Game of Thrones season 8 may not air until 2019. What should fans do during the long wait? How will they sate their yearnings for medieval and fantasy drama, for bloody battlefields and epic romances?
One solution: watch movies, specifically those that bear some similarity to Game of Thrones, or at least that are least vaguely set in medieval times (500-1500 A.D.). There are a lot of those to choose from, and we’re here to help narrow it down.
We’ll skip the obvious The Lord of the Rings to dig into Middle Ages-themed entertainment old and new, domestic and foreign, Hollywood blockbusters and cult favorites. You’ve got your grimdark, your popcorny, your soapy, fun, comedic and just mind-bogglingly-weird. We’re hoping you might discover a new favorite or rediscover an old one.
This is a by no means comprehensive sampling, so please feel free to volunteer your own favorites in the comments section. Without further ado, here are 25 ways to tide yourself over while you wait for Game of Thrones season 8, presented in no particular order:
1) Ran (1985)
Master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa‘s Ran is a brilliant adaptation of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and has more than stood the test of time. Hailed as a masterpiece, Ran employs fabulous cinematography, imagery and color; it also won that year’s Academy Award for Costume Design.
The story, as mentioned, is taken straight from King Lear, but transplanted to medieval Japan: An aging Japanese warlord decides to divide his kingdom among his three sons. Two of the sons are treacherous, maneuvering to gain their father’s favor with falsehoods and flattery, while the youngest son honors his father by speaking the harsh truth to him. The egotistic old man falls for the lies of the two unworthy sons and banishes the unfortunate third. The elderly warlord’s pride and the underhanded power grabs by the two corrupt sons causes the kingdom to split apart and fall into bloody internecine warfare.
Ran has continually amazed both critics and audiences alike. Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that “Ran is a great, glorious achievement. Kurosawa often must have associated himself with the old lord as he tried to put this film together, but in the end he has triumphed …” The New York Times’ Vincent Canby also raved about it: “Though big in physical scope and of a beauty that suggests a kind of drunken, barbaric lyricism, Ran has the terrible logic and clarity of a morality tale seen in tight close-up, of a myth that, while being utterly specific and particular in its time and place, remains ageless, infinitely adaptable.”
If you’re looking for an epic medieval movie experience with immense emotional power, sweeping battles and elaborate costumes and armor of the kind you can find on Game of Thrones, look no further than Kurosawa’s Ran. And if this film makes you want to see more of Kurosawa’s work, you’ve got a lot of great films waiting for you, including Rashomon,The Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood.
2) Henry V (1989)
While we’re touching on Shakespeare, let’s mention Kenneth Branagh’s spirited adaptation of the bard’s famous history of Henry V. There have been a number of film versions of the play, but this installment is considered one of the best by critics. Branagh was honored with Academy Award nominations for both Best Director and Best Actor.
Set in 1415, King Henry V of England trades insults with France until the antagonism leads to war. Henry assembles a small army and invades France, eventually facing off with a vastly superior French army on the battlefield of Agincourt. Henry delivers Shakespeare’s famous St. Crispen’s Day speech, encouraging his English troops, who, aided in large part by their powerful, armor-piercing longbows, defeat the French knights.
The film fantastically recreates the Battle of Agincourt for the cinema. At the time, Roger Ebert acknowledged Branagh’s rapidly rising star:
"There is no more stirring summons to arms in all of literature than Henry’s speech to his troops on St. Crispan’s Day, ending with the lyrical ‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.’ To deliver this speech successfully is to pass the acid test for anyone daring to perform the role of Henry V in public, and as Kenneth Branagh, as Henry, stood up on the dawn of the Battle of Agincourt and delivered the famous words, I was emotionally stirred even though I had heard them many times before. That is one test of a great Shakespearian actor: to take the familiar and make it new."
Branagh’s Henry V receives a 100% reviewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Game of Thrones is positively Shakespearean in its scope, so why not spend time with the Bard’s great medieval plays while you wait for season 8?
3) El Cid (1961)
You can’t go wrong with an epic historical drama, and this is one of the best. Director Anthony Mann teamed up with Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren to bring the near-mythic life of the great El Cid to the big screen (in 70mm Super Technirama Technicolor!)
El Cid was actually the 11th century Spanish Castilian Knight Don Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (the name ‘El Cid’ probably derives from the Arabic term for ‘The Lord’). In the movie, El Cid struggles with his personal sense of honor and a family vendetta while leading the Christian forces of Spain against a Moorish invasion.
The response to El Cid upon release was mixed but largely positive. Upon its premiere, The New York Times’ critic Bosley Crowther adored its spectacle, writing “If the worth of a big historical movie were measured solely by its wealth of spectacle, by the castles and crowds and battles in it, and by the amount of noise it makes, then . . . El Cid would easily command attention as the worthiest historical movie ever made…In short, the spectacle is terrific. Only the human drama is stiff and dull.”
Despite Crowther’s misgivings, the film’s reputation sparkles with a rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. If the idea of Charlton Heston appeals to you, also check him out in The Warlord.
If you’re looking for epic medieval war stuff, then El Cid may well be your cup of tea. Not everybody is on the fence about it, either: director Martin Scorsese called it “one of the greatest epic films ever made.”
4) Valhalla Rising (2009)
If you’re a fan of the grimdark, then the Danish-made Valhalla Rising, starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Rogue One), will probably serve you well. It’s a slow, hypnotic story of revenge and redemption set in the year 1096, and about as bloody as a movie can get. If you loved Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Revenant, you’ll probably want to spend time with this flick.
Mikkelsen plays One Eye, a Norse warrior who escapes slavery to join a group of Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land. Things don’t go according to plan, and the expedition ends up in the New World, fighting for their lives in a weird, near-psychedelic landscape.
Valhalla Rising was a box office disappointment, but that didn’t stop a lot of critics from loving it. Mark Olsen of The L.A. Times called the film “a visually stunning, thematically rich and out-there tale of Vikings . . . Brutal and bracing, Valhalla Rising transforms into a cracked and crazy meditation on war and religion, nation building and the raw savagery that often lies just beneath society’s surface. And there’s blood, brains and guts too.” Rotten Tomatoes gives a mixed reviewer response, clocking in at 71%.
If you love bloodthirsty Viking movies amped up to eleven, you really have no excuse for never having watched Valhalla Rising. It’s an ambitious rumination on what a world of violence does to a human being. Methinks the Hound would love it.
5) Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
If you like your medieval epics absolutely star-studded, look no further than the historical drama Kingdom of Heaven. Directed by Ridley Scott and featuring Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons and Edward Norton, the high-powered casting is part and parcel of this film’s ambition. An extra treat: Game of Thrones cast members Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) and Alexander Siddig (Doran Martell) all make appearances. (Don’t blink, however, or you might miss Coster-Waldau.)
Set during the 12th century, Kingdom of Heaven chronicles the journey of an everyman blacksmith (Orlando Bloom as a fictionalized version of the historic figure Balian of Ibelin) who learns he is the son of a lord crusader (Liam Neeson) and is swept up in the titanic struggle to defend the city of Jerusalem from the armies of Saladin.
Kingdom of Heaven opened to mixed reviews and a good share of critical drubbings. Scott’s later director’s cut version of the film was considered a superior effort by some and received higher acclaim. Roger Ebert liked the movie, stating, “There is a certain scale that’s inevitable in films of this sort, and Scott does it better than anybody. Even so, I enjoyed the dialogue and plot more than the action . . . The movie is above all about the personal codes of its heroes, both Christian and Muslim. They are men of honor: Gentlemen, we would say, if they were only a little gentle.”
Personally, I really like this movie, even though it gets a piddly 39% review score on Rotten Tomatoes (though the audience score is much better at 72%). This film doesn’t always succeed on every level, but the main story is compelling, the cinematography breathtaking and the battle sequences as sprawling and detailed as one could ever hope for. If you’re looking for a big, fun medieval action movie, I’d highly recommend it.
6) Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972)
Let’s hedge into the Renaissance/Age of Discovery period and check out the conquistadors! Like Valhalla Rising, the German-made Aguirre, The Wrath of God is a slow, violent and hypnotic journey into a heart of darkness.
Set in the 16th century, the ruthless and increasingly imbalanced Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) leads a Spanish expedition of exploration into the New World. He’s looking for El Dorado, the legendary city of gold, and as he plunges deeper into the jungles of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, he plunges deeper and deeper into insanity.
Aguirre gets a 98% reviewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes, pretty good for a movie this dark and self-absorbed. The film was well-received upon it’s theatrical release (though, strangely, not so much in Germany) and rapidly became a cult favorite. Critic Richard Schickel of Time said “[Director Werner Herzog] does the audience the honor of allowing it to discover the blindnesses and obsessions, the sober lunacies he quietly lays out on the screen. Well acted, most notably by Klaus Kinski in the title role, gloriously photographed by Thomas Mauch, Aguirre is, not to put too fine a point on it, a movie that makes a convincing claim to greatness.”
Aguirre ,The Wrath of God is a tricky movie to describe, but I’d say the Rotten Tomatoes Critic Consensus nails it: “A haunting journey of natural wonder and tangible danger, Aguirre transcends epic genre trappings and becomes mythological by its own right.” It’s a difficult movie (who says becoming “mythological” is easy?) but it’s well worth the effort.
7) Flesh and Blood (1985)
Don’t be fooled by the ’80s-era poster art here — Flesh and Blood (starring Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason-Leigh) is a deeper, darker and more twisted movie than you might expect. It’s a American-Dutch-Spanish co-production directed by Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct) and there’s plenty of gore, sex and plague tossed into this wartime adventure.
Set in 1501 Italy at the close of the Middle Ages, the story begins with a force of mercenaries (led by Martin, played by Rutger Hauer) assisting Lord Amolfini in the recovery of his castle from enemy forces. Once his castle is secure, Amolfini betrays the mercenaries and refuses to pay them (24 hours of looting the city had been promised). Martin leads the company on a course of revenge both bloody and unpredictable.
Flesh and Blood choked in its limited U.S. box office release, but it has garnered a cult audience and a healthy level of critical acclaim since. Variety described the film as “a vivid and muscular, if less than fully startling, account of lust, savagery, revenge, betrayal and other assorted dark doings in the Middle Ages,” adding “for the amount of carnage that piles up, explicit gore is kept to a minimum.”
Per Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of critics enjoy the film, while only 63% of the audience does, reflecting the public’s love-hate relationship with it. Flesh and Blood is uneven, but it’s also unique, and Hauer’s performances are always fun.
8) Braveheart (1995)
Yes, it’s an obvious one, but Braveheart (Mel Gibson) belongs on any list of great medieval movie. Always worth a re-watch, this 13th century action epic was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and walked away with five: Best Picture, Best Director (Gibson), Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Best Sound Editing.
The film is a fictionalized chronicling of the story of the Scottish folk hero/warrior William Wallace as he led the Scottish clans in revolt against King Edward I of England. Spurred to get revenge for the murder of his beloved wife and deliver the Scots from brutal English rule, Wallace’s defiance exploded into the later-named First War of Scottish Independence.
Despite its awards and commercial success, Braveheart wasn’t always a critical darling. For example, the British film review magazine Empire ran a poll in 2005 that had Braveheart topping the list of “The Top 10 Worst Pictures to win the Best Picture Oscar,” but also had a reader poll where the film was voted the best film of 1995. Roger Ebert enthused, “(it’s) an action epic with the spirit of the Hollywood swordplay classics and the grungy ferocity of The Road Warrior. What people are going to remember from the film are the battle scenes, which are frequent, bloody and violent.”
Whatever one thinks of Gibson’s historical inaccuracies and heavy-handed myth-building, the battle sequences are still as mind-blowing now as they were then. Game of Thrones alumni James Cosmo (Lord Commander Jeor Mormont) also appears in the film.
9) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990)
Who says the Middle Ages were all about doom and gloom? How about we leave the grime and gore behind for a bit and suggest a fun one set in Denmark in the late 1500’s? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a fun romp, especially if you’re a fan of Shakespeare or Hamlet. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
The concept of the movie (adapted from director Tom Stoppard’s hit absurdist play of the same name) is cool: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two very minor characters in Hamlet, still exist when they are offstage, unaware that their ultimate fates are already written. Actors Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are brilliant as they bumble around in the wings, locked in a doomed effort to unravel the nature of their existence while the unstoppable play progresses around them.
This film, as much as some fans like it, certainly isn’t for everybody. Much of the criticism leveled against it has to do with its failure to translate well from stage to screen, as pointed out in New York Times critic Vincent Canby’s review. He found much of the film “amusing” but noted that, “On the stage, this sort of thing can be great fun, an end in itself, somewhat like music. In the more realistic medium of film, so many words can numb the eardrums and weigh upon the eyelids like old coins.”
Still, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead gets more positive reviews than negative ones, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 64% and an audience score of 88%. And if you are a fan of either Roth or Oldman, their performances are the heart of what is great about this movie, along with the witty writing. Richard Dreyfuss also appears, as do two Game of Thrones Alumni: Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) as Hamlet and Donald Sumpter (Maester Luwin) as Claudius.
10) Excalibur (1981)
Of all the movies on this list, perhaps none may be more ambitiously epic than Excalibur, director John Boorman’s fantasy masterpiece that tackles the sweeping drama and intrigue of Arthurian legend. Shot entirely in Ireland, the film showcases a plethora of famous actors, including Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson and Patrick Stewart. Game of Thrones alumnus Ciaran Hinds (Mance Rayder) also shows up.
Boorman enthusiastically chronicles the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, based on Sir Thomas Mallory’s 15th century romance Le Morte d’Arthur. The famous characters of Merlin, Arthur, Morgana, Lancelot and Guinevere, wonderfully coiffed and costumed, once again work through the rise and fall of Camelot.
Excalibur was the number one movie in the United States on its opening weekend and highly lauded for its cinematography. The critics, however, often found its story and plot lacking. Ebert described it both as “a wondrous vision” and “a mess…a record of the comings and goings of arbitrary, inconsistent, shadowy figures who are not heroes but simply giants run amok. Still, it’s wonderful to look at.”
Despite these reservations, Excalibur remains a fan favorite, even verging on cult film status. It currently scores 80% in both the reviewer and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The strengths of this epic are its gorgeous visuals and the powerful performances of its British actors playing big, “operatic” roles. Pop up a giant bucket of popcorn, settle down in front of your big screen and enjoy.
11) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Remember when movies were pure, plain, all-adventure fun? Toss historical accuracy out the window and hang on for the ride with Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains in the best version of Robin Hood ever put to film. Your heart will glow along with its gorgeous technicolor, and you’ll have no defense against some of the sweetest swordfights and most romantic smooches of all time.
The story opens with King Richard away from England on the Third Crusade, so his evil brother, King John, teams up with the Norman Lords to take the throne and make all their Saxon subjects poor and miserable. Enter Robin of Locksley, now known only as Robin Hood, who forms a band of Merry Men to rob the rich and protect the poor as they await Richard’s return.
Critics have loved The Adventures of Robin Hood ever since the day of its release in 1938: Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times wrote: “A richly produced, bravely bedecked, romantic and colorful show, it leaps boldly to the forefront of this year’s best.” In 1995, The National Film Registry acted to preserve the film when the U.S. Library of Congress named it as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The Rotten Tomatoes score? 100%.
The 11th Academy Awards didn’t overlook this movie, either: it was nominated for Best Picture, and won Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Original Score and Best Editing. This is one of the few shows on this list you can let your kids watch with you. Turn down the lights and take your childhood back for a couple of hours.
12) Robin and Marian (1976)
Sticking with Robin Hood a little longer, let’s visit Robin and Marian, shot in Panavision and Technicolor and starring Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw and Richard Harris. The film was billed as a romantic adventure, powered by the powerhouse connection between the charismatic Connery and Hepburn.
Chronologically, Robin and Marian picks up about 20 years after where the aforementioned The Adventures of Robin Hood leaves off. Long after their original love affair ended, a graying and grumpier Robin returns from France (the Crusades are finally over) to find Marian (now installed as an abbess in a nunnery) and courts her once more. They’re both scarred and more thoughtful: Robin witnessed the death of his beloved King Richard the Lionheart in France, and Marian has survived a suicide attempt.
Moviegoers and critics were generally positive about Robin and Marian upon its release. Roger Ebert liked the film, writing: “What prevents the movie from really losing its way, though, are the performances of Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn in the title roles. No matter what the director and the writer may think, Connery and Hepburn seem to have arrived at a tacit understanding between themselves about their characters. They glow. They really do seem in love. And they project as marvelously complex, fond, tender people; the passage of 20 years has given them grace and wisdom.”
Robin and Marian was shot entirely in Spain, so it’s environment may feel somewhat familiar to Game of Thrones fans. It’s an offbeat, warm movie that’s worth a watch.
13) Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Filmed by the legendary Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin), Alexander Nevsky recounts the 13th century invasion of Russia by the Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire and their defeat by Prince Alexander, often called Alexander Nevsky.
Eisenstein made Alexander Nevsky during the Stalinist era,, when tensions between Russia and Hitler’s Germany were extremely high, and the director took the opportunity to stock his historical epic with modern propaganda messages. For example, some Teutonic infantry in the movie wear helmets that resemble the stahlhelms worn by German soldiers in the first World War.
Stalin approved of the film and Russian audiences flocked to it upon its release in December 1938. On April 15, 1939, the Chairman of the State Committee for Cinematography announced that 23 million people had seen it, making it one of the most popular films of its time. Despite it’s propagandist tendencies and Stalin’s stamp of approval, Alexander Nevsky is still considered a cinematic achievement. Rotten Tomatoes reviewers award it a 94% rating.
The movie climaxes with the half-hour long Battle on the Ice, a sequence so magnificent it influenced the choreography and special effects of films for years to come, including the Battle for Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. In a very real way, Game of Thrones’ battle set pieces — including the Massacre at Hardhome and especially the Ice Lake Battle in season 7’s “Beyond the Wall” — owe part of their success to the spectacular legacy of Alexander Nevsky.
14) Ironclad (2011)
Okay, Ironclad isn’t the best action-adventure war movie ever made. But it’s got enough going for it to be worth a watch, including a role for Game of Thrones fan favorite Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister). Starring Paul Giamatti (Sideways) as an oddball Prince John, the cast also includes Derek Jacobi, James Purefoy, Kate Mara and Brian Cox.
Set in the the year 1215, the story follows a small group of defiant Knights Templar who occupy Rochester Castle in defiance of the tyrannical King John. King’s John’s mercenary army initiates a bloody siege, and the rebels must defend the castle until an allied army arrives to reinforce them.
Neither critics nor historians think much of Ironclad. The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis wrote that the movie “alternately feels, plays and sounds like an abridged television mini-series and a feature-length video game.” The film is obsessed with brutality and the graphic depiction of gore, and Paul Giamatti delivers a jarring bit of scenery-chewing, eye-rolling overacting as the mentally unbalanced king. Yet it’s all wrapped in a decent-sized B-movie budget, so you be the judge.
The reviewers (43%) and audience (41%) at Rotten Tomatoes don’t think much of Ironclad, but if you love it, make sure to check out it’s sequel, Ironclad: Battle for Blood, which is worse. (Thrones alumnus Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark) somehow got cast in that one.)
15) The Seventh Seal (1957)
Masterpiece time! Perhaps legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman‘s finest film, The Seventh Seal stars the youthful Max Von Sydow (Game of Thrones’ Three-eyed Raven) in an epic historical fantasy considered a classic of world cinema and one of the greatest films of all time.
Von Sydow plays an exhausted knight returning home from the Crusades (a familiar theme on this list) who finds his beloved Sweden in the grip of the Black Death. Death himself appears in the form of a man, announcing that the knight’s time to die has arrived. The knight suggests playing a game of chess for his life, and Death accepts the challenge. As the game unfolds, the knight and Death converse about the meaning of life.
Upon its release, The Seventh Seal took something of a critical drubbing in Sweden, but also won the 1957 Jury’s Special Prize at Cannes. Eventually, the movie became widely accepted as one of greats, including by Roger Ebert, who recognized how it breaks with movies made today. “Long considered one of the masterpieces of cinema, it is now a little embarrassing to some viewers, with its stark imagery and its uncompromising subject, which is no less than the absence of God. Films are no longer concerned with the silence of God but with the chattering of men.”
The Seventh Seal is one of those films that asks you to take the journey with it, to dig deep into its symbolism and allegory to glean what meaning you can. You may feel like you’re familiar with it even though you haven’t seen the movie because its iconic look and theme are so often imitated and parodied. It’s a darling of Rotten Tomatoes, pulling in a score of 92% and an audience score of 93%.
16) Macbeth (2015)
Into the breach with Shakespeare we go once more, with the latest film adaptation of Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. This play represents the bard at his bloodiest, so this action-filled interpretation may well appeal to fans of Game of Thrones.
“Double, double, toil and trouble!” Three witches prophesy that Macbeth shall one day become the king of Scotland. Encouraged by his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, he embarks on a campaign to murder the current king and just about everybody else who gets in his way.
Macbeth opened to high critical praise but bombed at the box office. That’s unfortunate, because it is sumptuously filmed and Fassbender and Cotillard are brilliant in the lead roles. The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis offers accolades for the magnetic Fassbender:
"With his Macbeth, Mr. Fassbender, who routinely shakes hands with greatness in films that don’t remotely do the same, produces a man whose anguish eventually becomes a powerful counterpoint to his deeds, partly because he’s already dead by the time he utters his first word. Mr. Fassbender gives you a reason to see this Macbeth, although the writing isn’t bad, either."
Macbeth lands an 80% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes but stumbles with an audience score of 64%. Personally, I side with the reviewers: if you think this is a stuffy old filming of a stagey play, watch the trailer. It’s a perfect film for a cold winter night, a roaring fire, blood red wine and a big plate of haggis.
17) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon arrived in theaters as an unheralded Mandarin-language action film with a $17 million budget and ended up becoming a worldwide phenomenon, grossing $213.5 million and garnering 10 Academy Award nominations. (It won four: Best Cinematography, Score, Art Direction and foreign Language Film.) Directed by Ang Lee (who went on to direct movies as diverse as Hulk and Brokeback Mountain), the movie is headlined by Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh.
A retired martial arts master gives his 400-year-old sword, the famous ‘Green Destiny,’ to another martial arts wizard (also the woman he secretly loves) to deliver for him. When the sword is stolen by a young Chinese warrior, the great fighting masters hurl into action in an epic tale of romance, adventure, betrayal and redemption.
Everything happens on a grand scale in this movie, including the mind-blowing action sequences cooked up by Yuen Woo Ping, who also choreographed the special effects and action sequences in The Matrix (1999). The positive reviews are legion, including Richard Corliss of TIME, who says Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became “exactly what Lee hoped to create–a blending of Eastern physical dexterity and Western intensity of performance. High art meets high spirits on the trampoline of an elaborate plot. Crouching Tiger is contemplative, and it kicks ass. Or put it this way: it’s a powerful film and a terrific movie.”
Rotten Tomatoes also adores Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with a reviewer score of 97% and an audience score of 86%. If you have yet to adore it, watch it. If you already adore it, watch it again.
18) The Name of the Rose (1986)
More Connery! This time, he’s starring in a murder mystery set in a 14th century Benedictine Abbey. The Name of the Rose is based on the book of the same name by Umberto Eco, and the movie adaptation brandishes a lot of star power, including Connery, Christian Slater, Ron Perlman and F. Murray Abraham.
Adso of Melk (Slater), now an old man, tells the story of his youth when he and his mentor, Franciscan Friar William of Baskerville (Connery), attempted to solve a series of murders in the Benedictine abbey they were visiting, fearful that failure would result in a dreaded inquisition.
The Name of the Rose did not fare well upon release in the United States, tanking at the box office with only a $7.2 million return on its $17 million budget. It gathered steam worldwide, though, and ended up earning a respectable $77 million in total. American and Italian critics were generally positive about the film, though Roger Ebert gave it only 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing: “There are so many good things in The Name of the Rose – the performances, the reconstruction of the period, the over-all feeling of medieval times – that if the story had been able to really involve us, there would have been quite a movie here.”
I remember seeing this movie in the theater (yes, I’m old) and I remember rather liking it. It clocks in with a nice 74% reviewer score and 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
19) Arn: The Knight Templar (2007)
The most expensive production in the history of Swedish cinema, Arn: The Knight Templar has an odd origin story: the original 2007 film and its 2008 sequel, Arn: The Kingdom at Road’s End, were cut together into one movie for it’s American DVD release in 2010. The epic project boasts a stellar international cast, including Stellan Skarsgard, Michael Nyqvist and Bibi Andersson, one of Ingmar Berman’s favorites.
The epic film is based on a book trilogy about a fictional mid-12th century Swedish Knight Templar named Arn Magnusson. Raised in a convent but trained to be a soldier of God, Arn returns to his powerful family as factions form within the nobility’s battle for the throne. Arn is excommunicated and sent to fight as a Knight Templar in the Crusades.
Critic Gwladys Fouche of The Guardian writes that the casting threatens to turn the Arn project into “Euro-pudding,” but “the plot is exciting, the acting is convincing, the locations beautiful and you don’t get bored for a second.” She notes that historical inaccuracy concerning the Crusades is a problem, as “Arn is trying to make a hero out of someone [a religious zealot] who wasn’t.”
There is no Arn reviewer score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it has an audience score of 61%. Most of the small reviews I could find were quite mixed. For a Game of Thrones fan, its got knights, war, political intrigue, love affairs and big battle set pieces. What’s not to like?
20) Ladyhawke (1985)
Let’s visit Rutger Hauer again, this time in a decidedly different, and much cleaner, role than the one he had in Flesh and Blood. Ladyhawke is a warm, big-hearted action-adventure shot through with a timeless romance that made it one of the most memorable fantasy films of the 1980s. It stars Hauer, Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer, and was shot entirely in Italy.
In 13th century Europe, a thief named Philippe “The Mouse” Gaston escapes imprisonment in the dungeons of Aquila. During the manhunt that follows, he joins forces with a mysterious, cursed knight who is accompanied by a hawk during the day, and a beautiful, cursed woman who is accompanied by a wolf at night.
Ladyhawke opened to mixed reviews, with Variety calling it a “very likeable, very well-made fairy tale that insists on a wish for its lovers to live happily ever after,” while Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less impressed, describing it as a “film divided against itself…[S]cenes of high adventure or of visual splendor…are spliced between other scenes with dialogue of a banality that recalls the famous Tony Curtis line: ‘Yonda lies my faddah’s castle.'”
Rotten Tomatoes is also divided, with a reviewer score of 65% and an audience score of 75%. As one of the popcorn movies on this list, Ladyhawke is fun and made extra watchable for its lush cinematography and authentic period look. Look out for the ’80s pop/rock style score, however, which is now quite jarring.
21) The Lion in Winter (1968)
You can’t find a better cast than Peter O’Toole, Katherine Hepburn and Anthony Hopkins (in his movie debut). Their stellar performances drive The Lion in Winter. Adapted from a 1966 Broadway play by James Goldman, the movie went on to win three Oscars, for Best Actress in a Leading Role, (for Hepburn) Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from another Medium) and Best Original Score.
It’s Christmas in the year 1183, and the English royal family is getting together at King Henry II’s castle in Chignon. The King has three sons who want to inherit the throne, and the gamesmanship begins. Throw in Henry’s wife, Eleanore of Aquitaine (Henry’s had her jailed back in 1173), the King of France and Henry’s mistress, and it all gets very interesting.
The Lion in Winter did well at the box office, becoming the 14th most popular movie in the USA in 1969. Roger Ebert praised the film, saying “One of the joys which movies provide too rarely is the opportunity to see a literate script handled intelligently…Henry II rules a world in which kings still kicked aside chickens on their way through the courtyard.” So there’s a little bit of Robert Baratheon in there.
Rotten Tomatoes is a fan, tallying up a 91% reviewer score and a 90% audience score. If you want to see some of the all-time great actors plying their trade, you’ve found the right movie.
22) Red Cliff, Parts 1 and 2 (2008 and 2009)
Hong King action director John Woo (The Killer, Mission Impossible 2) returns to his Chinese roots in Red Cliff, an epic war film set during the dying days of the Han Dynasty in Imperial China. It’s based on the actual Battle of Red Cliffs (208-209 A.D.), so it predates the Middle Ages by quite a bit, but if you don’t mind, we don’t mind, because this lavish spectacle is worth hedging on.
Woo has said that Red Cliff is about 50% factual, and while it’s largely concerned with the battle itself, it also focuses on the characters, such as Chancellor Cao Cao, who attempts to reunite the failing Han Dynasty by defeating two powerful rebel warlords. Game of Thrones fans will enjoy the military and political maneuvering.
Due to its length (288 minutes), Red Cliff was initially released as two films in China, but was repackaged into one 148-minute film for its American release. In Asia, the movie received critical acclaim and broke a number of box office records.
The Associated Press praised the epic, saying: “John Woo displays the crucial distinction in the magnificently told Red Cliff, the Hong Kong director’s triumphant return to Chinese film after 16 years in Hollywood.”
“[Woo] delivers in spades,” Derek Elley of Variety wrote of Part 2. “[W]ith characters already established, this half is expectedly heavier on action…though still pack[s] beaucoup human interest prior to the final hour’s barnstorming battle … in this 280-minute, two-part version, helmer-producer Woo and fellow producer Terence Chang have indeed crafted one of the great Chinese costume epics of all time.”
Whew. The Japanese Times raved that the “visually stunning Chinese historical epic ratchets the entertainment factor up to eleven.” Eleven. On Rotten Tomatoes, Red Cliff has an 89% reviewer rating and a 78% audience score.
This movie is certain to sate any Game of Thrones fan’s need for cinematic battlefield action. Red Cliff comes highly recommended (watch the full 288 minute film wherever you can find it such as the on US release BluRay/DVD).
23) The Tale of Tales (Il Racconto dei Racconti), 2015)
And now for something completely different. Alternately exhilarating and bizarre, The Tale of Tales offers a visually magnificent journey through fascinating narratives you don’t expect and can’t predict. It’s a European dark fantasy film, but it has some Hollywood star power in there, too, including John C. Reilly and Selma Hayek.
The Tale of Tales is a big-screen adaptation of baroque stories by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile, including the earliest-known appearances of beloved fables such as Cinderella, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty. But beware of this trilogy — from the pregnancy quest of the Queen of Longtrelli in “The Enchanted Doe” to the king’s obsession with a Kafkaesque insect in “The Flea” to the misguided lustfulness of a ruler in “The Flayed Old Lady,” these are not your mom’s fluffy bedtime stories.
Remember Daenerys eating that horse heart? It could have been worse.
The Tale of Tales received generally favorable reviews. The Boston Globe’s Peter Keough called it “luminous” and “magical,” approving of how “It balances otherworldliness and banality, sublimity and grotesquery, wonder and horror.” Critic Michael O’Sullivan of The Washington Post writes that “[Director Matteo] Garrone has created a world of both rich and ugly textures – visual, narrative and imaginative – that transports, delights and imparts disturbing lessons.”
If you’re a fan of challenging, grotesque, sumptuous movies with complex philosophical insights, The Tale of Tales is probably up your alley. Rotten Tomatoes critics love it, with an average score of 82%. Audiences were more split at 52%. It’s not going to appeal to everybody.
24) The Princess Bride (1987)
The super-popular The Princess Bride is a romantic fantasy comedy adventure film based on William Goldman’s 1973 novel of the same name. The film, which stars Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright and Billy Crystal, has become a modern classic, landing on every “best of” list around, including The American Film Institute’s 100 Best Love Stories and Bravo’s 100 Funniest Movies. In 2016, The Princess Bride was inducted into the National Film Registry, which is reserved for films deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
The story involves a young farmhand named Westley who embarks on a quest to save his beloved Princess Buttercup from the clutches of the evil Prince Humperdink. Along the way, he’ll pick up colorful companions and go on a series of wild adventures.
The Princess Bride had a decent theatrical debut and lots of positive press, but really came into its own as a home video cult classic. Roger Ebert gave the film an enthusiastic thumbs up, saying:
"The Princess Bride reveals itself as a sly parody of sword and sorcery movies, a film that somehow manages to exist on two levels at once: While younger viewers will sit spellbound at the thrilling events on the screen, adults, I think, will be laughing a lot … The Princess Bride looks and feels like Legend or any of those other quasi-heroic epic fantasies – and then it goes for the laughs."
Rotten Tomatoes reflects how jazzed movie lovers are about this film — it’s got a 97% reviewer score and a 94% audience score. Odds are you’ve probably already seen this wonderful postmodern fairy tale, so we won’t tell you to watch it again. (Watch it again!)
25) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
How about some slapstick comedy with your Arthurian legend? You’ll be served both in a big way in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, written and performed by Monty Python, the brilliant British surreal comedy group. Each member of the Monty Python troupe, including John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, plays multiple parts in the movie.
The story takes place in 10th century England as King Arthur decides he must search the countryside to find knights worthy of serving him at his round table. Goofy chaos ensues until God shows up and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail. One killer rabbit and a holy hand grenade later, and it all ends rather unexpectedly…
In 1975, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was the highest-grossing British-made film to be released in the United States. It’s gone on to immense cult status since then, receiving a 97% reviewer score and a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Kevin Thomas of The LA Times called it “an inspired romp…[I]n short, they create a persuasively authentic world with considerable care — the better to send it up. They cherish nonsense for its own sake, but they also skewer stupidity, ignorance, an unquestioning acceptance of conventional pieties and received wisdom.”
This movie is a blast that still holds up today. If you’ve never seen it, the ridiculous opening credits will immediately let you know what you’re in for.
If you stuck with us all the way to the end, here’s a little fun factoid you may not know about Monty Python and the Holy Grail: did you ever wonder why they chose to use coconuts to imitate the sound of their nonexistent horses? It was because they realized their tiny shooting budget wouldn’t allow for the real animals on set, so they came up with the coconut gag. It was so effective that the German release of the film translated the title as The Knights of the Coconut (Die Ritter der Kokosnuß ).
Thanks for reading! Hopefully a few of these flicks will help you weather the long wait for Game of Thrones season 8. Don’t forget to add any of your own movie suggestions in the comments!
Next: Jason Momoa: Game of Thrones season 8 will be “the greatest thing that’s ever aired on TV”
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