What is your fav MEDIEVIAL WAR MOVIE ?

[AndyNgFL]

What is your fav medieval WAR MOVIE ?

From swords, axes, bow to Gunpowder Era

Troy ?
Kingdom of Heaven ?
Joan of Arc ?

Zulu ?

[Devastatin Dave]

The Lion in Winter. Great flick. I didn't have the huge fights or anything, but it showed the infighting of royalty, backstabbing, etc.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063227/
I don't think Troy would be considered medieval and Kingdom of Heaven wasn't very good at all. If you're talking about overloaded CGI with a lot of booms and little character development and zero plot, then Kingdom of Heaven is your movie.

I would strongly suggest The Lion in Winter its a great movie.

[cdeford]

Mine has to be The Vikings, with Kirk Douglas. Everything is great about it, the battle scenes, the score, the scenery. Even Tony Curtis's acting didn't spoil it!

Alfred The Great is also pretty good, though more Dark Ages than medieval.

[matteus the inbred]

Branagh's Henry V is pretty good, lots of mud, blood and backstabbing, and even some culture too!
Olivier's Richard III is a classic too. Larry even managed to get shot in the leg with a crossbow during filming, and walked with a limp for a long while afterwards.

Hard to think of any decent reasonably modern non-Shakespeare 'medieval' movies though. Anything with word 'knight' in the title seems to suck.

Braveheart, inaccurate tosh though it is, is still a fine film with some of the best fight scenes and scenery use I've encountered.

[Myrmidon]

From the more recent films, Kingdom of Heaven was quite good.
BTW, Troy is not a medieval movie.

[Ser Clegane]

I actually liked "El Cid" quite a lot. Definitely one of the better "old-fashioned" medieval movies.

Alexander Nevsky is worthwhile as well

Regarding "Kingdom of Heaven" - I am looking forward to see the Director's cut which will be published later this year and which is supposed to dedicate much more time to character development (the cinematic release seemd indeed quite mutilated)

[ShadesWolf]

Has to be Henry V

But cant make my mind up if I prefer Branagh or Olivier.
I wish more films were based on the period.

[Lord Godfrey]

The War Lord with Charlton Heston as a Norman knight who battles Vikings and locals. Good siege and assault of the castle tower at the end.

[Unforgivable-Fenrir]

I don't really think that this counts as a MediEval movie but i liked the movie "BraveHeart" with Mel Gibson. That movie was great because it showed great fighting scenes.

[Martok]

For me, it's probably a toss-up between Braveheart and Henry V. Braveheart really gets my blood pumping and provides a good feeling of immersion, historically inaccurate though it was. On the other hand, I'm a pretty huge Kenneth Brannaugh fan.

[Napoleon Blownapart]

Erm, Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

Yeah, I haven't seen that many movies. I''ve got to rent Braveheart one of these days...

[sacredband3]

yea, monty python is funny, braveheart is good, and kingdom of heaven was pretty good.

[El Diablo]

Excalibur was pretty good. Not a huge amount of fight scenes but still entertaining.

Braveheart was fantastic. Sure it was grossy historically inaccurate, but if you want to wait for Hollywood to let fact get in the way of a good story you would never end up going to the cinema.

For example: List your least accurate Hollywood war flicks....

1. Braveheart
2. The Patriot
3. U561 (or whatever that U boat movie was)

All entertaining - none historically accurate.

I have not seen Alexander but I would wager that is not the best...

[AwesomeArcher]

Yes, Troy is alright, Braveheart is good, havent seen kindgom of heaven or alexander yet. I may rent Kingdom of Heaven.

P.S. to EL Diablo- The patriot and the u boat movie arent really from the medieval times. Alhougth the patriot is quite good. I like Mel Gibson. He apparently likes to kill the british. Sorry if that was off topic, i think you may have missed the whole medieval war movie that was in all caps for the thread name.

[AwesomeArcher]

JEEZ, i am really sorry el diablo. I didnt read your post all the way through. I just looked at the movies you listed and assumed that is what your fav movies were. sorry for the mix up and sorry if i offended you.

[El Diablo]

Ha ha not offended at all. I was just mentioning the lack of historical accuracy in about 99.9% of Hollywood movies. Especially as many here (in the .org) take historical accuracy very very seriously.

I have this image of some of the more serious players doning chainamail armour and sharpening a battle axe before booting up their computer.

Mind you that would be dangerous for me. If the computer crashed - well having an axe so handy could be the end for the computer...

[Csargo]

I really liked Braveheart and Henry V. Kingdom of Heaven was pretty good and Alexander was ok.

[AwesomeArcher]

Ha ha not offended at all. I was just mentioning the lack of historical accuracy in about 99.9% of Hollywood movies. Especially as many here (in the .org) take historical accuracy very very seriously.

I have this image of some of the more serious players doning chainamail armour and sharpening a battle axe before booting up their computer.

Mind you that would be dangerous for me. If the computer crashed - well having an axe so handy could be the end for the computer...

lol, alright. yes hollywood does butcher most movies up.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

Troy wasnt a medieval movie. But mine had to be monty pythons holy grail, and king arthur

[AndyNgFL]

Troy wasnt a medieval movie. But mine had to be monty pythons holy grail, and king arthur

My mistake

Anyway, looking around for some good war movies which I can watch during the world cup. It will be boring to wait for the next soccer match comin up, especially after the first 2 rounds of the finals.
I've edited the thread sot that we know what good war movies out there.
Hmmm .... can edit the thread title tough.

[AwesomeArcher]

The patriot is a good war movie. If you like World War II then i would recommend Saving Private Ryan or another good one is Windtalkers, although windtalker's combat is pretty unrealistic, it is a great movie about the navajo code that was never broken.

[cdeford]

Being part Scottish, I have to say that nothing is more guaranteed to get the Scots foaming at the mouth as mention of the film Braveheart, possibly the WORST medieval movie ever made

Somehow Gibson managed to offend both the English and Scots at the same time! Being also part English, I was doubly offended.

Take that, Braveheart lovers!

To get a more accurate picture of William Wallace, read Nigel Tranter's novel.

As for war films from other eras, I would put Zulu and Cross Of Iron at the top of my list.

[Peasant Phill]

Involving medieval war movies I can't really chose a favorite. I hate movies with protagonists/heros larger than life and lets face it almost any war movie coming from Hollywood has this 'flaw'. Still I liked the battle scenes in bravehart.

The war movies I like have anti-heros or better still no heros at all. "When trumpets fade" is one of my favorite war movies. It's about a WWII battle with a coward as the main character leading his squad of fresh recruits to their deaths. Of course there are also the classics: Platoon and Apocalypse now.

[cdeford]

Just thought of another one: By Dawn's Early Light, a brilliant anti-war film, excellent acting all round.

[Devastatin Dave]

Man I forgot about Zulu, now that's one of the best!!!

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

I have to say the new edition of Kingdom of Heaven with 45 mins of extra footage is wonderful and some great scenes have been added to make the a good film into an outstanding one imo

[AwesomeArcher]

i just remembered a few more. Band of Brothers is a great series. Also Good Morning Vietnam is a pretty good one too.

[Martok]

I have to say the new edition of Kingdom of Heaven with 45 mins of extra footage is wonderful and some great scenes have been added to make the a good film into an outstanding one imo

You don't say, BKB? Hmm, I may have to go pick it up then. I actually enjoyed Kingdom of Heaven; but I admit it was lacking, most notably in terms of character development. Thanks for the mini-review!

Oh, and if we're expanding to include *all* war movies, then I definitely have to add Troy and Patton to my list. (George C. Scott rules!)

[Banquo's Ghost]

I have to agree with DD and vote for The Lion in Winter as my favourite mediaeval play/movie. It's war by diplomacy and intrigue and the acting is extraordinary - and the script wonderfully clever and well-plotted.

If we're moving beyond the mediaeval period, my favourites are both Napoleonic - Waterloo with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer as Napoleon and Wellington respectively - marvellous dialogue and battle scenes; and The Duellists, little known but very well worth seeing, a personal rivalry set against the Napoleonic campaigns (the retreat from Moscow is fearsomely accurate) and the best fencing scenes I've seen - as a former international fencer, I get pendantic about swordplay!

[matteus the inbred]

If we're moving beyond the mediaeval period, my favourites are both Napoleonic - Waterloo with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer as Napoleon and Wellington respectively - marvellous dialogue and battle scenes

Yes, very much a Waterloo fan as well. Rod Steiger is Napoleon! I like the anecdotes concerning the use of the Russian army for the battle scenes...every time the director got them to form square for the charge of the French cavalry, they got frightened and ran away! You can see a couple of 'impregnable' British squares collapsing and running for it in the panoramic shots...keep meaning to see The Duellists. La Colonel Chabert with Gerard Depardieu is quite good also, not really a war film though.

My favourite overall war films definitely include Platoon and Private Ryan, but I also like Glory, Last of the Mohicans and the big lunky fratboy of a war film that is Starship Troopers...