Movies for historical education

Oh, don´t get me wrong about this. I know as much as anyone how movies tend to override historical facts for entertainment value, but still, there is a lot to learn and experience from some movies, and I´d like to see your favourite ones, and which angle on history they do best, in your opinion.

The idea for this discussion came up on another topic where Schindler´s List was introduced as Williams´ best movie, and that it should be used for education, so, here we go... let´s delve a bit deeper into this.

Since it was already mentioned, what do you consider a good bunch of movies to show the whole madness of the Third Reich? My list would consist of Schindler´s List, The Pianist, and Downfall.

For good movies about the madness of World War II, I would list The Boat, Stalingrad (another german movie from the Eighties), and, of course, Saving Private Ryan.

What else is there...?

I´d like to list the recent King Arthur (yeah, the Hans Zimmer one), but not for the obvious reasons (after all, no one knows whether Arthur ever lived at all), but for the disastrous events which followed the Fall of the Roman Empire: Of course, it´s Hollywood, but still you get the feeling across how it must be for a people if the well known military force that ruled your country for so long suddenly decides to abandon you if things get from bad to worse. When the Saxons arrived, the people of roman province of Brittania certainly faced a dark fate, and one can easily see how things like those still affect our times. What will happen if the US leave Iraq, or look at what happened in Somalia... of course, there are always very relevant movies about the actual thing, like Black Hawk Down or Three Kings, but I think the comparison with the events in King Arthur are valid, even if the latter one certainly is much moree entertainment than anything else.

I´d like to mention Ridley Scott´s Kingdom of Heaven as well. As much as the movie changed historical facts, I think the general atmosphere was spot on. What did it mean exactly to live in the Holy Land during the Crusades?

Then there is The Last Valley. Is there any better movie to show the madness of that war? During those thirty years, hell ruled supreme in my own and the neighboring countries, and how all things went down after a time, and nobody knew any longer what was right or wrong, what was sacrilege and what was true faith. A monster of a movie.

So, I´d like to know what you think about those I mentioned, as well as see what you´ll dig up yourself.

Oh, did I mention that most of these movies have excellent scores?