Earl does an orgy of Polish Winged Hussar banners (size of the unit like a lance once was)...

The March of Cambreadth, done to clips from the movie 1612, the best costuming, and military tech representing the struggles between Poland and Russia during the time of Troubles - something like ten to thirteen pretend Tsars or Czars, until finally the Romanovs took over for three hundred years.. and we all know how that ended. Okay, the Commies got them. The reviewer from Time is of the troubles, but it is a very mythological fairy tale told from the decidedly Russian point of view. I didn't love the story, but the one character that pretends to be a Spaniard was interesting, and makes a working leather cannon to launch hot shot from... and his firing tables are also magical. Still, interesting story - just not as wonderous as an American made movie- but we are stuck on Zombies, and may never get out of there.

I was looking for more but better, so I did the Russian version of Taras Bulba, based on Nikolai Gogol's story, the narrator reads a bit (in English). I love this movie, because I read the story long ago and this movie hits it just right. Yes, I have the Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis movie, but Yul just is never old enough to play the main character, and the story is harsher than Hollywood was prepared for the American audience. Russians just cut straight to the ugly between the Cossacks and Poles.

The Polish mini series based on the novel by Heryk Sienkiewicz, With Fire and Sword, is a good tale, I had read it as a book, and the lady love is lovely, the evil guy is bad but just ornery, there is some interesting witch stuff but I was very reminded of the Three Musketeers with the young Polish knight doing very much better than the almost musketeer, but he was only contending with the Cossacks and a lesser noble servant. Good enough movie, but then I am still remembering it fondly.

The final movie was Day of the Siege: a battle of Blood and Steel. The high water mark of the Ottoman Empire against Europe was on September 11th, a day we long ago forgot to note. In 1683, the three hundred thousand man army made the final attacks on the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, a title that only Europeans can understand and love. On the second day of the battle the Polish King struck death and destruction with his artillery and Winged Hussars. This movie is a joint venture, the Poles and Italians, so it had great moments - like all the acting by F. Murray Abraham as a very holy humble monk, and colorful costuming (Italian versions of the Polish feathers are redder) and really terrible ones, like all the fake explosions, cannon firing and lack of cast of thousands, it does lack proper number of horses and riders, but still it is a movie. I found the date interesting, linking it to why the attack by OBL was on 11 September, and the holy humble monk. That person isn't really in the Wiki History of the event, so it must be a myth, too. But I really liked his part in the movie.

So, I am done for a bit, will go back to see them again, am sharing the Day of Siege on Saturday. I have had an interest in the Thirty Years War period for a while, now I can add some interest in the Polish/Cossack and Russian periods of the similar time. Go ahead, play the music video again. It is more fun than the real wars it alludes to...