Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "year-1940"
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1. The Notebook (2004)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama, Romance
An elderly man reads to a woman with dementia the story of two young lovers whose romance is threatened by the difference in their respective social classes.
Director: Nick Cassavetes | Stars: Gena Rowlands, James Garner, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling
Votes: 620,381 | Gross: $81.00M
2. All the Light We Cannot See (2023)
TV-MA | 57 min | Drama, History, War
The story of Marie-Laure, a blind French teenager, and Werner, a German soldier, whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Stars: Aria Mia Loberti, Louis Hofmann, Lars Eidinger, Hugh Laurie
Votes: 44,294
3. Watchmen (2009)
R | 162 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
In a version of 1985 where superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach on the trail of a conspiracy that will change the course of history.
Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Malin Akerman
Votes: 582,659 | Gross: $107.51M
4. Bodies (2023)
TV-MA | 57 min | Crime, Drama, History
Four detectives, living in different eras -1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053 - find the body of the same murder victim in Whitechapel. They soon come to realize their investigations have them central to a conspiracy spanning over 150 years.
Stars: Amaka Okafor, Kyle Soller, Shira Haas, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd
Votes: 53,795
5. Dunkirk (2017)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Drama, History
Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy
Votes: 740,356 | Gross: $188.37M
6. The Pianist (2002)
R | 150 min | Biography, Drama, Music
During WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox
Votes: 912,624 | Gross: $32.57M
7. Malena (2000)
R | 108 min | Drama, Romance, War
Amidst the war climate, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Votes: 112,033 | Gross: $3.45M
8. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 606,143 | Gross: $1.02M
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
PG | 143 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
While playing, Lucy and her siblings find a wardrobe that lands them in a mystical place called Narnia. Here they realize that it was fated and they must now unite with Aslan to defeat an evil queen.
Director: Andrew Adamson | Stars: Tilda Swinton, Georgie Henley, William Moseley, Skandar Keynes
Votes: 428,157 | Gross: $291.71M
10. Atonement (2007)
R | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan
Votes: 299,912 | Gross: $50.93M
11. The Founder (2016)
PG-13 | 115 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Ray Kroc, a salesman who turned two brothers' innovative fast food eatery, McDonald's, into the biggest restaurant business in the world, with a combination of ambition, persistence, and ruthlessness.
Director: John Lee Hancock | Stars: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Linda Cardellini
Votes: 177,414 | Gross: $12.79M
12. Darkest Hour (2017)
PG-13 | 125 min | Drama, War
In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn
Votes: 220,843 | Gross: $56.47M
13. Back to School (1986)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport
To help his discouraged son get through college, a funloving and obnoxious rich businessman decides to enter the school as a student himself.
Director: Alan Metter | Stars: Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Keith Gordon
Votes: 36,212 | Gross: $91.26M
14. The Young Lions (1958)
Approved | 167 min | Action, Drama, War
The lives of three young men, a German and two Americans, during WWII.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, Hope Lange
Votes: 8,855 | Gross: $9.96M
15. Lawless (2012)
R | 116 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Set in Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a trio of bootlegging brothers are threatened by a new special deputy and other authorities angling for a cut of their profits.
Director: John Hillcoat | Stars: Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jason Clarke
Votes: 253,519 | Gross: $37.40M
16. The Good Shepherd (2006)
R | 167 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life.
Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin
Votes: 108,606 | Gross: $59.95M
17. Faraway Downs (2023)
38 min | Adventure, Drama, History
An aristocrat, Sarah has a cattle station in Australia. Following the death of her husband, a baron plots to take her land but she joins forces with cattle drover Jackman to protect her station.
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Shea Adams, Eddie Baroo
Votes: 3,002
18. Mank (2020)
R | 131 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
1930s Hollywood is re-evaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane (1941).
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tom Pelphrey
Votes: 82,761
19. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
R | 113 min | Biography, Comedy, Crime
An adaptation of the cult memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell), in which he purports to have been a C.I.A. hitman.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts
Votes: 92,011 | Gross: $16.00M
20. The Time Machine (1960)
G | 103 min | Adventure, Romance, Sci-Fi
A man's vision for a utopian society is disillusioned when travelling forward into time reveals a dark and dangerous society.
Director: George Pal | Stars: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot
Votes: 44,862
21. The Exception (2016)
R | 107 min | Drama, Romance, War
A German soldier tries to determine if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to infiltrate the home of Kaiser Wilhelm in Holland during the onset of World War II, but falls for a young Jewish Dutch woman during his investigation.
Director: David Leveaux | Stars: Lily James, Jai Courtney, Christopher Plummer, Ella Holland
Votes: 15,413 | Gross: $0.61M
22. Battle of Britain (1969)
G | 132 min | Action, Drama, History
In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Curd Jürgens
Votes: 24,521 | Gross: $4.36M
23. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
G | 117 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
An apprentice witch, three kids and a cynical magician conman search for the missing component to a magic spell to be used in the defense of Britain in World War II.
Directors: Robert Stevenson, Ward Kimball | Stars: Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall, Sam Jaffe
Votes: 40,736 | Gross: $18.53M
24. Transatlantic (2023)
TV-14 | 50 min | Drama, History
An American journalist who spent 13 months in France 1940-41 managed to arrange safe passage to the US for over 2,000 refugees; who were in danger of losing their lives.
Stars: Gillian Jacobs, Lucas Englander, Cory Michael Smith, Corey Stoll
Votes: 5,562
25. Goodnight Sweetheart (1993–2016)
Not Rated | 30 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
British sitcom in which an unhappily married man discovers he can time travel back to 1940s war-torn London where he masquerades as an MI5 agent and part-time songwriter whilst courting the local barmaid.
Stars: Nicholas Lyndhurst, Victor McGuire, Christopher Ettridge, Elizabeth Carling
Votes: 3,338
26. Never Look Away (2018)
R | 189 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl
Votes: 25,363 | Gross: $1.30M
27. The 12th Man (2017)
Unrated | 135 min | Drama, History, Thriller
They were 12 saboteurs. The Nazis killed 11 of them. This is the true story of the one that got away.
Director: Harald Zwart | Stars: Thomas Gullestad, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Marie Blokhus, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen
Votes: 29,219
28. Narvik: Hitler's First Defeat (2022)
TV-14 | 108 min | Drama, History, War
April 1940. The eyes of the world are on Narvik, a small town in northern Norway, source of the iron ore needed for Hitler's war machinery. Through two months of fierce winter warfare, Hitler is dealt his first defeat.
Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg | Stars: Kristine Hartgen, Carl Martin Eggesbø, Christoph Gelfert Mathiesen, Henrik Mestad
Votes: 17,414
29. La Vie En Rose (2007)
PG-13 | 140 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Biopic of the iconic French singer Édith Piaf. Raised by her grandmother in a brothel, she was discovered while singing on a street corner at the age of 19. Despite her success, Piaf's life was filled with tragedy.
Director: Olivier Dahan | Stars: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner
Votes: 90,757 | Gross: $10.30M
30. Suite Française (2014)
107 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
During the early years of German occupation of France in World War II, romance blooms between Lucile Angellier (Michelle Williams), a French villager, and Lieutenant Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts), a German soldier.
Director: Saul Dibb | Stars: Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas, Margot Robbie, Eric Godon
Votes: 28,537
31. Occupied City (2023)
PG-13 | 266 min | Documentary, History, War
The past collides with the present in this excavation of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam: a journey from World War II to recent years of pandemic and protest and a provocative, life-affirming reflection on memory, time and what's to come.
Director: Steve McQueen | Star: Melanie Hyams
Votes: 486
32. Peter Pan 2: Return to Never Land (2002)
G | 72 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
In London during World War II, this is the story of Wendy's daughter, Jane, who is kidnapped by Captain Hook and Peter Pan must come to the rescue.
Directors: Robin Budd, Donovan Cook | Stars: Blayne Weaver, Harriet Owen, Corey Burton, Jeff Bennett
Votes: 22,087 | Gross: $48.43M
33. Their Finest (2016)
R | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A former secretary, newly appointed as a scriptwriter for propaganda films, joins the cast and crew of a major production while the Blitz rages around them.
Director: Lone Scherfig | Stars: Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Richard E. Grant
Votes: 21,301 | Gross: $3.60M
34. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Votes: 23,723 | Gross: $3.48M
35. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Fantasy
In 1940, after watching and being traumatized by the movie Frankenstein (1931), a sensitive seven year-old girl living in a small Spanish village drifts into her own fantasy world.
Director: Víctor Erice | Stars: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Tellería
Votes: 20,681
36. YellowBrickRoad (2010)
R | 98 min | Horror, Thriller
1940: the entire population of Friar, New Hampshire walked up a winding mountain trail, leaving everything behind. 2008: the first official expedition into the wilderness attempts to solve the mystery of the lost citizens of Friar.
Directors: Jesse Holland, Andy Mitton | Stars: Michael Laurino, Anessa Ramsey, Alex Draper, Cassidy Freeman
Votes: 6,954
37. Alone in Berlin (2016)
R | 103 min | Drama, History, War
After a Nazi German working class couple loses their son in World War II, they decide to retaliate by secretly leafletting handwritten cards in Berlin denouncing their government.
Director: Vincent Perez | Stars: Louis Hofmann, Emil von Schönfels, Katrin Pollitt, Sammy Scheuritzel
Votes: 9,974
38. The Innocents (2016)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, History
1945. Mathilde is a French Red Cross doctor working on a mission to help the French survivors of the German camps. While she works in Poland, she is asked for help by a nun. In her convent, several nuns are pregnant.
Director: Anne Fontaine | Stars: Lou de Laâge, Agata Buzek, Agata Kulesza, Vincent Macaigne
Votes: 11,607 | Gross: $1.06M
39. Things to Come (1936)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, War
The story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.
Director: William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson, Margaretta Scott
Votes: 9,069
40. Red Joan (2018)
R | 101 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Joan Stanley, who was exposed as the K.G.B.'s longest-serving British spy.
Director: Trevor Nunn | Stars: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes
Votes: 14,424 | Gross: $1.58M
41. Max Manus: Man of War (2008)
Not Rated | 118 min | Action, Biography, Crime
The true story about one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II and his battle to overcome his inner demons.
Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Stars: Aksel Hennie, Agnes Kittelsen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Ken Duken
Votes: 29,780
42. The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2014)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
40 years after the first haunting at Eel Marsh House, a group of children evacuated from WWII London arrives, awakening the house's darkest inhabitant.
Director: Tom Harper | Stars: Helen McCrory, Jeremy Irvine, Phoebe Fox, Leanne Best
Votes: 29,578 | Gross: $26.50M
43. Comandante (2023)
120 min | Biography, Drama, History
Salvatore Todaro is the captain of the Cappellini. He leads in his own way. The bow is reinforced with steel in the off chance an opportunity to ram a ship arises and his crew is armed with daggers should a hand-to-hand battle occur.
Director: Edoardo De Angelis | Stars: Pierfrancesco Favino, Johan Heldenbergh, Massimiliano Rossi, Luca Chikovani
Votes: 982
44. Into the White (I) (2012)
R | 104 min | Action, Biography, Drama
World War II: After an aerial battle over Norway, British and German airmen find themselves stranded in the wilderness. Finding shelter in the same cabin, they realize the only way to survive the winter is to set aside the rules of war.
Director: Petter Næss | Stars: Florian Lukas, David Kross, Lachlan Nieboer, Stig Henrik Hoff
Votes: 22,366
45. Betrayed (2020)
126 min | Drama, History, War
The Braude family's experiences when Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany and Jews were arrested and deported.
Director: Eirik Svensson | Stars: Jakob Oftebro, Pia Halvorsen, Michalis Koutsogiannakis, Carl Martin Eggesbø
Votes: 2,413
46. War Sailor (2022)
TV-MA | 150 min | Drama, War
The sailor Alfred is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when World War II breaks out. Suddenly the sailors are in the front of the war, without any weapons.
Director: Gunnar Vikene | Stars: Kristoffer Joner, Pål Sverre Hagen, Ine Marie Wilmann, Henrikke Lund Olsen
Votes: 3,957
47. The Lady Eve (1941)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A trio of classy card sharks targets a socially awkward brewery heir, until one of them falls in love with him.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette
Votes: 23,388
48. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
An insurance investigator and an efficiency expert who hate each other are both hypnotized by a crooked hypnotist with a jade scorpion into stealing jewels.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Greg Stebner, Woody Allen, John Tormey, John Schuck
Votes: 42,426 | Gross: $7.50M
49. Dunkirk (1958)
Approved | 135 min | Action, Drama, History
A dramatization of the British Expeditionary Force's 1940 retreat to the beaches of France and the extraordinary seaborne evacuation that saved it from utter destruction by Nazi Germany.
Director: Leslie Norman | Stars: John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Bernard Lee, Robert Urquhart
Votes: 3,524
50. The Hiding Place (1975)
PG | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
During WWII, a Dutch family caught hiding Jews is sent to a concentration camp where their Christian faith helps them endure the hardships.
Director: James F. Collier | Stars: Julie Harris, Jeannette Clift, Arthur O'Connell, Robert Rietty
Votes: 2,395