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Epic Sword/Medieval Movie List

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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 :D
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

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