Looking for ideas

[dreamshark]

During our trip to Britain, Amber was impressed by my sweeping knowledge of British history. Actually, I've just watched a lot of historical movies and mini-series which then inspired me to either read a book or (in recent times) look up the story on Wikipedia. It's not exactly in-depth historical expertise, but I can at least get the kings and queens in approximately the right order.

Amber and Thorin and I have all been recently captivated by the steamy mini-series The Tudors. Since the kids have now finished that series, I suggested that they swing right into the classic "Elizabeth R"mini-series to see what happened next. Amber wanted some more suggestions, so I've been trying to assemble a complete tour of the English monarchy in movies and mini-series. Anybody want to chime in? Here's what I've got so far. I haven't personally seen all of these, but have at least some reason to think that they are worth watching. Of the ones that I HAVE seen, my two favorites (which are also among my favorite movies of all time) are Lion in Winter and Rob Roy.

I think this list hits at least a bit of every century from the 11th through the 20th, but there are some notable holes. To start with, hasn't anybody ever made a movie about the Norman Conquest?? I was hoping someone would have done The Golden Warrior, but apparently not. I'm very shaky on the War of the Roses era - about all I could think of there was Shakespeare, and I'm not personally familiar with any of those plays. I've never quite figured out how the Hanovers got to England, and my movie history doesn't help much in that regard. And why can't I find any movies about Bonnie Prince Charlie? Surely there must be some! Rob Roy kind of hits the right era, but I think it's between the two Jacobite uprisings.

I was concentrating on movies that at least touched on the monarchy and politics, but I'd be happy to include some good period movies that just do a good job of reflecting life in a particular era. Any suggestions?

---- Here's the list so far. * marks the ones I've seen.
*Pillars of the Earth (miniseries)
Becket
*Lion in Winter
Kingdom of Heaven
*Holy Warriors: Richard Lionheart and Saladin (a documentary, but such a juicy one that I'm including it)
* The Adventures of Robin Hood
* Braveheart
Edward II (the 1970 version with Ian McKellan)
Henry V (Laurence Olivier version)
King Richard III (Laurence Olivier)
The Black Arrow (1948)
* The Tudors (miniseries)
* Elizabeth R (miniseries w/Glenda Jackson)
Mary, Queen of Scots (Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson again)
Cromwell
Restoration
* Rob Roy
* The Scarlet Pimpernel (Leslie Howard)
* The Madness of King George
Young Victoria
* Upstairs, Downstairs (miniseries)
* Downton Abbey (miniseries)
* The King's Speech

Comments

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to suggest Blackadder III and the Sharpe series to get a feel for the Regency period.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Blackadder is a possibility, I suppose. I've only seen a few episodes, and it seemed pretty silly. Maybe worth trying if I can't find something better for the Regency period. I don't know what "the Sharpe series" is.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

The BBC series based on Bernard Cornwell's Napoleonic war novels that revolve around the adventures of Richard Sharpe, an officer in the Rifle Regiment who's been commissioned from the ranks for heroism. I haven't seen too many of the episodes, but they seem to stick pretty close to the books - and the books are excellent in their portrayal of Regency-era England, particularly the interaction between the aristocracy that makes up most of the officers in the Army and the lower-class draftees serving in the ranks.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Sounds promising. Maybe I'll check it out.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I don't have any recommendations off the top of my head, but I loved The Lion In Winter and now I will see Rob Roy on your recommendation.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I did think of one after all. The Other Boleyn Girl is supposed to be good, but I've heard that there's almost no bowling at all.

[pameladean]

A Man for All Seasons. Thomas More and Henry VIII.

P.

[carbonel]

Beat me to it.

With Peter O'Toole, which is generally a plus.

Oops, never mind. I'm forever confusing the actors (not the plot) of Becket and A Man for All Seasons. Paul Scofield, not Peter O'Toole. Still worth watching, though.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I get them mixed up too. Not just the actors but the real people. Clearly, appointing your best buddy to a position of power is a common error made by absolute monarchs.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

The BBC did a series based on Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael novels, set at 1142 (King Stephen and the Empress Maud having a little civil war). The books are excellent, and the filmed episodes are actually pretty good.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

That sounds perfect - slides right in between Pillars of the Earth and Becket. Do you recall the name?

[carbonel]

In a burst of stunning originality, they were called Cadfael.

[carbonel]

And most, if not all of them, are available on Netflix.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

DVD only, though, which I just dropped (one at a time was simply not useful).

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Why is one at a time not useful? What's your DVD alternative? (In light of the rate hike, I'm probably dropping to one at a time, so I'm curious what your thinking was and what alternatives you've considered.)

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

No DVD alternative; this means going back to not renting DVDs. We'd only managed to watch 4, and I returned one unwatched. One just isn't enough to have a reasonable chance of the DVDs on hand including one that both Lydy and I are in the mood to watch.

The solution, which I should have thought of, is to rip them to hard disk and return the DVDs, and then watch whenever it's convenient (this does need a computer near the TV, with HDMI output).

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Much as I love Netflix streaming, I'm surprised that anybody finds the limited selection adequate for their entertainment needs. It's great if you just feel like watching something but have nothing in particular in mind. I do that sometimes. But I'm far too likely to embark on projects like this, where I decide to watch particular things, to be happy with streaming Netflix alone.

It's getting better, though. I think about half of the items on my British History list are available streaming.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

It's not that we're happy with it; there are several things we want to watch available via DVD and not via streaming. However, in practice we watch nearly 100% streaming; one DVD was never the RIGHT DVD.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

It appears to be called simply "Brother Cadfael". Amazon.com has individual seasons and a complete collection (we have one season of old VHS tapes). Here's one of the complete collections: http://www.amazon.com/Cadfael-Complete-Collection-Derek-Jacobi/dp/B003YCI1UC/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1311392744&sr=1-1

Derek Jacobi plays Brother Cadfael, too.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

At least one episode of Civilisation was set in England, iirc. And Ascent of Man (better than Civilisation, to my mind) isn't specifically about England, it is certainly from a British mind-set.

Longitude
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (really; my classics professor loved the accuracy)
Master and Commander
Great (a brilliant film about Isambard Kingdom Brunel: An animated musical!)
A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court
Any Sherlock Holmes, especially the Jeremy Brett ones, and a nod to Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother and variants
Time After Time (well, maybe)
Um... Mary Poppins?
Ivanhoe

There are zillions of Robin Hood tales, but I'll end with When Things Were Rotten. Won't tell you a lot about England (or anything), but some of them were fun.

ETA Aargh! No, I can't stop.

The Bed Sitting Room
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes
What Did You Do in the Great War Daddy?
The Battle of Britain
How I Won The War (or any of the Richard Lester Beatle's films)
Battle of Hastings 1066 Part II (England at war) (a short YouTube video mainly describing the Bayeaux Tapestry)
There have been several attempts to film Shakespeare's plays, eg Richard II, but I haven't seen any of them
Five Million Years To Earth

Not all that much in the way of "royalty", but that's a subject that doesn't interest me. Much of British history seems like hissy fits between horny teenagers. Admittedly, a lot of history seems like hissy fits between horny teenagers, but Brits even moreso.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"Not all that much in the way of "royalty", but that's a subject that doesn't interest me. Much of British history seems like hissy fits between horny teenagers. Admittedly, a lot of history seems like hissy fits between horny teenagers, but Brits even moreso."

Only the modern ones are boring, now that they have no power. The fascinating thing about people like the Plantagenets and the Tudors is that they are just flawed human beings like everybody else (and who doesn't have an inner horny teenager?) but everything they do is magnified. Lots of couples have marital problems and strife, but when it's the king and queen suddenly the country's in the middle of another civil war. And how many ordinary people have the problem of people getting accidentally murdered just because of a passing fit of temper ("Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?").

In any case, monarchical succession is a handy way of ordering the history of a country, although that kind of breaks down during the War of the Roses with all those mysterious early deaths and child kings.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

The 1954 "Knights of the Round Table." While not strictly historical, it does feature a scene of two opposing armies of mounted and fully decked out Knights (Arthur's and Mordred's) and they charge at each other at full speed. None of this newfangled CGI stuff either.... they did it with a camera on a dolly, speeding up as the chargers got up to full gallop.

It's altogether thrilling. You can see where Peter Jackson got his inspiration.

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"Anne of a Thousand Days."

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

OK, Wikipedia has a useful list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_drama_films

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

If documentaries are not outside the scope of the project, you could look at this Netflix page and link hop from there.

K.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

No one has mentioned one of my very favorites, Lady Jane (1986), about the tragic, nine-day reign of Lady Jane Grey (briefly crowned queen right before Bloody Mary), which was one of Helena Bonham Carter's first movies (I think she was about fifteen when it was filmed. Also stars Cary Elwes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Hodern and John Wood (helluva cast) and I just adored it. You can watch it on Youtube; here's the first section.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of that one. Netflix has it - no need to go through the agony of trying to watch on YouTube.