MovieChat Forums > Voyna i mir (1968) Discussion > Any more epic movies with great battless...

Any more epic movies with great battlesscenes in them?


I already posted this on the Waterloo forum.

Okay....what I have seen so far with epic grand scale battles. There are NO WWII films in the list, for the simple fact that I cannot recall them just now. There are no Starwars/Lord of the Rings movies in it.

(Older)
Alexandr Nevsky (1938) (Black&White, but omfg looks great!)
El Cid (The battle of Valencia is great)
Lawrence of Arabia
Zulu (Nice suspense)
War and Peace (AA++)
Waterloo (AA++)
Spartacus
Ran (Nice)
Glory (Good last charge over the beach)
The Lighthorsemen (The story feels a little bit as an excuse for that charge)

(Modern;1990, - )
Gettysburg (long and glorious)
Gods and Generals
Braveheart
Army of Darkness (yup, a comedy on the list. Fun movie with fun battle)
Alexander
The Last Samurai
The Legend of Suriyothai
The Patriot
Gladiator
King Arthur
Kingdom of Heaven
Troy
The Alamo (2004, don't know the older version)
The Promise (fantasy, but still nice battle)
Joan of Arc: The Messenger

On my YET TO SEE list:
Zulu Dawn
Kagemusha
Charge of the Light Brigade
Ben Hur
Doctor Zhivago (mainly for the cossack charge)
Boris Godunov (very hard to get)
Cromwell (but I hear a lot that it is propaganda...oh well...since I put Alexandr Nevsky and the Patriot in the list I cannot complain about that anymore :p)

Honorable mentions (battles in a movie that are just good)
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (The bridge battle is more focused on the useless of the war, but it looks great.)
Heaven's Gate (The villagers versus the mercenaries is nice battle....only it seems that there is more dynamite then there are people involved in it.
Flesh&Blood (One battle in the beginning, but not really worth it)
Revolution (many extra's but not great battles..the Pacino preformance is the best thing in the movie)
Cold Mountain (Not focused on the battle, but there is a battle in it)
Barry Lyndon (A smaller battle, not that great)
Ivan the Terrible part I (One siege. If you like giant guns... Still great movie)
Rob Roy (It's more of a raid, but there are some battle like happenings)
Michael Collins (Great street fighting scenes with old WWI weapons and armor)
Excalibur (O Fortuna+siege=great. 2x O Fortuna+charge=better)
March or Die (Good beginning, nice end battle. The rest is boring.)

I might forget some things. Feel free to add to the list.

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Alexander the Great 1955 version with Richard Burton has a good battle scene in

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The Sovereign's Servant (2007)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0476695/

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Black Hawk Down
Thin Red Line

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The BEST battle scene ever put to film, and one endlessly copied by even many of the films on your list: Chimes at Midnight. Orson Welles masterpiece on the cheap features the Battle of Shrewsbury. It is stunning.

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Chimes at Midnight is not yet on dvd :(

Updates on the list:
Zulu Dawn (Good)
Kagemusha (Not fair to judge, since the battle is not the main focus)
Charge of the Light Brigade (1968; dull movie with great climax)
Ben-Hur (Sea battle was quite good)
Doctor Zhivago (doesn't focus on the battles, but one of my favorite movies still. The cossack combat is well done)
Cromwell (good battles. Reminded me of Braveheart)
Henry V (1989 version. Low budget battle, but nicely done)
Khartoum (Good)
Four Feathers (1938. Good enough)
The Blue Max (WWI. Great air battles)
Hell's Angels (WWI. Movie is an excuse for nice air combat)
Mists of Avalon (Arthurian legend)
Fall of the Roman Empire (Romans vs Barbarians)
The Message (Muslims versus non muslims. They could have done more with it in my eyes)


how could I forget the first time: Fistful of Dynamite (Mexican revolution. Historical epic/drama mistaken as a spaghetti western comedy)

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I really suggest watching the epic film "Krzyzacy" (Knights of the Black Cross). It's an amazing and includes some well shot battle scenes.

The movie is basicly the Polish VS. the Germans, bu in medieval times.

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The most amazing battle sequences filmed without using CGI are in Voyna i mir and Waterloo. Voyna i mir has larger scale, but waterloo is technicaly superior - the shot of cavalry rushing regiment standing in battle array is simply amazing - the camera first focuses on horses than goes up and up showing us the full scale of the battle.
Somebody mentioned the last samurai here - bondarchuk back in 60s made way better movies than zwick makes now (I don't blame Zwick though - it just they way theu make movies today)

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The Charge of the light brigade (all 3 versions) and
TARAS BULBA brilliant film and a massive battle between kossacks and Pols

the crocodile just wouldnt flush down the toilet

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three other proposals:

Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (Seven Years War)

Der große König (Seven Years War), made 1942 in Nazi-Germany

Kolberg (Napoleonic Wars, Prussians against French), the most expensive movie of Nazi Germany, made in 1944 (in splendid Agfacolor) by the same notorious film maker Veit Harlan who directed DER GROSSE KÖNIG. A piece of bizarre propaganda, but the battle scences with several thousand extras are even nowadays quite impressive

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I have always regarded War and peace as THE battle scenes giant!

But (and) now I have ventually found another film up there - I was really surprised to find such a giant production with thousands of soldiers on screen again:

Mihai Viteazul - a romanin super-epic! And, a great movie as well!

I would also recomend the polish trilogy With fire and sword, especialy:

Potop
Pan Wolodyjowski

Huge battlescenes here too! But not as fantastic as in the two mentioned at the beginning!

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And.... Dacii

Great film and massive scenes (thousands of extras)

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You're missing 'Alexander' the newer one, the battle of Gaugumela.

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Many good choices cited here. I'll add Birth of a Nation (1915) and a second vote for Karthoum. Took my brothers to it when we were kids (he thought it was a "cartoon") and was spellbound by the scope of the battle scenes.

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Thanks for the list of movies with great battle scenes.
Very interesting reading.

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thin Red line

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Thanks again for the list with movie battle scenes.
It's rather interesting reading.

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Alexandr Nevsky was one of the memorable movie. I loved it. I can't believe you left Saving Private Ryan and some of the Lord of the Rings battles...

My life isn't any better than yours.

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those I didn't see in the thread -

Last of the Mohicans
The Longest Day
The Wind and the Lion
Lion of the Desert
Kingdom of Heaven/Gladiator (those were probably mentioned)
Enemy at the Gates
Apocalypse Now
We Were Soldiers


Patton
Bridge Too Far
Battle of the Bulge
The Pride and the Passion
Kings of the Sun
Sodom and Gomorrah
Helen of Troy
100 Rifles

DeMille films tend to have huge battles (The Crusades, etc)

foreign films -

Stalingrad
1612
Das Boot

Damn the Defiant
The Alamo (1960)
55 Days at Peking
Master and Commander

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paths of glory i havent scene on any of the lists i was pretty impress by as being an earlier war film. and all quiet on the western front.

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