Here is my 1st list of battle sequences caught in film. As usual, I have based these purely on personal preference, but with some care given to on characters, tactics and how well they are filmed.
#5: The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe
What struck me about this battle is that there are so many creatures both real and fantasy battling it out. We see cheetahs attacking werewolves, centaur’s clashing with minotaur’s, even a gorilla throwing a dwarf off a cliff. It also has one of my favorite battle charges ever. I also love that before they charge, we see griffins dropping rock on top of the Witches’ army in a bombing like raid, a callback to the movie’s intro where we saw the Pevensie children live through the German bombing raids. Despite many creatures being CG, they still made effective use of practical effects whenever possible such as with the minotaurs.
The only problem is that the two human characters Peter and Edmond were quite bland. They were not awful in terms of their acting, but this movie really needed Peter to be a strongly charismatic lead to make this battle feel complete. Plus, who gives a 12 year-old a sword?
#4: Avengers: Endgame
The interesting thing is that the Majority of Endgame is mostly in the words of Antman a “time heist” film until the last quarter. It starts as the simple CGI battle with 2014 Thanos, (its complicated) with him getting the best of Thor Captain America and Ironman.
Non-embedded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP2w_UAK6B4
Even though we know Hulk used the stones to bring everyone back we completely forget about that after Avenger’s HQ was obliterated by Thanos ship. So, when we see the portals open and we see all the shows hero’s and their followers emerge culminating with Steve Roger’s line that eluded the entire franchise “Avengers, Assemble”. This was the culmination of over a decade of buildup, nearly every character got just enough time to shine, despite being in a cast of hundreds.
#3: Game of Thrones – Battle of the Bastards
For the past, several seasons of Game of Thrones despite several large battle sequences taking place in the book there was never large scale one in the show as they didn’t have the budget nor the time. They often get around that by ether depicting the aftermath depicting a siege where you can easily put a few hundred extras is on a wall. Here after six seasons the show finally has the resources budget for more horses, extra’s, and props to prepare one the best open field action sequences since Braveheart.
The Battle of the Bastards (aka “BASTARD BOWL!”) was named for both the armies’ leaders Jon Snow and Ramsey Bolton. Both were illegitimate sons of prominent Lords who lead vastly different lives. One is honorable through his upbringing, the other is a sadist who comes up with elaborate ways to mentally torture his victims. Most of the Battle and drama is focused on Jon show who’s fighting to retake his adopted family’s castle Winterfell in the name of his half-sister Sansa, who everyone believes are the last of the Stark family. After Ramsey kills his half-brother, Jon charges towards the line with his army following. Whatever initial plans team Jon has had has been thrown out the window.
We follow Jon through a very impressive tracking shot, but in the end all the characters were surrounded by a phalanx of pikes on one side and a pile of dead bodies on the other. Jon may have believed in honor, but Ramsey played this battle like it was a game, proving he’s the better strategist. It was not until Sansa came with reinforcements that the battle was won.
#2: The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King – Battle of the Pelennor Fields
There were two battles of note in the Lord of the Rings trilogy – Helms Deep and Pelennor fields. I choose the latter, because this entire battle consisted of nearly a third of the entire movie. Every form of medieval/fantasy warfare is also present, from a siege, to a mass cavalry charge, to giant elephants, to a literal ghost army. This was also one of those earlier movies that uses CGI in both creating a large army and entire landscapes. You completely forget about Frodo and Sam distraction, until they cut back to them from time to time.
#1: Braveheart
Ever since its release in 1995, Braveheart has been the movie that modern epics strive to be. A humble (or this case holier than thou) Hero, a period setting, and an evil overlord to fight against. The reason the battles of Stirling and Falkirk are on the list is because the techniques used in this film would be emulated in later such movies. Predominantly when the camera is at a medium shot. The key is that while the camera is close in on the action. The action also made it look more chaotic and more visceral. Unlike previous films you can feel impact, every slash of one’s weapon. In older films such as 1960’s Spartacus their action scenes were more akin to a stage show, with the camera at a distance and their stunts more like what you would see two boys playing with sticks. The key to this is the way Braveheart edit’s its scenes. Despite the rapid editing and camera close you can still see what is going on, you can see the characters movements.
Another important difference is that you see William Wallace’s tactical skills without it being spoon-fed to the audience. You see the cavalry charge and Wallace instantly switches to long spears to stop the horses in their tracks. The only hint we got from that was just when Wallace and his men were eating lunch a few scenes earlier.
