Battle Epic

This is a subtrope of The Epic or Epic Movie in which the course of an actual military campaign in some combination of Real Life or traditional history is the main subject. Because of this, the plot, setting, and characters will come pre-constructed. This decreases flexibility but saves work for the author, though he still has enough to do. It is written from an authorial omniscience perspective and shows the viewpoint of one Historical Domain Character after another on both sides. It has the advantage that these are usually written about a real battle. This type leans heavily on special effects.

If the title of a movie is the same as the name by which a campaign is recorded in historical accounts, that is a clue that this is a Battle Epic.

This trope is Older Than Feudalism. However it is most common in films. Sometimes it can be a TV mini series.

See also the index Military and Warfare Works.

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Examples

Art

• The Bayeux Tapestry: A 70-meter embroidery recounting the conquest of England by the Normans, culminating in the battle of Hastings. Its main characters are Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex (who subsequently becomes King of England) and William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy (who also later becomes King of England, by defeating and killing Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings).

Films — Live-Action

• 300, and its sequel Rise of an Empire: an interpretative, badass retelling of two of the major campaigns of the Greco-Persian Wars - Thermopylae and Salamis, respectively.
• The 300 Spartans — Inspired the comic book that inspired the above film.
• Alexander Nevsky chronicles the Battle on the Ice between the Republic of Novgorod and the Teutonic Knights.
• Austerlitz depicts Napoléon Bonaparte's first days as Emperor of the French and his greatest military victory, against a coalition of Austrians and Russians.
• Battle of Britain
• Battle of the Bulge
• Battle of Moscow is a two-part epic running nearly six hours in total, employing the proverbial cast of thousands to depict not just the climactic battle of Moscow, but actually the entire 1941 Barbarossa campaign from the prelude, to the German attack, to the Germans slowing down and stalling, and finally the Russian counterattack before the gates of Moscow.
• Battle of Okinawa
• Black Hawk Down: About the Battle of Mogadishu.
• A Bridge Too Far
• Gettysburg (1993): About one of the largest battles of the The American Civil War.
• Gods And Generals (2003): Follows the first half of the The American Civil War, focusing on the career of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and featuring the battles of 1st Bull Run (a.k.a. 1st Manassas), Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Based on the novel with the same name by Jeffrey Shaara.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Kingdom of Heaven
• The Longest Day
• Midway (1976)
• Midway (2019)
• Patton
• Red Cliff (2009): Film of the Book of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, directed by John Woo.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers builds up towards and features the Battle of Helm's Deep, between the besieged people of Rohan helped by the disbanded Fellowship of the Ring and Saruman's army of Orc hybrids, the Uruk-hai.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King has the Siege of Minas Tirith and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields between Gondor, the allies of Gondor and Sauron's forces at its center, plus the Battle of the Black Gate at the end to serve as diversion to allow Frodo Baggins to destroy the One Ring.
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is about the Dwarf, Elf and Orc conflict over The Lonely Mountain, Erebor, and the treasure within left after Smaug's death, in particular The Arkenstone.
• Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970): The attack on Pearl Harbor, told from both perspectives.
• Waterloo: Depicts Napoléon Bonaparte's return from his first exile, his attempts to defeat the coalition of allies against him, and the climactic battle at Waterloo. Included the use of over 17,000 extras, (15,000 Red Army soldiers as infantry, and over 2,000 trained horsemen) to give the scenes the epic scope required. It is often said, only half jokingly, that during filming director Sergei Bondarchuk commanded one of the largest armies in the world.

Literature

• The Battle of Maldon: Fragmentary Old English epic poem about a historical battle between Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in the 990s CE.
• The Cattle Raid of Cooley: Ancient Irish prose epic about a war between the two enemy kingdoms Connacht and Ulster.
• The Iliad: Possibly Trope Maker. It was thought to be essentially historical (if not in every detail) by the listeners.
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Likely more close to history than Iliad.
• The Song of Roland: Medieval epic around the clash of Franks and Saracens at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees, 778 CE.^note In actual history it were the Basques, not the Saracens, but it's exactly the kind of thing you can expect from those nasty Saracens!
• The Tale of Styrbjorn: An exiled Viking prince battles his uncle for the kingdom of Sweden. A short tale thanks to its extreme condensation, but epic in scope.

Live-Action TV

• Masada, about The Siege of the eponymous fortress during the Jewish Revolts, although it's more of a slow burn with few actual battle stuff happening.
• Soviet Storm: World War II in the East: an 18-part documentary series focusing on the Soviet Union's role during World War II.

Video Games

• Call of Duty 2's single-player campaign is depicted this way, complete with documentary-style narrations over Stock Footage during the beginning of each campaign and chapter.
• Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad has both single-player campaigns depicted this way, complete with rousing speeches and epic music during each cutscene.

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