Movies Set in the Middle Ages

Movies

• Artemesia
• Joan of Arc - Obviously a made for television movie, pretty boring and yet not horrible.
• 13th Warrior - How strange to see the Venus of Willendorf as the icon of a bloodthirsty tribe of warriors. As in many action movies, the villains are purely vicious and dangerous with no humanity. We see a Viking funeral that is apparently realistically portrayed, but still the protagonists' morals are Disney-fied. In reality, the woman we saw at the funeral would have been a slave of our protagonists. But that would be too much of a moral grey area for this action-oriented movie. We're supposed to see the protagonists as crass and crude at first but then their efficiency and effectiveness in war shines through. In the end, their violent endeavors are heroic. It's really interesting to think of this in the context of the debate over whether or not humans had a matriarchal pre-history. Does the author of Eaters of the Dead think that a matriarchal prehistorical culture would be so mindlessly vicious? I looked around the web for anything discussing this but all I found was this: http://www.loyno.edu/~wasser/syll.html I wish I was in the area, I'd take the class.
• Ever After - Drew Barrymore
• Henry V - Kenneth Branaugh. Excellent, not pretty.
• Sleepy Hollow - I'm stretching the time period here, but this movie creates such a great atmosphere. Too bad it's kind of dumb.
• Catherine the Great - middle ages Russia. One of many movies set in the middle ages that's primarily concerned with royal politics.
• Lady Jane - much better than I thought it would be. Many themes - adolecent idealism, the intersection of politics and religion, and of course, the political marriages and manuevering of the wealthy. My favorite scene is when Jane and her new husband are stopped by starving peasants on the road. I wish there were more movies set in this time period where we can see more than pampered, scheming aristocracy.
• Lord of the Rings trilogy - Peter Jackson's extended versions. Fantasy, but it seems real
• Lion in Winter - People like it, but I don't get the appeal. All of the characters are so petty and unlikeable, it's hard to enjoy spending time with them.

Lists of Middle Ages movies

CMRS Guide
U of Oregon Medieval Studies program
Medieval focused films that won Oscars
About.com medieval guide's picks for top realistic middle ages films
Movies to Study Medieval History By
Intro to Medieval Films
Pictures