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

Quote Originally Posted by puklo
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