All Things Historical

*IMDbs all these*

Ooh, Gregory Peck! He's good.

Master and Commander looks like my kind of thing. I'll see if I can find it.

Edited Date: 2018-12-12 03:53 pm (UTC)

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muccamukk

There's also the '50s version of Horatio Hornblower also with Gregory Peck, which holds up surprisingly well. I think Forrester was involved in the adaptation.

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Yeah, I saw that one. I liked it, but I don't know if I'd rank it among my favorites.

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muccamukk

I probably wouldn't either, but it's very enjoyable if you like Age of Sail stuff, some of the period fighting bits hold up better than more modern movies. Hey, they remembered what chain shot was!

Definitely could have lived without the brownface.

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meridian_rose

Nice! I wouldn't have thought to include all those later ones as period pieces but of they are :)

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sea_changed

I love that you list a lot of older movies--seeing how people in the past interpreted the past is always fascinating. I especially love Singin' in the Rain--for many, many reasons, but in this case particularly because of how it interprets an era that was not that long before it was made (and that a lot of people working in Hollywood in the 50s still remembered) but was in a lot of ways a whole different world.

I love Sunset Boulevard for the same reason (though obviously the tone is extremely different), and in that case it has the extra layer of much of the cast having worked in the silent era and having had careers that in some way mirrored their characters'. Watching the industry interpret its own past is fascinating.

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I love that you list a lot of older movies--seeing how people in the past interpreted the past is always fascinating.

Thanks. I love old movies.

I especially love Singin' in the Rain--for many, many reasons, but in this case particularly because of how it interprets an era that was not that long before it was made (and that a lot of people working in Hollywood in the 50s still remembered) but was in a lot of ways a whole different world.

It's amazing how quickly things change, isn't it?

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lettered

I love Sunset Boulevard too. I just watched the Bogdanovich Buster Keaton documentary and had forgotten Keaton had a cameo in Sunset Boulevard! That documentary just reminded me all over again how quickly the advent of sound changed everything (I had no idea Keaton was in so many talkies); it's a big reason I love Singin' in the Rain too. (I mean, the biggest reason being that threesome oh my god.)

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sea_changed

I love the Keaton cameo, and all the cameos by people playing themselves (DeMille obviously, but also all the poker players--including H.B. Warner/Mr. Gower from It's a Wonderful Life, which makes you remember that a lot of silent actors did survive into talkies and continued working for decades). I should definitely watch that Keaton documentary--I didn't realize he was in talkies at all, he's such an emblematic silent star to me.

And oh yes, the Singin' in the Rain ultimate ot3. Everything about that movie was incredibly formative for me, shipping priorities very much included.

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lettered

The documentary isn't good. At all. I certainly don't need Quentin Tarantino telling me Buster Keaton is manly, because um. Did he see Steamboat Bill Jr.

BUT I am not a Keaton aficionado and so there was a lot of stuff I didn't know as well as excellent clips, so if you're interested in an overview it's nice. None of his talkies were good (according to the documentary), but they make the point that if he hadn't been so misused (by the MGM studio) he might've made it as a drama star. I'm not convinced; I guess I'd need to see more. I've never seen Limelight (the Chaplin film) but now I want to.

Yeah sometimes I think Sunset Blvd is having as much fun with its in-jokes/behind the scenes stuff as it is with it's in front of the screen stuff, which is part of what makes it so delightful. It's almost as fun to read about as it is to watch.

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sea_changed

Oh lord, that does sound bad. I haven't watched enough silent movies in general, even the classics (Chaplin!); they take a different style of movie-watching that I'm just not as used to. (I did love The Artist from a few years ago, though--it did such clever things with the silent form while still being very watchable from a 21st-century perspective.)

The meta-ness of Sunset Blvd is half its fun, I agree--the more you know about the behind-the-scenes stuff the more interesting it gets (though I'd argue it's pretty interesting to begin with, for all that). Forever my favorite bit of trivia about it is that the movie they watch at one point was an actual silent movie Gloria Swanson starred in in the 20s--directed by Erich von Stroheim, who plays her butler/ex-director/ex-husband.

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lettered

My city does this awesome thing where they do live music performance to go with the silent movie. Some of it is classic, on an organ, as it might've been done for the original movie, but some of it is modern bands. I saw the 1924 Peter Pan with a harp and flute and...one other instrument. Anyway, it was very moving.

Not being much for slapstick, I find I'm not as interested in the old Keaton and Chaplin type of silent movies. However, when I first saw The General, my friend and I decided to put on our own music and we picked something rather sad, and it was a perfect perfect way to watch that film.

the movie they watch at one point was an actual silent movie Gloria Swanson starred in in the 20s--directed by Erich von Stroheim, who plays her butler/ex-director/ex-husband.

I know! So wild!

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sea_changed

I love that--the music is so important to silent movies, it would be great to hear it live, and fascinating to hear unexpected or more modern music over the film. I love the idea of watching more comedic/slapstick films with slower, sadder music, too. It really highlights how important soundtracks are in talkies, as well--it changes how you engage with a movie entirely.

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Good question!

My film watching is always kind of random, but some favourite historicals are:

The Mummy (1999)

The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers (the 1970s version, aka where they only paid them for one film but made two)

Gosford Park

Enigma (2001)

Shakespeare in Love

The Wicked Lady (1947, with Margaret Lockwood playing highwayman)

Plus a bunch of adaptations and things, too.

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The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers (the 1970s version, aka where they only paid them for one film but made two)

I've seen the first one, but not the second.

The Wicked Lady (1947, with Margaret Lockwood playing highwayman)

Sounds fascinating!

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The Wicked Lady is good fun if you like old films! Margaret Lockwood is always great, anyway.

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greerwatson

I'm very fond of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Made in 1969 (based on a 1961 book), it's another one set in a period that would have been familiar to quite a few middle-aged people at the time, i.e. the Spanish Civil War.

A lot of "interpretation" went into its making. I read the book long after I saw the movie; and I was astonished at the differences. IMO, it's much better. It's a crafted whole, in a way that the book wasn't.

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rosefox

Putting in a vote for the 1995 film of Jane Austen's Persuasion! Just superb. And Errol Flynn's Robin Hood has very little historical accuracy to speak of but it's just so much fun.

Edited Date: 2018-12-12 08:50 pm (UTC)

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SO MUCH FUN. The colors, Basil Rathbone, that legendary Flynn/de Havilland screen chemistry, the humor, the final sword fight...everything!

That movie helped me out of a low point in my life. I'll always remember it fondly.

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fawatson

Hope and Glory (WWII blitz told from a child's perspective)

Schindler's List (also WWII, though a less optimist aspect of it)

A Passage to India

Goodbye Mr Chips (either the original 1939 film with Robert Donat or the recent TV adaptation with Martin Clunes - definitely NOT the musical remake with Peter O'Toole which was pretty awful) - all adaptations of Hilton's novel.

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fucktheg0ds

I too like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mummy, and Stage Beauty. Dangerous Beauty is another good one.

And I can't believe no-one's said it yet, but Robin Hood: Men in Tights! Best Robin Hood movie.

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opus72

Aaaaaaamadeus! God what a well-made movie. Accuracy whatever, it's my favorite.

I do also like Doctor Zhivago a lot. Always interesting looking at how the 60s interpreted the 1910s/20s (even though it seems to get ever so slightly hammier every time I watch it lmao.)

Eroica (2003) just...makes the Beethoven scholar in me really happy. I can't think of any other "Composer Movie(tm)" that revels in its own historical nerdiness that much.

The King's Speech is up there too.

Edited Date: 2018-12-12 11:44 pm (UTC)

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(First of all: Can we have a separate thread about TV series? There are *so* many good period series.)

My favorite period movies:

"Lawrence of Arabia." WWI. Includes an English & Arab male friendship plotline. Achingly beautiful cinematography and soundtrack.

"Gallipoli." Australian, WWI. Just about killed my heart when I first saw it as a college student.

"The Railway Children." 1970 version, although the darker 2000 version is worth watching too. (The actor playing the eldest girl in the 1970 version plays the mother in the 2000 version.) Middle-class English children suddenly turn poor, at the beginning of the twentieth century. Lots of steam locomotives.

"Maurice." Early-twentieth-century English young men fall in love with each other, then must deal with homophobia. One of the many Merchant-Ivory historical dramas that is worth watching.

"Victor/Victoria." Gay/trans comedy set in 1930s Paris. Stars Julie Andrews as a drag queen. Yes, you read that right.

"Lilies." Obscure but award-winning French-Canadian film about a group of Quebecois prisoners who force a bishop to watch them act out a tale about a 1910s gay romance. All the parts, including the female characters, are played by men. Gets just as surreal as you'd imagine.

"Race for the Double Helix" (aka "Double Helix" aka "Life Story"). About the discovery of DNA. Both dramatic and funny, with a wonderful performance by Jeff Goldblum and a really good depiction of the female scientist who was later publicly disparaged by the men who owed their fame to her hard work.

"Much Ado about Nothing." 1993 version. Stars Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. 'Nuff said.

"Titanic." 1997 version. Okay, yeah - abounds with anachronistic behavior. But how many ship disaster movies can you see where they filmed it by sinking an actual ship?

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First of all: Can we have a separate thread about TV series? There are *so* many good period series.

Feel free to make a post for it!! ;-D

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I'm on mobile on weekdays, which is why I was hoping somebody else would jump in. :) But if nobody does so by the weekend, I certainly will.

A-a-and just had to edit this post because DW has such a horrible mobile interface. That's why I wait till weekends to do start-of-thread posts. :)

Edited Date: 2018-12-13 10:49 am (UTC)

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Yes, sorry, I'm just being an annoying Mod!

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No, no! It's exactly what I would have said in your place.

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dimity_blue

*"Victor/Victoria." Gay/trans comedy set in 1930s Paris. Stars Julie Andrews as a drag queen. Yes, you read that right.*

"Victor/Victoria" is sheer brilliance. I love Toddy's relationship with Victoria - how they just click with each other. I love Victoria punching Richard in the nose because he's such a bastard to Toddy. I love Squash getting locked out in the snow. I love the poor waiter who can't remember where he knows 'Victor' from until the fight breaks out. I love the same waiter with the cake at the end. I love Toddy's Shady Dame. It's a brilliant beautiful film.

I also want a follow up where they take over Chicago.

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earthspirits

I see we share several favorites - especially The Crimson Pirate and the Flynn films. But they're all great choices, fun list!

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I'm glad you approve of my taste!

The Crimson Pirate was utterly hilarious, and it's hard not to appreciate copious amounts of shirtless Burt Lancaster. ;)

I know Errol Flynn was kind of a bastard in real life, but I still have a huge crush on him. And his smile could light a city block.

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rebecca_selene

I too love The Mummy, and also:

Fingersmith

The Handmaiden

Belle

Red Cliff

Tipping the Velvet

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Oh, yes, Belle is lovely! I knew I'd actually watched some more recent ones that I'd forgotten. (Suffragette, too.)

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rebecca_selene

I just looked up Suffragette. What a cast!

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