There have been hundreds if not thousands of movies about the Civil War and World War II. My question is: how many movies have been made about lesser remembered wars like the War of 1812 or the Spanish-American War? (Obviously, people outside the U.S. will have different conflicts in mind.) Which war movies about these conflicts do you know of? And what’s the biggest war which doesn’t have a movie set in it?
I can’t think of any Thirty Years War movies…
Barry Lyndon had battles from the Seven Years War. The 100 Years War gets some good treatment in movies based on Shakespeare’s Henry V. The Last of the Mohicans had some business with the French and Indian War. There have been “Charge of the Light Brigade” movies for the Crimean War.
I don’t know of any movies that cover Alexander the Great kicking Darius’s ass.
It would be fun to make a movie about the Black Hawk War, because you could have Abraham Lincoln as a somewhat minor character.
The awesome Breaker Morant is about events during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War is set during the Korean War.
The Last Valley, starring Oliver Reed and Omar Sharif.
The Last Valley (1971) starring Michael Caine and Omar Sharif
Also, to a great extent, Queen Christina (1933) starring Greta Garbo
silenus beat me to that first one, although Oliver Reed’s not in it
Keen! A Michael Caine movie I never even heard of! Thanks!
My bad. I thought one actor and typed the other. Good movie in any case. Although you have to admit, Caine looks very Reed-y on the cover.
While we’re on Caine, try Cromwell. English Civil war and all that. Alec Guinness is excellent as Charles 1.
Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood leads a recon platoon during the American invasion of Grenada.
I think many examples of this can be found in that old thread in which we were trying to find at least one movie set in every single year, or to get as close as possible to that. I forget the title of the thread though.
This is the thread I was thinking of
The Battle of Algiers, documentary.
Lost Command, starring Anthony Quinn, begins in the French Vietnam War, and ends in the Algerian War.
Guns at Batasi about a British Army unit in a fictional African country declaring independence from the British Empire.
These are not “war movies” per se, but they are set during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya:
Safari, starring Victor Mature
Simba, starring Dirk Bogarde
55 Days at Peking, starring Charlton Heston and David Niven, set during the Boxer Rebellion.
Rough Riders, a TV movie starring Tom Berenger, Sam Elliot, and Gary Busey, about the Spanish-American War.
One Man’s Hero, starring Tom Berenger, about the Saint Patrick’s Battalion in the Mexican-American War.
Cristiada, also known as For Greater Glory, starring Andy Garcia and Ruben Blades, about the Cristero Rebellion in Mexico.
The Sand Pebbles, which took place during the Nanking Incident.
The obvious ones are Zulu and Zulu Dawn, set during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Funnily enough, if there’s a case that conflicts isn’t “lesser-known”, it’s entirely because of those two movies.
Similarly, Lawrence of Arabia is pretty much the only reason anyone nowadays knows there was a Palestinian/Middle Eastern Theatre of World War I.
The 1983 New Zealand film Utu is set during the Maori Wars of the 1860s.
You’ve got The Four Feathers (particularly the excellent 1939 film) set during the Mahdist War in the Sudan from 1881-1898.
There’s also Mangal Pandey: The Rising, which is a 2005 Indian film set during the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858.
Kingdom of Heaven is the only film I’m aware of to be set during The Crusades - although I’m sure someone will be along shortly to say there was one made during the Golden Age of Hollywood; even if it looked like it was filmed entirely on a soundstage or in the Nevada desert. And I know the Crusades aren’t really a “lesser known conflict”, but I’d argue they’re certainly a lesser understood one.
Los últimos de Filipinas (“Last (Spanish soldiers) in the Philippines”) is a dramatization of the siege of Baler, which took place during the Philippine Revolution. Filming of its remake wrapped up just last week. It’s both extremely controversial and a classic.
Raza is based on a novel written by Franco under a pseudonym; it follows a family between the War of Cuba (y’all call it the Spanish-American War) and the '36 Civil War, with most of the action taking place in this final period. There’s people who would gladly burn every single copy but it’s interesting both as a document on Franco’s ideology and on the actual events and organization during the '36 Civil War; a lot of the “background” material is documentary. It’s also one of the very few movies involving the '36 Civil War which are shown from the Nacional/Francoist point of view (it’s hard to get more Francoist than “written by Franco”).
Spanish-American War: A Message to Garcia
Utu, about the Maori Wars in New Zealand.
There are any number of films about the Alamo, during the Texan War of Independence.
Viva Zapata!, Villa Rides, and The Old Gringo are set during the Mexican Revolution.
The various versions of The Last of the Mohicans take place during the French and Indian War.
Although there are many films set during WWI, there are few from the African Theater of the war, which include The African Queen and Black and White in Color.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is set during the Spanish Civil War.
1911, starring Jackie Chan, about the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China.
Sergeant York takes place in WWI.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves opens during the Crusades.
Pork Chop Hill?
Yeah, but it’s not about the Crusades - Kingdom of Heaven is.