Combat in Film - Battles

Battles

Further information: war movies and list of war films

With the possibilities of cutting and of filming outdoors, films have a much wider palette of possibilities to depict violence, including single combat, brawls and melees as well as full-blown battles. From the 2000s, computer animation has come to play an important part in cinematic visualisation of battle scenes, pioneered from 2001 by The Lord of the Ring trilogy (c.f. Massive (software), crowd simulation).

Movies with notable battle scenes:

  • ancient or antiquity-inspired
    • Spartacus (1960) Third Servile War
    • The 300 Spartans (1962) Battle of Thermopylae
    • Gladiator (2000) Marcomannic Wars
    • Troy (2004) Trojan War
    • Alexander (2004) Battle of Gaugamela, Battle of the Hydaspes
    • King Arthur (2004) Battle of Mons Badonicus
    • 300 (2007) Battle of Thermopylae
  • medieval
    • Braveheart (1995) Battle of Stirling Bridge, Battle of Falkirk (1298)
    • The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) Siege of Orléans
    • Kingdom of Heaven (2005) Battle of Hattin, Siege of Jerusalem (1187)
  • early modern to 19th century
    • Elizabeth: Golden Age (2007) Battle of Gravelines
    • The Patriot (2000) Battle of Cowpens
    • The Alamo (2004) Battle of the Alamo
    • War and Peace (1968) Battle of Borodino
    • Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) Battle of Balaklava
    • Waterloo (film) (1970) Battle of Waterloo
    • Gettysburg (1993) Battle of Gettysburg
    • Zulu (1964) Battle of Rorke's Drift
    • The Last Samurai (2003) Satsuma Rebellion
    • Alatriste (2006) Battle of Rocroi
  • 20th century war movies
    • The Longest Day (1962) Invasion of Normandy
    • Battle of the Bulge (1965) Battle of the Bulge
    • Liberation, Oszvobozdeniye (1969) Battle of Kursk, Battle of Berlin
    • Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) Attack on Pearl Harbor
    • Cross of Iron (1977) Eastern Front (World War II)
    • A Bridge too Far (1977) Battle of Arnhem
    • Full Metal Jacket (1987) Battle of Hue
    • Hamburger Hill (1987) Battle of Hamburger Hill
    • Border (1997) Battle of Longewala
    • Stalingrad (1993) Battle of Stalingrad
    • Saving Private Ryan (1998) Omaha Beach (Dog Green sector) - Normandy landings, Invasion of Normandy
    • The Thin Red Line (1998) Battle of Guadalcanal
    • When Trumpets Fade (1998) Battle of Hurtgen Forest
    • Enemy at the Gates (2001) Battle of Stalingrad
    • Pearl Harbor (2001) Attack on Pearl Harbor, Doolittle Raid
    • Black Hawk Down (2001) Battle of Mogadishu
    • We Were Soldiers (2002) Battle of Ia Drang
    • Windtalkers (2002) Battle of Saipan
    • Tango Charlie(2005) Various aspects of Naxalite-Maoist insurgency and Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
    • Lakshya (2004) Kargil War
    • Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) Battle of Iwo Jima
  • fantastical and science fiction
    • Star Wars (1977–2005)
    • Starship Troopers (1997)
    • The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) Battle of the Hornburg, Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Battle of the Morannon
    • The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2006) First Battle of Beruna
    • The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)Second Battle of Beruna

Read more about this topic:  Combat In Film

Famous quotes containing the word battles:

    “These battles sound incredible to us. I think that posterity will doubt if such things ever were,—if our bold ancestors who settled this land were not struggling rather with the forest shadows, and not with a copper-colored race of men. They were vapors, fever and ague of the unsettled woods. Now, only a few arrowheads are turned up by the plow. In the Pelasgic, the Etruscan, or the British story, there is nothing so shadowy and unreal.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.”
    —Socrates (469–399 B.C.)

    “We are the only class in history that has been left to fight its battles alone, unaided by the ruling powers. White labor and the freed black men had their champions, but where are ours?”
    —Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)