"Good Medieval Movies ?" Topic

Being a newbie to medieval warfare I'd like to watch afew movies etc. Anyone got some suggestions on good medieval movies or series or documentary ?

Kingdom of Heaven ?
Joan of Arc ?

The messenger was pretty good.

I liked Excalibur, it is about as accurate as most.

Henry V is probably the best though.

Try the warlord with Charleton Heston.

Loved Brannagh's "Henry V"

I personally didn't care for "The Messenger", but that may have been because I had pretty high hopes going into it. Probably worth watching.

I liked "Kingdom of Heaven", but watch the director's cut – it holds together much better in that version.

Documentary wise, Terry Jones did a nice series on the Crusades.

I enjoyed kingdom of heaven, though it is certainly flawed. The director's cut/extended edition is supposed to be the better one, though I have not watched it yet.

The messanger was fun at times, but it is very anti-Joan of Arc, since Luc Besson is not a fan of the woman.

Though many will disagree, Braveheart was fun to watch. Just leave all hope for historical realism behind as you watch it.

There really is a shortage of good medieval films, which is a shame because it is such an awsome period.

Me, I liked "The lion in winter". Didn't like those two, but both have hundreds of armoured guys fighting and an indecent budget so they're worth watching anyway.

I didn't like Lion in Winter. I thought that Katherine Hepburn's performance was damn near unwatchable. She is constantly standing around at the ends of scenes seemingly waiting for the curtain to fall. Her acting reminds me of the really intense girl in a high school musical or play who is determined that the audience is going to know *exactly* what she is supposed to be putting over without any reference to realism. It ends up being exaggerated beyond the point of believability.

Overall she totally put me off the movie and try as I might I couldn't watch more than 40 minutes of it.

Kingdom of Heaven with it's over the top far too large armies, it's intercontinental ballistic missiles for stone throwers and it's blacksmith that suddenly becomes a strategic genius overnight? Err, no, actually it's a terrible medieval film as far as I'm concerened.

Hollywood doesn't do realism, accuracy or even history (although they do insist on continueing to claim that their fantastical nonsenses are history). The exceptions are just that, exceptional.

Go read a book, you'll be much better off.

The best one, IMO, is "Alexander Nevsky". B/W classic, but do not need to be in color. Excellent battle, probably a quater of the film. Excellent score and, though propaganda, the whole film is great. Takes place in 1242, Russians vs. Teutonic knights.

I liked "Braveheart" as a film, battles were fun, not totally historical.

"Warlord" is the best film for Norman or early medieval period. Very accurate armor, very good siege untill the last moment. Excellent representation of every day life during that period.

Stay away from "Excalibur" – totally fantasy film.

"Kingdom of Heaven" was fun, not a bad film. Arms and armor are somewhat accurate.

"Messanger" have really good siege, nothing else.

"Flesh and Blood" takes place in Italy, 1500. Great film, excellent score, great casting.

There's always "El Cid", "Ivanhoe" and "Alexander Nevsky", but as mentioned above there is a scarcity of even decent movies set during this time period.
imdb.com/title/tt0029850

"Hour of the Pig" imdb.com/title/tt0107146
"Name of the Rose" imdb.com/title/tt0091605

BBC did a good series of "Ivanhoe" imdb.com/title/tt0118354
and then there is always the old ITV "Robin of Sherwood" imdb.com/title/tt0086791
not to mention "Cadfael", set during the Civil War between Maud & Stephen.
imdb.com/title/tt0108717

I'll throw in a second or third for Warlord. Most of the seige stuff was pretty good. For skirmish action of a later period, I remember Flesh and Blood with Rutger Hauer as being fairly decent.

I like the old Hollywood Ivanhoe and Robin Hood movies and ones from that era--nothing later than the mid 50's. Yes, the history was bad, but I found the movies enjoyable.

Rob

Another silly film not on the list "Timeline"?

Her acting reminds me of the really intense girl in a high school musical or play

LOL! She was exaggerating, true, but old, well known actors and actresses exaggerating when playing that kind of roles are an accepted cliché, huh? :)

Now I'll have to find out how they call Warlord here.

Stay away from "Excalibur" – totally fantasy film.

But that's not a reason to stay away from it!

"The Lion in Winter" is great! Where else can you get great lines like Henry likening his wife to a "democratic drawbridge, going down for everyone." Truly is one of my all time favorites, and I found Hepburn's portrayal of Eleanor complicated and interesting, not so much over the top.

David

If Hepburn doesn't do for you, you could always check out the version of The Lion in Winter with Patrick Stewart and Glen Close:

imdb.com/title/tt0319754

David S.

I agree, "Lion in Winter" is a fantastic movie, though not a very accurate one. IIRC its based off a play, but a very clever one. Lots of gags and in-jokes in the movie.

I also think Hepburn's performace was fantastic, just like O'toole's Really, most of the cast did very well…

Damon.

The Vikings; Alfred the Great; El Cid; Robin and Marian; Joan of Arc (Ingrid Bergman's, the restored DVD version)-- these will all give you scenario ideas and get you motivated. And all are entertaining movies with spectacle and honesty, if not accuracy in all cases.

I am stunned that no one has mentione "Joan of Arc" with Ingrid Bergman, made by Victor Fleming in 1948. To-date it is still the best and most accurate medieval movie. It has a medieval battle scene (the attack on the Tourelles), which blows out of the water everything that came after it, including CGI-laden Kingdom of Heaven.

Everyting is very accurate in this movie – the costumes, the armour, the artillery (great bombards), the heraldry – everything. It is available on DVD, fully restored and in beautiful color. CHeck it out here:

link

Oh, if we talk vikings what about "The Longships"?

I actually did a skirmish game based on that movie.

Howdy,
There a couple I have always liked, which haven't been mentioned. They are by no means "historically correct" by any stretch of the imagination. Fun though.

The Black Shield of Falworth (1954)
The Warriors w/Errol Flynn
Knights of the Round Table w/Robert Taylor (1954)
King Richard and the Crusaders (1954)

Jon

I'll third "The Vikings". Great castle attack scene, no CGI here as they shoot arrows at each other. The middle part is slow, but I also liked the homecoming scene where they "walk" the oars (yep, thats Kirk Douglas doing it too).
There was also a BBC Mystery series called "Cadfiel(sp?) about a monk that does some sleuthing to assist the sheriff, some times to the dislike of his fellow monks. Derek Jacoby played the lead role.

I've only seen it once many years ago but the Battle of Shrewsbury portrayed in the film "Chimes of Midnight" is bloody excellent, sadly I can't remember much more of the film.
imdb.com/title/tt0059012

The Advocate – not alot of armor or swords but one of the best films about the period.

The Lion In Winter (O'Toole and Hepburn) is a very good story, and by far the best of the two (Stewart and Close pale in comparison). I have also seen this on stage, and the movie is direclty, line for line, the same stage play.

Alexander Nevsky remains my favorite medieval "battle" film. I listen to the redone film score often. Make sure you get either Criterion's remastered version or the RCA VHS version; the sound is excellent on the RCA, but only enhanced and restored on the Criterion: and it is feeble sound, to say the least! But the visuals on both are first rate, because they derive from a remastering from the original print in Moscow, which was saved by copying before it went into nitrate dissolution (::whew::). The public domain Nevsky is simply awful watching, do avoid that if you can.

The Longships is a hoot, always fun.

The Warlord is excellent (alas, rare and expensive right now).

Cadfael is also very good.

Nobody has mentioned Lawrence Olivier's Richard III and Henry V, both done on a mega scale and good watching (and faithful Shakespeare).

The Kingdom of Heaven (director's cut only) is worth watching, and gets the general historical tale right enough (the dramatic details of course are a mix of historical and fiction).

The Seventh Seal is a medieval setting for a metaphysical contest with Death. Entertaining and weird.

Lady Hawke is a medieval fantasy that is fun (the ending is schlocky though, fast forward or skip the last couple of minutes, bleh, it's just a good ending badly carried off).

Robin of Sherwood is enjoyable if you like a mixture of fantasy, legend and historical setting.

The Black Rose was entertaining.

Any version of Ivanhoe is fun, because the story is almost perfect romantic stuff. My favorite, though, is the "original" Taylor and Taylor.

And we have another vote for El Cid.

When you are feeling perverse, watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail >=D

Oh, and I second Ingrid Bergman's Joan of Arc. Superb attack on the castle. If you are wanting more Joan of Arc, then "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (Criterion) is excellent; a silent film that has a dynamite musical score by Richard Einhorn added to it.

Army of Darkness is great but i doubt its accuracy
'you considered me beautiful once' 'yeah, but you got real ugly'

:)

Flesh and Blood

Yes, I'll add a 3rd vote for Flesh and Blood, too; although that is more renaissance than medieval.

And how could I have forgotten Robin and Marian? I always enjoy rewatching that one (I need the DVD).

One day, I am going to sit down and watch the entire "trilogy" of Evil Dead (2) and Army of Darkness. I love zombie flicks anyway, and haven't indulged in one for ages. One set in the middle ages too!

What about Knights of the Teutonic Order by Alexandr Ford? It is a bit long-winded in its leadup to the Battle of Grunwald/Tannenburg but the battle scenes are spectacular with the usual E European cast of many thousands. They make films with battles that look like battles.

Cadfael

Flesh and Blood

Kingdom of Heaven

and although not the middle ages, the open scene of "The Agony and Ecstasy" is nifty!

Holy Grail? ;)

Two different takes on Agincourt between the Olivier and Branahgh Henry V. A good Bosworth in the Olivier Dicky 3.

The seige in Ivanhoe.

One to one skirmish – the tournament in El Cid, Flynn v Rathbone in Robin Hood.

Stinulation to paint lots of figures kingdom of Heaven

I was taken by the Olivier Henry V and Richard III

El Cid great, Warlord great, Robin Hood (Flynn), Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor),

For a super-realistic siege scene, I mean so realistic that you almost feel you are there, there's always Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

I presume 'The Messenger' is the US title for the recent-ish 'Joan of Arc' with John Malkovich and Milla Jovovich? I actually rather liked that, and didn't think it was anti-Joan. Dustin Hoffman as the Conscience of Joan was a really interesting way of addressing her visions etc. Mainly I guess I like it because of Milla riding, in chainmail, with a long plait (does it for me!) and because her bunch of knights are scarily like my reenactment buddies.

And Monty Python ("Go ewhey or I shall taunt yu a zecond time") is pure class.

Oops 'mail', not 'chainmail' – I'm trying so hard to train myself out of that Victorianism!

'Becket'. O'Toole and Burton, what a combination, a close second to 'Lion in Winter'.

A lot of wonderful films have already been listed.
The Patrick Bergen version of Robin Hood, beautifully filmed in Wales, is quite good. It was filmed at the same time as the Costner version, but was not released theatrically because the studio felt that they would not be able to compete with Costner's star status at that time.
Noticing that others here have posted some medieval fantasy titles, some of my own guilty pleasures could be added . . .
Dragon Slayer has a well-imagined and consistent Dark Age setting.
Dragonheart is a lot fun, and the knights are all of the Anglo-Norman variety.
Tristan and Iseult, though not completely true to the original story, is also very nice.
Beowulf and Grendel, with Gerard Butler, was shot in Icleland. Its a very intelligent and well acted film shot on a miniscule budget under horrific conditions. Still, its really excellent.
A Knight's Tale is hardly historical, yet its the only film I know of that focuses on tournaments . . .well, other than the Robert Taylor version of Ivanhoe. Despite its anachronistic eccentricities, however, its great fun to watch.
Best wishes,
Tony

What about Pasolini's "The Boccachio" (spelling?). I saw it a long time ago and I don't think it has battle scenes, but it seemed weird, interesting, somewhat accurate, and shot in medieval-looking Italy ( a plus in my book).