Cool movie for Byzantine fans!

[spooksman]

And also eastern european fans as well I think!

This is just something i've found on youtube. Apparently its a movie called "Khan Asparuh" and he was some sort of a bulgarian(?) hero leader that fought and defeated the Byzantines. Its a pretty old movie but what was so AMAZING was that they re-enact the battle using THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of extras! You should all see it and its quite breath-taking (not like the CGI LOTR sort). Also a must for all you byzantine fanbois (really nothing wrong with that imho!) I'm not so sure about the accuracy of the costumes but they look proper enough for its time period (but i'm no expert after all!)

So enjoy these, fellow BC fans! Note : The movie scenes are all in bulgarian(i think lol) but if you go directly to the youtube page, someone actually kindly translated them to English so we may have a clue on whats going on!

Part 1 : The bulgarians are crossing the river...i guess sort of a mass exodus...


part 2 : The bulgarians are building a fort...anticipating Byz assault?


Part 3 : Really cool Byzantine army march!


Part 4: Some speech from both Bulgarian/Byz


Part 5: Byzantine army assaults the Bulgarian fort


Part 6 :Byzantine army assaults the Bulgarian fort 2


Part 7: Byzantine army assaults the Bulgarian fort 3
Some cool horse archer fighting!!! MUST WATCH!


Part 8: The Byzantine tried to flank the Bulgarain through the marshes but got ambushed there instead!


Part 9: The Last Battle

[Ahiga]

Very cool stuff spooksman, I like it shedding light on the otherwise more unfamiliar Bulgarians. Thanks for posting it! Do you know if it's the Second or First Tzardom of Bulgaria?

[Erwin Rommel]

i thougth this thread
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=136521
is for these kinda stuff

any way AWESOME!!! MAN!! GOOD VIDEO!!!

+rep

[Basileos]

yeah those units are realy damn cool

[spooksman]

I just realised that there is a special sticky thread pertaining to media stuffs related to BC

I'm really sorry for that. That said, I thought the scenes here are really good and isn't very easy to come across these days, perhaps it deserve its own individual thread although I will humbly cede that decision on the BC guys.

Ahiga, I'm not sure about this guy but nothing a wiki couldnt help me

Here's an excerpt :
Asparuh was followed by a more than 100,000 Bulgars[1]. He crossed the Danube River delta and while the Byzantine capital Constantinople was besieged by Muawiyah I, Caliph of the Arabs (674–678), he and his horde settled in the so-called Ongul area in Southern Bessarabia or northern Dobrudža. After the Arab siege of Constantinople ended, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV marched against the Bulgars and their Slav allies in 680 and forced his opponents to seek shelter in a fortified encampment. Forced to abandon the leadership of his army in order to seek medical treatment for his ailments, the emperor sabotaged the morale of his troops, who gave in to rumours that their emperor had fled. With segments of the Byzantine army starting to desert, the Bulgars and their allies broke through the blockade and routed the enemy troops in the battle of Ongala. In 680 and then he swiftly moved from the Danubian delta down to the Balkan range.
Asparuh's victory led to the Bulgar conquest of Moesia and the establishment of some sort of alliance between the Bulgars and the local Slavic groups (described as the Severi and Seven Slavic tribes). As Asparuh commenced to raid across the mountains into Byzantine Thrace in 681, Constantine IV decided to cut his losses and conclude a treaty, whereby the Byzantine Empire paid the Bulgars an annual tribute as protection money. These events are seen in retrospect as the establishment of the Bulgarian state and its recognition by the Byzantine Empire.

Pretty much what the movie is portraying...

[Miraj]

Excellent videos Spooksman! Loved the Horse Archer chase.

[Erwin Rommel]

it was HORRIBLE

the POOR BYZZIES BEING KILLED!!! the MADNESS.......THE NERVE they fight ungentlemanly, hiding like weasels!!

*byzzie die hard fan turned off*


so were does Basil the Bulgar Slayer come into or is this much earlier

and oh yeah i was amazed by the amount of extras involved.......its like it can rival War and Peace in scale!!

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

Very cool!

[whhyy]

Yay!! The Byzantines lost!

How does one pay all those extras?

[spooksman]

They probably used the whole present-day national Bulgarian army for the extras LOL I couldnt think of how else could they co-ordinate that huge amount of extras (prolly in the tens of thousands) and not to mention, the enormous logistical nightmare!!!

[Little Legionaire]

They probably used the whole present-day national Bulgarian army for the extras LOL I couldnt think of how else can they to co-ordinate that huge amount of extras (prolly in the tens of thousands) and not the mention, the enormous logistical nightmare!!!

Probably whole Bulgarian Army dressed their historical costumes and took the field for this movie.

By the way where was the siege engines of Byzantines except miserable ladders? They had no Greek fire no mangonels, nothing! Just ladders and go

And Bulgarian Partisans beat Byzantine Wehrmacht at the gates.

[Randarkmaan]

Yay!! The Byzantines lost!

How does one pay all those extras?

Well, it seems that the movie was made in the 80's, and that is to say in the Soviet Union, and it seems that movies that were made there often had the advantage of using the Army as extras (5 million man army, and no REAL wars to use it in, might just as well let them have fun) as was also the case with Waterloo (which used 17 000 Soviet soldiers as extras) and War and Peace (which I think had 150 000 soldiers participating in the final battle!)

[whhyy]

Yep .

For the Rohirrim vs the orcs at Minas Tirith they just got a few hundred real horsemen and copied them with CGI.

[Miraj]

I wish they had more English movies that had real and massive field battles like that and covered more periods of history like this. Though I doubt the average North American could point out Constantinople on a map. *sigh*

[spooksman]

I wish they had more English movies that had real and massive field battles like that and covered more periods of history like this. Though I doubt the average North American could point out Constantinople on a map. *sigh*

I agree with you on the massive battles part (so MANY movies they can do) but I would rather that the movie is in the authentic language as was used as the time. Theres a certain charm to it

What I'm referring to is how awkward some historically based movie came out to be..like the british-accented Russians in Enemy of the Gates, maybe(LOL)? It was a great movie other than that, though...watched it multiple times.

[Miraj]

but I would rather that the movie is in the authentic language as was used as the time. Theres a certain charm to it

Like Mr Mel Gibson does.

[Erwin Rommel]

we have CGI now.....

[Erwin Rommel]

ohhhhhhhhh yeah

i hope he does another foreign themed movie

[The Bronze boy]

Intresting and fairly awesome, I could only watch up to video six thoe then it said that the rest were no longer avalable.

[spooksman]

Youtube is crazy like that but it still works, really give it a try again!