# Surprisingly good historical event films.



## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

The other day I bought, on DVD, Barbarossa (2009) with Rutger Hauer, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Now, I was expecting a kind of short budget version of the events with poor acting and terrible direction and only a cameo by Rutger, as has often been the case in recent years with film companies and producers only using Rutger to bolster marketing and sales of their second rate films. I know this for a fact as I have been a Rutger Hauer fan since the late 70s, and unfortunately he has had small roles in more than his fair share of turkeys in the last 20 years.

However, my admiration for this film grew and grew, the storyline is accurate, the acting is great, the North Italian scenery is wonderful, the battle scenes very realistic. And as befits his Italian nickname "Barbarossa" (red beard), Rutger sports a nice ginger beard.

It is 2 hours 19 minutes long. For me it could easily have been much longer it was so good. A wonderful epic heroic film that I can thoroughly recommend.

Here's a trailer: 




_German Emperor Barbarossa will stop at nothing to conquer and build his empire. But a young man from Milan, along with his army of 900 men known as the Company of Death, is prepared to challenge the Emperor.
_
One odd thing I've noticed is that it has various titles, possibly due to pirating or maybe licensing in various parts of the world. The original title in Italy is simply Barbarossa, the official English title is Barbarossa: The King. But I have also seen it entitled Barbarossa: Siege Lord, Barbarossa: Company of Death, and Barbarossa: Sword of War.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Earl of Ormonde said:


> The other day I bought, on DVD, Barbarossa (2009) with Rutger Hauer, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
> 
> Now, I was expecting a kind of short budget version of the events with poor acting and terrible direction and only a cameo by Rutger, as has often been the case in recent years with film companies and producers only using Rutger to bolster marketing and sales of their second rate films. I know this for a fact as I have been a Rutger Hauer fan since the late 70s, and unfortunately he has had small roles in more than his fair share of turkeys in the last 20 years.
> 
> ...


Having looked at the trailer it looks about as historically accurate and as balanced a view of Barbarossa as "Braveheart" had of Robert Bruce....

For reasonably accurate, and engaging historical films, try "Battle of Warsaw, 1920" or "La Reine Margot". Both are biased, and somewhat romaticised, but are correct in their essentials. Or for rather more recent stories, my favourite would be "Winter War" 



 for the trailer.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Why don't you just watch it instead? And see if you enjoy it.


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## RM Bantista (May 30, 2009)

Gentlemen,
While one seldom pays for movies these days, the other day, watching Public Television, on watched an excellent presentation of a point of law that was called Assassination in Idaho. It was well structured, engaging, and absolutely accurate in every conceivable way. All the circumstances were presented fairly and with structural dramatic force, and the production was available to any one who was so fortunate to have stopped to see it. It is possibly available to your PBS station. If not, one suggests that a 'smart man' might be able to find it for viewing. (Unrelated sidebar, One is remembering a friend who would ask himself, now what would a smart man do or a smart man would have done..) However, just chance that on a Thursday evening one watched the story of how a present day federal law principle became established law. One would not spoil the experience by speaking further, than to say it was a moment that matters to this day well told and worth my time to see it so well done. Not only USA was forever changed, but some greater historic moment was in play as well.
It is still an active topic of discussion and leads me to a second oddity.
There is a television series still in production that one gained access to through another unrelated way about how the railroads came to be in the post war period that is very well done and, yes, not entirely without its commercial aspects and romanticism, very respectful of its subjects and engaging. This program is called 'Hell on Wheels.' How one may find it is not for me to say, but it would be best from the first season if one is able to tolerate strong subject matter not suitable for children or the faint of heart. This was not a time for fond memories, but more in the vein of Scorsese's Hells Kitchen story.
Best Regards to you both, and good evening to you,
rudy


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## racebannon (Aug 17, 2014)

Saving Private Ryan for the Normandy beach landing.


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