Five Medieval Films Every Dad Should Watch (and one important point on historical accuracy)

By Chris Livemore.

I am not a good film critic. That really needs to be stated early on here.. I forget essential storylines, plots, characters and this has gotten a lot worse since having three children and I would probably say that I have watched more episodes of Blippi than I have watched films since 2021. So, I am approaching this as a dad who has watched all five of these films multiple times, still quotes at least two of them regularly, and owns one on VHS (Prince of Thieves) for reasons that are now largely archaeological.

These are not necessarily the greatest medieval films ever made. They are the ones I have genuinely loved and can remember. The historical accuracy ranges from “reasonably respectable” to “completely unhinged” - and in the latter you can include any historical film with Mel Gibson involved.

I love them anyway.

1. Excalibur (1981) - the film that started everything

John Boorman’s Excalibur is strange, excessive, muddy, beautiful and entirely unforgettable.

Based loosely on Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, it feels less like a normal film and more like someone filmed an especially vivid medieval dream after reading too much Arthurian legend at 2am, whilst having quite a few drinks that had a high % attached to them.

Everything glows. The armour gleams like wet chrome. The forests look genuinely haunted. Nobody speaks normally for the entire runtime. It is majestic. The cast alone is absurd in hindsight: young appearances from Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Patrick Stewart and Ciarán Hinds, alongside Helen Mirren as Morgana and Nicol Williamson delivering one of the strangest and best Merlin performances ever put on screen.

There is a story, probably true, that Boorman deliberately cast Williamson and Mirren opposite each other despite tensions from an earlier theatre production because he thought the hostility would improve the performances. He was correct.

The use of Wagner and Carmina Burana should not work nearly as well as it does, but somehow the whole thing achieves genuine mythic grandeur through sheer commitment. My children will not be watching Excalibur any time soon. It is an amazing film and doesn't overly get the plaudits its weirdness deserves.

2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) - the greatest medieval film ever made

Yes, I am counting it. And yes, I will defend that position indefinitely. I got to meet Sir Michael Palin at an event in 2011 when he very kindly introduced a film premier for me at the Royal Geographical Society. One of my all time heroes, which is another contributing factor to this film easily making the top 5!

Monty Python and the Holy Grail was made on a tiny budget partly financed by members of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull after traditional investors declined to fund it because nobody fully understood what it was. A reasonable decision, in fairness. I still don't understand all of it.

The coconuts happened because the production could not afford horses. Doune Castle in Scotland plays roughly half the castles in Britain because they could not afford multiple locations either.

The budget eventually became so tight that they abandoned the planned ending entirely and replaced it with the police arresting everyone.

Which remains one of the funniest endings ever filmed. Infact the whole film is just hilarious.

What makes Holy Grail endure is that underneath all the absurdity, it understands medieval Britain astonishingly well. The mud. The pettiness. The bureaucratic nonsense. The people arguing with complete confidence about things nobody understands. And I am not sure it would still get made today.

Honestly, parts of local government still feel spiritually adjacent. Jack would adore this film.

Sir Percy would find it uncomfortably familiar.

3. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) - historically nonsensical, completely wonderful

This film makes almost no sense. Kevin Costner does not attempt an English accent for even a single second. Nottingham appears to exist in a parallel universe where geography, chronology and tone are all optional. And somehow none of this matters.

Because Alan Rickman arrives and simply decides to make an entirely different film from everybody else. Rickman reportedly rewrote large portions of the Sheriff of Nottingham’s dialogue himself, turning the character into one of the great gloriously theatrical villains of the 1990s.

Every line lands like it has personally offended him: “Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans. No more merciful beheadings.” Perfect.

I went to see this film at least 17 times in 1991.

Meanwhile Bryan Adams’ Everything I Do (I Do It For You) became absolutely unavoidable for an entire year of British history. It spent sixteen weeks at number one and is probably still playing softly in the background of at least three garden centres as we speak.

Historically accurate? Not remotely. Entertaining? Hugely.

4. Braveheart (1995) - completely wrong historically but who really cares?

No serious historian has ever watched Braveheart without experiencing at least one small medical episode. The Battle of Stirling Bridge contains no bridge whatsoever. The kilts are centuries too early. The blue face paint belongs to a completely different historical era. Isabella of France was a child living in France during the events the film depicts.

Mel Gibson himself described it as “historical fantasy”. Which is putting it generously.

And yet…the film works. Spectacularly.

Not because the history is accurate, but because the emotional core lands properly. The scenes between Wallace and Robert the Bruce carry more weight than the film probably deserves. The battle speeches are unforgettable. James Horner’s score is extraordinary.

More importantly, Braveheart understands something medieval stories have always understood: people will forgive almost any historical inaccuracy if you make them care about courage, loyalty and sacrifice. The details are chaos.

The emotion is completely sincere. And this isn't even Mel Gibson's least accurate historical film!!!

5. A Knight’s Tale (2001) — The One That Had No Right to Work

On paper, this film sounds catastrophic. A medieval jousting movie with Queen on the soundtrack, modern crowd chants, David Bowie playing over tournament scenes, and Paul Bettany portraying Geoffrey Chaucer as an exhausted gambling addict with theatre-kid energy.

This should have failed immediately. Instead, it is wonderful.

Heath Ledger has enormous warmth and charisma in the lead role, and the film wisely understands that tournaments were not quiet, dignified historical occasions. They were loud, commercial, chaotic spectator sports full of ego, gambling and celebrity.

The modern music actually helps communicate that energy.

Director Brian Helgeland later pointed out that sweeping orchestral film scores are just as artificial for medieval films as classic rock is. Once you accept that, the whole approach suddenly makes perfect sense.

What gives the film its staying power, though, is the friendship between the characters. Underneath all the anachronisms, it is fundamentally a story about ordinary people trying to build better lives for themselves and each other.

Also: the armour genuinely looks excellent. This matters more than critics like to admit. Watching it now is bittersweet because Ledger died so young. There is a natural ease to his performance that feels even more noticeable in hindsight.

He looks like a star because he was one.

The Honest Truth About Medieval Films

None of these films are fully accurate. And in all honesty, I would still question whether some of them set out trying to be. But I don't think that matters.

All five understand something important about medieval stories: they are never really about armour, castles, or whether the shield designs are historically correct. They are about ordinary people trying to be brave when bravery would be much easier to avoid.

That is why these stories survive.

And it is probably why children still love knights.

Including mine.

And me.