%
Rough Riders (1997)
Plot Summary:
In 1898 the US government decided to intervene on the side of the Cuban rebels in their struggle against Spanish rule. Assistant Navy Secretary Theodore Roosevelt decides to experience the war first hand by promoting and joining a volunteer cavalry regiment. The regiment, later known as the Rough Riders, brings together volunteers from all corners of the nation and all walks of life. When Roosevelt and his men finally land on Cuba, they face ambush, intense enemy fire, and a desperate, outnumbered charge up a defended hill.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, War, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, serious, captivating, tense, suspenseful, political
Similar in 87%
Roots (1977)
Plot Summary:
African teen Kunta Kinte, brought to America to be enslaved, and the generations of his family.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 588 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, uplifting, suspense, historical drama, thought provoking, sincere, serious, epic
Similar in 88%
The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005)
Plot Summary:
The film begins in 1857, when India was ruled by the British East India Company. Mangal Pandey is a sepoy, a soldier of Indian origin, in the army of the East India Company. Pandey is fighting in the Anglo-Afghan Wars and saves the life of his British commanding officer, William Gordon. Gordon is indebted to Pandey and a strong friendship develops between them, transcending both rank and race.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: India, UK, USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: epic, serious, captivating, emotional, patriotic, realistic, educational
Similar in 82%
Winnie Mandela (2011)
Plot Summary:
A drama that chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela from her childhood through her marriage and her husband's incarceration.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 880
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: South Africa, Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, political
Similar in 90%
Lincoln (1988)
Plot Summary:
After arriving in Washington in 1861 after his election, Abraham Lincoln struggles with personal and political problems during his Presidency. Originally titled "Lincoln", the name of this miniseries was changed to "Gore Vidal's Lincoln" when it was released for home entertainment.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 444
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 188 min
Plot tags: historical drama, clever, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, talky
Similar in 90%
Lumumba (2000)
Plot Summary:
The true story of the rise to power and brutal assassination of the formerly vilified and later redeemed leader of the independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Using newly discovered historical evidence, Haitian-born and later Congo-raised writer and director Raoul Peck renders an emotional and tautly woven account of the mail clerk and beer salesman with a flair for oratory and an uncompromising belief in the capacity of his homeland to build a prosperous nation independent of its former Belgium overlords. Lumumba emerges here as the heroic sacrificial lamb dubiously portrayed by the international media and led to slaughter by commercial and political interests in Belgium, the United States, the international community, and Lumumba's own administration; a true story of political intrigue and murder where political entities, captains of commerce, and the military dovetail in their quest for economic and political hegemony.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: France, Belgium, Germany, Haiti
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: political, realistic, serious, suspenseful, tense, sincere, thought provoking, contemplative, biting, sexy
Similar in 85%
Glory (1989)
Plot Summary:
Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 142000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: epic, inspirational, suspense, realistic, rough, factual, period piece, emotional, talky, serious
Similar in 77%
Peter the Great (1986)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of Peter I, Tsar of Russia from 1682, and the constant struggle between him, his sister Sophia and the Streltsy, an important Russian military corp. The story depicts the efforts of Peter in transforming Russia in an "all European" country, importing scientists, costumes, technology and military tactics.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 793
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 371 min
Plot tags: historical drama, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, period piece, costume drama, baroque, vintage, period drama
Similar in 83%
World War II: When Lions Roared (1994)
Plot Summary:
Based upon the actual cables between Washington, London and Moscow during the Second World War, this TV-movie examines the relationship between the leaders of these countries throughout the conflict. Franklin D. Roosevelt (John Lithgow), Winston Churchill (Bob Hoskins) and Joseph Stalin (Michael Caine), spring to life as real but imperfect people who nevertheless are great leaders fighting a great war.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 622
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 194 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, clever, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, talky
Similar in 87%
Ike: The War Years (1979)
Plot Summary:
Ike is a 1979 television miniseries about the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The screenplay by Melville Shavelson was based on Kay Summersby's 1948 memoir Eisenhower Was My Boss and her 1975 autobiography, Past Forgetting: My Love Affair. Directed by Boris Sagal and Melville Shavelson, the production starred Robert Duvall as Eisenhower and Lee Remick as Kay Summersby. Film editors John Woodcock and Bill Lenny won an Eddie Award for their work and the series garnered five Emmy Award nominations.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 456
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 291 min
Plot tags: exciting, sincere, serious, realistic, saga
Similar in 76%
Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003)
Plot Summary:
A unique slant, profiling the life of Adolf Hitler as a child and his rise through the ranks of the National German Workers' Party prior to World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags: serious, bleak, captivating, realistic, disturbing, political, factual, suspense, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
John Adams (2008)
Plot Summary:
The life of one of the USA's Founding Fathers, its second President, and his role in the nation's first 50 years.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, political, period piece, sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, costume drama, epic, historical drama
Similar in 85%
Attila (2001)
Plot Summary:
A romanced story of Attila the Hun, since his childhood, when he lost his parents until his death. Attila is disclosed as a great leader, strategist and lover and the movie shows his respect to the great Roman strategist Flavius Aetius, his loves and passions, the gossips, intrigues and betrayals in Rome, all of these feelings evolved by magic and mysticism.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: USA, Lithuania
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, touching, epic, inspirational, historical drama, serious, realistic