Epic Sword/Medieval Movie List

[Sir William]

So I was wondering if all of you knights were into this genre of movies and realized it was rather dumb of me to wonder considering we're all congregants here...so lets see what you guys are working with!  This could include the sword-and-sandal movies of yesteryear, or anything you've seen that you feel should be included.  Here's mine, with justification:

1.   10,000 BC - before the advent of steel, low tech, great epic
2.   13th Warrior – Viking fantasy w/Beowulfric references (Buliwyf precisely)
3.   300 - should be obvious
4.   Alexander – it took a few times before this movie clicked for me, but it is good
5.   Arn, the Knight Templar - one of the better Crusade-specific movies, KoH with soul if you will
6.   Beowulf – the digitized version featuring Jolie, very well drawn
7.   Beowulf & Grendel – starring Gerard Butler, more like a cautionary tale than an action flick
8.   Brotherhood of the Wolf – renaissance-era France, lots of good knife work, ambience
9.   Centurion - another Romanesque movie, great action, very visceral
10.   Conan
11.   Dark Kingdom: Dragon King (a Uwe Boll product replete w/horrible acting and story, but decent swordplay)
12.   Elizabeth: The Golden Years (I love Cate Blanchett, she is electric as Elizabeth)
13.   Excalibur
14.   George and the Dragon (James Purefoy as titular character, fun movie a little cheesy in dialog, Swayze a stinker)
15.   Gladiator
16.   King Arthur (re-imagining of the legend, I liked it, despite its historical inaccuracies lol)
17.   Kingdom of Heaven
18.   A Knight's Tale
19.   Lord of the Rings!!!
20.   The Last Legion  - another Roman epic, couldn't call it historically accurate but it was engaging, another take on the Arthurian legend
21.   Last Samurai - this is a good movie, no idea as to historicity, but it was a good movie with some excellent swordplay
22.   The Messenger, story of Joan of Arc - I liked this movie, it was definitely worth watching
23.   Outlander - wasn't sure if I should include this one as it starts in the far-flung future but the majority of the movie takes place in a time and location of the Vikings and it was definitely a good movie to watch
24.   Pathfinder – I have this movie, but didn’t really care for it; a Viking boy misplaced during a raid is brought up by the indigenous population that was raided
25.   Scorpion King – big guy with huge sword, what’s not to like?
26.   Seven Swords – Tsui Hark’s homage to the Seven Samurai, a worthy remake
27.   Sword of the Valiant – big cheese fest, Connery’s 2nd worst role, Zed in Zardoz being THE worst IMHO)
28.   Troy
29.   Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – vampires in super cool looking armor wielding wicked looking swords killing werewolves, best of the three Underworld movies BY FAR (imho)

[Sir Brian]

29. The Thirteenth Warrior - A dozen Viking heroes and one Arab (Antonio Banderas) return to the Vikings’ homeland to battle an evil pagan cult.

30. The Warlord – Charlton Heston classic of a loyal Norman knight given a remote fief to defend against the Frisian raiders.

31. El Cid – Another Charlton Heston classic of the Spanish hero.

[Sir William]

13th Warrior- can't believe I forgot that, I have that too!  Oh I know why...my sister borrowed it so it slipped my mind.  Need to update my list, good call Sir Brian!

Think I might want to check out The Warlord, never heard of it.

[Sir James A]

A few thoughts:

First Knight?
Braveheart?
Dragonheart? (1 & 2)
Highlander? (Movies & TV)
Robin Hood? (Variations)
Shroud?

[Sir Wolf]

ug too many movies to list, will have to do it later in the week when i have time

[Sir William]

Definitely Braveheart...but I've seen it so many times that it isn't in my collection.  Dragonheart...there was a second one?  Direct-to-video, I see it.  So, it was good?

How about shows, you guys?  Any good medieval ones you may have seen?  I'll start another thread.

[Sir Edward]

The first Dragonheart was pretty good, I thought. The second one is very forgettable in comparison.

I have First Knight on the list too. Not the best rendition of the Arthurian tales, but not bad either in its own way.

King Arthur just makes me mad. The movie itself is fine. I just don't like how they force the Arthurian concepts into it, with Arthur never actually being a king, despite the title, and otherwise it's just the names of the characters that tie it to anything even remotely Arthurian.

I still love the first Highlander and the series (most of it anyway, the last season falls apart). The later movies have their moments. Though I have to admit, the most recent one.. The Source... wow, WTF. Crap.

As for Robin Hood, I've enjoyed pretty much every variant I've come across, including the almost unknown Sean Connery one, Robin and Marian (1976), which is a fairly unique story of the characters re-uniting for one last adventure about 20 years after their legendary exploits. But I grew up with the Robin of Sherwood BBC series, and have that on DVD as well.

The War Lord (1965) with Charlton Heston was pretty good, but I think it's been out of print for a while, so it's super expensive. (http://amzn.com/B00000F5UV). If we have a movie day, I have a copy.

I'll have to go look and see what else I have, but I think most of it is covered here already.

[Sir William]

Yea, I HAD First Knight on VHS, but never got it on DVD...I liked it too, for what it was.  You know you can find the odd piece of 'armor' used in that film on eBay, especially the single pauldron they all wore.

Robin and Marian...I actually had that too, but my sister borrowed that as well.  I never got to see it...I think it is a double feature too...has Sword of the Valiant on the same disc.

King Arthur was good, to me...since he became King at the end, I took it as a 'coming of age' tale so to speak...you know, he'd completed his service to Rome, him and his brothers-in-arms and they stayed, to help the indigenous peoples stave off the Saxon invasion; in gratitude, they named him King, and he married Guinevere.

Seeing as Arthur is another mythical construct much in the vein of Robin Hood, this story is as plausible as any other.  I liked how they linked them with the legendary Sarmatian cavalry which were a real fighting force in the 5th Century BC.  From Wikipedia (I know it isn't the definitive source for truth, but it has its uses as a staging point for research)

Sarmatians
Up to the 5th century, Sarmatians cavalry units were stationed in Britain as part of the Roman army (see End of Roman rule in Britain), allowing for a direct influence of Roman cataphracts on Migration Period Europe. According to a theory of Littleton and Thomas (1978), the legend of King Arthur, the prototypical knight of High Medieval literature, was directly inspired by these Sarmatian troops (however, it is most likely that the only reason we view Arthur and his retainers as knights was simply because the Arthurian Cycle became popular in a time in which knighthood was predominant); and Sir Thomas Malory's descriptions reflect his own time, in which the plate-wearing tournament knight was again prevalent.

That they were referred to as Knights in the film was for contemporary audiences; the likes of you and I would've understood them to be heavy cavalry regiment, much in the way of the Byzantine cataphract- shock troops.  Knights served the exact same purpose over a thousand years later.

[Sir James A]

Van Helsing
Black Knight (Martin Lawrence)

[Sir Gerard de Rodes]

Movies
Henry V....Keneth Branagh
Henry V....Laurence Olivier
Eragon
Tristan & Isolde
Holy Grail
The Lion in Winter
Rob Roy ( a little out of period etc)
Becket
Ivanhoe

TV
Cadfael... series
Pillars of the Earth... series

[Sir William]

Sir James, thank you for the Black Knight reference, I did like that movie, it was entertaining.  Although for me, I would've preferred had it been more serious but then, it wouldn't have starred Martin Lawrence.

Henry V w/Kenneth Branagh I actually did see it and not sure why I'd forgotten it...for its time, it was excellent.

Eragon...I suppose I'll catch some flack for this but that movie was just plain AWFUL.  Talk about a major departure from the source material...and I hold Paolini at fault because he was there on-set and should've pushed harder for them to be more true to the book which was much better, though derivative.

Tristan & Isolde was a good one, I liked it quite a bit.  The girl who played Isolde was in Outlander and appeared to be quite skilled in sword and shield tactics.

Rob Roy was good...that swordfight in the end was visceral.

Ivanhoe...a childhood favorite of mine...it wasn't until I saw it recently that I realized their helms were more football-inspired than I'd originally thought.

I've not seen Becket, the Lion in Winter or The Holy Grail but it is on my list...

[Sir Gerard de Rodes]

  You`ve never seen Monty Python`s "The Holy Grail" 

lol

Yes Eragon is plain awfull imho, but my daughter enjoyed it so she felt it deserved a mention, and who am I to argue with her logic lol

G

[Sir William]

Oh, Monty Python, yes, I have seen that.  Loved it for the comedy, should've picked up on that, my bad!

LOL @ daughter logic

No, one cannot argue with that.  Having daughters I know this implicitly- but my youngest has the same sentiment, having introduced the books to me, she was equally disappointed in the film.  But for one who never read the books, it would seem fantastical, I think.

[Sir Patrick]

Ivanhoe...a childhood favorite of mine...it wasn't until I saw it recently that I realized their helms were more football-inspired than I'd originally thought.

I know what you mean.  The A&E version that came out about ten years ago was really good.  Probably my favorite version of the tale.

[Sir William]

I'll see if I can't find that one...I happened to catch Steven Waddington as the Duke of Buckingham in the Tudors and as Templar Grandmaster Torroja in Arn, the Knight Templar; he's an excellent actor, as is Ciaran Hinds (he played Bois Guilbert, also played Caesar in the HBO show Rome) and Christopher Lee ( aka Saruman, played Beaumanoir).  The version I saw starred John Rhys-Davies (aka Gimli) as Front de Boeuf and a young Sam Neill as Brian de Bois-Guilbert; I thought his was an excellent choice.