Numanoid

Once More into the Breach...

As 'Narnia' arrives, we highlight our top 10 favorite heroic battles from the movies

By Kathleen Murphy
Special to MSN Movies

Click for full review: http://movies.msn.com/movies/battles_intro?GT1=7448
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10. Aliens (1986)
9. Princess Mononoke (1997)
8. Excalibur (1981)
7. The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
6. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
5. Alexander Nevsky (1938)
4. Gettysburg (1993)
3. Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
2. Zulu (1964)
1. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

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I'm happy to see Excalibur included. It's my favorite film of all time, and often overlooked.

raven56706

The Matrix Revolutions??????? already a bad list

Hiro11

No mention of any Kurosawa movie? Ran basically set the standard for the "epic", masses of armies type of battle scene.

That list is crap, IMO.

bigsoos

No Braveheart? No Glory? No thanks!

slavetotherave

We all know the most epic battle ever was between Littlefoot and Sharptooth

Michael Corvin

Exactly. First one that came to mind.

Jazzbutcher

No D-Day invasion from The Longest Day OR SPR?

Coral

In my opinion, battles that have CGI people should be disqualified.

When real people are used, the scope of the battle is much more impressive.

tanman

Yeah, another Land Before Time fan. I think I wore out my copy when I was a kid.

Giles

I have to admit I haven't seen it, but I have heard that Sergei Bondarchuk's 1968 film version of War and Peace has some staggering battle sequences.

Shannon Nutt

The best Sci-Fi battle is in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

The battle at the conclusion of The Two Towers is far more enjoyable than the one in Return Of The King.

Numanoid

Braveheart popped into my head first as well. And as much as I love the inclusion of Excalibur, the battle referenced really isn't all that "epic".

Terrell

Strongly have to disagree. The space battles in Star Wars and ROTJ blow away any and every space battle in Trek. It's not even close in my opinion.

As for the list, ESB doesn't belong on it. Star Wars and ROTJ space battles are more epic than anything in ESB, including the Hoth battle. Hoth battle was great and epic, but not as epic as those two space battles.

raven56706

the best battle in a large scope was :


Battlefield Earth

eXcentris

Another list from Channel 4

Saving Private Ryan (1998): Omaha Beach
Waterloo (1970): The Charge of The Cuirassiers
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970): The Attack on Pearl Harbour
Apocalypse Now (1979): The Helicopter Attack
A Bridge Too Far (1977): The Battle for Arnhem
Seven Samurai (1955): The Fight For The Village
Das Boot (1981): Depth Charged by a Destroyer
Intolerance (1910): The Fall of Babylon
The Lord Of The Rings, The Two Towers (2002): The Battle For Helms Deep
Star Wars (1977): Attack on the Death Star

It's clear that "epic" has more than one definition. It can mean "grand sweeping scale" but it can also mean "heroic, mythical, that rises above the ordinary". A battle between two people can be as "epic" as a battle between thousands.

flixtime

You would be right - and the same could be said of his take on "Waterloo". Hmmm....now I'm tempted to give 'em both a spin sometime soon.

And, in all fairness, I just did a quick glance of the article and the writer does qualify things with terms like "heroic" and "mythic". It's still kind of loosely defined but I think the writer was going for something a little different than simply "the 10 most epic battles".

That aside, I'm always disappointed to see "Spartacus" totally neglected in discussions like these (especially given all the mentions of "Braveheart"). The topic would have to be more clearly defined but you also have films like:

Zulu Dawn
El Cid
55 Days at Peking
The Alamo
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Four Feathers
and many, many more

Trout

I have to agree with Ran, great battle scene with the different colored armies (and filmed mostly silent).

The Winter War had some cool battle scenes, some quite large.

ChrisKnudsen

Hell yeah, the ending battle of the Two Towers is awesome and is what I measure epic battles to. I was pissed at the final battle in Return of the King with the ghost soldiers helping sort of felt like pussing out. Not as pissed as the movie ending 30 times and then it starts again, though.

Mondo Kane

Including that overhead, one-take shot during the battle of Ouistreham in Longest Day. Always loved that shot.

Fielding Mellish

Strongly have to disagree with your strong disagreement. Scale in and of itself does not equal excitement.

The nebula standoff in Khan was tightly paced, with a real narrative flow to it.

The Star Wars battles, by Lucas’ own admission, were a “greatest hits” of WWII dogfight footage, re-shot with miniature spaceships, and edited together. They’ve always felt to me like a mish-mash. Especially the chaos in Jedi… which comes across like 800 plastic models being tossed in a clothes dryer.

PopcornTreeCt

The battle at Helm's Deep is the best battle in all 3 movies of Lord of the Rings. That list is pretty crappy.

matrixrok9

Last Samurai had an epic battle, especially the last charge

I disagree with the Two Towers comments. Build up was there but the when the war began it was "okay". They kept cutting to Treebeard and Aragorn became a one man wrecking crew. I prefer the battle in Return Of The King because the pacing was better. Plus when Theoden showed up, that was badass.

Terrell

Please! I didn't say scale in size makes it better. Everything about those SW battles clearly superior in every single respect to the Trek battles. There just is no comparison. Then again, I only ever like Star Treks II and VI.

Yeah, right!

Terrell

Agreed!

wendersfan

The battle in Nevsky kicked ass, but at least one Kurosawa should have been included.

Star Wars?