Best ancient war movie?

[Acronym]

I'm looking for a good ancient war movie with *realistic* epic battles(not like braveheart). Looking for something roman or greek, and yes I've seen sparticus. Haven't seen 300 spartans, is it any good?

[Papewaio]

For its time very. For now it is still good. Far larger focus on the 300 acting as a herioc then say 3 of them doing heroics like modern movies.

[Knight_Yellow]

well gladiator has got pretty sweet fights in it especialy the beginning.

and ermm since uve excluded braveheart try Henry v lotsa great fights and a load of talking but u wont get bored.

[Mithrandir]

ahh, with such a question you hsould go to the monastery http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif.

->moved

[Naagi]

Well El Cid was a pretty damn good movie way back when, though not sure if I remember a lot of it. Dam I cant remember the name of the other one I was gonna give ya, was a Charleston Heston movie about a judean slave to a roman general, was a huge naval battle and the roman guy tried to commit suicide cause he thought hed lost the fight, and Charleston saved him, so he made him his adopted son. Religious influence through most of the movie, but still a good movie. May be Quo Vadis.

Naagi http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Exile]

Naagi - I believe that movie was Ben Hur.

There was a great old movie about the Trojan War - I cant remember the name though, "Helen of Troy" maybe..?

"Heaven and Earth" is a goodie if you dont mind reading subtitles (it's Japanese)

"Excalibur" of course. The best IMO.

[bosdur]

I would say Gladiator, the Rome total war trailer is a cool war movie too, too bad it only last 1 minute and 17 seconds.

[[RDH] Spetz Natz]

Also, "Ran"...a 1985 Japanese movie based on Shakespeare's King Lear.

Great movie with some of the bloodiest war scenes ever. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Tachikaze]

It's rare to see a film depicting pre-5th Century warfare accurately. Usually, the film makers who produce these movies are more interested in fulfilling popular conceptions of those times, or are trying to reproduce a fanciful folktale or heroic epic.

There was a film about Alexander starring Richard Burton. Plenty of inaccuracies, but better than many.

The 300 Spartans movie was not bad, but Thermopylae, especially the version remembered by the West, was not a typical battle.

It's high time someone created a film that ignores the public's images of ancient times and depicts daily life, human relations, politics, and battle as realisticly as we can put together from historical evidence.

[Acronym]

Knight_Yellow:
well gladiator has got pretty sweet fights in it especialy the beginning.

Yes I've seen Gladiator, but the opening war scene just ok. It looked cool when they had a bird's eye view of the romans marching up to the germans, but then when fighting everyone is scattered everywhere and it turns into a big mess. It's hard to find a good movie with realistic battle scenes where order is shown.


Naagi:
Yeah I've seen Ben Hur, it was very good, though it didn't have any real battle scenes that I was anticipating http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

Exile
Excaliber was sweet, thanks for reminding me I should get it on DVD.

I think I've seen heaven on earth though, takes place in the shogun period. Is this the movie with the weird japanese entertainer at the beginning entertaining the emperor?

Anyone seen Gettysburg? That's probably one of the best war movies made, the director tried to recreate the battle scenes almost perfect and still had good acting.

[Acronym]

[RDH] Spetz Natz :

Yes that's the movie I'm thinking of, Ran That was a good one, but I think Gettysburg tops it.

[Exile]

Gettysburg was excellent. The best scene was when at the peak of Pickett's charge, the confederates are closing in on a cannon and it fires point blank. The conderates are thrown violently backward in the air awesome. (right up there with the limb-clipping cannon balls in 'The Patriot' and the machine-gun-welcome beach landing in 'Saving Private Ryan&#39http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

'Gods and Generals', another Civil War Flick, is coming out soon I think. I have high expectations for this movie.

In a broader range, 'Zulu' was a decent war epic. I cant think of any more. I think that you are right about 'Heaven and Earth' buit I cant recall how the movie started, just the battles & treachery and my wife wanting to kill me for geting a movie with subtitles http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[_Martyr_]

Scorpion King (jk) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Hakonarson]

The costuming in Gladiator is exquisite, but the "battle" tactics are absolute carp

Roman archers and artillery formed up behind the legions historically in open battle (according to what few references we have), and the flaming arrows, etc were nonsense.

The initial charge of the barbarians would have been taken by Auxiliaries not legionaries, and it would have ben a foolhardy General taking himself out of the fight for 10 minutes to charge around behind the enemy on horseback - certainly he would have had troops hit them in the rear, but he wouldn't have gone with them.

But the costumes and the dirty sweat stained unshaven bandana-ed grumbling legionaries were just lovely http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[MacGregor]

There's a new Thermopylae movie in the works called "Gates of Fire", they haven't even started production yet. Another company is trying to get a remake of "300 Spartans" off the ground too

and if your into Thermopylae check out the comic book "300" by Frank Miller. Even if your not into comics it's just a great book.

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

I would say the BBC documentry of Napoleon,that was hearos and villains

and the films of Genghis Khan

[Veho Nex]

Necromancy.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Necromancy.I didn't see that one, was it any good?

[Karel de Stoute]

i saw 'The eagle' some days ago, story was maybe a rippoff from gladiator, centurion, king arthur and ROME but is still think it was an enjoyable movie,
serie ROME is still the best thing i ever saw on television

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

kageshima

The Last Samurai

[PanzerJaeger]

and if your into Thermopylae check out the comic book "300" by Frank Miller. #Even if your not into comics it's just a great book.

Hehe. This guy called 300 three years before it was made.

[Graphic]

I suggest Alexander but not strongly. The battles are good, but it's an extremly drawn out movie with very uninteresting drama, and frankly a horrible lead in Colin Ferrell. Also there is some gayness in one of the (several) versions, so consider that if you're squeamish about that sort of thing.

[Karel de Stoute]

Bravehaert is an epic movie

[rotorgun]

The 300 Spartans isn't a bad depiction of the battle for Thermopylae, if you don't mind it being an old school type film. Here is the Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_300_Spartans It's a pretty good overall look at the campaign and battle. (It might require a small amount of brandy to get past some of the overacting though.)

[Skullheadhq]

Suddenly, 8 years later....
Also, the BBC had a good movie on Hannibal.

[Catiline]

i saw 'The eagle' some days ago, story was maybe a rippoff from gladiator, centurion, king arthur and ROME but is still think it was an enjoyable movie,
serie ROME is still the best thing i ever saw on television

THe Eagle is based on the book the Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe. If there's ripping off going on, and certainly there is in Centurion, then it's the other way around.

[fomalhaut]

Alexander Revisited is pretty damned good, great imagery, very accurate depictions of warfare and of the ancient world and the drama is pretty interesting, don't listen to naysayers.

If you are a homophobe like me, then it'll be pretty uncomfortable because just about everyone in the movie is, accurately, down with sodomizing boys and having sex with eachother. Also really cool to see people like Ptolemy and Antigonos the One Eyed, ancient Babylon, Phalanx warfare.

If you need further legitimation for it many Europa Barbarorum unit designs and pop up frames are directly taken from this film. Especially the depictions of ancient units of the east

[The Wizard]

Is it? The Kingdom of Heaven director's cut was quite underwhelming, so I'm hesitant as to how good this one is. So was the theatrical release of Alexander (accurate depiction and all, but the plot and pacing were horrible, the acting average). How does the final cut improve on that?

[Samurai Waki]

Not a movie but the recent remake of old CCTV Three Kingdoms Series was released last year- all 95 Episodes (English Subs of course)