Best Medieval Warfare Films

Medieval Warfare Films are set during the Medieval Era from 500 AD to 1500 AD. The Medieval Era (also known as the Middle Ages or Dark Ages) is generally thought to have begun with the collapse of Rome in 476 A.D. and would last for 1,000 years. Some historians have the Medieval Era ending in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, while others have it ending with the start of the Age of Discovery in 1492 or even later in 1517 with Martin Luther and the Reformation.

For our purposes, we’ve classified Medieval Warfare Films as generally starting around 500 AD and ending around 1500 AD with the emergence of the arquebus. There’s also a great film, The Profession of Arms (2001), which shows the transformation from Medieval Warfare to Early Modern Warfare where gunpowder had transformed weaponry. This Italian film is about the first victim of artillery weapons in the Early Modern Warfare period and features some great battle scenes of traditional medieval horse-mounted warfare vs this new form of artillery warfare. However, because the film is set in 1526, it didn’t make the historical cutoff for this article but will be featured in our next article on Early Modern Warfare Films.

Medieval Warfare saw military tactics of the Ancient Warfare Era transition to an increased role of cavalry and artillery. Heavily armored Knights and Cataphracts were dominant forces on the battlefield while Samurai and Janissaries were examples of elite warriors of the era. The sword would become synonymous with Medieval War and the crossbow, longbow and pike would transform infantry tactics. And the emergence of the castle as a defensive fortification would lead to technological improvements of battering rams, siege towers and trebuchets though the development of the medieval cannon in Europe in the late 14^th century would make many of these siege weapons obsolete.

Historical figures featured during the Medieval Warfare Era include both legends of myth as well as prominent historical military heroes of the time. The King Arthur legend is the basis for films including Excalibur (1981) and First Knight (1995) while Robin Hood from English folklore features prominently in many medieval films from Ivanhoe (1982) to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) to Robin Hood (2010). And though they weren’t mythical figures, many prominent English Monarchs of the Medieval Era would have dramatized versions of their lives written by William Shakespeare. Films based on Shakespeare that were set in the Medieval Era and featured various scales of warfare included Henry V (1989), Macbeth (2015) and The Hollow Crown series of films.

Despite the era’s focus on mythical medieval heroes, there are also a wealth of films portraying real-life historical war heroes from Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in El Cid (1961) to France’s patron saint Joan of Arc who would be featured in a multitude of films including Joan the Maid 1 – The Battles (1994) to The Messenger: Joan of Arc (1999). And while a hero to some but villain to many others, Genghis Khan was one of the most important and infamous historical figures of the era that conquered the east and threatened the west. Numerous war films have portrayed the Mongolian ruler’s life from Genghis Khan (1965) to Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007).

While this article will cover the Best Medieval Warfare Films, you can also check out additional articles of films from different periods of military history below. We’ll be covering every military warfare film from the Macedonian phalanx in Ancient Warfare to the use of deadly UCAV military drones in Modern Warfare. And for good measure, we’re even going to cover some of the Best Sci-Fi Warfare and Fantasy Warfare films featuring fantasy-based wars and futuristic space battles.

Best Ancient Warfare Films (3,000 BC – 500 AD)
Best Medieval Warfare Films (500 AD – 1500 AD)
Best Early Modern Warfare Films (1500 AD – 1850 AD)
Best Early Industrial Warfare Films (1850 AD – 1913 AD)
Best World War I & World War II Warfare Films (1913 AD – 1945 AD)
Best Modern Warfare Films (1945 AD – Present)
Best Fantasy Warfare Films
Best Sci-Fi Warfare Films

What are the Best Medieval Warfare Films? Read on as we look at some of the popular and lesser-known war films from the periods of El Cid to Robert the Bruce to Joan of Arc from the last 70 years. This is a special edition of our “Best Of” subgenre list where we will rank the Top 20 Medieval Warfare Films from our War Films with Massive Battle Scenes collection. You can also find these and other historical films in our collections of Films Set During the Medieval Era and War Films Set During Medieval Asia.

For our rankings we’re going to use some criteria to help define and refine our list. First, we’re going to prioritize Films that have Massive Battle Scenes. What good is a film about Medieval Warfare unless there’s a huge, chaotic battle with weapons and tactics of the time?

Second, we’re not going to use an arbitrary number to determine what constitutes a ‘massive’ battle. We know it when we see it, and so will you. However, we will create a list of films before our Top 20 list that includes Medieval Era Films that might not show a massive battle but do have examples of Medieval Warfare including battles between knights, jousting, and other smaller scale skirmishes.

Third, we’re also going to prioritize a film’s action over its plot, acting and so on. We want the best actions films from this medieval period so that means films that have confusing plots or pacing issues like Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and The Divine Weapon (2008) will rank higher on our list because they have some great action-packed battles.

Fourth, we’re going to be lenient with historical accuracy – especially for films such as Excalibur (1981), Braveheart (1995) and The Divine Weapon (2008). We’re fully aware Excalibur is based on the King Arthur and English mythology, that Braveheart features a multitude of historical inaccuracies and that the Ming Dynasty and Joseon Korea weren’t in actual conflict during the time as depicted in The Divine Weapon. And that brings us to the Hua Mulan fable which has filmed versions all over the historical map. The fable is set sometime during 4^th to 6^th centuries and while Mulan: Rise of a Warrior (2009) is clearly set in 450 AD, Disney’s Mulan (2020) incorporates a wide range of different historical eras but we include it in our Films Set During the Medieval Era collection based on the weapons portrayed in the film that were used from 960 AD – 1279 AD. But all these films have either amazing battle sequences or some great depictions of Medieval Warfare so will be on our list despite their heavy use of ‘faction’ – historical fact + fiction.

And fifth, we had to follow our rule for all of KBZ’s film listings where we only list films that have a 4.0/10 or higher rating. And though we typically focus on films from 1970 to present, we’re going to move our start date backwards to 1960 so we can include classic Medieval Warfare Films such as El Cid (1961).

Our complete list of War Films with Massive Battles Scenes features over 134+ films from 1930 – 2023 and covers all periods of war from Ancient Warfare to Modern Warfare. Though we haven’t yet segmented out specific periods of warfare films, you can also check out our Films Set During the Medieval Era and War Films Set During Medieval Asia collections if you don’t see a favorite film of yours on our list. And finally, subscribe to our newsletter to get updated as we release future articles in this special edition series of warfare films.

We have embedded a compilation video of our Best Medieval Warfare Films and more details on these films can be found in the list below. Note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.