(#8) The Seventh Seal
- Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Nils Poppe, Erik Strandmark, Gunnel Lindblom, Bengt Ekerot, Åke Fridell, Inga Gill, Inga Landgré, Gunnar Olsson, Anders Ek, Bertil Anderberg, Maud Hansson, Siv Aleros
Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal has a plot rooted in fantasy, in which a knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), coming back from the Crusades plays chess with Death for his soul.
What It Gets Right: Bergman's story appears to have been inspired by a real-life painting from the 15th century, Albertus Pictor's Death Playing Chess. The movie also takes place against the backdrop of the Black Plague, which swept across Europe quickly in the Middle Ages, taking millions of lives. While Bergman wasn't trying to make a historical film, he did capture the pessimism and religious reverence of the period, which was informed by rampant disease, famine, and armed conflict. The Seventh Seal was made in 1957, but there's no hint of modernity. Its bleak, high-contrast cinematography is enough to make viewers believe they are looking through a window in time.
Where It Falls Short: In the chess game itself, the players do not play according to the rules that would have been the norm at the time.
(#1) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Carol Cleveland, Neil Innes, Connie Booth, John Young, Sandy Johnson, Julian Doyle, Bee Duffell, Maggie Weston, Rita Davies, Charles Knode, Joni Flynn, Roy Forge Smith, Sally Kinghorn, Zack Matalon, Mary Allen, Margarita Doyle, William Palin, Romilly Squire, Judy Lamb, Alison Walker, Tom Raeburn, Mitsuko Forstater, Tracy Sneddon, Fiona Gordon, Avril Stewart, Elspeth Cameron, Gloria Graham, Yvonne Dick, Sandy Rose, Joyce Pollner, Sally Coombe, Vivienne MacDonald, Daphne Darling, Sylvia Taylor, Anna Lanski, Loraine Ward, Mark Zycon
The Python troupe's classic comedy film follows King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as they search for the Holy Grail.
What It Gets Right: Although the legend of King Arthur is played for laughs in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there's a lot the troupe gets right about the time period. The Middle Ages were a time of rampant disease, filth, and staggering fatalities. Holy Grail reflects this in scenes with plague victims being wheeled through the streets on carts and peasants wallowing in filth. The cow catapulted over a fort wall is also based in reality; in some ancient entanglements, fecal matter, plague-infected bodies, and animal cadavers were used as biological weapons.
The Pythons also accurately show how primitive science was, and how greatly superstition influenced the masses, especially during the sequence when villagers, who have accused a woman of being a witch, decide that the only way to know if she's truly a witch is to see if she weighs the same as a duck.
Where It Falls Short: Needless to say, the plot points are regularly exaggerated for comedic effect - or due to budget constraints. In one example, the production couldn't afford real horses, so coconuts were used to mimic the sound of their galloping.
(#10) The 13th Warrior
- Omar Sharif, Antonio Banderas, Tony Curran, Erick Avari, Clive Russell, Sven Wollter, Diane Venora, Vladimir Kulich, Richard Bremmer, John DeSantis, Mischa Hausserman, Dennis Storhøi, Albie Woodington, Asbjørn 'Bear' Riis, Oliver Sveinall, Daniel Southern, Neil Maffin
The 13th Warrior is based on Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead, which is rooted in the real-life account of Ahmad Ibn Fadlan's adventures as the secretary to ambassador Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad during his travels to Bulgaria. The real Ibn Fadlan recorded what he saw in the Risala, which served as an eyewitness account to the lives of the Volga Vikings and their customs and traditions, including a ship burial. Antonio Banderas plays Ibn Fadlan in The 13th Warrior.
What It Gets Right: The clothing choices of the Viking extras appear to be on point, and Ibn Fadlan wears armor close to that of a real Viking. The blades used by the Vikings are realistic to the time period, as are the Viking ships. It is also true that the dragon heads on the ships were removed when not approaching enemy shores to placate land spirits.
Where It Falls Short: In the costuming of its leads, The 13th Warrior mixes up centuries. Vikings wouldn't have worn walking kilts or anything that looks like a Spanish conquistador helmet during the Middle Ages. Also, the geography is incorrect. Baghdad is shown as being between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, 700 miles north of its real location.
(#11) King Arthur
- Keira Knightley, Clive Owen, Ray Winstone, Mads Mikkelsen, Ioan Gruffudd, Stellan Skarsgård, Hugh Dancy, Ray Stevenson, Joel Edgerton, Graham McTavish, Til Schweiger, Stephen Dillane, Ken Stott, Owen Teale, Clive Russell, Charlie Creed-Miles, David Wilmot, Ned Dennehy, Beans Balawi, Bosco Hogan, Ivano Marescotti, Sean Gilder, David Murray, Alan Devine, Nigel Martin Davey, Joe McKinney, Dawn Bradfield, Charlie Allan, Pat Kinevane, Donncha Crowley, Des Braiden, Phelim Drew, Lochlainn O'Mearain, Jerry O'Brien, Johnny Brennan, Shane Murray-Corcoran, Stefania Orsola Garello, Maria Gładkowska, Elliot Henderson-Boyle, Lorenzo De Angelis, Gerry Wade, Dessie Gallagher, Malachy McKenna, Brian McGuinness, Stephanie Putson, Daire McCormack, Patrick Leech, Brian Condon, Lesley Ann Shaw, Paul McGlinchey
Antoine Fuqua's gritty take on the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table was released in 2004.
What It Gets Right: The best that can be said about King Arthur is that the movie gets some parts of the legend correct. The conflict featured in this movie is the Battle of Mount of Badon, which is believed to have to taken place around the year 500 - although there isn't much in the way of historical record regarding where it took place. Arthur, if he did exist, is often cited as having been involved in this battle between the Celtic Britons and Anglo-Saxons, and his association with it first appears in the Historia Brittonum, written in the ninth century.
Cerdic (Stellan Skarsgård) is the Saxon leader and main villain in King Arthur. Saxons did take part in the invasion of Britain during this time period and also around the time the Arthurian legend was first told, but the movie otherwise takes extreme liberties in time and story.
Where It Falls Short: On-screen text tells the audience that "recently discovered archaeological evidence sheds light on his [Arthur's] true identity." In fact, there is no still proof Arthur ever existed. The movie also plays fast and loose with factual events, and there are plenty of anachronisms in regard to sets and costumes.
(#4) The Passion of Joan of Arc
- Antonin Artaud, Michel Simon, Renée Jeanne Falconetti, Marie Losier, Jean Ayme, Maurice Schutz, André Berley, Jean d'Yd, Gilbert Dalleu, Eugene Silvain, Louis Ravet, Eugene Sylvain, Antonin Artaud
The 1928 silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc tells the story of the trial of Saint Joan of Arc.
What It Gets Right: The movie takes its story from the actual transcripts of her trial. In her one and only major film role, Maria Falconetti plays the martyred saint with great conviction. According to legend, director Carl Theodor Dreyer required her to kneel for long periods on stone and remain expressionless in the process so that her inner agony would be more apparent.
Silent film actors usually wore an abundance of makeup. However, Dreyer wanted his actors makeup-free, as they would have been in real life. The set was no less authentic. The entire movie was filmed on a stage built from concrete and modeled after the architecture of the day.
Where It Falls Short: Dreyer once said historical accuracy was not a concern of his while making the movie, but he created a fairly accurate portrayal of Saint Joan nonetheless.
(#2) Kingdom of Heaven
- Eva Green, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Irons, Michael Sheen, Brendan Gleeson, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kevin McKidd, Iain Glen, David Thewlis, Marton Csokas, Alexander Siddig, Ulrich Thomsen, Jon Finch, Bill Paterson, Philip Glenister, Nathalie Cox, Khaled El Nabawy, Robert Pugh, Bronson Webb, Eriq Ebouaney, Peter Copley, Martin Hancock, Tim Barlow, Christian Boeving, Steven Robertson, Alex O'Dogherty, Michael FitzGerald, Jouko Ahola, Velibor Topić, Angus Wright, Giannina Facio, Karim Saleh, Nasser Memarzia, Paul Brightwell, Shane Attwooll, Ghassan Massoud, Alfonso Sánchez, Matthew Rutherford, Lotfi Yahya Jedidi, Emilio Doorgasingh, Alex Revan, Michael Shaeffer, Peter Cant
When Kingdom of Heaven was released in 2005, it flopped. Critics and viewers felt it was incomplete, in part because of the studio's cuts. However, when the movie was made available in Ridley Scott's extended version, both its drama and its historical accuracy hit a stronger note.
What It Gets Right: This Crusades epic dramatizes the conflict between Christians and Muslims during the battle of the First Kingdom of Jerusalem, in which Christian knights attempted to reclaim Holy Land sites (located in modern-day Israel) from the Arabs, for whom the region retains significance. The movie focuses on events prior to and during the Battle of Hattin, where the crusaders were mostly slaughtered. This battle led to the Third Crusade, in which the English and French also tried to recapture the Holy Land.
According to historians, Kingdom of Heaven is accurate in its depicton of crusaders becoming "orientalized" over the decades, its realistic combat sequences, and its portrayal of Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). The sequence in Saladin's tent following the battle and eventual surrender of Jerusalem is said to be largely accurate.
Where It Falls Short: The main character, Balian (Orlando Bloom), is based on a real-life crusader, Balian of Ibelin. Unlike his film persona, the real man was not a humble blacksmith who was born illegitimately and whose wife took her own life, but a nobleman whose real father was a powerful lord. Despite the differences in his portrayal, both the real and fictional Balian were instrumental in negotiating a settlement to end the skirmish.
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Medieval movies have become more and more popular. Medieval movies always reflect the time and the myths, people have a strong desire for swords, armor and horse riding. Over the years, there is no shortage of great medieval movies, some are grounded in reality, others many depends on imagination, Game of Thrones dominating TV series, and Lord of the Rings forever changing epic fantasy movies.
This page has 12 entries, there is a list of pretty accurate movies set in Medieval times, such as Kingdom of Heaven, Outlaw King, etc. You can share them with your friends if someone interested in this type.
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