The Fall of Constantinople (1453) - was the capture of the Byzantine Empire’s capital by the Ottoman Empire. The attacking Ottoman army significantly outnumbered Constantinople’s defenders.
The Fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, and effectively the end of the Roman Empire, a state which dated back to 27 BC and lasted nearly 1,500 years. The conquest of Constantinople and the fall of the Byzantine Empire is sometimes considered the end of the Medieval period.
The city’s fall also stood as a turning point in military history. Since ancient times, cities and castles had depended upon ramparts and walls to repel invaders; here the city also used “greek fire” to repel the invaders. However, Constantinople’s substantial fortifications were overcome with the use of gunpowder, specifically in the form of large cannons.
I think a modern remake of The Dam Busters (film) - Wikipedia about Operation Chastise - Wikipedia could be pretty cool to watch. Focusing on the engineering work that leads up to it, the internal politics of the war department, the training and the attacks and then the damage resulting.
It would be a CGI bonanza with hints of the Doolittle Raid, the Imitation Game, a flood disaster movie, and the Memphis Belle.
I would love to see a movie about the Battle of Castle Itter, aka the strangest battle of WWII.
Castle Itter was an old castle that was being used by the Germans to house high profile prisoners at the end of WWII. One of the prisoners was a world famous tennis star. Another prisoner was the former Prime Minister of France. At the time of the battle, Hitler had already committed suicide several days earlier and the German military was falling apart.
The guards basically said screw this and left. But there were still SS and other German units in the area and the prisoners could not safely leave. So the prisoners used their prison as a fort to defend themselves and sent a couple people out to find help. A German Wehrmacht unit under the command of an officer who was opposed to the Nazis came to their aid, along with a small American force.
So they basically ended up with a castle full of VIP prisoners, defended by both U.S. and German soldiers, fighting against a German SS unit.
The battle is actually considered important for historical reasons, as many of the French VIP prisoners ended up in positions of power after the war and played a significant role in shaping the post-war period in France and Germany. If the SS had won the battle, those men would have likely been killed and post-war France could have been significantly different.
I believe that it is also the only battle in WWII where U.S. and German forces actually fought together on the same side.
If they ever make a movie out of it, people will have a hard time believing that it’s really based on a true story.
I think there’s a LOT of un-plowed cinematic ground for the Byzantine Empire, but I’m not so sure that the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 is the place to start.
If nothing else, it seems absolutely ripe for a modern-day “Game of Thrones” style adaptation with sex, palace intrigue, violence, etc… and a few good battles of the Byzantines vs. the Bulgars, Turks or Sassanids.
Also… Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles would make a fantastic miniseries- it culminates with the Battle of Mt. Badon, with Arthur’s Britons vs. the Anglo-Saxons in a huge battle. Not necessarily a war movie per se, but very war-like and lots of battle scene opportunities.
Has there ever been a movie about the female warriors in pre-modern Japan (Onna-musha)? And Nakano Takeko in particular? (She was hard-core… she asked her sister to behead her.)
There’s a pretty decent Netflix series on this already, created in 2020 by a Turkish production company called Rise of Empires: Ottoman - Wikipedia. I do think could be a pretty interesting story, kind of like Kingdom of Heaven in scope. This series bounces back and forth between drama and documentary in a slightly weird History-channel like way.
Really, there hasn’t been a good movie about the bombing campaign in Europe since… well, before I was born, so far as I can recall. (“Memphis Belle” hasn’t aged well.)
