Sunday 9 October 2011

Realistic Historical Battles on Film

I happened to catch a bit of Oliver Stone's well-meaning biopic of Alexander the Great the other night. The critical panning was perhaps well-deserved but his heart was in the right place and it's worth sticking with until the battle of Gaugamela. After that, by all means, switch off without any fear of missing anything of importance. But the battle itself has to be the most realistic ancient battle ever depicted in film. As far as I can remember, it happened pretty much as described by the ancient historians, though the dramatic touch of an eagle's eye view featuring an actual eagle was slightly novel. Perhaps Harry Hill was a consultant.

So anyway, here's my top two historically accurate cinematic battles

1. Gaugamela (Alexander)
2. Waterloo (Waterloo)

There must be more.

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