Mainly the former. Just like people with any knowledge of history reacted to Pearl Harbor. But you are right…just about any movie spanning that many years is going to play fast and loose with reality.
I’m actually thinking more along the lines of a season per war (there were 3 actual wars lumped in as the “English Civil War”), with all the intrigue, political machinations and actual fighting that took place.
There’s a lot of interesting stuff there- just don’t concentrate on Cromwell or the Kings Charles, but rather on the broader issues- Royalists vs. Parliamentarians, religious concerns, and so on. You could easily gin up a romantic sub-plot with some fictional personages as well. Maybe even go so far as to concentrate on some mid-level fictional officers in the various groups- show a sort of ground-level view of the whole thing, but just high enough to have some perspective. Like maybe a regimental commander level view.
There is in fact a pretty decent series which does quite a lot of this; The Devil’s Whore. It’s crammed into just 4 episodes but does a very good job of covering the politics, the religion, the rise of Cromwell and the fall of other factions. Complete with romantic subplot to boot. It’s got a great cast: Peter Capaldi as Charles I, Dominic West as Cromwell, John Simm as Edmund Sexby, Michael Fassbender as Rainsborough. And Andrea Riseborough as the fictional title character. Well worth a watch.
Personally I’d like - despite the potential for it to go horribly wrong - to see a treatment of the First Crusade. Even sticking just with the Christian side you’ve got your sophisticated but overwhelmed Byzantines, your land-hungry Normans, quite land-hungry but also true-believer leaders like Raymond of Toulouse, and of course the rank and file, not to mention the People’s Crusade of visionaires and no-hopers. It’s a fascinating mix of realpolitik and genuine religious belief, there’s any number of political and military crises to act as a focus for this theme, and that’s before you get into the perspective of the Muslim elites and largely-but-not-entirely Muslim locals having to deal with this crisis.
Obviously, it could go badly wrong because the central tenet of the Crusade was that killing Muslims made god happy, so the challenge would be to present this ethos without endorsing it. But it could be done - Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven managed pretty well - and it’s an epic story to play with. And of course, the actual capture of Jerusalem and the formation of Crusader Kingdoms in the Near East is really just the start…
The story of (Korean) Admiral Yi Sun-Sin is so badass it sounds like a movie already. Repeatedly winning battles against impossible odds, yet constantly needing to work his way back up from the bottom due to jealous rivals.
It would also make for a good movie as, at that time, there was quite a bit of experimentation still in ship design (e.g. “turtle ships”) and battle strategy.
A great movie could be made about the life of Alcibiades
He was a highly talented military commander, and greatly benefited every side he fought for – but he was even more talented at pissing people off.
- He fought for Athens against Sparta, until he was condemned to death by the Athenians, and fled to Sparta.
- He fought successfully for Sparta against Athens, until the Spartans tried to kill him, and he fled to Persia.
- He fought successfully for Persia against all the Greeks, until he betrayed the Persians and returned to Athens.
- He then fought successfully for Athens against Sparta again, until there was a setback, and he was condemned to death by the Athenians again.
- Then he fled to Persia again, but this time the Spartans persuaded the Persians to put an end to his career once and for all.
He won battles for Athens against Sparta, and for Sparta against Athens, and helped the Persians against both Athens and Sparta.
He ended up with all three of them wanting to kill him.
Footnote on the English/Three Nations Civil War(s): there was an earlier TV series By the Sword Divided, though that focussed more on a divided family than the campaigning and battles. There was a book piggy-backing on the programme that drew on many personal memoirs to tell the history through individual experiences (this must be the earliest period of warfare with such a wealth of surviving printed and private archive material).
Building on that, another potentially interesting area might be the fate of the Scottish Covenanters - from domineering ideologues in government during the Commonwealth to persecuted minority under the Restoration. Or the downfall of James VII/II, culminating in the Battle of the Boyne.
I agree that it’s an interesting and eventful period, the suppression of the Covenanters (the ‘killing time’), and then the Jacobite uprisings in Ireland and Scotland after the Glorious Revolution.
The problem is that it’s a very complex period, with political, religious, and cultural issues all mixed up, and many different factions and interests. Also everything has to be seen in the wider context of the Nine Years War in Western Europe.
Most people know nothing at all about that period of history.
The war in Ireland leading to the Battle of the Boyne and the Battle of Aughrim was Dutch led, with Dutch, Danish, English, Scottish, Irish Protestant, and French Huguenot troops in Ireland, with some financing by the Pope(!) – fighting against a French, Irish Catholic, and Irish Episcopalian army.
I’ve already suggested that Dundee’s uprising and the Battle of Killiecrankie in Scotland would be a simpler and more focused subject for a movie, but there’s also the Battle of Dunkeld, and the Battle of Cromdale, and the Massacre of Glencoe. Then there are the Jacobite uprisings of 1715, 1718, and 1745.
A totally different and fascinating movie in that period could be made about the disastrous Darien Scheme.
The American invasion of California from five different rank and file perspectives. Kearny’s regulars traveling across the continent via Santa Fe. Fremont’s mountain men and cartographers taking the northern route. Stockton’s sailors turned ad hoc into land troops and artillery men. The American settlers in Sacramento who wanted their own “Bear Republic”. And most fascinating, the Californios - cowboys turned mounted lancers - who also wanted their own republic and would just as soon never see an American or Mexican flag on their soil.
Wow, and quite a recent production too.
Although I’m disappointed it only covers one battle, and from the sound of things doesn’t include his terrible treatment by the leaders of the time. (My WAG would be that Korean media may prefer to depict historical figures in an idealized way, as they do here in China, which unfortunately dulls just about every historical drama).
This may be a bit of a stretch and not exactly a war movie - the hijacking of Air France flight 8969 and the assault by the French GIGN. Air France Flight 8969 - Wikipedia
I was fortunate enough to have a job in which I was able to get a briefing on that assault, and a few years later I met the then-commander of the mission.
The battle was a very intense approx 45 minute gun battle on the aircraft. It would be an incredible cine-verite, real-time movie.
I you’re going to do that one, you might also do the similar Sabena Flight 571 hijacking from 22 years earlier, which had the added advantage of an assault team featuring two future Israeli prime ministers.
There was a movie about Moe Berg. It was called The Catcher is a Spy. Berg was played by Paul Rudd.
I just read the link and I have to agree with you.
There was a British/Canadian TV show called Zero Hour Zero Hour (2004 TV series) - Wikipedia which I really enjoyed and it had an episode of the Air France hijacking. I really liked their presentation style and would have no problem paying to see a feature length version of that in a theatre.
Two more ideas- the siege of the Danzig post office, where Polish postmen managed to temporarily hold off the police, the SS, and the German army during the first few hours of World War II.
The story of the Pacific Clipper, the luxurious flying boat stranded in New Zealand by the outbreak of the war. Rather than attempt to fly back through the war zone, they went the wrong way around and flew to New York, scrounging supplies and fuel along the way. It was a real life adventure story, though I doubt the passengers and crew enjoyed it much.
I think this is the book I read a few years ago about double agent spies spying on behalf of the British in WW2. Amazon.com
I don’t enjoy military history in the least, but I couldn’t put it down. It’s a fascinating tale and read like a movie. If that isn’t the right book, it is still a great story to tell.
That sounded familiar so I looked; it was portrayed in an episode of a UK programme about the war called World on Fire.
Personally I’d like - despite the potential for it to go horribly wrong - to see a treatment of the First Crusade. Even sticking just with the Christian side you’ve got your sophisticated but overwhelmed Byzantines, your land-hungry Normans, quite land-hungry but also true-believer leaders like Raymond of Toulouse, and of course the rank and file, not to mention the People’s Crusade of visionaires and no-hopers. It’s a fascinating mix of realpolitik and genuine religious belief, there’s any number of political and military crises to act as a focus for this theme, and that’s before you get into the perspective of the Muslim elites and largely-but-not-entirely Muslim locals having to deal with this crisis.
Obviously, it could go badly wrong because the central tenet of the Crusade was that killing Muslims made god happy, so the challenge would be to present this ethos without endorsing it. But it could be done - Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven managed pretty well - and it’s an epic story to play with. And of course, the actual capture of Jerusalem and the formation of Crusader Kingdoms in the Near East is really just the start…
It wasn’t a feature film, but track down the BBC mini-series “The Crusades” by Terry Jones.
I finished watching a video on the Dark skies Youtube channel about Old 666 and the Eager Beavers, the most heavily armed B-17 in the Pacific. The story makes Memphis Belle look like a cotillion. I would love to see this story made into a feature length film. I’ve linked the vid as it is a fascinating story and a great channel.
