![]() Năstase had in any case more than enough ghoulish material at hand and his film is at its macabre best when recreating some of the grislier events of Vlad’s reign – from nailing the turbans to the heads of Turkish delegates who failed to remove their headgear in his presence (Vlad was big on etiquette) to inviting his country’s cripples, beggars and thieves to a great feast before sealing the windows and doors and burning the tavern to the ground (he wasn’t so keen on the welfare state). The film is though faithful to the historical records and it’s refreshing to see a depiction of a figure who famously served as a model for Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula without resorting to hoary vampire clichés. ![]() With its depiction of a medieval Wallachia beset externally and internally by enemies and its stress on the need for a strong, even ruthless, leader to ensure national security, there’s an unmistakable air of apologia about Năstase’s film made under the watchful eye of Nicolae Ceaușescu (then at the height of power in communist Romania), Vlad Țepeș is as much about the Romania of the late 1970s as it is of the 15th century. ![]() ![]() Battle scenes featuring an incredible 15,000 extras gives you some idea of the scale of a film that easily matches the spectacle of the likes of El Cid or Henry V.Īnother film from Eastern Europe with propagandistic undertones, Vlad Țepeș is a historical biopic of the eponymous 15th century ruler of Wallachia – a figure seen as a Romanian national hero for defending his homeland from the previously unstoppable march of the Ottoman Turks, but viewed elsewhere as the epitome of tyrannical cruelty. It’s a wonderfully old-fashioned paean to patriotic heroism and a masterful piece of epic storytelling reminiscent of the kind of swashbuckling adventures Hollywood used to do so well. The lack of subversive qualities perhaps accounts for Knights of the Teutonic Order being less well known outside the former Soviet Bloc than other Eastern European films of the period, which is a pity as there is much that is enjoyable in Ford’s film. Released on the day of the 550th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, the film was part of a communist propaganda campaign which accused West Germany of attempting to revise the borders agreed after World War II, and though it would go on to become one of the most popular Polish pictures of all time, Ford’s toeing of the party line did come in for some criticism – most notably from Andrzej Wajda, who accused Ford and his film of betraying everything the Polish Film School stood for. Knights of the Teutonic Order (1960, Aleksander Ford)Īn adaptation of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s bestselling novel Krzyżacy, Ford’s epic Knights of the Teutonic Order is a spectacular historical romance and war film set at the turn of the 14th century and chronicling the events leading up to the monumental Battle of Grunwald, when an alliance of Polish and Lithuanian forces clashed decisively with the invading Knights of the Teutonic Order. The following list presents some of the more remarkable and interesting films set in or inspired by the Middle Ages.Īuthor’s Note: Although there is some dispute amongst historians regarding the precise dates the Middle Ages or medieval period starts and ends, the general consensus is the years 500 to 1500 in Europe and 1185 to 1573/1600 in Japan and so this list is restricted to films set more or less within that timeframe.Ģ0. Whatever the case, the medieval past continues to fascinate filmmakers and audiences alike. And then there are those who use the historical setting to explore themes and concerns that remain as relevant today as they were over half a millennium ago. Some use the historical distance of the Middle Ages to deal with topics that were not open to discussion in their own societies. Some come from a propagandistic angle, evoking a nation’s heroic past as a means of fostering a spirit of nationalism. That exotic, even alien, quality is partly what draws filmmakers to the medieval period, but there are many other reasons why they might choose the age as a vehicle for their particular stories and thematic concerns. The epoch has always seemed remote, however, not only temporally speaking, but psychologically and spiritually. The past may well be a foreign country, but in a world still plagued by political and ideological conflict, Holy Wars in the Middle East, and the threat of a worldwide disease pandemic, the Middle Ages is not so removed from our modern times as you might suppose.
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