I've always had an academic curiosity and interest with the 18th century for some reason. It mostly revolves around the military aspect (Age of Sail, Age of aimed rile file, the resplendent military uniforms, etc.) but I also find many of the scientific and cultural aspects quite fascinating. There are 5 films and tv shows/miniseries that really personify that century for me,



1. Barry Lyndon

2. Last of the Mohicans

3. Amadeus

4. John Adams

5. Turn


So is there any specific time period besides WWII that you've always had a fascination with? And what tv shows and films are great examples of that time period?

One I have always liked is James Clavell's Shogun, the full series not the cut down film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080274/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

It's been a couple of years since I last watched it or read the book, must get round to it again

There is no one period in particular or even culture, I have enjoyed the Hornblower series as well, Hornblower, although still in the age of sale is almost 200 years after Shogun.

"Shogun" is a great miniseries even though it changes a lot of historical facts with the Sengoku Jidai civil war.

Great drama, not so perfect historical accuracy.

Master and Commander

Outside of WW2 my favourite war movie is Waterloo (1970). Absolutely the best onscreen battles I ever saw, 30,000+ trained Russian solders used as extras, cavalry units measuring 2000 or so, I made another post about this somewhere here with footage of some of it. Ever seen those dramatic oil paintings of cavalry charges from Napoleonic era battles? Imagine that realised in film, exactly.

Becuase of that movie I prefer the Napoleon Total War game to any of the others.

Only other war that interests me really is the American Civil War. But not so much movies, more documentary. Like Ken Burns' excellent documentary for example.

The Napoleonic Wars era has some really great stuff indeed.


There's also,


Sharpe's Rifles
Waterloo
War and Peace (the original Russian production)
Horatio Hornblower series

Christopher Plummer was good as Wellington but Rod Steiger as Napoleon.....I actually got chills the first time I watched him perform on screen. He was just so magnificent in that film.

I also like The Duellists.

whilst not exactly accurate, i do love the Sharpe series

If you mean the version directed by the same guy who directed Waterloo, then yes. I've been trying to find a version of that for years with no luck.

Just cause you are from Yorkshire

Yeah the Sharpe series is very good and Sean Bean was still alive after the first reel even the wife likes it.

I recently managed to get the last episodes of the series on bluray and have still to watch it, so many films so little time

Greatest historical movie of all time

Richard Lester's 'Musketeer' films. Originally shot as one epic film, broken into two.

Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay, Oliver Reed, Charlton Heston, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee, Roy Kinnear, Spike Milligan...the cast alone is breath taking. It's a somehow overlooked film pair today. Brilliantly acted at times (Reed is spellbinding at times, Heston may have given his best performance ever, and Lee simply drips Evil), deeply dramatic at others, witty, and fun. I have played these films for people at home and they have been stunned.

Historically based, certainly. Master and Commander may be my favorite film.

The Last Kingdom (just as the Sharpe Series based on novels by Bernard Cornwell). The (Danish) costumes are more fantasy than historically accurate, but the rest is close to the books and therefore more or less accurate.

"The Last Kingdom" looks really good Jayhawk even though all I kept thinking of while I watched the trailer was "Game of Thrones without the supernatural stuff in it". The lead character is even dressed kinda like Jon Snow.

Yes, unfortunately the BBC lowered itself to such "standards", but that's probably the only way the producers could have gotten funding, by pitching a "historically accurate Game of Thrones".

Which is a pitty, because the only things the series has in common with Game of Thrones are swords and, well, fur.

Note that early in the trailer, young Uhtred tells his mother, correctly, that "Danes" were coming, not "Vikings".

It's a story about the (semi-) fictional character of Uhtred of Bebbanburgh (today's Bamburgh Castle), a Saxon who was raised as a Dane (and refuses to become a Christian but keeps his pagan ways), who's employed by King Alfred of Wessex to help realize his vision of a unified "Englaland".

The series follows the - so far 10 - novels pretty closely, telling two books per season (8 episodes each).

Thanks for that summary Jayhawk. I think I may just check out this series.

By the way, shouldn't most of the characters on that show be speaking Old English?

Check out their YT-Channel for more background info.

I enjoyed watching it, and have been looking forward to its continuance.