Medievil (or similar) movies that 'feel' real?

Try The Virgin Spring, set in 14th Century Sweden. It's not an action movie, but it's very good and has a very authentic feel to it.

Perhaps "Rob Roy" but that is set in the 1700s....

Another fantasy would be "Ladyhawke" which may fit....except for the soundtrack in a very big way....

Happy Easter!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x0jE2CiBrE

I wonder if you've seen Excalibur. It has some magical, mythological elements, but the actual dramaturgy of the movie is not cartoonish. (There is some very good-looking actors in it, yes.)

Alexander (2004) is kind of long, but not bad. It is realistic and, I think, well acted.

The 1948 Joan of Arc, with Ingrid Bergman as Joan, is a serious, very beautiful movie, not at all stupid.

I absolutely love, LOVE the 1974 Lancelot of the Lake (Lacelot du Lac), directed by Robert Bresson. However, be forwarned that this is a French art movie, very far from the action-adventure type.













Snobbery is a form of romanticism, the chastity of the perfectionist

I'll second Aulic's recommendation of Lancelot du Lac (1974), directed by Robert Bresson. But be warned, it's not an easy film to love. It is very laid back and dispassionate. But it's effects creep up on you, and if you aren't entirely immune, (which, in truth, many people are,) it builds to a pretty devastating ending.

I'd also recommend Bresson's Trial of Joan of Arc. It's studiously undramatic, but again, if you get involved, the final shots (and sounds) possess a frightening force.

Of the Hollywood versions of mediaeval history, one of the better offerings is The War Lord (1965). The second you see Chuck Heston's unflattering but accurate haircut, you know that this is slightly different from that norm. And in truth it does have a certain grittiness, a sense of weather and warmth and cold, that standard studio offerings often failed to achieve. I'm very fond of Jerome Moross's score, too.

Searching for films that might fit the bill, I've just discovered one Iwhich sounds very interesting: Le Chanson de Roland (1978). It sounds like just the thing you're looking for. I haven't seen it but I'd very much like to: http://filmsdefrance.com/FDF_La_Chanson_de_Roland_rev.html

You might also like to try A Walk with Love and Death (1969), a rather quirky film set during the Hundred Years War. Nice score from Georges Delerue.



Call me Ishmael...

Two I saw recently are Black Death(2010) which is almost as good as it is accurate, weighed down by an epilogue that outdoes True Grit in its truegrittiness, and Valhalla Rising which, while authenticate, I would not recommend to anyone who likes to watch movies or or value their eyes.

I rather preferred another recent watch, The Wild Hunt, which is factual in its LARPishness but otherwise the antitheses to feeling real.

I totally agree w/austendw's recommendations. I especially like The War Lord and love the J. Moross score. I'd like to recommend two films....one is La Passion Beatrice. It is a French film set in Medieval France and it 'felt' absolutely authentic to me. The other is The Seventh Seal....I guess it could be a sort-of companion film with The Virgin Spring. Both films are set in Sweden in the Middle Ages and 'feel' like the time and place they are portraying...

With warmest best regards from CA -- beryl0001

Oh, I just remembered another film...."Flesh + Blood" with Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh....really, really 'gritty'.

I'll see your Flesh and Blood and raise you a Ladyhawke and a The Thirteenth Warrior.


Also: Biggest source material/film drop-off ratio: Timeline.

Bonus: Literary nominees: Gary P. Jennings' Raptor, set before, during, and after the Visigothic invasion of Rome and Aztec if Medieval Central America counts.