Zornhau Forums

I'm sure that most of us do get inspiration from movies. Let's compare notes and share opinions. A small list to get things started.

(1938) Alexander Nevsky (Aleksandr Nevskiy)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029850/
The epic story of a great Russian prince who led a ragtag army against an invading host of Teutonic knights. Features some great directing and screenplay by Sergei Eisenstein, and a prolific soundtrack by Sergei Prokofiev. Just watch "The Battle on Ice" scene below and you'll understand.

youtu.be/vKZPgGbUuX0

(1957) The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/
Ingmar Bergman's timeless classic, where a knight plays chess with Death during the Black Death period.

youtu.be/f4yXBIigZbg

(1964) Hamlet (Gamlet)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058126/
Well, its Shakespeare, that by itself goes a long way. Imho Hamlet's best film adaption to date. Supposedly they spent 6 years rewriting the whole thing then 2 years filming. According to Sir Lawrence Olivier, another iconic Hamlet incarna, Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy's portayal of Hamlet was one of the best (if not the best) ever put to film.

Little treat: A 10min video I chanced on youtube, exploring similarities between Kozitsev's "Hamlet" and Lynch's "Dune".

youtu.be/2rbeaUcxCTU


(1984) When the Raven Flies (Hrafninn flýgur)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087432/
Obscure icelandic film about a young Irish man who seeks vengeance against the raiders who killed his parents. Given its age and resources, I feel its the best Viking-themed movie I've seen to date (and I've seen a lot).

youtu.be/3O8NRuiuTHI

(1985) Flesh + Blood
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089153/
And finally Verhoeven's Flesh + Blood. No matter if it's called "Band of Bastards" or "Sword & Scoundrel", that's one movie that definitely fits the description.

youtu.be/bPhrBsVRoDs

You're spot on about Shakespeare being great inspiration.
I've been meaning to watch The Seventh Seal for a while now but I just can't seem to find an English version.
I didn't recognize any of the others you listed, but I think we have similar taste.

Here's some of my own:

Some golden oldies:
Conan the barbarian
Ladyhawke
Excalibur
Willow
The odyssey
Ben Hur
Lawrence of Arabia
Spartacus
Jason and the argomauts
The name of the rose
The Passion of Joan of Arc

Some more modern movies:
The lord of the rings
Troy
300
Kingdom of Heaven
The count of monte cristo
The man in the iron mask

Some Samurai movies:
Seven Samurai
Rashomon
Yojimbo
Ran

Some Westerns:
Once upon a time in the west
The good, the bad and the ugly
12 years a slave

Because Knights, Samurai and Cowboys are basically the same thing in a different setting
It makes them great for stealing being inspired by less recognizable sources.

You guys definitely covered most of the classic ones that come to mind. However, as an unconventional choice, I've always seen L.A. Confidential as an outstanding use for SAs, as well as a template for games that want to experiment with having the PCs a bit more spread out as usual. For RPG tips, it even handles one of the players not making to the final session!

And of course I prefer the L.A. Confidential Recut a.k.a. the fanedit version of the film, which is tighter and with a more somber ending. The drinking game subs it includes are extremely useful in making the character traits stand out quite a bit more.

thirtythr33 wrote:Because Knights, Samurai and Cowboys are basically the same thing in a different setting
It makes them great for stealing being inspired by less recognizable sources.

Couldn't agree more.

Some notable examples.
"The Magnificent Seven" (1960) is a remake/adaptation of the "Seven Samurai" (1954). If you think about it, and see past the numbers (7 vs 13) and the fact that is based on a book, "The 13th Warrior" (1999) has striking similarities to the old films as far as screenplay is concerned.
Leone's "A Fistfull of dollars" (1964) is one of the cornerstones of the western genre. Which in turn is a remake of "Yojimbo" (1961). Which in turn, according to Kurosawa himself, was heavily inspired by "The Glass Key" (1942).

But like Higgins, I'd add noir to the mix. After all Mobsters and Sleuths are modern Bastards/Scoundrels.

higgins wrote:You guys definitely covered most of the classic ones that come to mind. However, as an unconventional choice, I've always seen L.A. Confidential as an outstanding use for SAs, as well as a template for games that want to experiment with having the PCs a bit more spread out as usual. For RPG tips, it even handles one of the players not making to the final session!

Yes, Elroy is one heck of a story crafter. And totally agree with you that there are unconventional sources that really help RPG story-crafting. Another good example is Lang's "M" (1931). There you can see the temptation that the main character undergoes throughout the whole film, as well as the operation of a modern "thieves' guild" protecting its interests in a most unusual way.

The Seven Samurai is typically the film I use (well, usually in the form of The Magnificent Seven, since that's the one I've actually seen) when telling rookie GMs how to steal scenarios for their games from other sources. I mean, the setup is so simple - and so very RPG like (in that an employer shows up in the tavern where the party are drinking) - that it's really incredibly easy to adapt into a session or two of play. I like to use it as an example of the right things to prep prior to play as well - the NPCs, the locations and the starting scenario, but not what happens after because there are a number of ways the PCs can deal with the problem.

Any kind of Kurosawa film is usually a good fit. In other westerns, I find 3:10 to Yuma, True Grit and.. does The Revenant count as a western? Hrm.

I tend to find that a lot of my "what scoundrel is" inspiration comes more from tv shows than movies. I have found that there's a particular niche that I love and it comes damnably close to Shakespearean Tragedy. Generally, it's an overlap of dark and violent character drama in which the main characters have some compelling motivation that drive them beyond reason and we watch as the choices they make in pursuit of that motivation slowly become their undoing.

Black Sails, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Hell on Wheels, Justified, Sons of Anarchy (admittedly, I abandoned this one in the middle of the 5th season, but the first four were fantastic), The Borgias, Vikings. Spartacus was okay for this. Rome was pretty good too.

If we're venturing beyond film, any of the Wildbow web serials have some pretty good scoundrel content. Sylvester Lambsbridge from Twig is quite the exemplar of the bastard/scoundrel archetype.

I don't know how I forgot these:

Berserk (TV series or movies)
Gladiator
Braveheart
Tombstone

But really, the only medium that does S&S justice is text.

Anything Shakespear or Arthurian.
A game of thrones.
the lies of locke lamora
the blade itself
the red knight
Elric stormbringer
Assassin's apprentice

Dark fantasy is just not done well in movies or TV.

thirtythr33 wrote:But really, the only medium that does S&S justice is text.

Agreed. And all these are fantastic.

I might just add:

Swords series (F. Leiber)
Conan (R. E. Howard)
Solomon Kane (R. E. Howard)
The Black Company series (G. Cook)
Earthsea series (U. K. LeGuinn)
Everything fantasy related by Lord Dunsany

Not fantasy per se, still a good read:
Judge Dee series (R.V.Gulik)

And finally:
The Three Musketeers series & The Count of Monte Christo (A. Dumas)