La dernière croisade

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.

Anyone who like hero movies will love this one. And that's not the only thing. Sergiu Nicolaescu made this movie as the first in the world (as far as I know) with battle scene that looks real enough to get you on your toes. And that doesn't mean lot of blood but the way that the camera follows the action, big action of the troops and instant local action of "mano a mano" fight.

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.

The question in title is maybe a critical question when commenting on a historical movie. The director especially, sometimes wants to "tell" too much of his peoples history and the movie began too quickly. But I think this movie succeeded to mantain this frail equilibrium between historical information and artistic part.

Of course, comparing with Braveheart this movie isn't so realistic in images, has no such violence, but very real, battles, but it was filmed 27 years before and of course with some censorship involved. But it still is one of the great Romanian movies ever realised. The major critique, in my humble opinion, is a great king is a man too, and this aspect wasn't explored enough in this movie.

Maybe the myth was more important than the reality? But the performances were simply excellent and this critique can be minimised.