BOT's Top 50 Historical Fiction Films - The Countdown

[The Panda]

 

The countdown will begin soon.  A little bit of motivation for how the countdown will proceed and the purpose of this list:  We are looking at films which have a historical setting (relative to when they were made) in which that setting places a key role in the narrative plot of movie, this could involve characters based off real figures from history or be an entirely fictional story that offers insight into a historical time period, era, place or culture within the world.  While the ranking of these films will be fun, I think some of the most enjoyment that'll be able to come from this is the opportunity to

 

(1) Broaden the kinds of film in our forums awareness, hopefully through this list a film pops up that you had not see and will be able to take the time to stream at home (given theaters are not open right now)!  Most of these movies will be outside the typical wheelhouse of BOT by nature, the genre naturally excludes sci-fi, superheroes and all forms of modern tentpoles that we seem to not be able to get enough of.  The genre is also one that was at its peak popularity prior to this decade, so it should give opportunity to broaden your cinematic horizons to some older classics.

 

(2) Take a look at how Hollywood and the film industry has portrayed pivotal moments and cultures within history.  With each write up, we'll not only take the time to offer what makes people like the film, but also I'll provide some excerpts from either historians or primary sources about the moment in time or culture the film represents.  I'll also provide some excepts from critics who delve into how authentically each of these movies portrayed the period, and what can be learned about history from watching the movie.  Of course, I'll also include a section to showcase user and critic opinions about the movies being written up.

 

(3) At the end of the list I'll provide a chart which will map all of the films in our top 100 to a map of the world based on their setting, which also designates the time period and era the movie took place in.  I think this should be a pretty fun visualization.

 

As we proceed the list, I'll provide honorable mentions for the movies that ranked 100-51 and do full individual write-ups (including various excerpts from groups mention above) for 50-1.

 

A Few Factoids:

 

- 23 Lists were submitted, which given the fact that this list disqualified forum favorites like Captain America, Wonder Woman, Back to the Future and Transformers: The Last Knight that was quite a nice turnout, in my own opinion.

 

-  There were 385 different films that received votes, and lists overall were quite diverse with only a few key films really finding their way on most of the lists (although no movie made it on every list), what this resulted in was quite a few films with just 4 or 5 votes managing to make it into the top 50.  I think this is overall a pretty fun thing and we'll get plenty of fantastic films that have never appeared on a BOT list prior to this.

 

Now, let's get started!

[RealLyre]

Hopefully little women and Come & See make it 

[The Panda]

First batch of honorable mentions

 

 

100. Cinema Paradiso, 1988 Rome

99. The Searchers, 1868 West Texas

98. Ugetsu, 17th Century Nakanogo, Japan

97. First Man, 1961 The Moon

96. Barry Lyndon, 18th Century Ireland

 

[RealLyre]

Quote

100. Cinema Paradiso

 

the ending of Cinema Paradiso was iconic! 

 

i was surprised to learn that this movie doesn't have a criterion release, cus it looked like the type of film that would, although it already has a great blu ray release so that might be why.

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by RealLyre
word

[Barnack]

Just now, RealLyre said:

i was surprised to learn that this movie doesn't have a criterion release, cus it looked like the type of film that would

 

I imagine once a company like Arrow does a bluray version, rich in content there would be not much point and arguably a waste (and maybe they got some form of exclusivity)

[The Panda]

 

 

 

"I'd hang you from the nipples, but you'd shock the children."

 

The Setting: Angevin Empire

 

Source About Henry II

 

" In the second place, for encouraging some and punishing others, by virtue of the power which you have received from the Church with the sacrament of anointing, and with the sword which, in virtue of your office, you wield for the destruction of evil-doers to the Church. For kings are anointed in three places: on the head, on the breast, and on the arms, thereby signifying glory, knowledge and strength. The kings who, in ancient times, did not observe the judgments of God, but sinned against His commandments, were deprived of both glory, knowledge and strength, both they and their descendants: as examples in proof whereof, witness Saul, Nebuchadnezzar, Solomon, and many others. But those who, after their offenses, in contrition of heart humbled themselves before the Lord, to them was granted more abundantly and more effectually the grace of God, together with all the blessing above-mentioned: as for instance, David, Hezekiah, and many others. Christ founded the Church and gained its liberty with His own blood, by enduring the scourges, the spitting, the nails, and the straits of death, and thereby left us an example to follow in His footsteps; wherefore the Apostle says, ‘If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer we shall also reign with him.’ The Church of God is composed of two orders – the clergy and the people.  Among the clergy are the Apostles and the Apostolical men, the bishops and other rulers of the Church, to whom has been entrusted the care and government of that Church, and who have the management of ecclesiastical concerns, that they may cause all things to tend to the salvation of souls. For which reason it was said to Peter, and in Peter to the other rulers of the Church, ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ In the number of the people are kings, dukes, earls, and other potentates, who have the management of secular business, that they may cause it entirely to tend to the peace and unity of the Church. And, inasmuch as it is certain that kings receive their power from the Church, and not it from them, but (with your leave I say it) from Christ, you ought not to give your commands to bishops to absolve or to excommunicate any person, to bring the clergy before secular courts, to pronounce judgment relative to tithes and churches, to forbid bishops taking cognizance of breaches of faith or vows in such manner as is here set forth in writing among your customs, which you style the laws of your grandfather. For the Lord says, ‘Keep my laws’; and, again, by the mouth of the prophet, ‘Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people. Therefore, let my lord, if so it pleases him, listen to the counsels of his liege, the advice of his bishop, and the correction of his father." - The Address of the Blessed Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, to Henry, king of England, at his Council Held at Chinon. 1165

 

Historical Context

 

"Two more strong-minded, forceful and determined people could hardly have been matched. Eleanor, who was about thirty, had already been queen of France for fifteen years through her first marriage and by her second she would soon be queen of England. Daughter and heiress of William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, she was beautiful, wanton, capricious, sophisticated, highly intelligent and accustomed to having her own way. She had inherited her father’s enormous estates in her teens on his death in 1137 and her first husband, Louis VII of France, had been quite unable to stand up to her. She bore him two daughters, went on crusade with him and ordered him about until her infidelities and her failure to produce an heir proved too much. The marriage was annulled in March 1152 on grounds of consanguinity.

 

The annulment gave Eleanor back Aquitaine and Poitou, which she took with her eight weeks later to Henry, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, to whom, incidentally, she was just as closely related as she had been to Louis. Henry was nineteen years old, bull-necked, stocky and freckled, a man of electric energy and ferocious impatience, compelling charm and an ungovernable temper. He was ruthless when crossed and some of his contemporaries uneasily credited the story that his family, the Plantagenets, were descended from the Devil – a tale that the Plantagenets themselves delighted to encourage. The marriage took most people by surprise. It was rumoured that the bride and groom had anticipated the ceremony and there was also a story that she had known the groom’s late father, Geoffrey of Anjou, considerably better than she should have done. As soon as the French archbishops had formally annulled her marriage on March 21st, Eleanor left the royal castle at Beaugency on the Loire, near Orleans, dodged an attempt to seize her by the Count of Blois and took a barge along the river towards Tours with an escort of her own men. Warned just in time, she avoided an ambush set by Henry’s young brother Geoffrey, who hoped to advance his ambitions by marrying her himself, and arrived safely at her own capital of Poitiers. She immediately sent word to Henry to come promptly and marry her, and meanwhile summoned her principal vassals to renew their allegiance to her as Duchess of Aquitaine. Henry joined her in Poitiers and they were married in the cathedral on Whit Sunday in a simple ceremony with none of the pomp and splendour that might have been expected." - Richard Cavendish, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/eleanor-aquitaine-marries-henry-anjou

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"The screen Henry explains that he keeps Eleanor locked up because she led too many civil wars, which is a major exaggeration. Admittedly, the real woman was one of the organizers of the Great War (1173-1174), when Henry faced revolts from his three oldest sons, revolts in England, and invasions from Scotland, Flanders and France, which nearly succeeded. While he forgave pretty much everyone, Eleanor had apparently proved to be a dangerous opponent or he was genuinely hurt by her betrayal, so she was kept locked up until he died, thus denying her the opportunity to revolt again. 

 

While the additional revolts are a minor error, the screen Eleanor’s obsession with Henry is overdone. In particular, Eleanor’s claim that she fought Henry just to get him back makes her appear to be a spurned wife, furious that her husband has found someone younger. Although a physical attraction probably existed between them, they seem to have married because Eleanor knew that she could not rule her duchy alone, and he was the best option. Tired after giving birth to eight children, the real Eleanor had separated amicably from Henry several years before the Great Revolt, concentrating on ruling her beloved Aquitaine and training her favorite son Richard to succeed her. Rather than manipulate her sons and ex-husband into a war against Henry in an attempt to force him back to her bed, she likely started the rebellion because he was trying to integrate her Aquitaine into his empire. Instead, the screen Eleanor supports Richard merely to anger Henry." - History on Film

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"It's Christmas 1183, and King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) is planning to announce his successor to the throne. The jockeying for the crown, though, is complex. Henry has three sons and wants his boy Prince John (Nigel Terry) to take over. Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn), has other ideas. She believes their son Prince Richard (Sir Anthony Hopkins) should be King. As the family and various schemers gather for the holiday, each tries to make the indecisive King choose his or her option."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"The action is mostly contained within one day, a Christmas Eve. Henry II (Peter O'Toole) is 50 years old and wants to choose his heir before he dies. He has three sons: John, his favorite, a sniveling slack-jaw; Richard, the soldier genius; and Geoffrey, reserved and quiet. Henry calls a Christmas court, letting his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn) out of prison for the occasion. King Philip of France is also a visitor. He wants to know when his sister will be married to the heir to the throne. But, Henry has not been able to appoint an heir yet, and what's more, the girl's become his mistress.

 

James Goldman's fine script handles this situation in a series of meetings between the principals. He is as good as Shaw in getting people on and off stage; at one point, he has three people hidden behind tapestries when Henry visits Philip's room, and he gets them all out without faltering in his command of the scene. He gives his characters a most effective language; it seems direct, and yet it has a gracefulness and wit.

 

I imagine "The Lion in Winter" will be a leading contender for this year's Academy Award. I'm not convinced it's the best picture of the year, but I think Peter O'Toole's performance is of Oscar quality, and Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton deserve nominations for their supporting roles as Richard and Philip. As for Katharine Hepburn, she is magnificent; what other actress could have played this role? Anthony Harvey, an experienced editor, has performed as a virtuoso in his second film as a director (after "Dutchman")." - Roger Ebert

 

Factoids

 

The Lion in Winter was directed by Anthony Harvey and received 30 points and 6 votes

 

 

Countries Represented: England (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: Middle Ages (1)

 

Cross Section of Countries and Periods: Middle Ages England (1) 

 

Film Decades Represents: 60s (1)

 

Directors Represented: Anthoney Harvey (1)

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by The Panda

[The Panda]

It will be a slow start for tonight, I should be able to post more than two per day after this.  My goal would be around 5-10 so the countdown will finish in less than 10 days or so.

 

 

 

"I could write shorter sermons but when I get started I'm too lazy to stop."

 

Historical Setting: United States Civil War, 1865

 

Source About the Period

 

"Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

 

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

 

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." - The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863

 

Historical Context

 

"President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

 

Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the United States, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy (the Southern secessionist states) that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union (United States) military victory.

 

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom." - United States National Archives

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"The film shows Lincoln prevailing over the opposition of his advisers. But while it's true that Lincoln's original cabinet was an unruly and independent bunch, by January 1865 the president had grown weary of the incessant squabbling and back-stabbing. He scrapped his Team of Rivals for a Team of Loyalists. Those who couldn't find comity, like Salmon P. Chase, the fiercely antislavery Treasury Secretary, and Postmaster Montgomery Blair, a cantankerous conservative, were out, replaced by men who understood that they served at the pleasure of the president. Attorney General Edward Bates retired to his home in Missouri, replaced by James Speed, a Lincoln loyalist and slavery foe. Interior Secretary John Usher was swapped out for James Harlan, one of Lincoln's staunchest supporters in the Senate. Of the original cabinet, those remaining—Secretary of State William Seward, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles—were deeply loyal to the president.

 

It's therefore highly unlikely that Lincoln had to do much cajoling and convincing when he announced his intention to push for the 13th Amendment. But if Spielberg's narrative is a little off, his principal argument isn't. Lincoln did, in fact, assume great risk in backing the amendment during his re-election canvass the year before, and he placed the weight of his presidency behind it in 1865.

 

Spielberg's film also credits Lincoln with sanctioning, and in some cases directly negotiating, the brazen use of patronage appointments to buy off the requisite number of lame duck Democratic congressmen. Here, the record is hazy. Historians generally agree that the president issued broad instructions to Seward, who in turn hired a group of lobbyists from his home state of New York to approach potential apostates. It's highly implausible that Lincoln dealt directly with these men, or that he immersed himself in the details. He was too smart a politician to do that. But he did whip hard for the amendment. He visited a Democratic congressman whose brother had fallen in battle, to tell him that his kin "died to save the Republic from death by the slaveholders' rebellion. I wish you could see it to be your duty to vote for the Constitutional amendment ending slavery." That scene is true to history." - Joshua Zeitz, The Atlantic

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"In 1865, as the American Civil War winds inexorably toward conclusion, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln endeavors to achieve passage of the landmark constitutional amendment which will forever ban slavery from the United States. However, his task is a race against time, for peace may come at any time, and if it comes before the amendment is passed, the returning southern states will stop it before it can become law. Lincoln must, by almost any means possible, obtain enough votes from a recalcitrant Congress before peace arrives and it is too late. Yet the president is torn, as an early peace would save thousands of lives. As the nation confronts its conscience over the freedom of its entire population, Lincoln faces his own crisis of conscience -- end slavery or end the war."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Give a director a President, and you’ll get something of the filmmaker in return. Oliver Stone brewed paranoid tempests out of Nixon and JFK, and made wry fun of Dubya in W. Steven Spielberg, with his long-mooted look at the 16th and most hallowed of American Presidents, shows us the instinctive showman and restrained thinker. He and Abraham Lincoln have a lot in common.  With Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Obama-endorsed biography Team Of Rivals as his font, playwright Tony Kushner fashioned a 550-page script of Lincoln’s political life, only for his director to lop off the last 80 pages and narrow his aim. That decision is amongst the most inspired of Spielberg’s career — ditch the biopic’s hoary formula and encounter the man at the furnace door of crisis.

 

So no dirt-poor Kentucky childhood. No rise to greatness. No Gettysburg Address. And only isolated dispatches from the Civil War. The trappings of family occupy subplots where his eldest son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) rages to enlist — his father wants to shield him even as he sacrifices countless unknown sons — and his unstable wife Mary (Sally Field) exhausts him with her headaches and heartbreak, even as she turns a Rottweiler’s frown upon her husband’s opponents." - A.O. Scott, Empire

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"A pretty marvelous achievement and Speilberg's best since Minority Report. I loved that they approached Lincoln as the commander of this huge political drama rather than doing the birth-to-death story that would've been a wasted opportunity when drama like ratifying the thirteenth amendment is worth delving into. This is West Wing-level fun with the best ensemble cast Speilberg's ever pulled together. I think my problems with the last five minutes are reflective of how much the film works as a political thriller and that the transition to biopic was jarring. Daniel Day IS Lincoln. I think his performance will define how people today will think of the man. Simply stunning." - @Gopher

 

Factoids

 

Lincoln was directed by Steven Spielberg and received 30 Points and 7 Votes

 

 

 

Countries Represented: England (1), United States (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: Middle Ages (1), 19th Century (1)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 19th Century United States (1), Middle Ages England (1)

 

Decades Represented: 60s (1), 10s (1)

 

Directors Represented: Anthoney Harvey (1), Steven Spielberg (1)

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by The Panda

[Plain Old Tele]

A Harvey and a Spielberg, tied. Well well well.

[Fancyarcher]

I see this list is already off to an audacious start. 

[Tower]

Wow Panda, this an incredible amount of work you put into this, great job.

 

As for the films themselves, I thought The Lion In Winter was a monotonous couple of hours of endless shouting at each other, which for me made the film incredibly boring.

 

Lincoln on the other hand, even though it didn't make my list, is very good (but takes places in the 19th century and not the 18th).

[The Panda]

Edited the two entries to add a few more flourishes to the factoids section (including points totals and vote counts), if there's any other information that might be fun to include let me know as we proceed!

 

I also forgot to mention that point ties were broken through vote counts, and if a film was tied in both then it went to whichever film had the most 1st place placements, then 2nd place placement and so on by tier.

[The Panda]

 

 

 

"Are you coming? See, how it works is, the train moves, not the station."

 

Historical Setting: World War II United States

 

Source From the Period

 

"Oh it was really an experience, because like I said I had never been out of the state except in my
really younger years (12:00) when I was traveling with my mother. So to be driving out there on
my own I remember when I was really thrilled that I was going to be, you know getting a check
for playing baseball, getting paid to play I was just thrilled to death, so actually you know doing
that and doing some work through college I was able to pay my way through college without any
problem. And I had never really had a real steak, so the first thing I did was to go out and order a
big T-bone steak. I can just almost taste it I remember how excited I was to have my first steak.
So yeah I lived with a couple there they were a Dutch family and I had one roommate and we
had a curfew. We had to be in and we had to tell them if we were going to be out and where we
were going but I was kind of a, I was kind of a… I’ve never told this on an interview before but I
used to go with the police department that would, that raided the houses on at night you know,
and they would come to ball games (13:07). We had a lot of police that would come by and they
were detectives and so they ask me if I wanted to go along with them this one night when they
were raiding a house and they took me on the raid and people were jumping out of the windows
and I was sitting in the car and I was just scared to death of what they were doing but it was
really fun experience and you know at that age it was quite exciting." - Interview of Jeneane Lesko , AAGPBL

 

Historical Context

 

"By the fall of 1942, many minor league teams disbanded due to the war. Young men, 18 years of age and over, were being drafted into the armed services. The fear that this pattern would continue and that Major League Baseball Parks across the country were in danger of collapse is what prompted Philip K. Wrigley, the chewing-gum mogul who had inherited the Chicago Cubs' Major League Baseball franchise from his father, to search for a possible solution to this dilemma. Wrigley asked Ken Sells, assistant to the Chicago Cubs' General Manager to head a committee to come up with ideas. The committee recommended a girls' softball league be established to be prepared to go into Major League parks should attendance fall due to franchises losing too many quality players to attract crowds.

 

With the dedication of a group of Midwestern businessmen and the financial support of Mr.Wrigley, the All-American Girls Softball League emerged in the spring of 1943. The League was formed as a non-profit organization. A board of trustees was formed which included Philip K. Wrigley; Branch Rickey, Brooklyn Dodgers President and General Manager; Paul V. Harper, Chicago attorney and trustee for the University of Chicago and Chicago Cubs attorney; and Ken Sells, who was named President of the League. Midway in the first season of play, the board of trustees changed the League's name to All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBBL) to make it distinctive from the existing softball leagues and because the rules of play were those of Major League Baseball. However, the retention of shorter infield distances and underhand pitching caused some controversy in the media about "Baseball" in the League name. Thus, at the end of the 1943 season, the official League name was again changed to the more descriptive All-American Girls Professional Ball League (AAGPBL). This title was retained until the end of the 1945 season when All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBBL) was again adopted and retained through 1950. It was during this time period that overhand pitching and smaller ball sizes were adopted. When independent team owners purchased the League at the end of the 1950 season, the official League name was changed to the American Girls Baseball League (AGBL), but popularly it continued to be identified as the All-American League or the All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBBL). Through the organization of the Players' Association in1986, and through their efforts to gain recognition by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, the league has now come to be recognized as what it was in actuality: the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL)." - AAGPBL League History

 

Historical Accuracy

 

""It was hard times … a lot of the players were making more money than their parents, working in factories," she said. "They were making $100, as much as $150 a week, so they would send money back home. Their parents weren’t making half that in the factories."  Despite the inclination of Hollywood to dramatize true events, Lesko said Marshall got a lot of things right in her movie.  "It was very accurate, except for the way [the women in the film] treated the chaperones, which wasn't very nicely," she said, laughing. "Of course, the gals did pull tricks on them, put salt in their beds and other stuff, but it was all in fun. They weren’t making fun of them or anything."  Another scene from the movie that Lesko says could never happen was when Hanks' character came into the women's dressing area and went to the bathroom.  "[The coaches] would never have done that, that was Hollywood too," she said.  Marshall worked with about 10 of the past players living in Palm Springs and interviewed them, taking their stories to mold the film's characters.  In fact, many believe someone like Hanks' Dugan was based much off actual baseball legend Jimmie Foxx. Geena Davis' character Dottie Hinson was also loosely inspired by Dottie Kamenshek and so forth." - ABC News

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"During World War II when all the men are fighting the war, most of the jobs that were left vacant because of their absence were filled in by women. The owners of the baseball teams, not wanting baseball to be dormant indefinitely, decide to form teams with women. So scouts are sent all over the country to find women players. One of the scouts, passes through Oregon and finds a woman named Dottie Hinson, who is incredible. He approaches her and asks her to try out but she's not interested. However, her sister, Kit who wants to get out of Oregon, offers to go. But he agrees only if she can get her sister to go. When they try out, they're chosen and are on the same team. Jimmy Dugan, a former player, who's now a drunk, is the team manager. But he doesn't feel as if it's a real job so he drinks and is not exactly doing his job. So Dottie steps up. After a few months when it appears the girls are not garnering any attention, the league is facing closure till Dottie does something that grabs attention. And it isn't long Dottie is the star of the team and Kit feels like she's living in her shadow."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"At first the girls are shaken by the jeering, leering male fans and by Jimmy Dugan, their boozing manager. But since Tom Hanks plays Dugan, you know there’s a softie under the stubble. Dugan’s hands-off flirtation with the married Dottie and his grudging respect for the team redeem him. Despite reports that the actresses trained hard for the baseball scenes, none should quit their day jobs. Still, their spirit enlivens the tired plot. Sentiment mars the film, as it did Marshall’s otherwise admirable Awakenings.  At her best, Marshall captures the camaraderie of these women in ways that rip the film out of its clichTd roots. Davis, who is terrific, subtly shows us the conflicting emotions of a Forties woman torn between ambition and duty, without patronizing Dottie or her choices. In these moments it seems fair to stop razzing League and let rip with a “Go, Peaches!”" - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"One of the great things about doing THABOS is I get to go back in time and reconnect with some of my favourite films from years gone by.  And this allows me to watch some of them again for the first time in a very long time.  A League of Their Own is one film I loved as a 20 year old and still love to this day.    It's the early 1940s and World War is in full swing. With most American males, including famous baseball players, going off to war, a plan is made to keep the baseball industry going by drafting women to entertain folks until the men return from war.  Enter Dotti Henson and Kit Kellar, two sisters who battle each other both at their home on the farm and on the ball field. Kit, a decent pitcher at best, feels as though she's constantly in the shadow of her older, married, more athletic and all-around better sister, Dotti. During the girls' struggle to see who can truly be "The Best," we meet many colorful characters, including Jimmy Duggan (a brilliant Tom Hanks), coach of the Rockford Peaches, the team Kit and Dotti play for. 

 

Penny Marshall had some good hits to her name when she was making movies and along with Jumping Jack Flash, this is her opus.   Geena Davis, Hanks, and Lori Petty shine in their leading roles, while Rosie O'Donnell, Madonna, and David Strathairn are brilliant as the supporting cast. This timeless piece of cinematography will pull at your heartstrings in ways you've not felt in a long time." - @baumer

 

Factoids

 

A League of Their Own was directed by Penny Marshall and received 31 Points and 4 Votes

 

 

Countries Represented: England (1), United States (2)

 

Time Periods Represented: Middle Ages (1), 19th Century (1), World War 2 (1)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 19th Century - United States (1), Middle Ages - England (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Anthoney Harvey (1), Penny Marshall (1), Steven Spielberg (1)

 

Decades Represented: 60s (1), 90s (1), 10s (1)

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by The Panda

[baumer]

I'll echo the sentiments that the amount of work you are putting into this is just incredible.  You usually set the bar for the rest of us when it comes to lists and countdowns, but this is above and beyond.  This is why you will see the "astonished" notification here for every film.  You're work here is simply awesome.  I look forward to the rest of the list.  

[Finnick]

@The Panda A League of their own was released in 1992 not 2012.

[baumer]

2 minutes ago, Finnick said:

@The Panda A League of their own was released in 1992 not 2012.

 

Good catch

[The Panda]

8 minutes ago, Finnick said:

@The Panda A League of their own was released in 1992 not 2012.

Oops I'll edit that, forgot to change it from Lincoln's date, also adding one last bit for the write ups to include the synopsis and decade counts in the write ups.

[peludo]

2 hours ago, baumer said:

I'll echo the sentiments that the amount of work you are putting into this is just incredible.  You usually set the bar for the rest of us when it comes to lists and countdowns, but this is above and beyond.  This is why you will see the "astonished" notification here for every film.  You're work here is simply awesome.  I look forward to the rest of the list.  

I subscribe each word. I am shocked about how much info he is giving us about each film.

 

@The Panda Congratulations in advance for your hard work. It is AMAZING. Thank you very much 

[The Panda]

 

 

"But Captain, to obey - just like that - for obedience's sake... without questioning... That's something only people like you do."

 

Historical Setting: Falangist Spain, post-Spanish Civil War

 

Source from that Period

 

"All contemporary events show us we are witnessing the end of one era and the beginnings of another; that the liberal world is going down a victim to its own errors, and with it are disappearing commercial imperialism, financial capitalism and mass unemployment. The happiness promised by the French revolution became nothing but barter business, competition, low wages and mass insecurity. Wealth did not go hand in hand with equitable distribution. The important part of humanity was prey to misery. Freedom is impossible as long as bondage and want exist. Cleverly exploited Marxist slogans caught on with the masses because they deceitfully promised a change in the justice of the pressing situation.

 

The liberal world, in giving adult suffrage, made them conscious of their own strength. Then the revolutionary process, accelerated by various crises, started. During the last war Russian demobilization led to a situation in which communism seized power and established a barbarian dictatorship of the proletariat. A similar phenomenon manifested itself in Italy after the war, but Mussolini's genius instilled all just and human elements interested in the Italian revolution into the Fascistis' aims.  Mussolini welded the two elements closely and united his own heart into the synthesis of the fascist revolution-a social urge and a national idea. Later, Germany found a new solution for the popular yearnings in national socialism, which unites the national and social idea for the second time in Europe with the special peculiarities of race thirsting for international justice.

 

Those are not isolated movements, but rather aspects of one and the same general movement and mass rebellion throughout the world. On the face, a new useful consciousness emerged, which reacts against the hypocrisy and inefficiency of the old systems.  Youth marched conscious of its historic responsibility toward a goal sensed but not clearly defined. The goal then was defined by current events and by the leaders. These facts should explain to many people why so many Spaniards welcomed the republic with naive emotion. [At this point there was an indistinct passage, referring to century-old unrest in Spain filled with indignation against "the unjust order."] The greater the hopes, the greater the disillusionment. Anger, indignation and revulsion grew against the vile outfit." - GENERALISSIMO FRANCISCO FRANCO'S SPEECH TO FALANGIST PARTY COUNCIL PRAISING GERMAN, ITALIAN, AND SPANISH FASCISM

 

Historical Context

 

"Well, up until 1931, Spain had had hundreds of years of almost uninterrupted monarchy mixed with a period of military dictatorship at the end. Then in 1931, the king fled, statues toppled and the country essentially became a democracy holding national elections. In 1936, the election that year put in power a coalition of left and liberal parties, which promised to do much more in the way of land reform, secularizing education. Previously, education had all been in the hands of the Catholic Church. And, you know, this coalition won the election.  And this was too much for Francisco Franco and a large group of right-wing army officers who rose up in revolt in July of 1936. They wanted to restore Spain, the Spain of old, a Spain where the dominant institutions were the large estates in the countryside, no more of this nonsense of land reform. There would be no trappings of democracy, no free trade union. The army would remain - would reign supreme.  It would be a military dictatorship, and education would be handed back to the Catholic Church. And you can actually see photographs of bishops and cardinals giving the fascist salute alongside nationalist officers. So it was a pretty stark difference between what two kinds of Spain these two sides wanted.

 

 

 I mean, he also talked about regaining the Spanish Empire of old. But of course, it was always very foggy how that would happen because the former Spanish colonies in South America, for example, had been independent for hundreds of years. So exactly how the empire was to be regained wasn't clear, but he certainly had the idea of an empire on his mind.  And in fact, after Franco and his nationalists won the war, he bargained with Hitler about whether he was going to actually join the Axis in World War II - finally decided not to because Hitler wouldn't give him everything he wanted, which were a huge swath of British and French colonies in Africa and a slice of France. So he was definitely somebody who wanted to expand his power." - NPR Interview of author and historian Adam Hothschild

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"If Captain Vidal is the "monster" of the real world, then the fantastical "Pale Man" is Vidal's inner grotesque monster come to life. We are introduced to the Pale Man during Ofelia's second task in the faun's labyrinth. When Ofelia first encounters the Pale Man, he is positioned at the head of a large dining table that is covered with food. This image mimics the previous scene in which Captain Vidal is holding a dinner party. Like the Pale Man, Vidal is sitting at the head of the table. By placing two images that visually echo each other in such quick sucession, Del Toro emphasizes a link between Captain Vidal and the Pale Man. In addition to the visual cues supplied by Del Toro, the connection between the two villains is further solidifed by their cruel actions. At the real-world dinner party, Vidal ruthlessly cuts off the nonsensical chatter that surrounds the dinner table. The Pale Man's need for order manifests as actual violence; when Ofelia eats two grapes off of the table, the Pale Man viciously bites off the heads of two fairies. Much like a totalitarian ruler, the Pale Man is an all-powerful entity that rules with fear and violence, punishing any act of defiance or freedom. 

 

If Captain Vidal and the Pale Man come to represent fascist rule, then Ofelia serves as a stand-in for the Spanish nation and those who suffered at the hands of the Franco regime. Much like members of the Spanish resistance, Ofelia faces challenges that are dangerous, challenging, and highlight her impotence in the face of peril. Though Ofelia ultimately becomes another victim at the hands of Captain Vidal, she becomes a martyr for the future generation—in this case, her infant brother—to grow in the hands of the resistance.  By the end of the film, Del Toro’s position on Franco’s leadership becomes apparent; his was a regime that relied on unnecessary violence and fear to keep its citizens in check. Through the use of allegorical real-life and fantastical villains, Del Toro shows audiences how Francoist Spain crushed the Spanish nation's innocence, imagination and freedom." - Naina Lee, ScreenPrism

 

 

The Film Itself

 

Storyline

 

"In 1944, in the post-Civil War in Spain, rebels still fight in the mountains against the Falangist troops. The young and imaginative Ofelia travels with her pregnant and sick mother Carmen Vidal to the country to meet and live with her stepfather, the sadistic and cruel Captain Vidal, in an old mill. During the night, Ofelia meets a fairy and together they go to a pit in the center of a maze where they meet a faun that tells that she is a princess from a kingdom in the underground. He also tells that her father is waiting for her, but she needs to accomplish three gruesome, tough and dangerous assignments first. Meanwhile, she becomes friend of the servant Mercedes, who is the sister of one of the rebels and actually is giving support to the group. In a dark, harsh and violent world, Ofelia lives her magical world trying to survive her tasks and sees her father and king again."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Though the early setups will likely prove the greatest strain on audience credulity, del Toro’s masterful direction shifts from fantasy to reality and back again with remarkable fluidity. As Ofelia goes about her tasks — which include escaping from the skeletal Pale Man (Jones again), a spectacularly designed creature with oddly positioned eyeballs — the helmer maintains equal focus on the war front, as Vidal’s housekeeper Mercedes (“Y tu mama tambien’s” Maribel Verdu) and doctor (Alex Angulo) bravely conspire to keep the guerrilla revolt alive. The result is a slow-burning war drama that deepens audience involvement by incremental degrees, punctuated by brief but potent spasms of visual grotesquerie that show Marti, production designer Eugenio Caballero and visual effects supervisor Everett Burrell and special effects supervisor Reyes Abades working at a very high level. Despite pic’s intense level of stylization, digital f/x are sparingly and precisely applied, never devolving into visual overkill.

 

With her quiet resilience and enormously expressive eyes, Baquero makes an ideal if slightly milquetoast heroine. She’s nearly upstaged, however, by the far spunkier Verdu, whose skill with a blade makes for one of the film’s most satisfying (and least magical) scenes. As Vidal, the reliably creepy Lopez creates a complex, indelible and vaguely Freudian portrait of chauvinism and fascist mania run amok." - Variety

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"Oh Pan's Labyrinth, how I love thee. This is my favorite foreign language film. Del Toro's directing is absolute perfection, as well as the cinematography. Navarette created such a great atmospheric score for this. Doesn't stand well alone after multiple listenings, but always is great during the film. So many great scenes, especially the man with no eyes. So chilling. One of my favorites." - @acsc1312

 

Factoids

 

Pan's Labyrinth was directed by Guillermo Del Torro and received 31 points and 6 votes

 

 

Countries Represented: England (1), Spain (1), United States (2)

 

Time Periods Represented: Middle Ages (1), 19th Century (1), World War 2/1940s (2)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 19th Century - United States (1), Middle Ages - England (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Anthoney Harvey (1), Penny Marshall (1), Steven Spielberg (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1)

 

Decades Represented: 60s (1), 90s (1), 00s (1), 10s (1)

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by The Panda

[TalismanRing]

Brilliant film.  It's political fable shaped as fairy tale but the fairy tale (fantasy) is real which is why I didn't put it on my list.

 

[The Panda]

 

 

"What befalls others today, may be your own fate tomorrow."

 

Historical Setting: Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan

 

Source from the Period

 

“For generation after generation, men have taken their livelihood from tilling the soil, or
devised and manufactured tools, or produced profit from mutual trade, so that peoples’ needs
were satisfied. Thus the occupations of farmer, artisan, and merchant necessarily grew up as
complementary to one another. But the samurai eats food without growing it, uses utensils
without manufacturing them, and profits without buying or selling. What is the justification for
this? When I reflect today on my pursuit in life, [I realize that] I was born into a family whose
ancestors for generations have been warriors and whose pursuit is service at court. The samurai
is one who does not cultivate, does not manufacture, and does not engage in trade, but it cannot
be that he has no function at all as a samurai. He who satisfies his needs without performing
any function at all would more properly be called an idler. Therefore one must devote all one’s
mind to the detailed examination of one’s calling.

 

The business of the samurai is to reflect on his own station in life, to give loyal service to his
master if he has one, to strengthen his fidelity in associations with friends, and, with due
consideration of his own position, to devote himself to duty above all. However, in his own life,
he will unavoidably become involved in obligations between father and child, older and
younger brother, and husband and wife. Although these are also the fundamental moral
obligations of everyone in the land, the farmers, artisans, and merchants have no leisure from their

occupations, and so they cannot constantly act in accordance with them and fully
exemplify the Way. Because the samurai has dispensed with the business of the farmer, artisan,
and merchant and confined himself to practicing this Way, if there is someone in the three
classes of the common people who violates these moral principles, the samurai should punish
him summarily and thus uphold the proper moral principles in the land. It would not do for the
samurai to know martial and civil virtues without manifesting them. Since this is the case,
outwardly he stands in physical readiness for any call to service, and inwardly he strives to
fulfill the Way of the lord and subject, friend and friend, parent and child, older and younger
brother, and husband and wife. Within his heart he keeps to the ways of peace, but without, he
keeps his weapons ready for use. The three classes of the common people make him their
teacher and respect him. By following his teachings, they are able to understand what is
fundamental and what is secondary."

- The Way of the Samurai, Yamaga Soko

 

Historical Context

 

"The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 established the power of the Tokugawa Shogunate over Japan and brought to an end the period of almost continuous warfare that preceded it. Tokugawa Ieyasu set up his power base in Edo (present-day Tokyo), which during the period was to become the largest city in the world.

 

The Tokugawa clan directly controlled the most strategic areas of the country including the cities of Edo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagasaki, while those daimyo who were on the losing side at Sekigahara (tozama 外様 or "outside lords") were relegated to the more remote areas of Japan, such as the Mori clan who were forced out of their lands in Hiroshima and moved to the remote town of Hagi on the Japan Sea coast. The fudai lords (譜代大名) were the trusted hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa and provided the shogunate with its officials and administrators.

 

Feudal lords or daimyo were forced to spend alternate years in Edo under a system known as sankin kotai (参勤交代), set up in 1635 to allow the authorities to keep a close watch for any sign of dissent. Rebuilding or extensions to existing castles were also tightly controlled and needed permission from the shogun. The Tokugawa government vastly improved the Gokaido (the five main roads leading to and from Edo (Tokyo) - the Tokaido, Nakasendo, Nikko Kaido, Oshu Kaido and Koshu Kaido). This network of highways allowed their power to spread to the furthest parts of Japan and were the routes taken by the daimyo and their retinues to and from Edo to perform sankin kotai." - Japan Visitor

 

Historical Accuracy

 

(Not about the film specifically but about a famous incident of Seppuku in 1877 that's very interesting and provides some context for the film)

 

"The story of Saigõ s seppuku is often juxtaposed with fantastic legends of his death. Ivan Morris, for example, in his influential Nobility of Failure, wrote that Saigõ "bowed in the direction of the Imperial Palace and cut open his stomach." This heroic death helped inspire amazing stories of Saigõ s valor, including "the fantastic legend according to which Saigõ would reappear in 1891 on a Russian warship in order to rescue his country from foreign danger" (Morris 1975, 267, 273). In their study of early Japanese newspapers, The Birth of the News (Nyüsu no tanjo), Kinoshita Naoyuki and Yoshimi Shun'ya contrasted the associ- ation of Saigõ and Mars with the seemingly objective details of his death: "rumors of the appearance of a 'Saigõ star* had already become a topic of popular conver- sation before Saigõ stabbed himself to death (jijin) on September 24th" (1999, 229).

These juxtapositions are misleading. Saigõ s seppuku is merely another Saigõ legend, not an empirically grounded account of his death. Saigõ did not "cut open his stomach" or "stab himself to death." These tales of suicide, like stories of Saigõs ascent to Mars, were attempts to represent the enormous implications of Saigõs death. If, for example, Saigõ was the last true samurai, then he needed a spectacular and iconic death. What is fascinating about Saigõs seppuku is how it has morphed into something else: a standard account of Saigõ s demise, reproduced in reference works and textbooks. How and why did this happen? The transformation of Saigõ s seppuku from fantasy to history coincided with the rise of bushidõ as a national ideology. Con- necting Saigõ to bushidõ allowed ideologues both inside and outside the Meiji state to embed him in a longer narrative of Japanese martial heroes. A glorious death by seppuku also meant that critics could both venerate Saigõ and criticize his insurrection: a proper suicide ensured that Saigõ was dead, but honorably dead. This was a fitting end for a man who was both a leader of the Restoration and a major threat to the Meiji state. The legend of Saigõ s seppuku was thus most amenable to late Meiji nationalism and its emphasis on bushidõ. Seppuku turned Saigõ into a forerunner of Japanese militarism, rather than a dangerous challenger to the state." - The Apocryphal Suicide of Saigō Takamori: Samurai, "Seppuku", and the Politics of Legend, Mark J. Ravina

 

 

The Film Itself

 

Storyline

 

"Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty. An honorable end to such fate under the samurai code is ritual suicide, or hara-kiri (self-inflicted disembowelment). An elder warrior, Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) seeks admittance to the house of a feudal lord to commit the act. There, he learns of the fate of his son-in-law, a young samurai who sought work at the house but was instead barbarically forced to commit traditional hara-kiri in an excruciating manner with a dull bamboo blade. In flashbacks the samurai tells the tragic story of his son-in-law, and how he was forced to sell his real sword to support his sick wife and child. Tsugumo thus sets in motion a tense showdown of revenge against the house."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi came of age in the postwar moment, a time when filmmakers were at the vanguard of dissident expression in that country. Drawing upon a rich history of protest in Japanese cinema, which had fallen dormant during the war and occupation years, filmmakers seized the opportunity to challenge those institutions that remained wedded to the nation’s feudal past. Of this generation of directors, none was as passionate as Kobayashi. Every one of his films, from The Thick-Walled Room (1953) to the feature-length documentary Tokyo Trial (1983) to The Empty Table (1985), is marked by a defiance of tradition and authority, whether feudal or contemporary. Kobayashi found the present to be no more immune to the violation of personal freedoms than the pre-Meiji past, under official feudalism, had been. “In any era, I am critical of authoritarian power,” the filmmaker told me when I interviewed him in Tokyo, during the summer of 1972. “In The Human Condition [1959–61], it took the form of militaristic power; in Harakiri, it was feudalism. They pose the same moral conflict in terms of the struggle of the individual against society.”

 

Like other directors of this period—notably Akira Kurosawa—Kobayashi often expressed his political dissidence via the jidai-geki, or period film, in which the historical past becomes a surrogate for modern Japan. In Kobayashi’s hands, the jidai-geki exposed the historical roots of contemporary injustice. (Japanese audiences were well schooled in history and could be counted on to connect the critique of the past with abuses in the present.) Harakiri, made in 1962, was, in Kobayashi’s career, the apex of this practice. In the film’s condemnation of the Iyi clan, Kobayashi rejects the notion of individual submission to the group. He condemns, simultaneously, the hierarchical structures that pervaded Japanese political and social life in the 1950s and 1960s, especially the zaibatsus, the giant corporations that recapitulated feudalism." - Joan Mellon, Criterion Collection

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"One of those films that feels like it should be much more widely known and accepted as a classic than it is. Both fully accessible and absolutely masterful on basically every level. " - @Jake Gittes

 

Factoids

 

Harakiri was directed by Masaki Kobayashi and received 33 Points and 4 Votes

 

 

 

Countries Represented: England (1), Japan (1), Spain (1), United States (2)

 

Time Periods Represented: Middle Ages (1),  17th Century (1), 19th Century (1), World War 2/1940s (2)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 19th Century - United States (1), Middle Ages - England (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Anthoney Harvey (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Penny Marshall (1), Steven Spielberg (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1)

 

Decades Represented: 60s (2), 90s (1), 00s (1), 10s (1)

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by The Panda