Films & Series Favorite Historical Movies

I think Ben Hur from 1959 has on of the best musical scores from Hungarian composer, Miklós Rózsa.

Troy (2004) was a great film.

Braveheart is awesome, and I think Mel Gibson did a good job with Passion of the Christs.

I also like The 300 Spartans (1962)
 
I think Ben Hur from 1959 has on of the best musical scores from Hungarian composer, Miklós Rózsa.
I can't stand pre 70's acting. It took me 3 tries to watch it through.

Troy (2004) was a great film.
I agree.

Braveheart is awesome, and I think Mel Gibson did a good job with Passion of the Christs.
I don't want to watch people dying and being tortured for 2 hours. Very depressing.

I also like The 300 Spartans (1962)
I hate this doom and gloom dark format.
 
Such an inspiring moment ...

 
You guys are aware "Troy" didn't have much to do with history or even the poem, right? For one thing, Achilles and Patroclus were probably lovers. :) For another I highly doubt there was an actual Helen, although it makes for a nice romantic story. I also found the acting atrocious, especially Brad Pitt. Don't get me wrong, it was fun to watch: great scenery, stirring rhetoric and battle scenes, and all those muscular male bodies on display. :)

Of course, I've always found it sad that Troy lost. From my first reading of the Iliad I never liked the Greek kings, or Achilles constantly prattling about his honor", and full of bloodlust. The big conflict between him and Agamemnon was over who got to keep some captive slave girl, and not out of love, but out of pride. Agamemnon got just what he deserved, especially considering what he did to his daughter. As for Helen, her morals were wanting, and Paris was a jerk who was thinking with the wrong body part. "Noble Hector" was always my guy, and in the movie too.

@Jovialis,
I like all of them too.
 
Expected from an Italian to support Troy, no wonder about this at all. But that was the period of the great expansion of the Achaeans (there are many names given to the Greeks throughout the Iliad) and war works this way.

As for the character of the Greek kings, those who did wrong things were punished by the gods. Old Homer also praises many of the Trojans and among all the old king Priam and his son Hector, the protector of the realm who valiantly died in battle with the almighty Achilles, who although could chose an aeternal life, he, instead, made another decision.

Of course, all the aforementioned are ways of the ancient people to talk about their ethics and their way of perceiving things and in that sense they should be seen as allegoric.

One important question lies here: were the Trojans different from the Greeks? In fact, were the Trojans Greeks?

Of course, I've always found it sad that Troy lost. From my first reading of the Iliad I never liked the Greek kings, or Achilles constantly prattling about his honor", and full of bloodlust. The big conflict between him and Agamemnon was over who got to keep some captive slave girl, and not out of love, but out of pride. Agamemnon got just what he deserved, especially considering what he did to his daughter. As for Helen, her morals were wanting, and Paris was a jerk who was thinking with the wrong body part. "Noble Hector" was always my guy, and in the movie too.
 
Of course, I've always found it sad that Troy lost. From my first reading of the Iliad I never liked the Greek kings, or Achilles constantly prattling about his honor", and full of bloodlust. The big conflict between him and Agamemnon was over who got to keep some captive slave girl, and not out of love, but out of pride. Agamemnon got just what he deserved, especially considering what he did to his daughter. As for Helen, her morals were wanting, and Paris was a jerk who was thinking with the wrong body part. "Noble Hector" was always my guy, and in the movie too.

come on Angela,

perhaps you should find more characters,

Like Odysseus the 'old wise' Greek,
I wonder among Hektor Priamos and Odysseas a modern third age man, which he prefer?

and what about the oposite the young foollish Greek Patroklos,
All my youth especially at ages 14-25 was in my thought,
If his sacrifice was worthy, and if I as young should follow his example,
should a young boy sacrificized for the glory of family?
what about Aias (Ajax)

As for Paris, it is the most disqusting character in the poem.

and about female characters?
except Ekabe (Εκαβη)
you have the 'odd' sister Kassandra
what about the divine mother of Achilleas, who care about her son's as a mother, bringing him the best.

and the story continues
with Odysseas and Odysseas 2 (lost)
with Orestes and Klytaimnestra etc etc
even Ifigeneia the sacrifized daughter in Crimaia (Tauris)


 
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come on Angela,

perhaps you should find more characters,

Like Odysseus the 'old wise' Greek,
I wonder among Hektor Priamos and Odysseas a modern third age man, which he prefer?

and what about the oposite the young foollish Greek Patroklos,
All my youth especially at ages 14-25 was in my thought,
If his sacrifice was worthy, and if I as young should follow his example,
should a young boy sacrificized for the glory of family?
what about Aias (Ajax)

As for Paris, it is the most disqusting character in the poem.

and about female characters?
except Ekabe (Εκαβη)
you have the 'odd' sister Kassandra
what about the divine mother of Achilleas, who care about her son's as a mother, bringing him the best.

and the story continues
with Odysseas and Odysseas 2 (lost)
with Orestes and Klytaimnestra etc etc
even Ifigeneia the sacrifized daughter in Crimaia (Tauris)



Does everything always boil down to ethnicity for you? I judge each individual, even every fictional individual by the content of his or her own character. I stand by the judgements I made above. The whole world depicted in this admittedly beautifully written magnificent opus is barbaric and bloodthirsty in the extreme. I am not in sympathy with their world view or values. Poor Patroclus is a prime example: what a waste of a young life. Hector is tainted by it too, but he's the best of a bad lot. I like his relationship to his wife. I already said Paris was a jerk, and Priam was an over-indulgent father. As for Odysseus, he's certainly very entertaining, as is the Odyssey, but I wouldn't call him wise; wily perhaps, or in my own language, furbo. It's a trait a lot of my countrymen admire; I don't. Also, what was he about all those years, leaving his wife and family alone?

No, I'm much more in sympathy with the versions of these stories created by the classical Greeks.

For what it's worth I think Aeneas was a cad for the way he treated Dido.
 
Agora (2009)

I warmly recommend to all Christians.

 
^^ Hypatia the Alexandrine.
'Tis indeed bad when the Dark Ages started. Imagine where we would have been now without the monotheistic religions.
 
^^ Hypatia the Alexandrine.
Imagine where we would have been now without the monotheistic religions.

Glad not to be alone who had contemplated this a lot in the past. :) We'd be a completely different world! A better world!
 
Ben-Hur (1959)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Spartacus (1964)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Gandhi (1982)
The Godfather Part 2 (1984)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Saving Private Rayan (1998)
Lincoln (2012)
Haksaw Ridge (2016)
 
Ben-Hur (1959)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Spartacus (1964)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Gandhi (1982)
The Godfather Part 2 (1984)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Saving Private Rayan (1998)
Lincoln (2012)
Haksaw Ridge (2016)
I like them too.
 
I highly recommend "The Heavy Water War", It gives a very good perspective from the Norwegian point of view during World War II. Likewise, it tells the story of the men who sabotaged the German D20 (Heavy Water) extraction facilities that the Germans were using for their nuclear weapons program.
 
I highly recommend "The Heavy Water War", It gives a very good perspective from the Norwegian point of view during World War II. Likewise, it tells the story of the men who sabotaged the German D20 (Heavy Water) extraction facilities that the Germans were using for their nuclear weapons program.

I agree: I saw it too and it's good.

It's available on WHZ Choice.
 
Expected from an Italian to support Troy, no wonder about this at all. But that was the period of the great expansion of the Achaeans (there are many names given to the Greeks throughout the Iliad) and war works this way.
As for the character of the Greek kings, those who did wrong things were punished by the gods. Old Homer also praises many of the Trojans and among all the old king Priam and his son Hector, the protector of the realm who valiantly died in battle with the almighty Achilles, who although could chose an aeternal life, he, instead, made another decision.
Of course, all the aforementioned are ways of the ancient people to talk about their ethics and their way of perceiving things and in that sense they should be seen as allegoric.
One important question lies here: were the Trojans different from the Greeks? In fact, were the Trojans Greeks?
Imo they where more thracian than greek .............the thracians where where they where as early as 3200BC, plus had some tribes in northern anatolia - bithynia for one
 

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