100 Historical Movies in Order (read rules in 1st post)

[Rev. Powell]

Since Ben Hur is set during the reign of Tiberius (I think), the next movie would have to be

12. Caligula

I really thought resident historian Indiana Smith would be participating here.

[Dr. Whom]

That allows me to continue with

13. Quo Vadis (1951)

Set in the reign of Nero (until 68AD)

[M.10rda]

We blew right past SPARTACUS. Oh well.

[Dr. Whom]

We blew right past SPARTACUS. Oh well.

Yes, I was hoping to sneak in Astérix et Cléopâtre but that is BC as well.

[Rev. Powell]

We blew right past SPARTACUS. Oh well.

There have been some big time jumps, but nowhere near as bad as I feared. I was afraid people wouldn't read the rules and we might be in the 20th century already!

14. The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) - set in 79 AD.

[Dr. Whom]

Well there aren't that many historical movies set in the ancient past (and that is counting Roland Emmerich and biblical epics as historical, which is a stretch). So big jumps in the beginning were to be expected. As ist is, we're at 15 and we're still in Roman times.

15. Gladiator (2000)

set in 180 AD

[Rev. Powell]

I was going to post FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, but it's about the same time as GLADIATOR, so time for another big flash-forward to

16. Excalibur. Around 500 AD.

[Alex]

Shame we skipped The Life of Brian. If I recall correctly, that one gives you its exact date & time right down to it being tea time.

[Rev. Powell]

Shame we skipped The Life of Brian. If I recall correctly, that one gives you its exact date & time right down to it being tea time.

"...thanks a lot for the gold and frankincense, but don't worry too much about the myrrh next time."

[pacman000]

There were some movies set after Jerusalem fell, but before Christ we missed. Plus a few set in ancient Greece & Rome, like Ulysses,Jason & the Argonauts, & Troy.

Hm. Robin Hood isn't for another 500 years. I've got nothing in the 500's, but don't want to jump five centuries.

Anyone know of any significant events in Asian, African, or Mesoamerican history, from that time, on which some films are based?

[Rev. Powell]

I thought we would fall into one of two tracks: either Greek mythology or the Bible. Mixing them would be complicated. We're now in the era of post-King Arthur, Charlemagne and the vikings. Not sure about Asian, African, or American history (those are harder to date).

There are a lot of obscure historical movies you could uncover with research, but jumping by centuries is probably inevitable at this point.

[pacman000]

Was trying to think of a Beowulf movie, but most of those are set in 500 AD. :/ So...

17) Erik the Conqueror (1961)

Set around 800 AD. Still a jump, but not a 500-year jump.

[Dr. Whom]

Then the next would be

18) The 13th Warrior (1999)

Apparently set in the reign of Caliph al-Muqtadir (reigned 895-932 AD)

[Dr. Whom]

There are a lot of obscure historical movies you could uncover with research, but jumping by centuries is probably inevitable at this point.

Quite. If you take any well known historical figure, chances are that someone somewhere has made a biopic. For instance about late antiquity/early middle ages, a quick search turned up two biopics of St. Augustine. There is also the two part 'The Last Roman' of 1968, a German-Italian-Rumanian coproduction about the Gothic Wars in Italy. With the Emperor Justinian played by Orson Welles, no less.

I don't think we ought to dig up curiosities like these yet. I'm all for sticking to fairly well-known ones.

[Rev. Powell]

Also I would like to point out that chronological overlap is acceptable, as long as your movie ends after the previous one does. This may become more significant when we get to the 20th century.