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Most historically accurate movies about each century?


Hi. I would love to assemble a list of movies which are shining representational examples of how a given century should be depicted, with everything being as historically accurate as possible.

Can you mention some movies, just two or three for each century, which depict a given century really, really well, applaudable by academic historians, as far as is known?

Just a couple of movies for the 19th century and each century before, down to whatever is available. Mainly from 1300-1800.

Thanks.

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'A Man for All Seasons' is probably the most accurate film depiction of Tudor England.

Although liberties were taken with the actual story, 'The New World' was pretty accurate with the look, depiction and costuming that it represents (colonial America during James's era). Ignoring some of the changes in the story, most inaccuracies were due to accidents (a car can be seen in the distance, for example), and the fact that they didn't remove foxtail grass from the area the film is set (which would be hard work).

'Tombstone' is a good depiction of the American West.


'Barry Lyndon' is a very accurate depiction of many countries during from the 1750 until 1789.

'Waterloo' is an accurate film based around the titular battle. Most of the errors are only noticeable to major history buffs (backpacks fastened slightly incorrectly), but generally depicts the era and battle very well.

'All Quiet on the Western Front' from the 1930s was a very, very accurate of WWI from a German viewpoint and had real footage woven into the plotline...which is hard to even notice.

'A Bridge Too Far' was a good depiction of Operation Market Garden (WWII, Nederlands), however, it featured an embarrassing and nonsensical scene in which the German generals mock the choice of Montgomery for leader, and instead suggest Patten as a better alternative. This is stupid because his successes in Africa against Germany's best general, Field Marshal Rommel, made him a formidable opponent; Patten wasn't as highly rated until his ''cult'' sprang up in the US after the war...and many of his fellow generals and historians do not consider him to be the greatest general of WWII. Also, the plan that they went with wasn't Montgomery's original plan. If they had went with the original plan, the operation would have probably been a success.

'Cross of Iron' is a good depiction of German soldiers on the Eastern Front in WWII.

'Beowulf and Grendel' is probably the most accurate ''Dark Age'' Scandinavian movies ever made... even if Iceland is far more mountainous than flat old Denmark.

'Nicholas and Alexandra' was a fairly accurate recount of the Russian Revolution from the point of view (mostly) of the Tsar and his family, though Lenin and many other revolutionary heroes feature too. It thankfully manages to show the Tsar and his family as humans, whilst also pointing out why the people hated them so much. It doesn't use their deaths as a club to beat down revolutionaries, as many films of that era would have done, but instead took a more realistic and less partisan view (their jailer is shown to be a kindly old man who has to do a job), realizing that the Tsar and his family were executed as a necessity (not originally intended) due to White Russian advances towards Yekaterinburg.







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Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

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Thanks a lot; *very* helpful post! I know these titles, but have only seen about half of them. Will get to the rest very soon! Just bought Waterloo.

I always get 'Nicholas and Alexandra' (1971) confused with 'Fall of Eagles' (TV, 1974), which also have a Nicholas and Alexandra sequence. Maybe it's because the single image shown at the '71 film's IMDb page is mistakenly from the '74 TV series?

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Mid 17th century England 'Winstanley' (1976) http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0073911/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Taking painting to the pictures ...
www.thepicturepalace.co.uk

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''I always get 'Nicholas and Alexandra' (1971) confused with 'Fall of Eagles''

Both are great productions. The Russian revolution episodes in 'Fall of Eagles' are the best yet filmed.

''Mid 17th century England 'Winstanley' (1976)''

Ashamed that I did not mention this or 'Comrades', which are films about truly respectable historical persons.



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Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

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You might want to try THE LAST VALLEY(1971)with Michael Caine which takes place in a German village during the Thirty Years War circa 1640.

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Thanks a lot - sounds good! :-)

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I'm not a historian, only very much interested in history.

Those are the films that for me feel quite good representations of "with everything being as historically accurate as possible" (earlier times marked in bold):

Judgement at Nuremberg ( 1961 )[/b] Stanley Kramer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055031/
Lawrence of Arabia ( 1962 )[/b] David Lean http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/
The Leopard ( 1963 ) Luchino Visconti http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057091/
A Man for All Seasons ( 1966 ) Fred Zinnemann http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060665/
Anne of the Thousand Days ( 1969 ) Charles Jarrott http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064030/
The Wild Child ( 1970 ) François Truffaut http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064285/
Barry Lyndon ( 1975 ) Stanley Kubrick http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072684/
The Chess Players ( 1977 ) Satyajit Ray http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076696/
The Duellists ( 1977 ) Ridley Scott http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075968/
Yagyû ichizoku no inbô ( 1978 ) Kinji Fukasaku http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078513/
The Elephant Man ( 1980 )[/b] David Lynch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080678/
Das Boot ( 1981 )[/b] Wolfgang Petersen http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082096/
Umrao Jaan ( 1981 ) Muzaffar Ali http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083248/
Jean de Florette ( 1986 )[/b] Claude Berri http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091288/
Manon des Sources ( 1986 )[/b] Claude Berri http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091480/
La famiglia ( 1987 )[/b] Ettore Scola http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093004/
The Last Emperor ( 1987 )[/b] Bernardo Bertolucci http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093389/
Raise the Red Lantern ( 1991 )[/b] Yimou Zhang http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101640/
Howards End ( 1992 )[/b] James Ivory http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104454/
The Remains of the Day ( 1993 )[/b] James Ivory http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107943/
Farewell My Concubine ( 1993 )[/b] Kaige Chen http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106332/
The Piano ( 1993 ) Jane Campion http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107822/
Sharpe's Rifles ( 1993 ) Tom Clegg http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108108/ The whole Sharpe series
Middlemarch ( 1994 ) Anthony Page http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108858/
Farinelli ( 1994 ) Gérard Corbiau http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109771/
The Madness of King George ( 1994 ) Nicholas Hytner http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110428/
La Reine Margot ( 1994 ) Patrice Chéreau http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110963/
The English Patient ( 1996 )[/b] Anthony Minghella http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116209/
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ( 1996 ) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115387/
Hornblower: The Even Chance ( 1998 ) Andrew Grieve http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129686/ The whole Hornblower series
Jing Ke ci Qin Wang ( 1998 ) Kaige Chen http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162866/
Wives and Daughters ( 1999 ) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215364/
Black Hawk Down ( 2001 )[/b] Ridley Scott http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265086/
Gosford Park ( 2001 )[/b] Robert Altman http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280707/
Musa - The Warrior ( 2001 ) Sung-su Kim http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275083/
The Twilight Samurai ( 2002 ) Yôji Yamada http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0351817/
The Miracle of Bern ( 2003 )[/b] Sönke Wortmann http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0326429/
To Kill a King ( 2003 ) Mike Barker http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302436/
Henry VIII ( 2003 ) Pete Travis http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382737/
The Scandal ( 2003 ) Je-yong Lee http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380689/
Shadows of Time ( 2004 )[/b] Florian Gallenberger http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360960/
Brotherhood ( 2004 )[/b] Je-gyu Kang http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386064/
The Ninth Day ( 2004 )[/b] Volker Schlöndorff http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411702/
North & South ( 2004 ) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417349/
The Libertine ( 2004 ) Laurence Dunmore http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375920/
Jarhead ( 2005 )[/b] Sam Mendes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/
Good Night, and Good Luck. ( 2005 )[/b] George Clooney http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433383/
Beowulf & Grendel ( 2005 ) Sturla Gunnarsson http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402057/
The Lives of Others ( 2006 )[/b] Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/
Letters from Iwo Jima ( 2006 )[/b] Clint Eastwood http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498380/
Goya's Ghosts ( 2006 ) Milos Forman http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455957/
The Warlords ( 2007 ) Peter Chan, Wai Man Yip http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0913968/
Battle of Wits ( 2006 ) Chi Leung 'Jacob' Cheung http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485863/
The Legend of Naresuan: Part 2 ( 2007 ) Chatrichalerm Yukol http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0975744/
Mongol: The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan ( 2007 ) Sergey Bodrov http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416044/
The Duchess ( 2008 ) Saul Dibb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0864761/
Breaking the Mould ( 2009 )[/b] Peter Hoar http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1434927/
Pope Joan ( 2009 ) Sönke Wortmann http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458455/
The White Ribbon ( 2009 )[/b] Michael Haneke http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149362/
Little Big Soldier ( 2010 ) Sheng Ding http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1319718/
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai ( 2011 ) Takashi Miike http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1728196/
White Vengeance ( 2011 ) Daniel Lee http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2102472/

IMO in general the historical representation gets better the more recent the film.

--- each brain develops its own preferences ---

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Wow, amazing list! :-) That'll keep me busy for a while! Thanks!

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