I just finished reading If a Pirate I Must Be, the story of Bartholomew Roberts, and it got me thinking that, as far as I know, there is no reasonably accurate historical drama film about pirates.

Again, with the same as far as I know and historically accurate caveats, there’s nothing about Vikings, Celts and Romans, The Battle of Hastings, Shackleton’s Boat Trip or the Battle of Trafalgar, all of which I reckon would make entertaining films.

What would you like to see made in to a film ?
What obscure historical films are there that I might have missed ?

The Battle for Castle Itter.

It was the only battle where Americans and Germans (Wehrmacht) fought as allies (against an SS division) during WW2.

It would be great if there was a decent film about the Crusades.

Noah and the Ark.

Alcock and Browns first flight across the Atlantic

Battle of Thermopylae?

The charge of the light brigade –Crimea 2014

as far as I know and historically accurate caveats, there’s nothing about Vikings,

WHAT!?

I give you this stunning drama-documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFes1Rl2l0Q

Yeah, loads of accurate viking stuff has been done.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQgoGccHJD4[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rft9QtIFks[/video]

The battle of The Beanfield

The Life and Times of Fred (aka The Banning)

All quiet on the western front

Maurya Dynasty.

A tragedy romance epic and a re-write of the history books too about the first man to actually fly was from wales.. not the wright brothers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/posts/bill_frost_first_man_to_fly

deluded – Member

The Battle for Castle Itter.

It was the only battle where Americans and Germans (Wehrmacht) fought as allies (against an SS division) during WW2.

WTF?! off to Google

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Castle_Itter

Fascinating.

As every Brit or Russian knows it was the yanks that won the war.

Crying out for a Hollywood remake that. 😆

I’ll 2nd that.It’d make for an ace film.

Roland’s betrayal and ambush by the Basques at Roncevaux, or better yet, King Jan Sobieski’s victory over the Turks at Vienna.

Is this turning into a thread about who can come up with the most obscure bits of history, or do you REALLY think that some of these suggestions are worthy of the effort, and speculative investment, involved? I’m not convinced that a potential world-wide audience of one is enough for the industry’s movers and shakers to, erm, move and shake.

Well not quite a historical story but i would love to see a Hollywood film about Delorean, couldn’t make his life story up

Not sure it would actually be that interesting from a Hollywood point of view, but I’d love to see the Battles of Austerlitz or Verdun made into a film, if only to shut up the bloody “cheese eating surrender monkeys” crap which for whatever reason irritates the hell out of me.

Thinking about Verdun: are there any decent WWI films?

I’d like to see a modern version of Macbeth, the story has it all and with todays film skills and effects would be great.

I’d like an unemotional alamo, dealing with awkward facts like what the texicans were actually doing there.

or the Battle of Trafalgar

There was that thing on the telly a while back about the surgeon on HMS Victory. I thought it was pretty good on a low budget.

Battle of Thermopylae?

I think it was done in 1960s technicolour well before the homerotic cartoon

The Life and Times of Fred (aka The Banyning).

The Sanity Assassin, I watched Kidnapped recently, principally about the capture of one man after the battle of Culloden. You can’t get much more obscure than that.
The Dam Busters is the story of a raid that lasted only a few minutes spun out in to a two hour film.
I’m sure some of the ideas above have got similar potential.

Anyway, I’ll add the story of Amelia Earhart to my list.

I think it’s unfortunate that Hollywood tends to stick to tried and tested themes; Westerns, World War Two and Alien Invasion for example.
The three way struggle between Harald of Norway, Harold of England and William of Normandy, with battles at Stamford Bridge and Hastings, would make an excellent film.

Since I read the Pillars of the Earth I’ve been interested by ‘The Anarchy’, the twenty years when King Stephen and Empress Maude were going toe to toe for the crown of England

I was going to suggest the battle of orgreave, but it apears to have already been done.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSywDBev5ss[/video]

A film that took in the sweep of the Great Game across Asia, following Peter Hopkirks book narrative.

They already did… 🙁

Battle of sheriffmuir might work, or One about Rob Roy.

The history of the House of Wessex & the creation of England, its a fascinating story, from Alfred to Æthelstan.

Battle of Cannae and the Battle of Clontarf

The history of the House of Wessex & the creation of England, its a fascinating story, from Alfred to Æthelstan.

Alfred inviting the Vikings to a comprehensive ass-kicking at Eddington, near Westbury, ought to make a good, bloody battle scene.
A bit about it in the Vikings exhibition in the British Museum.

Yet to see a film I liked about the American Civil War.

The battle for Keren in the Second World War. An almost forgotten theatre of the war in Africa let alone the world.

Battle of sheriffmuir might work, or One about Rob Roy.

Theres a fantastic 1960’s one about Culloden, made by the amazing Peter Watkins

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0efUZQANaE[/video]

Seriously, fifty years old and it could have been filmed yesterday!

I believe its due to be rebroadcast the night before the referendum…

The assassination of Princess Diana

Æthelstan’s crushing of the Danelaw, the Scots, the Picts, the Strathclyde Welsh & the Welsh Princes would show how the modern State of England was created.

Upham’s VCs. Or any VC stories for that matter.

The Battle for Manila – 1945 inc the massacres.

death toll comparable to that of the Tokyo firebombing or the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Yet no one really remembers what sacrifices the locals paid – besides the death toll…..

Filipinos lost an irreplaceable cultural and historical treasure in the resulting carnage and devastation of Manila, remembered today as a national tragedy. Countless government buildings, universities and colleges, convents, monasteries and churches, and their accompanying treasures dating to the founding of the city, were ruined. The cultural patrimony (including art, literature, and especially architecture) of the Orient’s first truly international melting pot – the confluence of Spanish, American and Asian cultures – was eviscerated. Manila, once touted as the “Pearl of the Orient” and famed as a living monument to the meeting of Asian and European cultures, was virtually wiped out.

With Terrance Malick and Spielberg co-directing, so that it’s a technically brilliant yet exciting ponder on the pointlessness of it all and as a bit of an attack on Japanese revisionism.