I just know someone on the dope can answer this question. I have seen footage of an old black and white movie featuring medieval army fighters in gloriously, absurdly horned helmets. The clips I remember are basically back and forth close-ups of rival, possibly Nordic generals directing their troops into battle, while the music underneath stokes the drama. The screen is just filled with these massive iron horned helmets. Totally impractical, but on screen they come across as mythic, metaphoric.
I don’t know the name of this movie. I doubt it is American, but I don’t even know that for sure. I think it was shot in black and white on purpose, for the effect, though I believe the movie is fairly old nonetheless. Some doper out there knows what I am talking about, and can name it.
+1 points for the Amazon.co_m link. Thanks in advance, everybody!
Those aren’t “horns” that the Germans are wearing, BTW. They’re crests, which were a fairly common adornment on mediaeval helms. In addition to being intimidating, they usually served to identify the wearer in addition to his coat of arms. They were also made of material like leather or papier-mâché and designed to break away if struck by a sword.
Боже мой, I had the same thought, but when I looked at the stills on imdb, the helmets only looked a little outlandish, not like what the OP was describing.
Check the video posted above. I noticed the same thing about the movie posters. Those helmet crests are a distinctive feature of the film, I would have expected to see them on the poster as well.
The helms with crests would have been worn only by nobles. Those of the ordinary foot soldiers were mass produced, i.e., more numerous and far less elaborate.
Ok, so they are crests, not horns. Only a few characters on the German side are wearing them. I think the clips of the movie I saw focused far more on the guys with the huge handlebars coming out of the sides of their heads than the scene overall does.
It’s funny, those horns made a big impression on me. Once I got the idea stuck in my head, I just had to see it again. I’ll probably have to watch the whole thing to find the scene that I am remembering- how many other black and white movies can there be that feature medieval warriors in horned helmets? This must be it. Thanks, dope!
You will probably not be disappointed. The film stock is very high quality and the cinematography is beautiful. Even the story is pretty good. If it is not the movie you were actually remembering, I think you will just decide that it was. Because, Eisenstein.
It was Stalin’s propaganda piece during WWII to try to rouse the Russians against the Germans (Teutonic Knights, in the film). He found Soviet Internationalism was working so well as a motivator so he wanted Eisenstein to play the Russian nationalist card.
So much so, when Ralph Bakshi made his unforgettable (for all the wrong reasons) version of Lord of the Rings, he rotoscoped snippets of the battle scene for the battle at Helm’s Deep or Pelennor Fields – I refuse to see which.
I haven’t seen the whole movie in years, but I think the priests you’re referring to are Teutonic (Catholic) and not Russian (Orthodox). IIRC, there are scenes in which Orthodox priests bless Nevsky and his army (or something like that).
