Something about medieval movies simply call to a lot of us in a way that seems entirely visceral since it’s a gut feeling, a pull of sorts that keeps us interested and coming back for more. The history, which isn’t always accurate, the acting, which has been better in a handful of them, and the overall story usually seems to be one of love, revenge, revolution, and a few other themes that seem to fit the time period in a way that’s fairly simple to ridiculously complex depending upon how the directors and writers look at things. But the best medieval movies don’t make you overthink a situation, they draw you in and allow you to just enjoy the story and kick back for a couple of hours while they lay out a plot and a few key action points that make things dynamic enough to follow for more than a few minutes. Plus, even as inaccurate as these movies can be, they make it possible for a lot of people to grow interested enough to look through the written histories to see just how life was lived back in these days.
Here are the five best medieval movies, in our opinion.
5. Kingdom of Heaven
There might be a few eye rolls on this one but if you want the honest to goodness truth no one movie has ever really nailed the Crusades in a definitive manner when it comes to explaining just how intense and controversial this time period was. Many historians would call each other liars and many would even deny that such things even happened the way this movie depicts, but the truth, if we want to hear it, is that the Crusades were a very dark time in history that gave rise to a host of legends and tales that tend to paint people in a fair or foul light depending on which culture you come from and which narrative is the most dominant. In this movie you can’t help but think that no one is really in the right, but that a few people do the best they can.
4. A Knight’s Tale
Of course this movie is silly and not sticking solely to the time period in which it rests, but that’s the point. This was one of the many movies that was designed to entertain and not take itself too seriously and it did so without apology or the need to tone things down a little since it kept quite often to the look and feel of medieval times even while incorporating a couple of more modern elements. William was a man that wanted to change his stars so to speak and rise from the level of peasant to knight on the strength of his arm and the courage in his heart, and apart from a brief moment when a jealous rival had him imprisoned, he made it known quite well that despite not being noble born he was every bit as tough and as determined as any knight that ever stepped onto the battlefield.
3. Ladyhawke
A lot of us grew up with stories such as this, with a curse being one of the favored weapons of the antagonist and a maddening and very frustrating set of events being needed to break said curse. When it’s established just how the curse works however Philippe does what he can to get Navarre and Isabeau to where they need to be in order to break the curse and gain the vengeance that Navarre so desperately wants against the man that cursed them. It’s the kind of movie that in this day and age a lot of folks might look at and wonder why they ever enjoyed it, but those that were enchanted by Ladyhawke will no doubt remember why since it’s still a favorite.
2. Willow
Fantasy has quite the role in medieval movies at times since the two seem to go together so well now and again given that swords and sorcery have been seen to coexist quite well in movies. Willow is the story of a young human child that is found on the river by a pair of Nelwin children who, along with their mother and over the vehement protests of their father, take the child in. When their village is attacked however by those seeking the baby the father, Willow, has to undertake a journey to return the child to the lands from which she is thought to have come from. Along the way he has adventures aplenty as he meets a master swordsman and an exiled sorceress that are meant to help him overthrow the evil queen that wants to sacrifice the child.
1. Braveheart
Historical inaccuracies are part and parcel of a lot of medieval movies since the way things were back then doesn’t always hold up to the scrutiny of the audience and as a result a lot of producers and directors will tweak things to their liking in order to get the greater reaction from the audience. William Wallace is most definitely a well-known and revered name throughout the world, but the story of his life was a bit different than Mel Gibson wanted to depict, and while the movie was impressive and delivered a great deal of emotion a person might not want to read the actual histories unless they want their illusions shattered.
Medieval movies are great if you don’t take them as reality.
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