Movies about the Middle Ages - there were or stories

In the USSR, films about Ancient Rus were presented, strangely enough, mostly in the form of fairy-tales. The works of director A. Ptushko "Ilya Muromets", "Ruslan and Lyudmila", "Sadko" are shot with a real Hollywood scale, the extras of "Ilya", perhaps the biggest in the history of cinema.

Filmed later programs in the genre of "documentary films", the Middle Ages of Russia show more often than not cuts from fairy tales.

One of the best works of S. Eisenstein "Alexander Nevsky" (1938) - universally recognized classics of domestic and world cinema.

Western European Middle Ages to the Soviet audience is shown in the films "The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe," "The Adventures of Quentin Durward ...", based on the novels of Walter Scott.

Especially it is necessary to highlight a very interesting joint Norwegian-Soviet tape by S. Rostotsky "And on the Stones of Growing Trees" about the way of life and adventures of the Scandinavian Vikings.

The quality of modern Russian historical (and not only historical) cinema leaves much to be desired. Films "Alexander. Battle of the Neva "(2008) and" Yaroslav. A thousand years ago "(2010) at best cause a desire to revise the" classics ". This list indicates that in the domestic cinematography of the last century films were created about the Middle Ages, not wearing a touch of fairy-tale.

If the reader has not slept in history lessons, or watched movies of the Soviet era, he knows that in reality the Middle Ages were not so terrible and gloomy as it is mostly portrayed in modern cinema.

Western cinema - the Middle Ages as in the textbook

In the West, the best films about the Middle Ages are associated with the name of the great actor Charlton Heston. His work in the film "El Cid" about the events of the Spanish Reconquista is worthy only admiration. The film "The Lord of War" is very good, it is also possible to study the history of feudal relations between medieval Western Europe as a textbook. Full dramatic image of Joan of Arc created by Mila Jovovich in the film of the same name (1999). The events of the Crusades are shown quite well in the tapes of "Arn. Knight Templar "and" Arn: Kingdom at the end of the road. " The film "The Kingdom of Heaven" (starring O. Bloom) is clearly underestimated by the audience. In general, good films about the Middle Ages in the West come out fairly regularly and do not lose their popularity. The next "Robin Hood" (2010) does not pretend to the originality of the plot, but works with the participation of Russell Crowe rarely go unnoticed. "Iron Knight" (2011) has a very real historical basis. James Purefoy very successfully "fit into the role" of the Knight Templar, brilliantly demonstrates the technique of possession of the one and a half sword.

Truth and fiction

Separately it is worth mentioning numerous paintings that do not fit the category of "films about the Middle Ages" because of the lack of a historical basis. Often they are presented as historical, especially if there is clearly no "fantasy" component. This is, for example, "The First Knight" (1995), "Tristan and Isolde" (2006), "The Knight's Story" (2001), etc. At the same time, the remarkable "fantasy" series "The Game Thrones "in terms of costumes, weapons, household items, as well as the intricacies of the plot and intrigues creates a real atmosphere of the time, and if not for the fantastic story, it could easily be classified as" films about the Middle Ages ".