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Movies to go along with the Middle Ages?


vaquitita
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Non-Fiction:
- David McCauley's Castle, and, Cathedral
- Life in the Middle Ages -- kids' documentary by Schlessinger Media

Fiction/Feature Films & TV:
- Cadfael episodes -- mid 12th century
- Ivanhoe (1952) -- Normans/Saxons
- Knights of the Round Table (1953) -- King Arthur
- Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
- Secret of Kells (2009) -- animated

I have NOT personally seen these, but they look like they would be fine:
- Prince Valiant (1954) -- spin off story/character from traditional King Arthur
- The Black Knight (1954) -- time of King Arthur
- The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) -- 1400s, time of Henry IV
El Cid (1961) -- the Spanish epic knight hero
Prince of Foxes (1949) -- end of 1400s, Italian Borgias
The Black Rose (1950) -- 1200s Saxon leaves Norman England to seek his fortune in the Far East
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) - VERY loosely based on the real 1200-1300s merchant's travels from Venice to China

Medieval England biographies -- vert likely would be slow/dull for elementary ages:
- Alfred the Great (1969) - 800s England
- The Lion in Winter (1968) -- 1100s England; play about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine
- Becket (1964) -- 1100s England; Henry II and Thomas a Becket
- Joan of Arc (1948) -- 1400s France
- Henry V (1989) -- 1400s England; Kenneth Branagh's version of Shakespeare's play

PREVIEW FIRST for age-appropriateness:
- Ivanhoe -- more recent versions: (1997 TV mini-series) (1982 TV movie)
- The Legend of William Tell (1998) -- TV series
- Marco Polo -- more recent versions: (2007) or (1982)
A Knight's Tale (2001) -- a very fun "rock opera" version of jousting and the middle ages with Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales author) playing the role of; the violence is knights getting off of horses while jousting; occasional mild rude comments, suggested-but-not-seen s*x, and one scene with a nude man from the rear, because his gambling addiction caused him to stake all his belongings and he lost (hence, learning a lesson from consequences)

Non-realistic -- musical, silly, fun, magical, or fantasy adventure films set in Medieval Times:
- Aladdin (1992)-- Disney animated; Aladdin is a 1001 Arabian Nights tale character
- Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) -- Sinbad is a 1001 Arabian Nights tale character
- Thief of Bagdad (1924) -- silent B&W adventure
- Robin Hood (1973) -- Disney animated version
- Thor: Tales of Asgard (2011) -- animated
- How to Train Your Dragon (2010) -- animated; Vikings and flying dragons
- Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013) -- animated
- Camelot (1967) -- the musical play
- The Princess Bride (1987) -- vaguely Medieval setting, romantic romp with fantastical elements
- Ever After (1998) -- sweet re-telling of Cinderella; setting is more fairytale than medieval
- Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) -- Bing Crosby in a musical take on Twain's tale 
- DragonHeart (1996) - the last dragon and a dragons laying knight team up together; humor and kid level adventure
- LadyHawke (1985) -- definitely a fairytale/fantasy feel of magic (lovers who are cursed by the villain so that she is a hawk by day while he is a wolf by night, never to be together, until a very very young Matthew Broderick helps them break the curse and confront the villain)

Edited by Lori D.
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...taming of the shrew with Elizabeth Taylor.

 

Just a tiny quibble here -- Shakespeare's works (except for the histories) were usually set in the time in which he was writing, so Taming of the Shrew is solidly set in the Renaissance (early 1600s), and not the Middle Ages. Just in case it matters. ;) And, doing movies just for fun can happen at any time, IMO -- you don't have to wait for the time period to come up. ;)

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Just a tiny quibble here -- Shakespeare's works (except for the histories) were usually set in the time in which he was writing, so Taming of the Shrew is solidly set in the Renaissance (early 1600s), and not the Middle Ages. Just in case it matters. ;) And, doing movies just for fun can happen at any time, IMO -- you don't have to wait for the time period to come up. ;)

Well I said middle ages, but I'm using SOTW 2 and it covers further

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On 9/12/2016 at 12:00 PM, vaquitita said:

Well I said middle ages, but I'm using SOTW 2 and it covers further

In that case... 😉 Here are a few more for you:

 

1492 -- Nest Videos -- Christopher Columbus

1500s
- Nest Videos: Leonardo da Vinci
- Nest Videos: Galileo
- The Royal Diaries -- 3 princesses in their teen years: Cleopatra (ancients); Isabel (late Middle Ages); Elizabeth 1 (Renaissance)
- The Prince and the Pauper (1937) -- from the Mark Twain tale about Henry V's son/heir and a street boy who is his twin
- Disney Storybook Favorurites: The Prince and the Pauper (1990) -- animated; Mickey Mouse version
- Young Bess (1953) -- early life of Elizabeth I from childhood to becoming queen
- Mulan (1998) -- animated Disney film

1600s
- Nest Videos: Pocahontas
- Nest Videos: William Bradford 
- Captain Blood (1935) -- swashbuckling adventure
- The Three Musketeers (1939) --OR-- (1948)
- Courageous Mr. Penn / Penn of Pennsylvania (1942)
- Daniel Boone -- the 1936 movie, OR, the Disney live action TV series "King of the Wild Frontier"

1700s
- Nest Videos: Benjamin Franklin
- Nest Videos: George Washington
- Treasure Island (1950)
- Johnny Tremain (1957)
- Liberty's Kids -- animated TV series

And links to a few "master lists" for a range of ages:
Story of the World Video Links
SOTW & Netflix Spreadsheet

Edited by Lori D.
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