Medieval Warfare Boxed Set (DVD, 2001)

Decent History but campy "acting" especially on Crusade DVD

By way of full disclosure I've only sampled the Crusades and Agincourt DVDs so I still need to watch the Wars of the Roses DVD.

By way of quick comment on Crusades and Agincourt - generally speaking the history is good. One can quibble with an issue here or there (e.g., the Agincourt DVD reports a ratio of French to English higher than I believe a consensus of historians currently believes is true) but I repeat, the history is reasonably well done. On the occasions where maps / illustrations are used these are generally effective.

Both DVDs employ "actors" for some of the famous people present to help tell the story. This is where neither DVD shines. The Crusades portrayal of Richard I, Saladin, and others is cheesy almost to the point of spoof. They were astute enough to give Richard a French accent (French was still spoken in England and his parents were from regions of what became France) but that's about the only positive thing to say. To be fair things improved with the portrayal of the Agincourt players. (These DVDs were not originally released as a package of three so maybe the producers got feedback that the Crusades actors were over the top and toned it down a little bit!)

So a bottom line recommendation is a bit rough. The paradox I see is that if you are interested in medieval combat enough to spend the $$ for these DVDs there's a good chance you are already knowledgeable enough about the subject matter so that you will not learn much new.Read full review

Excellent videos about 3 elements of med...

Excellent videos about 3 elements of medieval warfare (Crusades, Agincourt & The Wars of the Roses). Each video @ 50 minutes each. Very informative and fun to watch.

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: second.sale