Memorable songs include Go the Distance, I won’t Say, and One Last Hope. Hercules, the son of Zeus, living among mortal men for his own protection, is searching for his true identity. The first of three Hercules movies on this list, this is the Disney animated version, so it also includes some great songs. Watch on Prime – Watch on Netflix Hercules (1997) A sequel, Wrath of the Titans, was also released in 2012. Starring Sam Worthington as Perseus, Liam Neeson and Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades. He is eventually called on to help the gods defeat their own monsters, the Titans that they overthrew in order to gain power in the universe.
This movie is based on the story of Perseus, Greece’s most famous monster slayer before Hercules. Watch on Prime – Not Available on Netflix Clash of the Titans (2010) Despite his ow betrothal to another woman, he descends into the underworld in order to save her. Orpheus falls in love with a young Eurydice, who is on the run from death.
Not Available on Prime – Not Available on Netflix Black Orpheus (1959)īased on the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, this film is set in a favela in modern-day Rio de Janeiro during Carnival.
His sister Antigone buries him anyway, but when she is discovered she is sentenced to death. The new king of Thebes, Creon, calls down the wrath of the gods by failing to bury his predecessor properly. Watch on Prime – Watch on Netflix Antigone (1961)īased on the play by the Greek playwright Sophocles, it is set in the aftermath of the Theban civil war. We see the upbringing the made the man, and the relationships that tore him apart as he conquered the known world. Colin Farrell stars as the young general and Greek king, opposite Angelina Jolie as his conniving mother Olympias (there is always a conniving mother – though the age gap here is unbelievable). While the Greek king that conquered Asia and Egypt, Alexander the Great, was a real person, the stories about his exploits are legend. Watch on Prime – Watch on Netflix Alexander (2004) This Zack Snyder film uses superimposed chroma key techniques to make this feast for the eyes appear like the original commit book by Frank Miller as Gerard Butler leads his Spartan forces against the Persians. They were so fearsome that a mere 300 Spartans has the ability to change the course of the Persian war at the Battle of Thermopylae. In ancient Greece, the Spartans had a reputation for being the toughest fighters. This is by no means a complete list, we could have come up with a list of 20 movies just about Hercules! Though he does feature heavily below as well. Want to catch up on what you missed? Learn about Greek myth through film with these 20 movies based on the stories. These days, these stories aren’t given as much attention as we instead learn about computer programming – also a very important skill. Schools boys had these stories hammered into them from a young age, so it is no surprise that the characters and themes showed up again and again in the work that they later produced. Learning about the Greek myths and legends used to be an integral part of a classical education.