Historical movies

[Ar7]

I really enjoy a good historical movie so I decided to start a DVD collection, getting only the best. Since it is hard to find good ones and since I am usually not into movies much, I hope for your advice.

I have found that Gérard Depardieu has starred in truly awesome movies, so that's the ideal that I am looking for

So please, if you ever enjoyed a good historical movie, write it here!

[Warluster]

Saving private Ryan it may not be really historical but it gives you an basic view of D-Day, plus a good story on the way.

Band of Brothers, an emotional story which is historical, and very good

[Innocentius]

Tuntematon Sotilas - About the Finnish continuation war. There are two versions though, I'm refering to the one by Rauni Mollberg from 1985. Might be hard to get hold of if you don't live in Scandinavia or Finland though. Speilberg took a lot of inspiration for Savin Private Ryan from this movie.

Dangerous Liasons - A fair while since I saw this movie, but from what I remember I could tell it's a good movie, although Keanu Reeves isn't exactly great.

Barry Lyndon - A must. Final.

Edit: Oh, and stay away from Ridley Scott's movies. Although they're good, they ain't very historical. Same goes for Troy and Alexander, except they are neiter good movies nor historical.

[Geoffrey S]

You know, I rather enjoyed The Alamo, though I don't know how historical it is. Rather clichéd, but extremely well-produced and with a good cast.

[Geezer57]

Battleground (1950), about troopers from the 101st Airborne at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. A Walk in Sun (1945), about an American platoon making its way inland after the 1943 invasion of Italy.
Both classics that should be in any library.

[Marshal Murat]

Talvisota is one I really enjoyed.
The Longest Day.
Kelly's Heros is comedic, but not so historical.
If your into Polish history 'With Fire and Sword' is pretty awesome.

[Cataphract_Of_The_City]

Gladiator? :P

[Brenus]

If you want tp compare 2 different wars in the same country:
La 317 section (the French in Vietnam). I don't know if it exists in English
Platoon (The USA in Vietnam)
1 platoon in each movie...

[Innocentius]

Gladiator? :P

Like I said: Ridley Scott = Good movies, terrible historical accuracy

[Marshal Murat]

The Battle Scenes are accurate. However, that lasts for 5 or 6 minutes.

[Innocentius]

The Battle Scenes are accurate. However, that lasts for 5 or 6 minutes.

Are you talking about Gladiator now? The scene in the beginning with burning swords, gallons and gallons of greek fire, goths/germanic tribespeople in 100% fur-clothes and otherwise very Hollywoodish fighting with armour that offers as much protection as cardboard boxes would?
And the actual gladiator fights are a lot worse, with dual-wielding swords, completely inaccurate types of gladiators, silly-looking armour and some guy with hair like if he lived in London in 1977.

Nah, stay away from Hollywood.

[MilesGregarius]

Like I said: Ridley Scott = Good movies, terrible historical accuracy

I'd still recommend The Duellists. It's small enough in scale that the inaccuracies are irrelevant, but is visually gorgeous and atmospheric, has some great performances and the best fencing scenes ever shot.

"Keep away from him; keep ahead of him; put your trust in Bonaparte".

[Marshal Murat]

Burning swords?
Don't remember that.

Greek Fire wouldn't be that outlandish considering it is ancient, but I thought it was lime or combustable material that was lit on fire and then tossed.

Are you saying that the director have an actual fight scene so that armor would be a benefit? Movies intent to portray reality, not BE reality.

[Geoffrey S]

I'd still recommend The Duellists. It's small enough in scale that the inaccuracies are irrelevant, but is visually gorgeous and atmospheric, has some great performances and the best fencing scenes ever shot.

Hmm, nice one. Loved the movie, a curious example of style over substance.

[MilesGregarius]

...a curious example of style over substance.

Doesn't hurt to start with Joseph Conrad. Then add a largely Shakespearean-trained trained supporting cast, and put them all in hussar uniforms.

[MilesGregarius]

The Battle Scenes are accurate. However, that lasts for 5 or 6 minutes.

The lorica segmentata and tight Roman formations looked good, but the Romans never loosed a volley of pila (javelins) to initiate their attack which was one of their most effective tactics. Kinda killed it for me right there.

[Innocentius]

Burning swords?
Don't remember that.

Greek Fire wouldn't be that outlandish considering it is ancient, but I thought it was lime or combustable material that was lit on fire and then tossed.

Are you saying that the director have an actual fight scene so that armor would be a benefit? Movies intent to portray reality, not BE reality.

There's a burning sword stuck in a tree at the end of the fight.

There's a common misconception that greek fire was frequently used in ancient and medieval warfare, much thanks to Ridley Scott. I think he actually says it himself in some documentary about KoH, that he chose it because it looked cool, not because it was realistic.
Anyway, greek fire was far from frequently used, and very much restricted to naval battles.

I don't understand that last part, are you saying that in reality armour doesn't have any effect? Then just why would all armies in history bother to equip themselves as well as possible?

[KrooK]

Here you have some polish war movies


Mr Wolodyjowski - polish-turkish war on Ukraine 1672
Flooding - polish-swedish war 1655-1660 (one of the greatest cav charges into movies ever)
Fire and Sword - polish-cossacks war on Ukraine 1648-1652


Teutonic Knights - magnificient battle of Tannenberg

Hubal - ww2, quite cruel.
Chanel - ww2, warsav rising 1944

[Geoffrey S]

Oh, and Der Untergang of course.

[Marshal Murat]

Deluge (Potop in Polish) is a very good book, movie just as good
With Fire and Sword(Ogniem e Mieczem is I try hard enough), 1990's very awesome video.

In reference to posts concerning Gladiator: I misread the post on armor.
Again, I thought that the pots were filled with lime or something, not greek fire.

[King Kurt]

A few at random:
Alexander Nevsky - gallant russki stuffs the evil teutonic knights
Midway and Tora,Tora, Tora - 2 good films about the Pacific in WW2
Sparticus - Kurt with his dimple leads the Romans a merry dance
Henry the fifth - the larry oliver one or the ken branagh one
Das Boat - the U boat film of all time - for maximum effect, watch while in the cupboard under the stairs wearing a thick sweater soaked in sea water

I could go on and on.... so I won't

[Innocentius]

Alexander Nevsky - gallant russki stuffs the evil teutonic knights

You've gotta love all those national romanticised movies from the earlier half of the 20th century. Not accurate, but very entertaining

[The Foolish Horseman]

they are not really movies but the Sharpe Collection are very good feature length shows.....the latest one Sharpe's Challenge is very good as well.

based on the Bernard Cornwell's great series, it tells about the seringipatam war and the napoleonic wars

Very good books and feature length shows, try em out!

[KrooK]

And of course Braveheart

[Innocentius]

And of course Braveheart

Oh, gosh no!

[Beirut]

Lawrence of Arabia

Some factual errors, but enough truth in the main character to carry the movie. And what a movie it is!

[DukeofSerbia]

Napoleon

Made in France/Austria/Germany/Italy from their state televisions - France, ORF, RAI and ZDF

The best I ever saw. It has 4 parts x 90 minutes (or 120 not sure). I watched 3 times already in Croatian television, once in Slovenian, once in German ZDF and now in one Serbian private television (tomorrow is the third part, today was second).

Gerard Depardieu, Christian Clavier and John Malkovich as leading actors.

[PanzerJaeger]

Some recent ones Ive enjoyed:

Der Untergang (Downfall) - an excellent Last Days in the Bunker movie about Hitler and co.

Letters from Iwo Jima - Eastwood's surprisingly awesome sequel to Flags of Our Fathers, which was good in its own right. This is possibly the first mainstream movie besides Tora Tora Tora to attempt to portray the Japanese as deeper than just banzai crazed automatons. Great picture.

Im liking the trend towards more axis oriented movies - as the motivations behind those soldiers are far more interesting to me than those of the allies which are so squeaky clean theyre almost cliche. Just my opinion of course.

[ajaxfetish]

The Lion in Winter--High Medieval Drama
The Thin Red Line--WW2 in the Pacific, feels like you're crawling through the grass with them
Black Hawk Down--modern asymmetrical urban combat

Ajax

[Marquis of Roland]

Just bought a German war movie "Stalingrad" (1993) about a week ago. While not on the level of a "Saving Private Ryan", it was still pretty good and showed the perspective of average German soldiers, something alot of other WWII movies don't do. This movie can be likened to a German version of "Platoon", with a sadder ending