L'ultima crociata

Best battle scenes until Lords of the Rings (in '70 there were no computers to add special effects so the battles look even more natural than today movies. The story is close to what really happened (historians from Romanian Academy were consultants for this movie). Good to see if you know a little about European/Ottoman history or if you like huge war scenes. As I know for this movie Sergiu Nicolaescu (the director) - present in the movie also as Selim Pasa character - had the entire support of the Romanian army - provided by the former Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. tens of thousands of people were used as utility actors and Nicolaescu also applied some new film directing techniques in this movie.

Mihai Viteazul is probably the greatest romanian movie ever. 1.A lot of Hollywood stars were supposed to act in this movie. But Ceausescu sayed now and it was a good thing because Amza Pelea acted at his highest skills. Just as he did in the role of Decebal an ancient romanian king (Dacii and Columna movie). 2.It had a few Oscar nominations. 3.It is a model for the stunt work. It has been studied before shooting other great historical movies such as Troy. In Romania after the Troy premiere there was a wide spread joke: "Yeah Troy is a great movie but there's something missing: Sergiu Nicolaescu, Amza Pelea, etc" :) Of course part nationalism but part truth.

Amza Pellea is Mihai Viteazul! Very seldom that you see an actor transforming itself so completely to bring a strong historical character to life. I can only feel bad for the rest of the world for not being able to see this movie. Sergiu Nicolaescu, the movie director proves that he belongs with the best of the historical genre. Time will prove me right, somebody, someday, will bring this diamond in the rough to a full shine. It is disturbing to see the people in charge of promoting Romania's cultural image can't seem to know how to promote some of it's best assets.

I like this movie because I´m a history buff and secondly my ancestors come from Transylvania. The characters in this movie are brilliant- Amza Pellea even matches the original Michael Petrascu. The only bad thing in the movie: the guns (Russian Mosin Nagant-Rifles) are not accurate. But!!! The are turned with new stocks and barrel bands into fine, ancient muskets. The marching scenes with thousands of Turcs and Romanians are excellent! Shame is, the movie is not very often seen on TV or at a blockbuster.

Yeah, that's it! The best Romanian film ever. Sounds stately, I know, but nobody has topped this film yet. Sergiu himself said that this is "the most IMPORTANT Romanian film", because it serves in a beautiful way the main cause of our people over the centuries - the unification of the 3 ancient Romanian-speaking countries: Transylvania, Moldavia and Tara Romaneasca. This epic that could easily enter the league of such blockbusters as "Braveheart" or "Kingdom of Heaven", depicts the final years of the XVI century, when Mihai Viteazul achieved the longed unification that, unfortunately, lasted less than a year. In fact, I'm talking about the second part of "Mihai Viteazu", here. Everything said is applied to the first part, as well. It's useless to glorify this film in a short comment - you have to watch it and make your own impressions. If you are not Romanian, you won't feel the same as we, all the Romanian movie goers did, but anyway, you can enjoy a truly good piece of historical cinema.

NOTIFICATIONS : the central figure is incarnated by Amza Pellea, a monumental actor at his best. Stay focused on Mihai's mother, approaching the final scene of the film, portrayed by Olga Tudorache in a brief, but wonderful screen appearance.