Richard III (1912)

A superb looking Shakespeare adaptation, one of the oldest known surviving US feature films.

The hump-backed Duke of Gloucester (Frederick Warde) wants to be the King of England. Unlike the more sedate accessions these days, the Duke will rise to the throne with a trail of murder, treachery and scheming. 

However, things do not end well for the King of course, though when this film was made it was not even considered that the King would end up buried under a Leicester car park.

This isn't a filmed play though some of the actors think they are playing to an audience. The film looks pretty good throughout with no expense spared on sets or costumes, though the filming and direction is a bit static and basic. The main problem with a Shakespeare film adaptation from this time is that it is hard to portray the rich dialogue in a silent movie with occasional inter titles! Historical and interesting to watch, though probably only once.

The Bunker (1981)

The last days of Hitler holed up in his bunker, an interesting way of portraying the events now incredibly well known due to the excellent 2004 movie Downfall.

The war is going badly, Hitler's (Anthony Hopkins) health is also not doing so well. With the Allied armies closing in on Berlin, the Nazi leadership retreats underground into the grim Fuhrerbunker. There, Hitler and his staff including Speer (Richard Jordan) and Goebbels (Cliff Gorman) await the inevitable as the explosions above gradually change from being caused by aerial bombers to artillery and tanks.

This is an excellent film, atmospheric and dark and based on the memoirs of the staff who survived. The most interesting stories are from some of the lesser known staff members in the bunker including the radio officer Misch (Michael Kitchen) and the engineer Hentschel (Martin Jarvis) who interestingly were both still alive when this film was made. 

The film might not have generated a million memes like Downfall (the Steiner rant is quite different here) but it very worth a watch.

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)

A historic film that unfortunately now only barely survives.

This film was one of the first full-length movies, originally lasting over an hour, though less than twenty minutes of it now survives. However, despite that we can see that the film was a stunning achievement for it's day. 

The film has six scenes based on the Ned Kelly Gang story. The gang are already notorious and hunted by the police when the film starts. We see the gang carry out a number of killings and hold-ups and even attempt to derail a train. Finally the police close in and Ned Kelly (possibly played by Frank Mills) fights to the very end...

The story of Ned Kelly is legendary and this was the first film to depict the Australian outlaw and terror of the bush. Indeed the film was made just 26 years after Kelly was executed and many would still have first hand memories. It is just such a shame so little now survives.

L' Orgie Romaine (1911)

The hedonistic lives of the Roman Emperors (at least in popular imagination) have always been a rich subject for film. In this early film we follow the notorious Heliogabalus (Jean Aymé) as he indulges himself with a harem of women, boys and also lions!

Heliogabalus comes to a sticky end though when the Pretorian Guard finally tire of his cruelty and deviance. Live by the orgy, die by the sword as they probably never said.

A luscious film that certainly had no shortage of extras and fancy costumes. The camera is rather static and the acting frequently over dramatic but a good story is told none the less.

The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916)

An early epic though, while undeniably impressive, is a bit long winded. With Naples enduring the cruel regime of Spain, the playboy son of the Viceroy (Douglas Gerrard) spies and takes a fancy to Fenella (Anna Pavlova), a mute peasant girl. 

He seduces and ravishes her, then the Viceroy (Wadsworth Harris) tries to get rid of her and the scandal by having her thrown in prison and whipped! Fenella's mistreatment sparks the populace in a revolt led by fisherman Masaniello (Robert Julian) which eventually brings down the Viceroy and his regime who do not have a happy ending...

While not a brilliant film it does have plenty of grand designs and grander staging. Pavlova (yes the dessert was named after her) was a famous ballerina and this was her only appearance in a feature film. Her appearances have the lightness and grace you would expect though the camerawork unfortunately often did not make the most of it. The film could have done with some heavy editing. But it is an interesting film and was quite an accomplishment.

Cleopatra (1912)

A classic early silent movie, full of dramatic gestures and many extras in period costumes (of dubious historical accuracy). This tells the story of Cleopatra (Helen Gardner) after the murder of Julius Caesar and her seduction of Marc Antony (Charles Sindelar) and blah blah blah. The history, or at least William Shakespeare's version of it, is very familiar and doesn't need to be repeated here.

At the start of the film, the slave Pharon (Mr Howard) professes his love to Cleopatra. When she finds out she offers him ten days of love after which he must kill himself. He agrees though Pharon's lover the handmaiden Iras (Pearl Sindelar) is not so keen on this and later uses this against her Queen...

This is a lush historical epic to which regular colour tinting adds another dimension. The film is fairly low budget though and the sets reflect that. The camera is also pretty static, it is more like a filmed stage play than an actual film but still an interesting watch all the same.

The Loves of Hercules (1960)

A hilariously bad sword and sandal tale. The wife of Hercules (Mickey Hargitay) is killed by the treachery of Licos (Massimo Serato) who blames his King (and who Licos kills as well). Hercules turns up wanting revenge but is faced by the King's daughter Deianira (Jayne Mansfield) instead. Hercules falls in love with Deianira (and thus seems to get over his wife rather easily!)

However, Licos is continuing his schemes as he wants the throne, and Deianira, for himself. He has Deianira's fiancé murdered and Hercules is blamed. Hercules goes away and gets entangled in the land of the Amazons and subject to Hippolyta's (Tina Gloriani) sinister lusts and is in danger of being turned into a tree...

The film is ridiculously campy nonsense with poor dialogue and acting, rather ropey action and mediocre special effects. The Hydra, which Hercules fights, looks a bit like a carnival float. However, the film is great fun and a complete cheese fest.

El Cid (1961)

El Cid is a proper movie epic, huge sets, massive casts of extras and at nearly two hundred minutes long an epic watch as well. Its worth it. Ibn Yusef (Herbert Lom) summons his Moor emirs from Spain and tells them it is time to conquer all of Spain in the name of Allah, he will bring his army across if the emirs stop living peacefully with the Christian kings...

Don Rodrigo (Charlton Heston) is on his way to marry Ximena (Sophia Loren) when he saves a town from a Moor attack. Don Rodrigo spares the lives of the Moor emirs who proclaim him El Cid. The Spanish accuse him of treason and Don Rodrigo ends up having to fight and kill the king's champion, who is also Ximena's father...

Although Don Rodrigo regains the king's favour he loses Ximena's. She even tries to get him killed with various intrigues as the Christians spend as much time fighting each other as the Moors. Despite being shunned and exiled Don Rodrigo, El Cid, remains fiercely loyal to the king. As Ibn Yusef's forces gather near Valencia it will soon be time for El Cid to fight in the deciding battle against the Moor invaders...

The film is an amazing spectacle. The various twists and turns in the court intrigue may sometimes be a bit confusing but the sheer majesty of the film will take you safely through it. The frequent battle scenes and fights are very bloody. It is dominating, excessive, memorable... just like an epic should be. Romantic and bold like El Cid the perfect knight.

Apollo 13 (1995)

One of the greatest adventures based on true events, but when you are depicting events this epic it is surely hard to go wrong. Actually it probably is pretty easy to mess it up but rest assured this does not happen with Apollo 13, this film smashes it.

Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is finally heading to the moon having only flown around it on an earlier Apollo mission. There are some last minute snags though due to medical issues and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) has to give up his seat to Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon). Still nothing else will go wrong now?

Unfortunately something does, an explosion aboard Apollo 13 cripples the mission and puts the lives of the three astronauts (including Bill Paxton) in dire peril. Mission Control headed by Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) and with the help of Mattingly must somehow find a way to bring the crew home, pushing the remaining hardware to the limit and using it in ways it was never intended.

The film is a masterpiece. The technical details and the human story perfectly balanced. The performances are all spot on. An iconic film for iconic events.

The Eagle (1925)

A glorious Rudolph Valentino feature from the golden age of silent film with the usual impressively vast sets and large numbers of extras. Valentino plays Dubrovsky, a lieutenant in the imperial Russian army. After he spurns the advances of the Czarina (Louise Dresser) he is forced to go on the run and become a fugitive.

Dubrovsky returns home and find's his family lands have been seized by the evil Kyrilla (James A Marcus). Dubrovsky becomes a masked bandit to fight Kyrilla and instead falls in love with the evil one's daughter Mascha (Vilma Banky)...

And it is all fast paced swashbuckling fun. Valentino is very much in action mode in this film compared to some of his other films where he is there largely for women to swoon over. A great Valentino film, unfortunately he only had one more in him.

Robin Hood (1922)

An epic silent movie, and indeed one of the most expensive ones to ever be made. Douglas Fairbanks is the Earl of Huntingdon who deserts from King Richard (Wallace Beery)'s forces away in the crusades after he hears of the cruel deeds being done by Prince John (Sam De Gasse) back home. The Earl is accused of being a traitor by the King and thus when the Earl returns to England he becomes the outlaw Robin Hood.

Robin Hood forms his merry band and challenges the evil Prince John and his henchman the Sherrif of Nottingham (William Lowery). Finally Robin Hood has to face his bitter rival and enemy Sir Guy (Paul Dickery) and rescue his love, the fair Maid Marian (Enid Bennett). All with the usual Fairbanks athleticism and daring-do of course!

The expense is obvious when you see this film, an large castle and village set were built. Set piece scenes with many extras are spectacular. The film is slightly too long though, while there is plenty of swashbuckling maybe at times the whole show needed a bit of editing. One interesting aspect of the film is that it concentrates heavily on how the Earl became Robin Hood, more than other movie Robin Hood films tend to do. The sets may have been big but Fairbanks was bigger, an astounding film in many ways.

Fire Over England (1937)

A quality historical romp. With England under threat of invasion from the Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson) treads a thin line between appeasing the anger of Spain and rejoicing in the heroics of the likes of Sir Francis Drake. Meanwhile in Spain young Michael (Sir Laurence Olivier) escapes the clutches of the Inquisition and eventually makes his way back to the English Court...

He is reunited with his love Cynthia (Vivian Leigh) one of the ladies in waiting. However soon he must return to Spain in place of the traitor Vane (James Mason) and discover the secret plans of the King of Spain (Raymond Massey) before it is too late...

A superb adventure with plenty of swashbuckling. There is also much intrigue in Court (though some of the historical details may be a bit off). Although the love of Michael and Cynthia is central to the film it is Elizabeth who steals the show of course, if history can be considered a film then she always had some of the best lines.

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

They seek him here... they seek him there...

During the Terror of the French Revolution Madame le Guillotine is giving the fast dwindling French aristocracy the closest of shaves. But an elusive hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel, is snatching them from Robespierre's (Ernest Milton) clutches...

Meanwhile in London Lady Blakeney (Merle Oberon), a Frenchwoman, despairs of her foppish husband Sir Percy (Leslie Howard). Unbeknown to her though Sir Percy is the Scarlet Pimpernel. After her brother is arrested in France she is put under pressure by the brutal Chavelin (Raymond Massey) to find out who the Pimpernel is...

An excellent film, from the horrors of the Revolution to the grandeur of the English Court the film keeps you transfixed. All the principals play good roles but Leslie Howard steals the show, how he switches from seemingly useless dandy to daring hero in an instant is fabulous.

To Live (1994)

The Cultural Revolution, one of the most terrible and bloody periods in history, is recalled in all this horror in this masterpiece starring You Ge and Gong Li. They are a couple who start off quite wealthy but lose everything due to You Ge's gambling as China is shattered by military conquest and then civil war. Reduced to the status of peasants they have to fight to survive, to live, in Mao's China.

The couple and their childrens' lives and experiences are used to show how China changed under Mao, with communist propaganda affecting everyday life, collectivisation and later the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. This final act results (in a round about way) in tragedy...

Great events are sometimes best told through the eyes of normal people at the bottom of society as is the case with this film. Sometimes you wonder how people can survive such hardships, to live. These people did.