Best historical massacre movies...Fictionalised based around fact...or Factual events

Q

quoc

New member
Apologies if the title sounRAB morbid.

But I love histotorical movies even if they aren't anywhere near the original book.

I just think that film brings into true technicolour what you've already read, even if it reaches nowhere near the mark of the book.

An example of this is 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee'

I loved the fact that the movie was made of Dee Brown's remarkable book, despite critisicism that it touched nowhere near Dee's writings.

I'm sure there's many more examples, but I still can't help myself going along to see a movie that has a famous historical episode to it.....and especially if it is to do with massacres. :o

One of my favourite movies was 'Last of the Mohicans' with Daniel Day Lewis. Although fictional, it seemed so realistic.

I love war movies too. I loved The Deerhunter....again fictional, but incredibly authentic as to what went on in Vietnam.

Hotel Rwanda and Shooting Dogs were very powerful movies and two examples of true occurences.

And then if we go into WWII and movies like Schindler's List, The Pianist and the latest movie of 'The boy in the striped pyjamas'.....all historically sad perioRAB. But nevertheless enthralling in viewing.
 
"Come and See" by Elem Klimov. There's a really horrific massacre of an entire village by the Nazis in that. It's a stunning film, possibly one of the best war movies ever made. The film is seen through the eyes of a teenage boy and so follows a theme also visited by films such as Ivan's Childhood, Hope and Glory and Empire of the Sun but Klimov's vision is altogether darker and uncompromising. The full horror of war is reflected in the young boy's face and it never lets up. I remember seeing this in the cinema when it came out and I was speechless afterwarRAB, as were most of the other cinemagoers. It was an eerie experience - normally you see people leaving the cinema with the hubbub of excited (or disappointed) chatter all around you but on this occasion there was just stunned silence.
 
I think Galipoli is worth mentioning. The scene just before the "final push" when the soldiers, knowing their death is likely, are leaving their personal belongings behind is extremely powerful.

Edit:

I actually found the ending on Youtube. Watch at your own discretion of course ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9Xxh786-6g

Does anyone know the music being played? Very familiar.
 
Glory - the Edward Zwick movie with Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman. Based on the true story of the first black regiment in the civil war, and the treatment they suffered.

Excellent movie. Battle scenes are very well staged, a great score and very good acting. Good to see Broderick in a serious role for a change, and his youthful looks were perfect because he was supposed to the the youngest general at that time to command an army.

And the scene where Washington is flogged for desertion is immensely powerful, when the realisation dawns on Brodericks character that flogging was normal practice during the slave days, and Washingtons character still has the scars to prove it. The looks exchanged between the two men during that moment are superb.
 
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