1917 

All Quiet on the Western Front isn’t the only great World War I movie from the last few years. Released in 2019, Sam Mendes’ film 1917 was just as riveting. The American Beauty and Skyfall director worked with legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins to make the film appear as though it’s unfolding in just two continuous shots. There’s a reason for that feeling of urgency: Taking place in a single day near the end of the war, the plot follows two British soldiers tasked with delivering a message on foot in order to prevent 1,600 of their compatriots from walking into a trap.

JFK

Oliver Stone has courted acclaim and controversy in equal measure throughout his more than 50-year career, with 1991’s JFK embodying both. Essentially a feature-length conspiracy theory — albeit a highly compelling one — about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the political thriller was described by Stone himself as a “counter-myth” to the Warren Commission’s official findings.

Critic Michael Parenti called JFK “the only movie in film history that was attacked, six months before it was released, in just about every major broadcast and print outlet” — attacks that were due to concerns over how Stone would treat this highly sensitive subject. Indeed, Stone told The New York Times prior to the film’s release, “I've taken dramatic license. It is not a true story per se.” The phrase “back and to the left” (referring to the position of Kennedy’s head) sits alongside Braveheart’s “Freedom!” as one of the decade’s most iconic movie lines, proof that historical accuracy isn’t a requirement for cultural relevance.

Gladiator

Make no mistake: Ridley Scott knows his historical epics aren’t historically accurate and doesn’t care at all. He’s called on historians who take issue with movies such as Napoleon to “get a life” and even posed an important question: “Excuse me, mate, were you there?” His 2000 film Gladiator, the only Best Picture winner directed by the Alien and Blade Runner helmer, plays fast and loose with its subject matter, including reversing the meaning of the famous thumbs-down gesture in gladiator battles. In ancient Rome, that would have meant to let a fallen opponent live, not to kill them. The movie’s version is a bit more cinematically compelling, but certainly not historically accurate.

Pocahontas

No one watches an animated Disney movie for a history lesson, but the problems with 1995’s Pocahontas are so foundational that they bear special mention. This includes the fact that her real name was Amonute, others called her Matoaka, and Pocahontas was only a nickname, as well as her age when the 27-year-old John Smith entered her life: just 10 or 11. There’s also no evidence behind the idea that the Powhatan woman and English settler were romantically involved or that she saved his life. Take away those three factors and you basically don’t have a movie left. “Colors of the Wind” is still pretty catchy, though.

10,000 BC

Roland Emmerich has made some great action movies, most notably Independence Day. But the 2008 film 10,000 BC isn’t considered one of his best. Its glaring historical inaccuracies aren’t the main reason it was so poorly received, but they’re pretty egregious all the same. Nearly all of its major elements, from woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers to pyramids and written language, are off by several thousand years in either direction. 

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

“This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it,” reads the opening caption of All Quiet on the Western Front. “It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war…”

Lewis Milestone’s 1930 take on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel is both the first adaptation and the best. It’s the rare Hollywood production to tell the story of either world war from the German perspective, and it is haunting in its depiction of the wartime experience. Following a group of impressionable young men who enthusiastically enlist to fight for the fatherland, All Quiet on the Western Front shows the inevitable outcome of that decision: the loss of innocence, disenchantment, and, more often than not, the end of life.

Grand Illusion (1937)

“If I had only one film to save,” Orson Welles once said, “it would be Grand Illusion.” The first movie ever added to the Criterion Collection, Jean Renoir’s prisoner-of-war drama follows a group of French officers plotting their escape from a Nazi POW camp and pairs wonderfully with Renoir’s The Rules of the Game, released two years later and startlingly prescient in its vision of France on the brink of World War II. There’s a good chance Renoir is your favorite filmmaker’s favorite filmmaker — countless directors admired him greatly, from Welles and Martin Scorsese to Akira Kurosawa and François Truffaut. and Grand Illusion is probably the movie that made them fall in love with his work.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Have you listened to Lawrence of Arabia’s majestic overture recently? Do you even remember the last time you saw a movie with an overture? If the answer to either question is no — or if you’ve never seen the epic of all epics — there’s no time like the present to (re)watch Peter O’Toole deliver one of the greatest performances in the history of film. Based on the life of T.E. Lawrence and set in the Middle Eastern theater of World War I, Lawrence of Arabia is, quite simply, one of the greatest films ever made about this or any other subject. 

Paths of Glory (1957)

If you’re curious about the tone of Stanley Kubrick’s World War I drama starring Kirk Douglas, look no further than the poem from which it takes its title: “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” Based on Humphrey Cobb’s novel of the same name, it follows a French colonel defending three of his soldiers from charges of cowardice after they abandon a suicidal attack and are court-martialed for it. 

Kubrick’s first true masterpiece sits proudly alongside such later works as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket as an aggressively anti-war exploration of the physical and spiritual toll that being a commanding officer takes. Paths of Glory was so anti-war, in fact, that it stirred controversy both in Europe and the U.S. Few today would argue with any of the points Kubrick made, however.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

Though best known for directing The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson has also made several documentaries. The best of them is They Shall Not Grow Old, which restored and colorized a trove of previously unseen footage belonging to the Imperial War Museum. The result is a highly immersive, emotionally devastating look at the on-the-ground reality of daily life as a soldier in one of the most brutal conflicts in human history. Jackson dedicated it to his grandfather, a veteran of World War I, creating an emotional connection to the material that comes through in nearly every scene.

Wings (1927)

War movies have been wowing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for as long as it has existed, as evidenced by the fact that this World War I drama was the first-ever Best Picture Oscar winner. (Another film, Sunrise, took home the prize for Unique and Artistic Picture, a category that was discontinued the following year.) William A. Wellman’s endlessly influential film is  the only fully silent production ever to win the most coveted Oscar, and it features a bravura tracking shot that’s just as impressive today as it was nearly a century ago. 

A romantic drama about a love triangle involving two fighter pilots vying for the affections of Clara Bow (understandable) when they aren’t fighting the Germans, Wings has stood the test of time — especially its dogfight sequences, which have rarely been bested.

Hamnet

One of the year’s most celebrated films, Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel is nominated in eight categories: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Casting, Costume Design, Production Design, and Original Score. It’s a speculative tearjerker about the relationship between William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died in 1596 at a tragically young age, and the Bard’s best known work, Hamlet, which was written a few short years later. 

Most historians agree that the connection between the two isn’t as strong as the novel and movie would have you believe, but Zhao, who already won Best Director for Nomadland, wrings every possible bit of emotion out of an inherently moving premise. Jessie Buckley is considered the front-runner for Best Actress, but Zhao will have to sneak past One Battle After Another helmer Paul Thomas Anderson to take home her second directing trophy.

Kokuho

A massive success in Japan, where its $128 million in box-office receipts have made it the country’s highest-grossing live-action movie of all time, Kokuho is up for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. (It also made the shortlist for Best International Feature Film but failed to land a nomination.) Lee Sang-il’s period piece about a pair of post-World War II kabuki actors is operatic in scope and feeling. It’s a testament to both the power of theater and the pain of a back-and-forth relationship that ends up defining two lives.

Marty Supreme

Josh Safdie’s Ping-Pong period piece — try saying that five times fast — both is and isn’t a typical awards contender. It’s inspired by a mid-20th-century athlete who revolutionized his sport, but it’s also fraught with the same nervous energy as the movies Safdie made a name for himself with, along with his brother Benny: Uncut Gems, Good Time, and Heaven Knows What, to name a few. 

Marty Supreme takes place in the 1950s and stars likely Best Actor winner Timothée Chalamet in the title role, a pugnacious table-tennis star whose skills bring him to the world championship in Tokyo — but not before a number of strangely enjoyable narrative detours. It’s nominated in nine categories: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Original Screenplay, Casting, Cinematography, Production Design, Editing, and Costume Design.

The Secret Agent

It would be quite the understatement to describe 1970s Brazil as “a time of great mischief,” which is exactly why Kleber Mendonça Filho does it. The Brazilian director has always had a certain ne’er-do-well playfulness to his filmmaking, and so it is in his exploration of what it means to be an enemy of the state simply by not conceding to its increasingly oppressive demands. 

The Secret Agent is up for four awards: Best Picture, Actor, Casting, and International Feature. Wagner Moura, who’s superlative in the title role, is the first Brazilian and South American leading man to be nominated for the top acting prize — making The Secret Agent historic even if it leaves the ceremony empty-handed.

Train Dreams

Covering eight decades in the life of a railroad worker in and around Bonners Ferry, Idaho, from the end of the 19th century until America’s first crewed space flight, Clint Bentley’s elegiac drama is another literary adaptation. He has more than done justice to Denis Johnson’s novella, with Train Dreams picking up four Oscar nods: Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, and Original Song for Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner’s aptly titled “Train Dreams.” Anchored by a never-better Joel Edgerton, it’s probably the quietest, most contemplative of this year’s Best Picture nominees, but it’s also one of the best.

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Hygiene

Despite what just about every depiction of the period would have you believe, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail to Kingdom of Heaven, medieval people weren’t always dirty. The misconception is especially prevalent in regard to the peasantry, who are almost always portrayed in rags and a thick layer of grime as they eke out a meager existence under the yoke of a cruel lord. In reality, many people bathed and brushed their teeth on a regular basis, with most settlements built either near fresh water or in proximity to a functioning well. They even had soap, which has been available in Europe since the ninth century CE. 

Pitched Battles

When imagining medieval warfare, a very specific image comes to mind: two massive armies meeting on an open field and charging directly at each other until one side emerges victorious (known as a pitched battle and seen in such films as Braveheart and Henry V). Despite its frequent depiction in film and television, this was actually quite rare, and for a very good reason. Such conflicts were incredibly risky affairs whose outcomes were nearly impossible to control. Raids, sieges, and skirmishes were far more common, with one army targeting the other’s lands and terrorizing its people on a smaller scale rather than putting all their eggs in one basket. 

The Dark Ages

According to nearly every fictionalization of the medieval period, not a lot was going on in the worlds of art, literature, and science. This misconception earned the era its long-standing nickname: the “Dark Ages.” The Hollywood-fueled myth would have us believe that medieval people were ignorant, few scientific or cultural developments were made during these decades, and it was generally a bad time to be anything other than a king or noble. The truth is much more nuanced than movies such as Tristan & Isolde and Black Death would have you believe. The Christian church didn’t completely stifle science and art in medieval Europe; in fact, much of the era’s most beautiful art was actually sponsored by the church. Many of these myths trace back to Petrarch, a 14th-century poet, whose complaints about the Italian literature of the time being subpar were misinterpreted as relating to the entire era.

Chastity Belts

Like prima nocta, chastity belts are a myth — though Hollywood is not entirely to blame for this one. The concept predates the movies by several centuries, as these restrictive items have been depicted in art since at least the 1500s. Even then, they were mostly satirical — meaning that in the 16th century people found the idea as laughable as we do today, though it seems some took the jokes found in supposed illustrations of the device by military engineer Conrad Kyeser seriously and believed they were based on actual practices. None of this makes Robin Hood: Men in Tights any less funny, of course.

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Anonymous (2011)

There are a lot of good reasons to watch a Roland Emmerich movie, but historical accuracy isn’t one of them. The director of Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and Moonfall (in which the moon literally falls out of the sky) is among our finest purveyors of high-concept popcorn flicks, but a historian he is not. That made him a strange choice to helm a movie like Anonymous, which promotes the long-discredited theory that Shakespeare didn’t write his own plays. It instead posits that one Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, did, with Rhys Ifans playing the courtier who secretly moonlights as a literary genius. In addition to its central premise being bogus, the movie gets so many other basic historical details wrong that its Wikipedia page has an entire subchapter devoted to “Other departures from fact.”

Braveheart (1995)

Does the “Freedom!” scene still get the pulse going? Absolutely. Did it actually happen? Almost certainly not. The same can be said of pretty much everything else in Braveheart, which Mel Gibson both directed and starred in as Scottish folk hero William Wallace. The movie is wildly, famously inaccurate, beginning with its name: Wallace was not known as Braveheart; that nickname belonged either to King Robert the Bruce or to no one at all. The belted plaid, kilts, and blue face paint aren’t based on anything factual either, nor were several of the battle sequences.

Elizabeth Ewan, who teaches Scottish studies and history at the University of Guelph, has said that the movie “almost totally sacrifices historical accuracy for epic adventure.” Sharon L. Krossa, an expert on medieval Scotland, was even more blunt: “The events aren’t accurate, the dates aren’t accurate, the characters aren’t accurate, the names aren’t accurate, the clothes aren’t accurate — in short, just about nothing is accurate.” The general public didn’t appear to care in the least. Braveheart spent nine consecutive weeks atop the box office on its way to earning $213 million worldwide, won four Oscars (including Best Picture and Best Director), and led to an increase in Scottish tourism.

The Last Samurai (2003)

In a nice bit of intertextuality, one of The Last Samurai’s key scenes refers to the same ancient battle that inspired 300 — inaccurate movies think alike, it seems. Jonathan Dresner, an expert in East Asian history, penned an article describing the film as a “historical disaster” — a fair assessment of a movie positing that the last survivor of Japan’s legendary warrior caste was not a native samurai but rather a disenchanted Civil War veteran played by Tom Cruise. While acknowledging that “some of the background to the story is reasonably true to life,” Dresner pointed out that “almost everything else” is wrong. That didn’t prevent Edward Zwick’s admittedly effective historical epic from earning $455 million at the box office and four Academy Award nominations, however. 

The Patriot (2000)

Bringing together two masters of historical inaccuracy in director Roland Emmerich and star Mel Gibson, The Patriot is uniquely off the mark in its depiction of the Revolutionary War. In a review of the movie, The Telegraph opined that “truth is [the] first casualty in Hollywood’s war.” Indeed, the film exaggerates the extent of British soldiers’ cruelty (no, they never locked women and children in a church before setting it on fire) and neglects to mention that the real-life figure who most inspired its protagonist was an enslaver. Among its fiercest critics was Spike Lee, who wrote in a letter to The Hollywood Reporter that “for three hours, The Patriot dodged around, skirted about, or completely ignored slavery.” He also called it “pure, blatant American Hollywood propaganda” and “a complete whitewashing of history.”

Pearl Harbor (2001)

“I miss you more than Michael Bay missed the mark / When he made Pearl Harbor,” goes one of Team America’s catchiest songs. Historical inaccuracy is only part of the song’s issue with Bay’s poorly received epic, but it’s an important one. There are exhaustive lists of every error and anachronism in Pearl Harbor, which is infamous for getting just about everything wrong — including basic storytelling. Writing for the Society of Military History, Evan Sarantakes decided it was simpler to list what the movie got right: “There was a U.S. naval base in Hawaii, it was called Pearl Harbor, the Japanese did attack with planes on December 7.”

Pocahontas (1995)

There is precisely zero evidence that Pocahontas and John Smith (who was at least 17 years her senior) were ever in a romantic relationship, as portrayed in the 1995 animated Disney film about this influential Powhatan woman. Pocahontas did marry an English colonist, but his name was John Rolfe. (In a coincidence, Christian Bale, who played Rolfe in Terrence Malick’s The New World, also voiced a character in Disney’s Pocahontas.) There’s also the fact that the title heroine’s real name was Amonute, whereas Pocahontas was merely a nickname meaning something like “little wanton” or “playful one.” Roger Ebert wasn’t impressed by these deviations: “Having led one of the most interesting lives imaginable,” he wrote in his review of the Disney film,” Pocahontas serves here more as a simplified symbol.”

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Magellan

Lest you think this is a traditional biopic, know that director Lav Diaz’s movies usually run between four and eight hours long and are considered exemplars of the slow-cinema movement. Magellan is fairly conventional by his standards — it’s a mere 160 minutes and stars an international movie star (Gael García Bernal) in the eponymous role — but it’s still unmistakably a Diaz film. Taking place over the final decade of the circumnavigator’s life and giving an impressionistic account of its subject rather than the usual bullet-point approach taken by most of its genre peers, this is the biopic at its most inventive and experiential.

The Secret Agent

A title card at the beginning of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s latest film introduces it as taking place during “a period of great mischief,” a playfully understated way of describing 1977 Brazil. A brilliant Wagner Moura plays a former teacher who has run afoul of the military dictatorship and is now living in the city of Recife under an assumed name. But The Secret Agent isn’t as grim as it might sound. It could more accurately be called strange, vibrant, and darkly funny — if you had 100 guesses, you’d never figure out how the subplot involving a human leg found inside a shark resolves itself. That the movie does all of this without being flippant or making light of its subject matter is truly impressive, and likely part of why The Secret Agent is the rare film to have won not one but two awards at the Cannes Film Festival: Best Director and Best Actor.

Sound of Falling

Mascha Schilinski’s astonishing sophomore feature is a time-traversal drama that takes a familiar premise and turns it into something startlingly original. Spanning more than a century but never leaving its single physical setting of a rural German farmhouse, the film — which follows the lives of four interconnected women who are only vaguely aware of their links to one another, like phantom limbs that carry the attendant pain — often jumps from one timeline to another so seamlessly that you don’t even realize it, alternating between the early 20th century, the World War II era, East Germany in the 1980s, and the present day. Watching the movie is a bit like sitting outside as it gets dark on a summer night and seeing fireflies blink in and out of view: Each small moment captures your full attention and leaves an afterimage that you can still see when you close your eyes.

Train Dreams

A literary adaptation of Denis Johnson’s lyrical novella of the same name, Train Dreams is an ode to an America that no longer exists. A never-better Joel Edgerton stars as Robert Grainier, who spends most of his adult life working on the railroad all the live-long day. “Though he didn’t know it then,” the narrator says early on, when Robert marries a woman named Gladys (Felicity Jones) and has a daughter, “he would always look back on this time in his life as the happiest.” Clint Bentley’s understated drama is more melancholic than happy, but there’s true beauty in its depiction of early-2oth-century Idaho.

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1930s

Hollywood’s golden age on display in the 1930s as audiences flocked to theaters to escape the harsh realities of the Great Depression. Grand musicals, screwball comedies, and sweeping historical epics provided the glamour and adventure people craved. Walt Disney revolutionized animation with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while Gone With the Wind closed the decade as a record-breaking movie phenomenon.

1930 – Whoopee!
1931 – City Lights
1932 – Shanghai Express
1933 – King Kong
1934 – It Happened One Night
1935 – Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 – San Francisco
1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1938 – Alexander’s Ragtime Band
1939 – Gone With the Wind

1940s

Shaped by World War II and its aftermath, the 1940s saw Hollywood balance patriotism, hope, and realism. Wartime dramas such as Sergeant York rallied the home front, while postwar hits such as The Best Years of Our Lives explored the challenges of returning home. The Hollywood studio system reached its height, turning out polished stars and prestige pictures that defined midcentury American film.

1940 – Boom Town
1941 – Sergeant York
1942 – Mrs. Miniver
1943 – For Whom the Bell Tolls
1944 – Going My Way
1945 – The Bells of St. Mary’s
1946 – The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 – Forever Amber
1948 – The Red Shoes
1949 – Samson and Delilah

1950s

The 1950s were a decade of reinvention that brought sweeping change to Hollywood as studios battled the rise of television. Epic spectacles such as The Ten Commandments (a loose remake of the 1923 silent film) and Ben-Hur drew audiences back to theaters, while innovations such as Cinerama and CinemaScope made movies bigger and more immersive than ever.

1950 – Cinderella
1951 – Quo Vadis
1952 – The Greatest Show on Earth
1953 – Peter Pan
1954 – White Christmas
1955 – Lady and the Tramp
1956 – The Ten Commandments
1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958 – South Pacific
1959 – Ben-Hur

1960s

The 1960s bridged Hollywood’s golden age and a bold new era of filmmaking. Movies including The Sound of Music and Cleopatra carried on Old Hollywood’s grandeur, even as films such as The Graduate captured a younger generation’s restless spirit. Tradition and rebellion shared the screen, signaling the cultural and creative shift that would give rise to New Hollywood.

1960 – Spartacus
1961 – West Side Story
1962 – The Longest Day
1963 – Cleopatra
1964 – Mary Poppins
1965 – The Sound of Music
1966 – Hawaii
1967 – The Graduate
1968 – Funny Girl
1969 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

1970s

The 1970s reinvented Hollywood and gave birth to the modern blockbuster. With The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars, visionary directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas proved that artistic vision and audience appeal could go hand in hand. From Rocky’s underdog triumph to Grease’s nostalgic musicality, audiences embraced movies that blended grit, hope, and spectacle — laying the foundation for the franchises that still dominate cinema today.

1970 – Love Story
1971 – Fiddler on the Roof
1972 – The Godfather
1973 – The Exorcist
1974 – Blazing Saddles
1975 – Jaws
1976 – Rocky
1977 – Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
1978 – Grease
1979 – Kramer vs. Kramer

1980s

The 1980s cemented Hollywood’s blockbuster era, driven by bigger budgets, dazzling special effects, and unforgettable soundtracks. Franchises such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future dominated theaters, while hits including Ghostbusters and Top Gun captured the decade’s high-energy style.

1980 – Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
1981 – Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 – E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1983 – Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
1984 – Ghostbusters
1985 – Back to the Future
1986 – Top Gun
1987 – Three Men and a Baby
1988 – Rain Man
1989 – Batman

1990s

The 1990s saw the rise of CGI take blockbuster spectacle to a whole new level. Jurassic Park and Titanic shattered box-office records, while Disney’s renaissance reached new heights with Aladdin and The Lion King. The decade also marked the birth of fully computer-animated features with Toy Story and cemented event filmmaking (movies capturing real-life events) as a cultural phenomenon, blending cutting-edge technology with emotional storytelling.

1990 – Home Alone
1991 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1992 – Aladdin
1993 – Jurassic Park
1994 – The Lion King
1995 – Toy Story
1996 – Independence Day
1997 – Titanic
1998 – Saving Private Ryan
1999 – Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

2000s

The 2000s were defined by sprawling franchises, fantasy worlds, and technological leaps in filmmaking. Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean drew devoted audiences, while Spider-Man and The Dark Knight signaled the rise of the modern superhero era. Avatar pushed the boundaries of visual effects and 3D cinema, and animated hits such as Shrek 2 captivated viewers of all ages.

2000 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas
2001 – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
2002 – Spider-Man
2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004 – Shrek 2
2005 – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
2006 – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
2007 – Spider-Man 3
2008 – The Dark Knight
2009 – Avatar

2010s

The 2010s were a decade of cinematic universes and blockbuster dominance as streaming and digital distribution began reshaping how audiences accessed films. Marvel redefined franchise filmmaking with The Avengers, Black Panther, and Avengers: Endgame, while legacy franchises such as Star Wars proved they could still break records.

2010 – Toy Story 3
2011 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
2012 – The Avengers
2013 – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
2014 – American Sniper
2015 – Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
2016 – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2017 – Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
2018 – Black Panther
2019 – Avengers: Endgame

2020s

The 2020s began amid major disruption as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered theaters and delayed movie releases. As audiences returned, films such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, and Barbie showcased the enduring appeal of big-screen nostalgia. The decade continues to evolve, with streaming, hybrid releases, and changing audience habits likely shaping the future of cinema.

2020 – Bad Boys for Life
2021 – Spider-Man: No Way Home
2022 – Top Gun: Maverick
2023 – Barbie
2024 – Inside Out 2

No Funny Clergy

Hollywood had strict orders when it came to religion: Ministers, priests, and other clergy could not be portrayed as comic relief or sinister villains. This rule didn’t just reflect the societal norms at the time; it was also due to the personal influence of Hays, a pillar of the Presbyterian church, as well as Joseph Breen, who oversaw the PCA’s enforcement of the Hays Code for decades and was himself a devout Catholic. 

This isn’t to say that clergy couldn’t be portrayed as flawed or unconventional, but they couldn’t be made into a laughing stock. Popular films such as Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) fit the mold perfectly: Bing Crosby’s beloved character Father Chuck O’Malley was portrayed as approachable and human but always dignified. The rule extended to language, too: The words “God,” “Lord,” “Jesus,” and “Christ” could be said only if they were used reverently.

No Dancing While Feet Are Stationary

Dancing is everywhere in classic Hollywood films, and the Hays Code even recognized it as “an art” and “a beautiful form of expressing human emotions.” But even this beautiful art form had its limits at the time. Any dancing that suggested sexual activity or that was “intended to excite the emotional reaction of an audience” could get a movie canned. More specifically, dancing that “involved excessive upper-body movement while the feet stayed still” was considered indecent. Suggestive hip-swaying? No way, especially not without the added distraction of moving feet. 

High-energy, dazzling routines full of spins, lifts, and fancy footwork were a hallmark of the era, however. Film critic David Denby has even suggested that the magic between screen legends Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers might never have been the same without the limitations of the Hays Code. According to Denby, what could have been rote “scenes of passion” were instead dance numbers that became their own form of courtship through dizzyingly dynamic sequences.

No Childbirth

It’s one of the most natural (and dramatic) moments of human life, but Hollywood was not allowed to depict childbirth “in fact or in silhouette” under the Hays Code. Pregnancy itself was not specifically off-limits in the official list of rules, but Olga J. Martin, one of Breen’s former secretaries, confirmed in her book Hollywood’s Movie Commandments that it was certainly frowned upon and was almost always removed from films since it was considered “improper for public discussions.” 

A woman in labor did make it onto the big screen, however, and in an iconic film at that. In 1939’s Gone With the Wind, Olivia de Havilland’s character Melanie goes into premature labor. The audience doesn’t see much — a pained face and a vague silhouette. But given the bluntness with which the subject matter was banned, it’s a wonder the PCA, albeit after a back-and-forth with the film’s producer David O. Selznick, allowed the scene to exist at all.

No Toilets

Old Hollywood was a time of many taboos, but toilets might be the most absurd. For decades, in the name of decorum, bathroom interiors, especially toilets, did not appear on screen. Broader “toilet gags” — which encompassed any form of potty humor as well as certain bodily functions — were also banned under the Hays Code’s profanity section. 

It wasn’t until Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho that a toilet — and a flushing one at that — finally appeared on screen. It was just one of the film’s many snubs to the Hays Code, which at the time was being challenged by filmmakers and enforced less and less, a gradual process that began after Breen retired in 1954.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Hays Code steadily lost influence and was enforced less and less — as television and foreign films outside of its jurisdiction became more accessible, filmmakers began pushing boundaries. By 1968, the code was officially replaced by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system that is still in use today.

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy

Audiences have long delighted in the sparks-generating tension of romantic comedies, and no on-screen couple pulled it off better than the golden age duo of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. From their initial pairing starring as co-workers in Woman of the Year (1942) to their final go-round portraying parents in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), Hepburn and Tracy brought out the best in each other across their nine movies together. Their chemistry was rumored to have fueled a real-life romance that lasted from their first movie until Tracy’s death in 1967, with the married actor supposedly refusing to divorce his wife due to his strict Catholic beliefs. 

Hattie McDaniel Receives Her Oscar

For better or worse, the films and pageantry of Hollywood have served as a reflection of the ambitions, fears, and prejudices of society throughout the years. This is perhaps best exemplified by the 1940 Academy Awards, which saw Hattie McDaniel become the first Black actor to nab a win, in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in Gone With the Wind (1939). 

Yet McDaniel was only allowed into that year’s ceremony in the segregated Cocoanut Grove nightclub by way of a special favor from ownership, and even then she was forced to sit in the back of the room, away from the table with her white co-stars Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. It took two dozen years before Sidney Poitier became the second Black Oscar winner, for his leading role in Lilies of the Field (1963), and an additional 19 years for Louis Gossett Jr. to become the third, for his supporting effort in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982).

Marilyn Monroe’s and Jane Russell’s Handprints

As with the Academy Awards, the imprinting of hands and/or feet in wet cement at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre serves as a marker of top-tier success in the movie industry. The tradition is said to have sprung from an accident; silent film star Norma Talmadge supposedly stepped in new cement before the opening of what was then Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in 1927, inspiring owner Sid Grauman to make a formality of such activity with the hand and footprints of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in April. 

Over the years, a few stars have added a distinct touch to the proceedings: Betty Grable left the imprint of her leg in 1943; George Burns supplied one of his cigars in 1979; and jokester Mel Brooks added a prosthetic sixth finger for a handprint in 2014. Marilyn Monroe even dotted the “i” in her name with an earring during her 1953 dual ceremony with Jane Russell to celebrate the release of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, although it was carved out by an opportunistic thief a few days afterward.

Orson Welles on the Set of Citizen Kane

From George Cukor and John Ford to Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock, Hollywood’s golden age was marked by boldface-name directors who packed the star power to rival that of the era’s A-listers. The same standing briefly applied to Orson Welles, a former stage actor who rocketed to fame with his panic-inducing radio adaptation of War of the Worlds in 1938, before directing one of the all-time cinematic masterpieces with Citizen Kane (1941), as seen in the photo above. 

The mercurial Welles soon grew disillusioned with Hollywood, however, and he flitted in and out of the industry’s embrace while continuing to direct and star in signature films including The Lady of Shanghai (1947) and A Touch of Evil (1958). Although he never again reached the towering heights of Citizen Kane, Welles left behind a record as one of the greats of his era thanks to innovative techniques such as extended takes and “deep focus” filming.

MGM Studio Lots

The golden age of Hollywood was ruled by the all-powerful studios where the movie magic was made. From 1930 to 1948, the combination of Hollywood’s “big five” studios — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and RKO Pictures — and “little three” — Universal Pictures, United Artists, and Columbia — accounted for a whopping 95% of films exhibited in the United States. 

MGM, seen above in a photo from around 1945, was perhaps the most prominent of the bunch, and a rundown of its facilities showcases just how much effort went into sustaining the empire. Along with offices for its executives, directors, writers, and various casting, camera, and wardrobe departments, the Culver City-based studio had lots dedicated to indoor and outdoor sets, including a 63 million-gallon artificial lake, as well as vehicle storage, a zoo, and a nursery. However, Hollywood’s bosses lost their iron grip on the industry with the 1948 Supreme Court ruling that forced studios to divest from their movie theater businesses, eventually paving the way for more independent filmmakers and a new era of cinema.