Regarding Spectacle...

SckizoBoy

Ineptly Chaotic
Legacy
Jan 6, 2011
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A Hermit's Cave
Right, time to indulge my petty gripes with the movie medium...

But what is it with the 'epic battle' which renders them, when portrayed on film big budget etc., as nothing more than a 'charge and fight whoever's in front of you' deal?! In fantasy films (e.g. Lord of the Rings etc.) I can sort of get why the filmmakers would do that, it looks awesome having a couple heroes in the midst of the carnage bashing away, but sometimes even then, why make it so simplistic if just to get the characters into a fight? At the Battle of Pelennor Fields, the humans were supposed to be heavily outnumbered and yet all the happens is horse-y face enemy, lower sharp pointy thing, charge and pray I don't get upended... -_-

But even with historic portrayals, it's all very *meh*, one of the biggest offenders being Gladiator, wherein virtually everything about the opening battle scene is wrong. Maybe it's because a battle involving Romans would invariably a very boring spectacle, though there have been a couple pretty good representations of phalanx combat, albeit in shite films (Alexander, the Gaugamela/Issus hash-up scene, and... of all films, 300, for all of about thirty seconds... -_- )

I 'unno... has there ever been a decent dramatic film with a battle scene (historical or otherwise) that portrays some tactical acumen (coupled with proper use of troop types involved) beyond spare of the moment flash of inspiration ambush or whatever BS...? Bear in mind, this, coming from the guy who can pretty much quote verbatim the film Waterloo... (don't really count it as 'dramatic' rather, 'annalistic'...)