Essential Cold War Movies
A list of movies (and documentaries) I found essential to understanding the Cold War-era.
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- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRobert McNamaraJohn F. KennedyFidel CastroThe story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara.
- DirectorHenry ChancellorStarsRobert CambrinusOlegar FedoroGina McKeeOn November 8th 1983 World War III almost began, and with it a nuclear apocalypse. This day is now acknowledged as one of most perilous on the whole of the Cold War.
- DirectorPeter AnthonyStarsStanislav PetrovKevin CostnerSergey ShnyryovRetired Soviet Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, who saved the world from WW3, talks about his life as retiree and shares his opinions on the Cold War with actor Kevin Costner in this melancholic mixture of documentary and reenacted footage.
- DirectorPeter KuranStarsWilliam ShatnerEdward TellerW.H.P. BlandyThe history of nuclear weapons between 1945 until 1963.
- DirectorRoger DonaldsonStarsKevin CostnerBruce GreenwoodShawn DriscollIn October 1962, the Kennedy administration struggles to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- StarsPeter CoyoteHuy DucJames WillbanksA comprehensive history of the United States' involvement in the bitterly divisive armed conflict in Southeast Asia.
- DirectorTomas AlfredsonStarsGary OldmanColin FirthTom HardyIn the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsKevin CostnerGary OldmanJack LemmonNew Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
- DirectorDavid Korn-BrzozaStarsClement AttleePaul BandeyDavid Ben-GurionCarefully remastered, colorized visual archives uncover a wider view of the private and public man. Contrasting chapters of his existence reveal a new perspective on Churchill's colorful, puzzling, paradoxical and captivating personality.
- DirectorJobst KniggeNikita Khrushchev was a devoted supporter of Stalin, but eventually put an end to his predecessor's regime of terror. In this documentary his family members, along with historians, bring to life his story and a piece of Soviet history.
- CreatorCraig MazinStarsJessie BuckleyJared HarrisStellan SkarsgårdIn April 1986, the city of Chernobyl in the Soviet Union suffers one of the worst nuclear disasters in the history of mankind. Consequently, many heroes put their lives on the line in the following days, weeks and months.
- StarsRoger MuddWill LymanChristopher DrewA history of American submarine espionage during the Cold War.
- StarsKenneth BranaghAnatoli DobryninRobert McNamaraA 24-part series which deals with the relations between the United States, the Soviet Union and their respective allies between the end of World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsUlrich MüheMartina GedeckSebastian KochIn 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
- DirectorDavid Korn-BrzozaStarsWill JohnsonVincent LindonGeorgi ZhukovWhat happened in France just after WWII, between 1945 and 1949? An interesting historic documentary looks at the fate of male and female (presumed) collaborators with the Nazis, the use of the POW in the reconstruction of the plundered and devastated country.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsGene HackmanJohn CazaleAllen GarfieldA paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
- DirectorJohn BadhamStarsMatthew BroderickAlly SheedyJohn WoodA young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsTom HanksJulia RobertsPhilip Seymour HoffmanA drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.
- DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsDustin HoffmanRobert RedfordJack Warden"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
- DirectorUli EdelStarsMartina GedeckMoritz BleibtreuJohanna WokalekA look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.
- DirectorRobert KennerStarsMichael BidellerAndreas BirnbaumTom BrokawDocumentary of 1980's near-launch of a nuclear missile from Arkansas, based on Eric Shlosser's award-winning book of the same name.