MrWright (Level 27)

Well I have been planning on writing this for a few weeks now and my original aim to watch some films set in the British Colonial era has been extended a bit to include several war films as well. Now my basis for watching these was I wanted to see some films that I remember seeing and enjoyed, to see if they stood up to repeat viewings. To accomplish this task I had to find and plug in my old VCR which I never thought I would have to do again, and getting it t work when the remote is broken was quite a fun task in itself.

What started this all of was a desire to watch Zulu again, which I count as one of my top 10 favorite films of all time, and from there this set me off on the watching films in a similar setting. From Zulu I went to the sequel Zulu Dawn, the first VHS film. On a separate note VHS looks terrible when you have not watched it for about 8 years. So from this starting point I went through the follow, if I had thought this through more I would have watched them in chronological order, but I did not.

• Zulu
• Zulu Dawn
• The Charge of the Light Brigade 1968
• The Four Feathers 1939
• The Charge of the Light Brigade 1936
• Khartoum
• The Four Feathers 2002
• Elizabeth
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• All the Kings Men
• Battle of Britain
• A Bridge Too Far
• The Great Escape
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

While watching and writing up reviews and editing the wiki entries I came to a question in my mind. Do I like watching these films because I am British and how would I like them if they were not about my home country. For example I read a review from an American who did not rate Battle of Britain any more than average and they said it left them feeling down. Now I have quite the opposite reaction to the film, I love it and it is throughly uplifting to see the RAF underdog triumph over the Luftwaffe. Now for some background I like history, especially my own country's, and I like big historic epic films. My decision was that I do not think it matters as there are many other historical epics that I like that are not depicting Britain, such as many Chinese epics like Red Cliff or some old westerns like The Horse Soldiers. It does not matter that they are my country or not but it does add a little when you think my country did that.

I came to the conclusion that many f these would not get made today as they do not cover enough different demographics or do not have a love story to sell to a female audience. By this I mean take Battle of Britain, it tells the story of the battle and little else, if made today it would probably end up like Pearl Harbor and be a love story that takes place in and around a famous event. These films are great because they don't add in unnecessary elements to the stories. One of the newest film on the list above is the Four Feathers and I do not like it anywhere near as much as the 1939 version simply because I do not like the different story elements as technically it is a better looking film.

So I ask the community does it matter if an historical epic is about your country and if it is does it increase your enjoyment?And do yu thing these films would be made today without major story element changes?