Speaking of Charlton Heston, the Cid biopic.
The Buccaneer, about the pirate Jean Lafitte, is about the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.
War and Peace and The Duelists are set during the Napoleonic Wars.
The various versions of Joan of Arc are set during the Hundred Years War.
El Cid is about the reconquest of Spain from the Moors.
The Charge of the Light Brigade is set during the Crimean War.
Dammit birdie, stop following me!
The Crusades (1932), directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
Battleship Potemkin, Dr. Zhivago, and Reds are set during the Russian Revolution.
Michael Collins and Ryan’s Daughter are set during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War.
Exodus is set during the first Arab-Israeli War.
A
Arn – The Kingdom at Road’s End
Arn – The Knight Templar
B
Brancaleone at the Crusades (an Italian comedy)
C
The Crusaders (2001 film)
The Crusades (film) (the one Colibri mentioned)
K
King Richard and the Crusaders (1958 film based on a Walter Scott story “The Talisman”)
Kingdom of Heaven (film) (the Ridley Scott film)
L
Lionheart (1987 film) (supposedly based on the Children’s Crusade)
M
The Mighty Crusaders (film) (another Italian film)
O
The Order (2001 film) (really a Jean Claude van Damme flick, but with the Templars as the backstory)
R
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Rytsarskiy roman (a Russian film based on the Walter Scott story “Robert, the Count of Paris”)
S
Saladin the Victorious (a 1963 Egyptian film)
Surely you mean Richard Harris? :dubious:
No one’s mentioned the Soviet version of War and Peace, set during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia? :dubious:
I highly recommend this one, though be prepared to invest seven hours of your life watching it. If you can understand Russian, watch the original rather than the dubbed version.
Waterloo***, by the same director (but in English), tells the story of Napoleon’s final defeat. Stars Christopher Plummer as Wellington and Rod Steiger as Bonaparte. Superb!
EDIT: Apologies to Colibri for War and Peace.
Roger’s Rangers, set during the French and Indian (Seven Years’) War. Stars Spencer Tracy and Robert Young.
Has there never been a feature film about Wolfe and Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham? I’ve seen lots of documentaries, but know of no dramatized version. If you read the accounts of the full campaign (in, e.g., Keegan’s book Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America), you can see it would make a fantastic movie!
A couple of weird ones:
1812, also known as The Chronicle of 1812, also known as The King’s Regiment, a TV movie about the War of 1812, from the Canadian point of view.
My favorite review:
The 1936 version of The Charge of the Light Brigade, starring Errol Flynn. Flynn’s character is complete fiction. His regiment, the “27th Lancers”, did not exist in the 19th Century. The first half of the movie is a fairly good (for Hollywood, anyway) depiction of the Siege of Cawnpore in the Sepoy Rebellion in India. However, when someone pointed out that the Cawnpore massacre actually took place 3 years after the Crimean War, the filmmakers quickly changed the name of the city.
No Man’s Land (2001) is set in the Bosnian war.
Good film, by the way.
King of the Khyber Rifles, starring Tyrone Power, is set during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
I’ll have to check that one out!
Khartoum is about the Mahdist Revolt in 1883.
3 Kings is set in the Gulf War. Though it’s well-known to us now, in fifty years, the war will be as almost as overlooked as the film is today.
Black and White in Color is set in West Africa in WWI.
The film is also known as “Northwest Passage” since it is based on a Kenneth Roberts novel of the same name. The sequel for the second half, which has them goes off to try to find the Northwest Passage (final scene in the movie) was never made.
Not really a war but the “Heaven’s Gate” fiasco was based on something known as the Johnson County War in Wyoming between 1889 and 1893
“Spartacus” set in the Third Servile War.
There was a TNT miniseries in 2003 “Julius Caesar” that includes Caesar’s victory at Alesia during his conquest of Gaul
Dark of the Sun (aka The Mercenaries) is set during the Simba Rebellion in the Congo, 1964–65. Stars Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux.
So is Shake Hands with the Devil, starring Jimmy Cagney. This is the film that really got me interested in modern (as opposed to ancient or mediaeval) Irish history.
Under Fire (1983) is set during the '79 Nicaraguan revolution.
The Beast of War (1988) takes place during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.