King Arthur

As the title suggests, this is a film about King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. This one is special, though, as it isn't based upon the legend everyone knows but upon the historical facts. If you don't know those: The roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius fought and won against the Sarmatians, a people that lived near the coast of the Black Sea. The Sarmatians consisted of different tribes, the Aorsi, Roxolani and the Iazyge. It was the Iazyge that impressed the Romans by their skill with horse and lance (yepp, LANCElot). Therefore, Marcus Aurelius demanded 8000 men from their defeated king. He got them and 5500 of those were sent to Britain to defend the roman outposts there. Historians believe, these were the legendary knights of Camelot. However, more isn't known, so the rest was invented for the film, but kept as realistic as possible (especially the battle scenes which aren't glorified as we see in other films such as LotR, but are quite hard to stomach at times).
official site (english site by Touchstone seems to have vanished - it sucked anyway.)

Kingdom of Heaven

During the time of the Crusades in the Middle-Ages, Balian learns that he is the son of the great knight Godfrey of Ibelin. Having recently lost his wife and child, the young man seeks to regain his religion by following his father to Jerusalem. Godfrey soon dies from a severe sword wound and Balian has to take his place, fighting for the Christian king Baldwin IV who desperately tries to prevent open war between his subjects and the muslims lead by Saladin. But Baldwin is a lepra and when he passes on, his sister's cruel husband purposefully provokes Saladin. Balian seeks to uphold the dead king's vision of a peaceful kingdom and defends Jerusalem's inhabitants against the siege. - Impressive images!
official site

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