Was watching the DVD yesterday and the question struck me, what was there before Braveheart if you look for anything similar? Apart from Highlander I can’t really think of anything in the 10 years before 1995. Or even before that. Not since the 1960s in fact.
But there must have been some historical action blockbusters leading up to it? Or was Braveheart simply relatively original for its time?
My recollection was that there was a lull in big, historical epics prior to “Braveheart”. And “Braveheart” was novel in having the first (CGI enhanced) big sword and spear battles (and clouds of arrows). There had been the big WWII epics of the 60s and 70s, but they kind of faded.
After “Braveheart”, the floodgates opened with “Troy”, “Kingdom of Heaven”, etc…
Oddly enough the same year saw Rob Roy released to far less fanfare.
Yeah, and a few years before there was a Last of the Mohicans. But were those last two blockbusters in the same league?
Well, those really got started with Gladiator (2000), didn’t they? But before there was Gladiator, there was Braveheart. Same kind of hero in the same kind of fight, almost.
So it looks like Braveheart really was quite original because that kind of thing had not been done since the 60s.
Unless, perhaps there is some similarity with Dances with wolves? That was a huge hit at the time.
Not sure how “blockbuster” it was, but 1989 had Kenneth Branagh in “Henry V.”
Branagh’s 1989 Henry V has battle scenes fairly reminscent of Braveheart, but probably is a bit too “highbrow” to qualify as historical action. (Although that’s exactly what it is, obviously.)
There was a 70s era movie about the English Civil War with Alec Guinness as Charles I that has the battle scenes, an execution, a hero standing up for the common man, and a snooty English monarch, but is also pretty unwatchable.
ETA: Too slow - should have imitated the action of the tiger.
“Gladiator” had the one “huge army clashing with another army” scene at the beginning, but that was about it. I don’t really consider it “like” “Braveheart” in that it kind of made no bones about being purely fictional.
“Troy”, “Kingdom of Heaven” and others, along with having the “huge army clashing” scenes were more in the mold of “Braveheart” in that they were somewhat based on true stories/events/people.
How are you setting the parameters here? “Historical” movies with big battle scenes, set in medieval times?
Does 1981’s Excalibur count, or did the battle scenes not have enough people in frame?
Did the 1993 Gettysburg count? U.S. Civil War, I know, but there were “epic” battle scenes (lots of extras in frame) there.
In what sense do you mean? There were any number of historical epics with Charlton Heston, Errol Flynn, etc etc. For Scottish epics you had Quentin Durward, Rob Roy (1953), etc, etc.
Lawrence of Arabia? Epic sweep, couple of big battle scenes, snooty English aristocrats, charismatic hero leading “backward” tribespeople against a better-armed oppressor, people of one ethnicity being played by actors of another…
Do you mean Scotland, or rebellion orientated, or just war stuff because, sure, there are dozens?
Ran from 1986 had several epic battle scenes.
They didn’t go away; you just have to know where to look for them.
Years ago I was handed a pamphlet in the street with the two-tone cover copied from the movie poster for ‘Cromwell ! [del]Ace of Thieves ![/del]’.
It was political anti-monarchist ranting interspersed with religious nuttery exactly like any of thousands offered to me on the streets of London in 1642, on behalf of The Children of God, written by their master, the late lamented David Berg, 'The Last Endtime Prophet.
Never has there been a more perfect match.
Oh I didn’t know that one. But I meant more or less leading up to 1995.
Ah yes but many of these examples are from the 60s or even the 50s. So the historically themed blockbuster was not really a safe bet at that time.
I wasn’t completely thinking of the Scots as tribespeople, more as having rural, unspoilt simplicity. William Wallace and Maximus both wanted to just farm crops and love their women, but were forced to go to war against duplicitous, sexually deviant rulers.
Somewhat, yes. But let’s not overestimate any of them…
I guess Robin Hood doesn’t count?
Robin Prince of Creeps? No that counts, I had forgotten about that one for the moment.
Not completely no, but they have their ups and downs. Hollywood made for example no Roman era epics for 33 years, between 1966 and 2000 (possible exception is The last temptation of Christ).
Ran is a good one, but I’m not sure if it sprouted many imitations (even if Kurosawa has a following among Hollywood directors). I don’t really know Ran well enough to say.
Ran was basically Kurosawa’s King Lear for Japanese sensibilities. So basically you’re talking King Lear, which brings you back to Hollywood’s Shakespearian works, for which there had been quite a dry spell.
–G!
Another epic ancient batttle film, which I’m surprised no one has mentioned in this thread yet, was Kubrick’s 1960 production of Spartacus.
They used enough Extras in that movie to fill out 12 entire Roman centuries. (The 100-soldier formation, not the span of 100 years kind of century.)
Braveheart was kind of the first one, but IMO what really broke it all open for this sort of movie in the early 2000s were the Lord of the Rings movies. I know they weren’t historical epics, but they were some of the most popular movies to have that epic scope with huge antiquity-era armies squaring off. And they were the pioneers for having it digitally done; no more “Waterloo” style shots needing thousands of extras, or vaguely tricky filming like “Gettysburg”(1993) where they had a handful of re-enactors showing some troop movements, but no way to really imply the scope of the battle, with nearly 200,000 men squaring off.
I know it’s not in the same category, in that it wasn’t ‘epic’, or ‘historical’, but I like to think that The Princess Bride played a not inconsequential role in the love of what would eventually evolve into the epic historical.
Also, in that same vein, would be the Three Musketeers films.