The best John Shrapnel’s documentary movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best John Shrapnel’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about John Shrapnel.
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
6.8/10
The film explores the background and build-up to this final flight to disaster. Using dramatic reconstruction, archive footage and exclusive interviews with leading historians and engineering experts, the special delves into the political and scientific events that led up to the catastrophe.
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
7.3/10
The dramatic stories of Fritz Wiessner’s 1939 K2 expedition and Charlie Houston’s return in 1953. K2 is one of the hardest mountains in the world to climb. This film focuses on the expeditions of Fritz Wiessner and Charlie Houston in 1953. An award winner at the Banff, Telluride, Trento and Prague film festivals.
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich was considered the most dangerous man in Nazi Germany after Hitler himself. The plot to kill him masterminded in England and carried through to finality in Prague in 1942, is told in this gripping dramatised documentary special. Featuring meticulous reconstructions, coupled with authentic historical film, some of it never shown before the film powerfully presents a vivid account of the only successful assassination of a leading Nazi in World War II. It also chillingly recreates the terrible human cost of SS savagery against the Resistance and the total obliteration of the village of Lidice.
Moving Half the Mountain: Building the Death Railway
7.3/10
Moving Half The Mountain documents the true stories of the survivors from one of the worst atrocities of the Second World War the brutal use of prisoners (POWs) and forced local labour by the Japanese to build a railway linking Thailand to Burma. These men are now in their twilight years but their memories are as clear as though it were yesterday.
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
Greece, a land of breathtaking beauty and light. A land where science, art and inspiration from the gods combined to produce some of the world's greatest marvels of architecture and design. The ancient Greeks used buildings and structures to reflect the variety of life at the core of their civilisation - they built the first theatres, staged the first sports events and worshipped in some of the most spectacular temples ever built.
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
Able to inspire wonder and awe in all who gazed upon them, The Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome - the Pantheon, the Aqueducts of Rome, the Via Appia, the Baths of Caracalla, Trajan's Markets, Circus Maximus and the Colosseum - were the works of great men who translated fantastic visions into the epitome of human achievement. These visionaries included ambitious Emperors like Hadrian and engineers with revolutionary ideas such as Apollodorus. By the second century AD, Rome had become the 'caput mundi' - the head of the world.
Supermassive Black Holes
7.5/10
"Horizon" examines the recent discovery of supermassive black holes, which spawn galaxies even as they threaten to destroy everything in their path.
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
7.1/10
The legend of King Arthur spans centuries and has inspired countless novels and films. But who was King Arthur, and what was his real legacy? Through reenactments and historical images, this A&E production explores the romance, adventure and politics of the noble ruler of Camelot. He inspired the Knights of the Round Table and fought to defend England, only to be betrayed by the one he loved most, his own Queen Guinevere.
