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Movies Featuring Epic On-Screen Battles
Monday, June 27, 2011 at 11:01PM Which movies come to mind when someone mentions battle scenes? Here are my selections for this week’s monday movie meme topic of “Epic Battle Scenes,” where The Bumbles asks participants to share on their blog “battle scenes that are so epic, they make you stop everything to watch.”
Gladiator
Are you not entertained?!!
For all who may not be aware by now, I am referring to Ridley Scott’s 2000 film starring Joaquin Phoenix and Russell Crowe. This movie has some epic battle scenes, probably with the last battle being the biggest of all for a number of reasons. Crowe played the hell out of his role as Maximus Decimus Meridius in the film.
Troy
Is there no one else?
This is the movie that caused me to find Brad Pitt to be very appealing, for the first time ever. I knew who he was before watching “Troy” but the battle scenes in this movie had me viewing him from a whole different perspective a Pitt played the character of Achillies.
Honor is a common denominator between “Gladiator” and “Troy,” which makes their battle scenes stand out among other films that also have such epic scenes. Russell Crowe’s character wanted to honor his family while Brad Pitt’s character wanted to honor his people....just on his own terms without making permanent allegiances with any one nation.
In “Troy,” Pitt was also affected on the home-front as far as family is concerned but those particular circumstances are an example of the fact that there not only is a difference between boys and men but there is also a difference between fighters and warriors. Fighters battle for the sake of obtaining victory over their opponents and possibly winning the respect of those whom they admire while warriors battle for the survival and safety of themselves and their people and possibly to gain some sort of political power in a time when voting on papers or machines was just not the way that they handled things such as disputes over land, resources, workers, civilians or ruling power, etc.
Thanks to Sandy at You’ve Gotta read This! for choosing the topic of “Epic Battle Scenes.”
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Reader Comments (7)
i loved how Russell Crowe played Maximus. i also love the battle scenes in Robin Hood, also with Russell Crowe. i also have to say that for epic-ness, the scenes in the 2nd and 3rd Lord of the Rings movies are good.
Saving Private Ryan is probably the first one that comes to mind. Although the rest of the film was pretty dreadful.
mood
http://moodywriting.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Moody Writing
http://twitter.com/mooderino" rel="nofollow">@mooderino
I went to cinema to see Troy and laughed all the way through it I have to be honest. I just kept thinking of Eddie Izzard's Ahilles with his hell in a block of concrete on a hovercraft sketch. I like your other choices though =)
(Ack! Can you delete my first comment? I accidentally hit the "Post Comment" button. Thanks!)
Although it's only two guys fighting, I'd have to say the greatest onscreen battle takes place in They Live. I can never get enough of that scene. It just keeps going, and going, and going...!
For more dramatic set pieces though, I totally agree with Gladiator and Troy. I'd have to throw into the ring the movies 300, Starship Troopers, and the ending to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
There are, for me, two species of epic fight scene. The first is one that speaks to the little boy in me - the fight that features something jawdropping in the visual field. The original Matrix movie, with it's now-passe trick cinematography, was one of that sort. Most recently, the remarkable rotating-gravity fight sequence in Inception takes some beating.
The second kind of epic fight is one that says more about the character's motivation than his physical prowess. I always think of Cool Hand Luke, refusing to lie down and let Dragline - or anybody else - beat him.
Gladiator is one of my favorite films and has some great battle scenes. Before I saw your choices, the first one that came to my mind was Mood's choice of the opening battle in Saving Private Ryan. I also liked the battle in Mel Gibson's The Patriot.
Lee
http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Tossing It Out
I loved Joaquin in Gladiator. Great choice :)