Films set in the eighteenth century

I have three films in mind, but there must be more, especially foreign films so please tell me about them!

My three are:-

Barry Lyndon, 1975, Stanley Kubrick
Rob Roy, 1995, Michael Caton-Jones
Last of the Mohicans, 1992, Michael Mann

I will concentrate in this review on Barry Lyndon because my dinner is nearly ready!

This film will tick so many boxes for fans of LGDR, especially in those games who are now nearer the seven years war than the wars of spanish succession. Barry Lyndon is a 1975 period film set during the middle of the eighteenth century by Stanley Kubrick loosely based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. It recounts the exploits of an Irish adventurer, particularly his rise and fall in English society, starring Ryan O'Neal stars as the title character.

We see the English, Prussians and the French in action during the Seven Years War as well as a number of duels and all stratas of society which Barry succeeds in climbing, then falling off. The film is beautiful, elegant, and historically accurate and costumes and music are amazing (although the repititious nature of some of the music can be annoying). However, before you rush out and buy it one word of warning, the film is paced in a stately manner i.e its very, very slow and very, very long. I love a long slow film (Ludwig anyone?) but its not everyones cup of tea. The other thing is that Kubrick quite deliberatly places us as very much the observer, you will not be allowed the get close to the characters, many of which are pretty unpleasant. This deatachment manifests itself, for example, in very few extreme close ups and you may begin to lose interest in the charatecters as you simply stop caring. Sometime when I watch it I like it, other times the coldness irritates me. I should make it clear it's not a war film and the battle scenes are reasonably brief but all in all its a must see, just dont expect to like very many of the characters.

Enjoy

France

Rob Roy is a 1995 American historical drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Liam Neeson stars as Robert Roy MacGregor, an 18th century Scottish historical figure who battles with feudal landowners. Tim Roth plays the sociopathic villain Archibald Cunningham and John Hurt plays the Duke of Montrose.

This is another great film for those who love the eighteenth century, like Last of the Mohicans its starts off as a bit of a B movie but gets better as it goes along. There is (another) excellent duel scene and an examination of the 18th century code of honour.

The Last of the Mohicans is a 1992 historical epic film set in 1757 during the French and Indian War. It was directed by Michael Mann and based loosly on James Fenimore Cooper's novel of the same name.

The soundtrack is compelling, especially the main theme of the movie, "The Gael" by Dougie MacLean. For me the music is what taken the fil onto a higher plane. The images of the French and Indian war are vivid and the steroetypical 18th century disdain for guerilla war expressed well in a fine battle sequence. It starts off as quite cheesy but about a third of the way through really starts to improve so stick with it.

This is what I think about in my minds eye when I'm playing LGDR in North America.

Concur on Last of the Mohicans... I use this film in my survey courses when discussing the French and Indian War.