What are some good films which feature battles between European armies during the Middle Ages? The only ones I've been able to think of right now are "Henry V" starring Kenneth Branagh and Braveheart.

Does "Excalibur" count?

Eh...not really. I was thinking more along "historical" lines but then again, Braveheart had a lot of inaccuracies in it.

Seems that's a good question.

I can't think of any off the bat that deal purely with warfare during that time frame. Have you tried a Google search?

I'm sure there are plenty of documentaries though.

Stay away from Redsword or whatever the name of that Tristan and Iseult flick was. Suffice it to say James Franco had a lead role in that one...

Cheers

Nico

I just racked my brain and came up with nothing. That said it reminded me I wanted to watch Ran again.

there's a great but very short battle scene at the beginning of Nightwatch. I wish it had lasted longer. You could also try the early scenes of Highlander

Braveheart is probably the best after Henry V.

To decry them for inaccuracy is a bit silly when we know little about the reality of medieval warfare, except that it was bloody and uncompromising.

Well there have been a couple of "knights movies" in the 50's (like Ivanhoe and The Dark Avenger ), but those were hardly realistic.

Otherwise, I don't seem to recall any. El Cid, but that is not European knights vs. European knights.

Which reminds me, there would be a couple of great historic medieval battles that could be made into movies: Hastings, Stirling, Falkirk, Bannockburn, Crécy, to name just a few.

Are you reading this, Sir Ridley?

"Ran" is an outstanding film. It's one of my prized Criterion Collection dvd sets.

Ran, Shichinin no Samurai, Shinobi no Mono, Yojimbo, Braveheart.. Really Braveheart has been the best to depict middle ages warfare from Europe as far as I can remember.

Good movie ("my" Sensei was technical advisor on this one), but after the first one it get's murky. Zoku Shinobi no Mono was okay as well, but other parts of the franchise, hmmmmm....

Unforutately I only have a very badly translated version of the movie: the sublitles were seemingly translated from Japanese into Chinese, and then from Chinese into very bad English; all the names of places and persons are given in Chinese, so Oda Nobunaga is called Wang Chi or something similar . I heard there's a decent version (good translation straight from Japanese into English) around, but I haven't found it yet.

What about that Joan of Arc flick with Milla Jovovich?

Yep, now that you mention it. Weird movie, but some good battle scenes IMO.

MMMMM Milla Jovovich, now I need a cold

There's always MP's Holy Grail too.

...and don't forget "Men in tights"

Ah yes, the beginning of Mel Brook's creative bankruptcy.

There's always this one :

THE CRUSADES



Cheers

Nico

Hahahahahaha!!!

Quality

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151137/, from Luc Besson

Link doesn't work but I absolutely love Luc Besson's work! Fifth Element, Leon, Le Femme Nikita, etc.

Just remove the "comma", then the link works. It links to the Joan of Arc movie with Milla Jovovich that has already been mentioned in this thread.

Doh, I should have noticed that.

There is not a lot other than what is already listed, but

From the IMDB

1.The Bruce (1996)

Director: Bob Carruthers and David McWhinnie; Cast includes Oliver Reed, Brian Blessed, Michael van Wijik and Sandy Welch as Robert the Bruce

I have not seen this one, but they indicate that it includes a battle of Bannockburn sequence that was the largest filmed reconstruction of medieval battle ever staged in the Britain.


2.Cromwell(1970)

Also although not officially medieval since it is set during the English Civil war in 1642, men were still fighting in armor and using swords. There are several huge battle sequences that are quite good. Like Braveheart the film gets most of the history wrong, but I thought the battles impressive and I always enjoy watching Richard Harris and Alec Guiness do their stuff.

Does Rob Roy count? I loved Tim Roth's part in that movie.

Edit: Okay, the 1700's are way after the middle ages, so sue me.

....plus a considerable lack of European knights fighting each other on the battlefield.

I take it then that you failed high school history class?

Here's a couple of golden oldies I remember enjoying, one of which (Richard III I think), has a real good battle scene, lots of mud, very realistic.

cut and paste from allmovie.com...

Henry V
Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Henry V is one of the finest Shakespeare films ever made, full of rousing action, beautiful colors and passionate performances. Henry V is the story of the newly crowned king of England who fights the French for possession of Normandy. Olivier's direction is inventive, beginning the film as if it were a performance at the Globe Theatre, and having it slowly expand so the final battle scenes take place in realistic settings. Released in 1944 during the height of World War II, Henry V didn't receive an American release until 1946, upon which Olivier won a special Academy Award for "his outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Henry V to the screen."

Richard III
Laurence Olivier was the director, co-screenwriter (with Alan Dent), and star of this robust adaptation of Shakespeare's drama, which, as Bruce Eder has written, "was the final, crowning glory of the British studio system and the end of the great cycle of British films aimed at international audiences." Olivier begins his Richard III with Edward IV (Cedric Hardwicke) being crowned king. In the background of the celebration, Richard (Laurence Olivier) jealously views the proceedings. Soon afterwards, Edward IV is murdered, drowned in a vat of wine. Richard becomes king and, after proceeding with a succession of intrigues and duplicities, he finds his kingdom in dire peril, set upon by Henry Tudor (Stanley Baker) and mustering a final defense for his realm at the Battle of Bosworth.

Wauw, you must have a big knowledge of movie history...

I believe there are several good Middle Ages war movies. One that I enjoyed was:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089153/

Flesh+Blood by Paul Verhoeven.

REALLY medieval, with lots of fighting and of course the PLAGUE thrown in for full measure....

The Long Ships ... because ... well ... where else are you gonna see a fella ride "The Mare of Steel"?

Eh?

I thought about this movie, but did not list it because it is pretty much all fiction and there are hardly any historical epic battles in it.

The key being Panzermeyer's original question about portraying battles between large western medieval armies--to me this eliminated anything pertaining to the crusades and also pretty much the raids by the early Norsemen. Even El Cid doesn't count since it is about the start of the Reconquista against the Moors

I actually have the DVD, and while it is set in the early 16th century, it's more a movie about sex and violence by depraved mercenaries set in a medieval timeframe than being about true medieval warfare. It is an entertaining movie and certainly looks authentic at times--plus one can't complain about seeing Jennifer Jason Leigh in her birthday suit through much of the movie.

Still, although there is some fighting, there just aren't any large accurate historical battles portrayed nor anything one would consider epic or large scale at all.

There is a siege of the castle that is being held by the small band of Rutger Hauer's 9 or 10 mercenaries of course, but then they muck that up with some sort unbelievable Hollywood siege device that I don't believe even Mr. Di Vinci could have imagined.

It is certainly a movie worth seeing and is directed by the man(Paul Verhoeven)who also directed Basic Instinct, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers---for these we can almost forgive him for directing "Showgirls".

Cheers

I will definitely have to check this one out after I saw that Rutger Hauer was in it. I've liked everything I've seen him in.

Kingdom of Heaven maybe

Don't even start me on this one. Risible.

FO, the 'Reconquista' actually lasted muuuuch longer than this, starting with lords confined to the North of the peninsula slowly eating up the Maures' territory. If you want to be a knitpicker, the Maures were stopped on their Northwards expansion as early as 732 AD by Charles Martel, King of the Francs in the town of Poitiers. This date is still celebrated today by outrageous people with a more than suspicious agenda (catch the reference ? )
I think the date comemorated as being the end of the Reconquista is the fall of Granada in 1492, when the Catholic Kings took it back. But it seems something else of relative importance happened that year too so nobody ever remembers it

No wonder no Hollywood film was ever made about that period though, its actually a pretty big surprise they made Kingdom of Heaven, because back then WE were the fundamentalist barbarians and the Maures and Arabs where the evolved, dominant civilization.

The problem with the Middle Ages is that it often gets mixed up with Mythology, much like the Ancient World. All these Arthurian legends (written between the XIIIth and XVIth century) and Celtic folk tales are poisoning accurate depiction of the era. I'd sure love to see a movie telling the true story (there isn't a true story, but a more realistic one) of Arthur of Camelott, or a true-to-the-book adaptation of Chrétien de Troye's Percival and Holy Grail series of books, even a William The Conqueror flick, but who else would pay to see films like these now ?

Oh, I forgtot... By all means, stay away from that too :
First Knight
It's actually the story of Percival, mixed up with Lancelot, using sources from various authors of different centuries. There aren't even any decent battle scenes. To avoid at all costs.

Cheers

Nico

Is That Medieval Enough For You ?

Cheers

Nico

At the risk of being vilified by the Middle-Age afficionados in this thread.....

The Messenger :- The Story of Joan of Arc (Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich, etc)

You must have started at the end of this thread or else you would know that this was already mentioned somewhere in the middle.

Oh, and Von Barb, I never mentioned how long the Reqonquista lasted, and I am aware that it spanned 700 centuries. However, I stand corrected in that I should have said that the EL Cid movie was based in a "early part" of the Reconquista instead of saying using the word "start" as I did.

Cheers

LOL Yeah I did. I was too lazy to read every post.

Sorry, I didn't want to sound like I was lecturing or anything. I actually haven't even read El Cid myself (dodges stones from other medieval afficionados) so I couldn't even tell you when it's set lol

Cheers

Nico

Except that movie isn't European armies fighting each other.

There's no movie on Agincourt? or perhaps the Battle of Hastings?

This is the most definitive list of war movies I could find online and I found none covering Hastings or Agincourt.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_films

You want warfare from middle ages? Get yourself Mount&Blade and enjoy the best medieval combat ever done in a pc game.

Let us hear what you think of it when you get to see it!

Flesh+Blood is a good and enjoyable movie. It does unfortunately not have grand largescale battle scenes. I recommend it.

Øystein