Best Movie

[Caeser The III]

alexander was the worst movies ever man

i like 300, and gladiator.

[The Wandering Scholar]

alexander was the worst movies ever man

i like 300, and gladiator.

I agree with you although Good Luck Chuck could be THE worst movie of all time.

A list of good topical films:

300
Gladiator
King Arthur
Braveheart
Kingdom of Heaven


I also like the American war films like We were soldiers/ Letters fro IWO Jima. Albeit they are a little out of the date restrictions.

[puklo]

@cuthach: "The Princess Bride"...sounds romantic, dear...I think I'll look it up with your & Martok's recommendations. I'm sure I'll like it.
@TruePraetorian: Thanks for your recommendation--I've seen snippets of Rome the series, and I like the costumes (theylook authentic enough, and that's what would throw my favor towards). Have seen a DVD package of it downtown (maybe of 3 disks, and that would pose to be expensive), but I'll buy it (them) because you make it sound so nice.
Bye-bye for now.

[Hound of Ulster]

My name is Inigo Montoya...you killed my father...prepare to die!

300 (I root for the Persians) (Immortals rock!)
Kingdom of Heaven (Saladin!!!!!!!!!!!)
HBO Rome (Sons of Dis!)
Spartacus (the Tony Curtis flirting with Laurence Olivier scene is classic )
Lawrence of Arabia
Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day Lewis ftw!)
Thin Red Line
Charge of the Light Brigade (an animated sequence...wtf?!)
Braveheart (the Irish dude)
Emperor and the Assassin
Gallipolli (if you don't want to hit somebody after watching this...)
Henry V (Branagh)
Seven Samurai
Das Boot
Sink the Bismarck!
All Quiet on the Western Front ('30s version)
Zulu (Michael Caine young and spunky)

[Gaivs]

I dunno if this can be included as such, but Dances With Wolves, with Kevin Costner in it. Easily the single best film ever made imo, and i say it can be a historical movie in that it deals with the Native American Sioux tribe and how White man is coming. I know the events may not have taken place, but the feel of the movie and the themes it portrays are very much akin to the real thing. The loss of the habitat, and the eroding of their culture and whatnot, it is a very powerful film, and i recommend it to anyone whole heartedly.

[cegorach]

Anybody saw "Knights of the Black Cross"? I don't think many did; after all, it wasn't a Hollywood movie. European-made movie about Teutonic Knights vs. King of Poland. Story line is...well, nice enough within the confines of the historical events. But the battle scenes, baby, were really a sight to see. Battalions of peasants marching to the beat of kettle drums...a knight handling his halberd skillfully...massed knights pacing their horses, then trotting and canter, finally the charge!! The very one thing that amused me (but it was historically true) was one side shouting "God is on our side!" while the other side also screamed "God is on our side!" The scenes really stirred my heart, like it was one major influence why I bought MTW.

It is known as "Krzyzacy" - the first Polish epic movie.

Of course it is from the late 1950s so the communist censorship made some cuts here and there. There is obviously too much pan-slavic stuff about friendship between Slavs as the Party ordered + anti-German notions were enhanced a bit compared to late XIXth century novel of Henryk Sienkiewicz (written at the time of brutal Germanisation policy imposed in so called 'Prussian Poland' ).

Still it is a nice movie

for example the battle here

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSZu81xVxfE

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=M-AbBT...eature=related

and actually this week it has been released on DVD - obviously upgraded to up to date standards.


It shouldn't be too expensive if you are interested Madam.



Still to me NOTHING beats "Potop" (the Deluge) - even if those remarks to the Polish-Russian war fought at that time were removed by the censorship it has ALL THE FEATURES of a great historical movie.

a duel between two strong characters with quotes which became famous

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=_tFXZn9qNhg

in this case 'End this, spare me more shame' (Koncz Wasc, wstydu oszczedz)

a siege

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=faU2CRHMX2w

and other remarkable features

this VIDEO shows many of those in one, decent clip

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=7GihwyldGGM


with the excellent battlescenes, just like this Husaria charge (should be in dense formation, but you can't have everything...).

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=t1dD53...eature=related


And all that in a 3+ HOUR LONG movie.


I love the XVIIth cnetury - the mixture of technology and tradition, science and magic, knowledge and superstition.

[Galapagos]

Well gladiator for me and Der Untergang-Downfall (it's about WW2)

[pevergreen]

Your X-Box Live Account has been banned Hitler...

WHAT IS THIS? MY XBOX NOW HAS NO ONLINE CAPABILITIES WHATSOEVER?



His Ultimate Downfall. Youtube it

[Ayce]

Well gladiator for me and Der Untergang-Downfall (it's about WW2)

Oh, yeah, I loved Der Untergang... but sticking to the classic -> medieval time period let me present you the first 2 movies directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu:

- Dacii (1966) - dealing with the first Dacian War

- Mihai Viteazu (1970) - 2 part epic dealing with Mihai Patraşcu's reign (later known as Mihai Viteazu - the Brave) - 1. „the Last Crusade” 2. „the Union”

The really cool part is that they used tens of thousands of soldiers as extras. Some „rich fat-assed capitalist westerners trying to oppress us” in them, but little, Romania had good relations with the West in that period of detachment from Soviet influence.

[puklo]

[QUOTE=cegorach]It is known as "Krzyzacy" - the first Polish epic movie.

Thank you so much for telling me, noble cegorach. Of COURSE, I'll definitely buy the DVD--if and when it comes within my reach. Problem is, we're in the hinterlands here, and I don't know when, or even IF it comes around at all. eBay or something of the sort is out of the question, unfortunately. The disks have to be physically there in the store for me to buy it.
And, oh, hey, Guilderstern--take heed. You liked "Quo Vadis". I've seen the movie--twice--and have the book, somewhere in my dusty bins. Henryk Sienkiewicz is the author of this book, same as the author of what the "Black Cross" was based on. I'm also surprised to learn this. Thanks again, cegorach. I liked "Quo Vadis" too (both movie and bood), but in the movie that fight between the (red-garbed) legionaries and what seemed to be (black-garbed) praetorians would be, IMO, quite unlikely--not the combat itself, but the thought that Nero (or Neron?) was deposed as the consequence of the fight, and replaced by Galba, is unlikely.
Well, bye-bye folks--hasta la vista.

[puklo]

[QUOTE=cegorach]It is known as "Krzyzacy" - the first Polish epic movie.

Thank you so much for telling me, noble cegorach. Of COURSE, I'll definitely buy the DVD--if and when it comes within my reach. Problem is, we're in the hinterlands here, and I don't know when, or even IF it comes around at all. eBay or something of the sort is out of the question, unfortunately. The disks have to be physically there in the store for me to buy it.
And, oh, hey, Guilderstern--take heed. You liked "Quo Vadis". I've seen the movie--twice--and have the book, somewhere in my dusty bins. Henryk Sienkiewicz is the author of this book, same as the author of what the "Black Cross" was based on. I'm also surprised to learn this. Thanks again, cegorach. I liked "Quo Vadis" too (both movie and book), but in the movie that fight between the (red-garbed) legionaries and what seemed to be (black-garbed) praetorians would be, IMO, quite unlikely--not the combat itself, but the thought that Nero (or Neron?) was deposed as the consequence of the fight, and replaced by Galba, is unlikely.
Well, bye-bye folks--hasta la vista.

[King Jan III Sobieski]

Anybody saw "Knights of the Black Cross"? I don't think many did; after all, it wasn't a Hollywood movie. European-made movie about Teutonic Knights vs. King of Poland. Story line is...well, nice enough within the confines of the historical events. But the battle scenes, baby, were really a sight to see. Battalions of peasants marching to the beat of kettle drums...a knight handling his halberd skillfully...massed knights pacing their horses, then trotting and canter, finally the charge!! The very one thing that amused me (but it was historically true) was one side shouting "God is on our side!" while the other side also screamed "God is on our side!" The scenes really stirred my heart, like it was one major influence why I bought MTW.
"Alexander" was not good at all; I mean, would you believe it? The only redeeming factor was the main actor: I kinda have a crush on him, usually plays the bad-guy role. But there was one scene I liked in the movie: Alexander's Companion cavalry making a wide left sweep to outflank the enemy and the right wing of his infantry (they looked like armored peltasts or Hypaspists to me) running to keep apace with the horses. Made me think, "Girl, this kind of running during combat is what the skills used in the ancient Olympics was all about."
"300" was a complete distortion of history. Well, what do you expect from a movie based on a popular book of paintings? It evoked a lot of admiration of Spartan courage and militaristicism (?) from people who didn't know the difference anyway, but most parts were totally wrong! The ephors were represented as a sinister syndicate of political manipulators only out for sex and gold, the Boeotians readily proposing to run back home at the slightest odor of Persians outflanking them (truth was, the Thespians stuck it out beside the Spartans and died beside them at Thermopylae), etc. (The Spartans in truth were a little politically naive, but were an OK people, really.) Only 2 things I liked in "300": the warriors authentically had long hair (but hey, why were there some baldies there?) and Leonidas's beard looked authentically ancient Greek.
Nuff for now, people. Bye.

"Knights of the Black Cross" Hmm...I'll have to look that up!

[cegorach]

[QUOTE=puklo]

It is known as "Krzyzacy" - the first Polish epic movie.

Thank you so much for telling me, noble cegorach. Of COURSE, I'll definitely buy the DVD--if and when it comes within my reach. Problem is, we're in the hinterlands here, and I don't know when, or even IF it comes around at all. eBay or something of the sort is out of the question, unfortunately. The disks have to be physically there in the store for me to buy it.

No problem. In fact your post made me see the battle clip on youtube... I must admitt it was a while before I even started playing Shogun TW that I have watched "Krzyzacy".

It is almost a new experience now when you realise - 'hey those knights are charging in a WEDGE formation !'.

Good luck with finding the movie - it might appear out there in several months, as it was just released on DVD in Poland.

[Puzz3D]

It is known as "Krzyzacy" - the first Polish epic movie. Thank you so much for telling me, noble cegorach. Of COURSE, I'll definitely buy the DVD--if and when it comes within my reach.

An NTSC DVD of Krzyzacy (1960) was released in Oct 23, 2007 in the USA, and I viewed that by renting it through netflix. I would not recommend buying that DVD because the film is not framed properly. That disk is framed at 1.66:1 which cuts off the left and ride sides of the picture. The subtitles are also partially off the bottom of the screen, and the print itself is not restored.

The narrative is a bit confusing, but by the halfway mark of this 2 hr and 45 min movie I was able to figure out the political allegiances. The theatrical style of the acting is fine, and it's interesting to see that in a film that is apparently shot entirely on location. The on location settings are impressive and lend realism to the film. The final Battle of Grunwald (or 1st Battle of Tannenberg) that took place on July 15, 1410 is apparently shot on the actual site of the battle. This battle is well done, but I was struck by its similarity in cinematic style to Sergei Eisenstein's Battle on Lake Chudskoe on April 5, 1242 in his film Alexander Nevsky (1938). Eisenstein's battle is better paced and benefits from a famous music score by Sergei Prokofiev which unfortunately suffers from considerable audio distortion. There is also some humor and a bit of speeded up action in this 30 minute battle which detracts from the impact of the sequence in my opinion.

Both of these films were created for anti-German propaganda purposes, but they are still very worthwhile to watch. I've watched Alexander Nevsky many times, and the dramatic effect of the Teutonic Knights coming across the ice and forming into their wedge for the final charge hasn't been equaled in any film I've seen. The aftermath of the battle is also very poignant. The best DVD of Alexander Nevsky is the one released by Criterion which I own, but it's expensive to buy because it comes as a set with Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 & 2 (1944 and 1958).

[cegorach]

An NTSC DVD of Krzyzacy (1960) was released in Oct 23, 2007 in the USA, and I viewed that by renting it through netflix. I would not recommend buying that DVD because the film is not framed properly. That disk is framed at 1.66:1 which cuts off the left and ride sides of the picture. The subtitles are also partially off the bottom of the screen, and the print itself is not restored..

THat is the old release on DVD - something rather por, I believe.

THe new one is supposed to eliminate all those problems

The most recent release (not sure if restored - rather not, at least not the sound - still mono) has the following cover



It costs around 10 $ (with delivery) here.

[Puzz3D]

There is a region 0 (all regions) PAL format DVD of Krzyzacy available through HKflix (USA import distributor) for $23.95, but it doesn't have that cover. It has the three vertical swords on a white cover with these features listed:

# Anamorphic Widescreen 1.77:1
# Mono
# Collectible Booklet
# Restored & Remastered
# New & Improved English Subtitle Translation
# DVD-9

Some standalone DVD players sold in the USA do automatically decode PAL to NTSC such as the Philips DVP5982 which I have, and has worked very well for me for about 6 months. DVD players in computers should handle PAL format with no problem. The anamorphic widescreen may not be the original aspect ratio either. This 1.77:1 aspect ratio is simply what exactly fits a 16:9 TV, but it appears to me, after viewing the 1.66:1 version, that this film is wider than 1.77:1.

[Hound of Ulster]

If you have a computer with a more recent DVD drive, it will play PAL format with no problem.

I think I'm going to look for that one Ceg.

[Hannibalbarc]

Heres my list of my favorites.
Gladiator
Braveheart
300(although not that historically accurate)
Kingdom of Heaven

[puklo]

Yes, Kingdom of Heaven was a nice film too; but seeing it reminded me once more: "Why were the King of Jerusalem, the Grand Marshall of the Templars, and the Grand Marshall of the Hospitallers so silly (stupid is the better word) as to ignore or neglect that watering place on their way to the Horns of Hattin?" Ba-bye to you, all good people.

[Spartan198]

Don't have a specific favorite, but instead I rank them into the following groups (the contents and their specific rankings within will doubtless spark criticism, so if you're one of those types, keep your nose out of the spoilers!):

First Tier (Favorites):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. 300
2. Troy (both versions, but I prefer the Director's Cut)
3. Alexander Revisited
4. King Arthur (Director's Cut, of course)
5. The Last Legion
6. Gladiator (all versions, but I have the extended cut in my DVD collection)
7. Attila

Second Tier:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Rome
2. The 300 Spartans
3. Clash of the Titans
4. The Scorpion King
5. Helen of Troy
6. The Arena
7. Braveheart (no, not a mistake -- I really rank it dead last)

[macsen rufus]

One of my favourite films of all time has to be "Excalibur" by John Borman - anything Arthurian has to be dubious, historically speaking, but I like his take on the mythology, and also the humour (especially where it comes to Merlin). The arms and armour seemed more mediaeval than dark age, though. Some very stirring scenes, I loved the band of knights in gleaming armour cantering through huge orchards full of apple blossom to a rousing Carl Orff soundtrack.

I haven't seen any of the more recent ones like 300, Troy or Alexander though.... maybe I should

what really is the style of combat during the Trojan War?

Not easily answered, and the archaeology is still a little confused. There's a good case to be made that most Bronze Age palace/city powers relied primarily upon archer chariotry, with infantry being very uncommon or providing nothing more than a spear wall + foot-archer "refuge" for the chariotry. What we do know with say Kadesh, that though infantry was present, the action was entirely chariots (at least on the Hittite side). Troy was likely a satellite or vassal state to the Hittite empire and the general military approach would have been similar (debate still rages over whether the Hittite references to 'Taruwa' or similar were the same as Troy...)

As for the Achaeans, the orthodox view is that their chariots were basically "battle taxis" for foot soldiers, yet the Dendra panoply would be unusable for anyone fighting on foot, and really only a largely immobile archer would be able to use it. Though Homer admits that his generation did not know how the "ancients" used chariots, and that little evidence of Helladic archery exists, there are many references to Achilles as a bowman for instance. SO IMHO, the Trojan wars would have been fought pretty much along those lines -- archer chariots in the field, possibly with the Achaeans fielding more heavy infantry, using swords influenced by the Haltstatt sword from north of the Balkans. This period is notable for marking the end of widespread chariot use and the rise of mass infantry formations, mostly due to new technology and tactics (cut & thrust swords, iron, light skirmishers/chariot runners) and contributed to by economic collapse across the region.

Ooops sorry - a quick comment turned into full scale derailment

[cmacq]

best period
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Peal-------------------Empire
A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum----------Europa Barbarorum
Amadeus--------------------------------------------------European Wars
The Black Robe--------------------------------------------The New World-1550 to 1800
The Searchers---------------------------------------------TBA
The War Lord----------------------------------------------Medieval Total Realism


best all round ever
The Hot Chick
The New Guy
Old School
A Guy Thing
Joe Dirt
Fight Club

[Quintus.JC]

Sword and Sandal/Historical/War

1. Gladiator
2. Untergang, Der
3. Schindler's List
4. Saving Private Ryan
5. Troy


Everything else

1. Godfather
2. Raging Bull
3. Goodfellas
4. Fight Club
5. Indian Jones and the Last Crusade.

[WarMachine187]

Braveheart was deep.tho theyr were a few inaccuracies,mel gibson potrayal of william wallace was great.Second id have to say alexander.

[grwn]

It'd be a tie between Gladiator and Braveheart... both are absolutely great, although historically inaccurate.