# War movies about lesser known conflicts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528 "2016-07-10T03:45:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/1 "2016-07-10T03:45:49Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/2 "2016-07-10T03:51:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/3 "2016-07-10T04:20:52Z")
The awesome [Breaker Morant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080310/) is about events during the [Second Anglo-Boer War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War). [Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386064/) is set during the Korean War. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/4 "2016-07-10T04:56:04Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > **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 Last Valley](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065969/)_, starring Oliver Reed and Omar Sharif. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/5 "2016-07-10T04:56:42Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I can’t think of any Thirty Years War movies… _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 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/6 "2016-07-10T05:01:45Z")
Keen! A Michael Caine movie I never even heard of! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/7 "2016-07-10T05:13:23Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/8 "2016-07-10T05:13:25Z")
_ **Heartbreak Ridge** _, Clint Eastwood leads a recon platoon during the American invasion of Grenada. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/9 "2016-07-10T05:17:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/10 "2016-07-10T05:40:02Z")
> **[The best movie set in every year... but not made in that year](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=691069)** > > Can we make a timeline of the best movie for each year – not when the movie was made, but in the year in which is was set? In other words, all movies are period pieces – and not just the Merchant Ivory kind. I’m up for trying. The rules: The... This is the thread I was thinking of ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/11 "2016-07-10T06:07:47Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I don’t know of any movies that cover Alexander the Great kicking Darius’s ass. > [@](#): > > from Wikipedia [Alexander the Great (disambiguation) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great_(disambiguation)) > > Sikandar (1941 film), an Indian film starring Prithviraj Kapoor as Alexander > Alexander the Great (1956 film), an American film starring Richard Burton > Alexander (2004 film), a 2004 film directed by Oliver Stone > Alexander the Great (2010 film), a Malayalam-language film starring Mohanlal _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. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/12 "2016-07-10T06:24:29Z")
_The Sand Pebbles_, which took place during the Nanking Incident. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/13 "2016-07-10T06:47:39Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/14 "2016-07-10T06:47:40Z")
_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”). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/15 "2016-07-10T06:50:39Z")
Spanish-American War: [A Message to Garcia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_Garcia_(1936_film)) [_Utu_,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utu_(film)) about the Maori Wars in New Zealand. There are any number of films about the Alamo, during the Texan War of Independence. [Viva Zapata!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viva_Zapata!), [Villa Rides](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Rides), and [The Old Gringo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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_.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_White_in_Color) _For Whom the Bell Tolls_ is set during the Spanish Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/16 "2016-07-10T06:50:48Z")
_1911_, starring Jackie Chan, about the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/17 "2016-07-10T06:54:33Z")
_Sergeant York_ takes place in WWI. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/18 "2016-07-10T06:55:22Z")
> [@Martini Enfield](#): > > _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. _Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves_ opens during the Crusades. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/19 "2016-07-10T06:57:42Z")
Pork Chop Hill? ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528/20 "2016-07-10T07:00:54Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > _Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves_ opens during the Crusades. Yeah, but it’s not _about_ the Crusades - _Kingdom of Heaven_ is. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-movies-about-lesser-known-conflicts/759528.md?page=2)