List of book based war films (wars before 1775)

Trojan War

Note: The 1997 film, Trojan War, is not related to the Trojan War; it is referred to the condom brand of the same name.

c. 1200 BC

Frequently filmed: The Iliad

♠ Paris gives the sword of Troy to Aeneas whose story continues in The Aeneid.

Wars of Israel with Philistia and Ammon

c. 1000 BC

Greco-Persian Wars

499 BC – 448 BC

Battle of Marathon

490 BC

Battle of Thermopylae

August or September 480 BC

♣ His boyhood viewing of this film inspired Frank Miller to create his own graphic novel.

Battle of Salamis

September 480 BC

* television film.

Chinese Warring States Period

476 BC – 221 BC

Peloponnesian War

431 BC – 404 BC

Home front

Protest

Frequently filmed: Lysistrata

♠ The French title means Lysistrata, or The Kiss Strike.

♦ This production was performed by a naked cast in order to emphasize the anarchism of Aristophanes.

* television film.

Wars of Alexander

336 BC – 323 BC

♠ Fox is credited as historical advisor, rather than author.

Kalinga War

265 BC – 264 BC

Second Punic War

218 BC – 201 BC

Battle of Gaixia

202 BC

♠ The traditional opera which is performed by the characters in the film dramatizes this battle.

Third Servile War

73 BC – 71 BC

Gallic Wars

58 BC – 51 BC

Great Roman Civil War

49 BC – 44 BC

♠ The 1963 film is chiefly notable for its budget and for a performance by Elizabeth Taylor.

* television film.

Final Civil Wars of the Roman Republic

45 BC –

Battle of Actium

2 September 31 BC

♠ The 1963 film includes an admirable account of the battle.
The series Rome, for budgetary reasons, deals with the aftermath of Actium, not the battle directly.

Roman conquest of Britain

43–96

Frequently filmed: I, Claudius and Claudius the God

* TV miniseries.

Jewish War

66–73

Siege of Masada

72–73

♠ The trial of God conducted by inmates at Auschwitz includes Masada as evidence.

** TV miniseries.

* television film.

Frequently filmed: Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Battle of Red Cliffs

(赤壁之戰)
208–209

Bulletin ... film now in release: Red Cliff by John Woo (shortened Western Edition)

Battle of Milvian Bridge

312 ♠

♠ The battle where Emperor Constantine's vision of☧, the chi rho, led to the adoption of his motto "In hoc signo vinces".

♦ There are other film versions of Fabiola, but the conflict between Constantine and Maxentius appears to be an addition specific to this film.

Campaigns of Attila

434–453

Razing of Aquileia

452

Frequently filmed: Attila

* TV performance.

Roman Empire

Frequently filmed: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

The pirates in Ben-Hur are Chersonesan and have travelled from the Euxine to the Ægean to face a Roman fleet sent by Sejanus.

Dark Ages

c. 500 – c. 1000

Battle of Badon Hill

c. 500

Gothic War

535–554

♠ The IMDb lists a story by Bulwer-Lytton as the source for this film. But there appears to be no such work.
The 1906 play seems a more likely source.

Swedish-Geatish wars

Before 600

Frequently filmed: Beowulf

α Animated film.

Frequently filmed: Das Nibelungenlied

Before 600

Battle of Badr

17 March 624

Battle of Uhud

19 March 625

Battle of Roncesvalles

778

War of Wessex with the Danes

868–878

Viking Raids

♠ Normans fend off Vikings in the Early Middle Ages.

Norman Conquest

1066

* TV musical.

** TV miniseries.

Conquest of Valencia

1094–1102

First Crusade

1096–1099

* television film.

Frequently filmed: Gerusalemme liberata

♠ Guazzoni released a version in 1913, and another in 1918. The 1918 version was reissued with sound in 1935.

11th century Scotland

1000–1099

Frequently filmed: Macbeth

♠ Feudal Japan is the setting in Kurosawa's version.

* television film.

The Anarchy

1135–1154

Bulletin ... film currently in development: The Pillars of the Earth

* television film.

Siege of Shrewsbury Castle

1138

* television film.

Campaigns of Frederick Barbarossa

1155–1177

Battle of Legnano

29 May 1176

♠ It is a reasonable supposition that Italian filmmmakers based their story on Verdi's opera La battaglia di Legnano.

Genpei War

1180–1185

Battle of Dan-no-ura

25 April 1185

♠ One segment of this anthology film concerns the battle.

Rus–Cuman War

c. 1185

♠ The poem's Old East Slavic title is "Слово о плъку Игоревѣ", using the older pre-Russian Revolution orthography.

Third Crusade

1187–1192

Battle of Montgisard

25 November 1177

Mongol Invasions

1206–c. 1300

Campaigns of Genghis Khan

1206–1227

Bulletin ... film currently in production: The Great Khan by Sergei Bodrov

Children's Crusade

1212

First Barons' War

1215–1217

Battle of the Ice

5 April 1242

Second Barons' War

1264–1267

War of the Sicilian Vespers

1282–1302

Sicilian Vespers

30 March 1282
Films based on this rebellion tend to be performances of Verdi's opera I vespri siciliani.

Battle of the Field of Blackbirds

15 June 1389

Polish–Teutonic War

1409–1411

Battle of Grunwald

15 July 1410

Hundred Years' War

1337–1453

Battle of Poitiers

19 September 1356

Battle of Shrewsbury

21 July 1403

♠ An Orson Welles film that is very highly regarded by those who have succeeded in seeing it.

Battle of Agincourt

25 October 1415

Bulletin ... film currently in development: Azincourt by director unknown

Frequently filmed: Henry V

Also, Siege of Harfleur
1415

Siege of Orléans

1428–1429

* television film.

What if ...

Δ The film preserves the story's date but shifts the context to (a period resembling) the Third Crusade.

Ottoman–Hungarian Wars

1366–15??

Siege of Eger

1552

What if ...

Frequently filmed: János Vitéz

Ox War of 1421

1421–1422 (not to be confused with the Ox War of 1611)

Frequently filmed: Der Ochsenkrieg

** TV miniseries.

Ottoman-Albanian War

1443–14??

Wars of the Roses

1453–1487

Frequently filmed: The Black Arrow

♠ Inspired by Stevenson, this Italian version is set in the Tyrol, rather than England.

* television film.

Battle of Bosworth Field

22 August 1485

Frequently filmed: Richard III

♠ This version is set in a Fascist Britain.

Burgundian Wars

1474–1477

Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire

1519–1521

♠ Díaz appears in the film as a character, while Prescott is the eminent historian of his century in English.

♦ The film is about the Valladolid debate between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda.

* television film.

Battle of Mactan

27 April 1521
(This skirmish resulted in the death of Magellan before he had completed his circumnavigation of the globe.)

German Peasants' War

1524–1525

Russo-Kazan Wars

1467–1552

Fall of Kazan

1552

♠ A song about Ivan the Terrible and the Fall of Kazan is sung by Varlaam, a drunken vagabond monk, at an inn on the Lithuanian border.

Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire

1526–1572

Inca Civil War

1525–1527

Spanish conquest of Chile

1541–1598

Arauco War

1536–1883

Great Italian Wars

1494–1559

Italian War of 1551–59

1551–1559

Battle of St. Quentin

1557

♠ Davis was a consultant on the film.

Russo-Swedish War of 1554

1554–1557 (followed by the Livonian War [q.v.])

* television film.

Livonian War

1558–1582 (coincident with the Northern Seven Years' War [q.v.])

* television film.

Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima

1561

♠ In addition, Japanese Wikipedia lists 3 radio adaptations of Inoue's novel between 1969 and 2006.

*** TV series.

French Wars of Religion

1562–1598

St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

1572

Frequently filmed: La Reine Margot

Northern Seven Years' War

1563–1570

* television film.

Japanese Warring States Period

1467–1600

Battle of Nagashino

1575

Eighty Years' War

1568–1648
(The Dutch Revolt merges into the Thirty Years' War.)

Anglo–Spanish War of 1585

1585–1604

♠ A Cornishman joins Barbary Coast corsairs and fights the Spanish. The better-known 1940 Errol Flynn film does not follow the novel.

Battle of Gravelines

1588

The Time of Troubles

1598–1613

Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618)

1605–1618

Polish Invasion of 1605

1605

Retaking of Moscow

1612

Thirty Years' War

1618–1648

Frequently filmed: Wallenstein

* television film.

Frequently filmed: Simplicius Simplicissimus

* television film.

Frequently filmed: Mother Courage and Her Children

Brecht's principal character was inspired by the Landstörtzerin Courasche from Grimmelshausen (see above).

Siege of Arras

1640

Frequently filmed: Cyrano de Bergerac

Battle of Rocroi

19 May 1643

Siege of La Rochelle

1627–1628

Frequently filmed: The Three Musketeers

♠ These versions of the story mention La Rochelle.

Shimabara Rebellion

1637–1638

Battle of Mbororé

11 March 1641

♠ The film, in general, depicts the Guarani War of 1756, but it also incorporates this earlier battle.

English Civil War

1642–1651 (followed by the Commonwealth, the Protectorate and the Restoration)

* television film.

Battle of Naseby

14 June 1645

Frequently filmed: The Children of the New Forest

Third English Civil War

1649–1651

Battle of Worcester

3 September 1651

Frequently filmed: The Children of the New Forest

English Restoration

1660

** TV miniseries.

Masaniello's Revolt

1647

♠ A silent film based on the libretto to Auber's opera.

Khmelnytsky Uprising

1648–1654

* television film.

The Deluge

1655–1660

Ottoman-Habsburg War of 1663

1663–1664 (Türkenkrieg 1663–1664)

Second Dutch War

1665–1667

Capture of New Amsterdam

(now New York City)
27 August 1664

♠ Under Dutch governor Stuyvesant's harsh rule, Englishman George Baxter revolts. He fails, but appeals to King Charles. The smuggling of goods duty-free into New England is an issue. English ships arrive in harbour. Townsfolk petition for surrender. Stuyvesant complies.

Third Dutch War

1672–1674

Franco-Dutch War

1672–1678

Scanian War

1675–1679

Palmares War

(Guerra dos escravos)
1675–1677
1679–1695

Monmouth Rebellion

1685

* TV miniseries.

Glorious Revolution

1688–1689

* TV miniseries.

Frequently filmed: The Man Who Laughs

The novel concerns the cruelties of King James II.

Nine Years' War

1688–1697

** TV miniseries.

Piracy and privateering

17th century

* television film.

Blockade of Callao

May 1624

α Animated film.

Great Northern War

1700–1721

♠ Part 1 of the Saxon Trilogy, about Countess Cosel, Augustus II the Strong, and Charles XII of Sweden.

* television film.

War of the Spanish Succession

1701–1714

* TV miniseries.

War of the Austrian Succession

1740–1748

♠ Part 2 of the Saxon Trilogy, about Heinrich von Brühl, Frederick Augustus Rutowsky, and Friedrich August II.

* television film.

Second Jacobite Rebellion

(aka The '45)
1745–1746
The rebellion broke out as Great Britain was heavily involved in the War of the Austrian Succession,
just as the Easter Rebellion broke out as Britain was heavily involved in World War I.

Frequently filmed: Redgauntlet

Battle of Culloden

1746

* television film.

Justice and Retribution

Frequently filmed: Kidnapped

Seven Years' War

1754–1763

♠ Part 2 of the Saxon Trilogy, about Heinrich von Brühl, Frederick Augustus Rutowsky, and Friedrich August II.

♦ Part 3 of the Saxon Trilogy, about Heinrich von Brühl, Augustus III of Poland, and Frederick II of Prussia.

* television film.

French and Indian War

(Known in the US as the French and Indian War. Known in Canada as the Seven Years' War.)

Frequently filmed: The Pathfinder

Battle of Fort Necessity

3 July 1754

* television film.

Battle of the Monongahela

9 July 1755

* television film.

Siege of Fort William Henry

3–9 August 1757

Frequently filmed: The Last of the Mohicans

** TV miniseries.

Battle of Fort Duquesne

15 September 1758

♠ Prime Minister Newcastle asks Dinwiddie of Virginia to oust the French. Dinwiddie settles on Washington (Arthur Vinton). But the defeat of the French at Fort Le Boeuf is followed by Washington's defeat at Fort Duquesne, then his retreat to Broad Meadows and surrender.

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

13 September 1759

♠ De facto William Pitt is determined to oust the French. Wolfe (Arthur Hohl) takes the outpost at Beauport, then lands at the "Faloun" (Wolfe's Cove). Outside Quebec, French and Indians face the British. Wolfe and Montcalm perish.

Guarani War

1756

Pontiac's War

1763–1766

Siege of Fort Pitt

June – August 1763

Black Boys Uprising

1769

Mysore Wars

1766–1799

Third Mysore War

1789–1792

* television film.

Russo-Turkish War of 1768

1768–1774

What if ...

Frequently filmed: Baron Munchausen

♠ The Munchausen stories were published in English by Raspe, then translated back into German by Bürger. The historical Baron von Münchhausen († 1797), a German in Russian service at a somewhat earlier period, had been a notable teller of tall tales.

Pugachev's Rebellion

1774–1775

Frequently filmed: The Captain's Daughter

For later conflicts, see the List of films based on war books — 1775–1898.