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Alfred the Great (1969)
The 1969 film Alfred the Great is based on the life of King Alfred, who was considered one of the great Anglo-Saxon kings of England because he fought off the Vikings. In the film, Alfred is a young man who plans to pursue his personal vow to become…
Othello (1995)
Othello is a 1995 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play of the same name and directed by Oliver Parker. The movie, set in sixteenth-century Venice, is about Othello, a Moorish general of a Venetian army, who marries Desdemona, a white woman. He is a…
Joan the Woman (1916)
Cecil B. DeMille’s first feature-length epic is an exercise in equivocation. Joan the Woman (1916) attempts to tell the story of a woman whose chosen path in life is inherently defiant of the gender norms of both her time and that of the film’s…
Henry V (1989)
Henry V is a 1989 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play of the same name, directed and starring Kenneth Branagh. In the film King Henry V is convinced by his clergymen to invade France. Henry crosses the English channel and takes the French town…
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
The 1938 film, Alexander Nevsky, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, is a war propaganda film that glamorized the Russians and condemned the Nazis. The film centers on the exploits of the thirteenth-century Russian hero, Prince Alexander Nevsky, and…
The Crusades (1935)
The Crusades (1935) was directed by Cecil B. DeMille, whose most known for directing The Ten Commandments (1956). The Crusades explores the tensions between Muslims and Christians during the Third Crusade. When released, the film received a positive…
Ironclad (2011)
Ironclad (2011) tells the story of the siege of Rochester Castle by King John in 1215. King John, played by the dependable character actor Paul Giamatti, furious from his failed wars in France and being forced to sign the Magna Carta by a group of…
The Vikings (1958)
The 1958 film, The Vikings, is a “classic” cinematic representation of the Scandinavian settlers. The film takes place in the ninth century when Vikings sailed from Norway to Northumberland. They pillage the land, and, as the raid continued, they…
Tristan + Isolde (2006)
In the movie Tristan and Isolde (2006), Arthurian themes of chivalry and forbidden love rise to the surface. In the movie, Tristan of Aragon is the true-born son to an English lord, and the adopted son of the most powerful lord in a fragmented…
El Cid (1961)
Based on the Spanish epic poem, El Cantar de Mio Cid, and the anonymous Latin prose Historia Roderici, this film explores the life of the Castilian legend, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, during a period of violent and divisive conflicts between Christians…