Historical accuracy in movies is notoriously bad, but are there any that actually portray things (relatively) accurately? I'm especially interested in ones set in the medieval period.

Arn the Templar Knight is a relatively accurate movie...

Do you mean in terms of the events depicted or the quality of the costumes and props?

If the latter then, for me, it's a toss up between Name of the Rose and The Lion in Winter (the original Peter O'Toole/Katherine Hepburn version, not the modern travesty) with the Hour of the Pig bringing up the rear.

The Duellists
But it's after your period of interest.

Kindom of heaven was actually pretty accurate.... for crusader armor. knee length hauberks with attached mittens and coifs, single piece nasal helms, and if memory serves the correct templar tabards. They unfortunately had the saracens done up more like 17th-19th century ottomans.

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

With fire and sword, as well as 1612, are two pretty darn accurate polish movies about the 17th century. Great costume work and field battles with limited "movieisms"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD6UkzJs9h0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh_yTV8r-W0

Blackadder

More or less.

Nothing captures the spirit of the era like Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Matthew

Tirante el Blanco was pretty good, and it had a great dubbing job!

Bwahhhaaa ha ha ha haaaaaw!!!

Seriously though, I'll just second Black Adder. :D :cool:

Alatriste is pretty good.

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0395119/

The old Romeo and Juliet had some pretty legit stuff. The rest, I can't think of any that doesn't do the 360 degree turn during fights.

For later time periods, I think its hard to beat "Master and Commander" and the Alfred Hitchcock "Jamaica Inn". The scene in the latter where Charles Laughton correctly loads his pistol with a paper cartridge really makes that movie.

How about "Sharpe" and "Hornblower" TV series? They look pretty decent yo me in historical accuracy department; but I am not a Napoleonic era expert.

Well, maybe not Medieval, but the original Seven Samurai was fairly authentic. :)

Also, if I recall, the David Hemmings "Alfred the Great" was fairly accurate. Does anyone know if it's ever been released on DVD ??

I've never seen it, but I've heard that The Warlord, starring Charlton Heston, is an accurate movie - 11th century Normandy.

I'm rather fond of that movie, but the mail is not accurate. They did not know how to tailor it, so they did some strange things to make it work. I don't know why they didn't just find some Eastern mail, except perhaps Mr. Heston was a very large man, and hard to fit.