Best Historical Movie

[mercian billman]

With all this talk of historical movies lacking historical facts I thought, I think we should share good historical movies. The only movies that come to mind are "Full Metal Jacket" and "Tora Tora Tora."

[Leet Eriksson]

I've seen a really good historical movie about the crusades(Called simply Salah Al Din),of course its about saladin,since its long it shows saladins achievments during his service under Shirkoh until the third crusade,its not one-sided either,becuase it shows that not all crusaders are terrible or any of that sort.It also depicts richard as a noble knight...more on that later.

Whats really cool in the movie is everything is historically accurate,the crusaders had the double chainmail,norman water drop sheilds(in third crusade they come with Kite sheilds)and norman style swords,the heraldics was also accurate,it included the british,french and papal flags.

Units,if you put it in Medieval TW terms where also accurate,there were Order Foot Soldiers(full with kite sheilds in the third crusade),Turkopoles,Templars and Men at Arms.Saladins side had something that resembles ghazis,except they were amphibious,he also had kurds,arabs and turks as Jund(levied foot soldiers),Askar(trained and organised) and also elites like Mamelukes(Bahri armenian slaves,and Burji Turkish),Kinana Faris(Jordanian Arab),and Shayzar Faris(Syrian Arab),also his own Kurdish bodyguard(can't recall the name).

But overall,the movie is pretty well done.

[Cebei]

Waterloo (Rod Steiger as Napoleon) was a very good film and battle depictions are very impressive when you consider the year it was shot.

"Patton" was another very good WW2 film that I can now think of.

[TheSilverKnight]

"Patton", "The Patriot", and "Restoration" are all very good movies depicting the time periods they are in pretty well.

[Axeknight]

Quote[/b] (Cebei @ April 24 2004,19:04)]Waterloo (Rod Steiger as Napoleon) was a very good film and battle depictions are very impressive when you consider the year it was shot.

Love that film. V. historically accurate, but also a great movie. Rod Steiger is fantastic as Napoleon, playing him as a man who had become too old to maintain his stunning energy and decision making skills, which he was by that time. Christopher Plummer plays Wellington well (he calls the Redcoats 'the scum of the earth', yet still expects them to die for him), showing his arrogance as well as his tactical genius. Great movie.

Also love Zulu. The bit near the end where the Zulus are singing their war chants and the Brits start singing 'Men of Harlech' is pure cinematic gold.

Men of Harlech, stop your greiving,
Don't you see their spear-points gleaming?
See the warriors' pennants streaming,
To this battlefield

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Michael collins i love. The scene of the bombardment of the GPO is very accurate but apart from a few mistakes, liam neeson as Collins is an excellent choice

[VikingHorde]

"Enemy at the gates" (good WW2 movie)
"Band of brothers" (series but very good)
Can't remember any more right now..

[Mouzafphaerre]

-
Faisal,

Was that an Arabic production? Do you know the whereabouts, or better have a CD yourself?
_

[Leet Eriksson]

its pretty old,can't remember when its made,no CD yet,i have a VHS tape of it,though i don't think they sell them anywhere here anymore,it was an egyptian proudction,i think by Moustapha al Akkad who made The Message.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Passion of the Christ.
BTW this IS my last post here,
the one before was gonna be it, but I had to post this.
-Capo

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Waterloo is my favorite. I like battle of Britain for an older one. So many real aircraft. And Full Metal Jacket showed boot camp almost as bad as it really was, gave me flashbacks. Erme is great. If you want to see a realistic Nam movie see the Boys in Company C also with Erme. Its great.

[Auxilia]

Waterloo was indeed very good for the time it was made.

I also liked Sam Peckinpah's 'Cross of Iron' - nice to see a war film where the Germans are the principle characters. Aces High (Malcolm McDowell) was on the other day and I'd forgotten how good that was.

[Axeknight]

Quote[/b] (Gawain of Orkeny @ April 25 2004,05:54)]And Full Metal Jacket showed boot camp almost as bad as it really was, gave me flashbacks.

*puts on cowboy hat* WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION PRIVATE GAWAIN?

I liked the first part of Full Metal Jacket (boot camp), but once they got to Vietnam it stopped being so original (just retraced the steps of Platoon and Apocalyse Now).

[Tricky Lady]

I liked "The Madness of King George" a lot, and a French costume drama called "Ridicule" (the movie was set in Louis XIV's Versailles Palace, very nice. The royalty was realistically portraited as people who didn't take a bath but preferred to perfume themselves to cover up their disgusting smell).
Also very nice: "Tous les matins du monde" about a French composer who lived in the 1600's

[The Wizard]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail



~Wiz

[Basileus]

DasBoot i persume, im no u-boat expert though

[Red Peasant]

Lots of good ones mentioned. One of my faves has to be 'Lawrence of Arabia'.

[Pindar]

Waterloo

Das Boot

[Mouzafphaerre]

-
Gallipoli?
Stalingrad?
_

[Leo]

Quote[/b] (VikingHorde @ April 24 2004,21:50)]"Enemy at the gates" (good WW2 movie)

Sorry, but enemy at the gates is crap.
More realistic is "Stalingrad" from Joseph Vilsmaier.

I also throw in Dien Bien Phu by Pierre Schoendoerffer and the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.

P.S.
Thanks for promoting me.

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

Quote[/b] (Leo @ April 25 2004,17:02)]

Quote[/b] (VikingHorde @ April 24 2004,21:50)]"Enemy at the gates" (good WW2 movie)

Sorry, but enemy at the gates is crap.

I agree. Really crappy.

Quote[/b] ]More realistic is "Stalingrad" from Joseph Vilsmaier.

Haven't seen this one.

Quote[/b] ]I also throw in Dien Bien Phu by Pierre Schoendoerffer

Neither this one.

Quote[/b] ] and the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.

True. The opening sequence carries the film. Subjective camera work relays a sense of realism unachieved in any other film I've seen...

[mercian billman]

Just thought I would add Blackhawk Down. Great film, the only thing I have against it is that Mogadishu happened 12 years ago. But still a great film which tells the story of the Rangers and Delta Force.

[meravelha]

I hate to say this but...

The Rohan charge in LOTR-3 was the *only* heavy cavalry charge I have seen performed properly in my life.

@faisal
I sure wish I could get a copy of 'Salah ad-Din'.
I suppose burning a DVD is out of the question...
:)

[Hakonarson]

The Light Horsemen

Patriot was about as historically accurate as Braveheart, The Life of Brian and Mad Max 3 ;)

[Pindar]

Quote[/b] ]The Rohan charge in LOTR-3 was the *only* heavy cavalry charge I have seen performed properly in my life.

The Rohirim were heavy cavalry?

[Hurin_Rules]

Well, chain, lances, shields... yeah, I'd say they were HC.

I thought it was fantastically done... although I'm not usre why you'd have your cavalry 20 deep... four to six ought to do it.

[Lazul]

Hahah, The Rohan? Man i got all weird when that happened, I was jumping up and down cheering my ass of... and then the guy next to me in the chinema looked at me with a funny face

I just love that scene... to bad the Haradrim Cavalry wasnt in the movie... for some stupid reason only the Mumakil was there?...

[Dead Moroz]

Quote[/b] (Aymar de Bois Mauri @ April 26 2004,02:41)]

Quote[/b] (Leo @ April 25 2004,17:02)]

Quote[/b] (VikingHorde @ April 24 2004,21:50)]"Enemy at the gates" (good WW2 movie)

Sorry, but enemy at the gates is crap.

I agree. Really crappy.

Disagreed. It's very funny film.

[Crimson Castle]

Master and Commander - imho the best historical war film. Although the battle didn't take place historically - but Weir did the details of 18th century warship life very accurately...

Another film was The Crossing - about George Washington's victory over the Hessian mercenary forces.

http://www.top-selling-dvds.com/B00007GZYC

I gotta say the first battle scene or the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator was awesome. The rest of the movies were not so good though. But I think they were several mistakes with the Roman vs Goth battle in Gladiator

[The Wizard]

The charge of the boys from Rohan was not realistic at all.

Suddenly it's feasable to charge into a forest of pikes? Sorry, but I must've missed a few things.



~Wiz