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Favourite Historical Films

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  • 02-07-2021 10:12pm
    #1
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,703 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    As there is news that the Master and Commander series is getting a reboot (my own favourite) and having recently read/heard the book A Historian Goes to the Movies by Gregory S. Aldrete : wondering what historical films would people recommend watching.


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    #2
    Mick Tator
    Registered Users Posts: 670 ✭✭✭Mick Tator


    Manach wrote: »
    As there is news that the Master and Commander series is getting a reboot (my own favourite) and having recently read/heard the book A Historian Goes to the Movies by Gregory S. Aldrete : wondering what historical films would people recommend watching.

    I didn't hear that - too old now, I had an offer to crew on HMS Rose back then but had to decline due to a several month time committment. One of my few life regrets and thinking about it still rankles.

    True POB/JA fans were not impressed with Master & Commander. In fairness to Peter Weir he did try to be authentic to the novels but the result was at a cost to box office receipts. Should there be a sequel/prequel (I believe it unlikely) it most likely will be a travesty as the $bottom $line will be the driver. Think of ‘Braveheart’ and ‘The Patriot’.

    For all its faults I like ‘Lawrence of Arabia’; OK it was filmed in Jordan, had too much sand instead of scrub (to fit with US notions of desert), the Arabs are shown rather like the Irish in a 19th century Punch Magazine, etc. However, certain scenes are accurate (the ‘No Prisoners!’ is one) and it also shows the duplicity of the Brits. and their respect for a treaty. (Ahem, like the NIP!) Being based on the Seven Pillars too had confines, just as a Roman history film would have were it based on Caesar’s ‘de Bellico Gallico’.


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    #3
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,792 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Not a film, but I loved HBO's Rome, covering the Caesar wars in Gaul up to the rise of Augustus and the start of the Pax Romana.



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    #4
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    There is a BBC made film called Conspiracy, that is just based around the Wannsee conference in 1942, effectively where the Nazis drew up the Final Solution, or put the legal or legislative framework around it.


    Good cast, always found it a good watch. Can be hard to find though.



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    #5
    patsman07
    Registered Users Posts: 282 ✭✭patsman07


    A WW2 movie I recently watched is probably the most immersive war film I've ever seen. It's called 'Come and See,' it's in Russian, I think, and it depicts the Nazi invasion of two remote Eastern European villages. Easily found online with English subtitles. It's based on a book written by a teenage survivor and the film follows his experiences of these events. I found parts difficult to watch, which wouldn't be like me, but probably an accurate portrayal of what went on all over the Eastern front.

    The Bounty is also a fantastic film. The version with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins has an all-star cast and if you are unsure of the historical events surrounding the episode, it's bound to be a riveting watch.



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    #6
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,792 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppala.

    Watching this film my feelings of disdain for Marie Antoinette started to melt & my feelings of sympathy for her began to increase.

    Coppalo does such a good job at portraying a bourgeois society that know's how to use you for gain, but doesn't know how to value or appreciate you. And you feel the roller-coaster of emotions Marie goes on. She's surrounded by people all the time but she's so lonely.

    Great decision to make the film as contemporary as possible, as Rogeer Eber explains....

    "  But no one ever lives as Then; it is always Now. Many characters in historical films seem somehow aware that they are living in the past. Marie seems to think she is a teenager living in the present, which of course she is -- and the contemporary pop references invite the audience to share her present with ours. Forman's "Amadeus" had a little of that, with its purple wigs.



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    #7
    partyguinness
    Registered Users Posts: 8,207 ✭✭✭partyguinness


    Has to be Braveheart followed by Pearl Harbour followed by Titanic.



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    #8
    Mick Tator
    Registered Users Posts: 670 ✭✭✭Mick Tator


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118228192#Comment_118228192

    Did you not enjoy 'The Patriot'.?



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