Glorantha Movie Night

[Bergguy]

Hi there! 

Last summer I started discovered and started poring through all the Glorantha materials I could find and became a Gloranthophile overnight. I've finally succeeded in convincing my gaming group to play a game that is not Dungeons and Dragons. 

I love how Runequest stories combine the mythic sphere of storytelling with the grounded and human. I want to inspire my players to think about fantasy in this way using some pop-culture sources. I was going to host a "Glorantha Movie Night" to get their imaginations flowing. 

Are there any films that people can think of that have that right "Glorantha Feel"?

 

[olskool]

2 minutes ago, Bergguy said:

Hi there! 

Last summer I started discovered and started poring through all the Glorantha materials I could find and became a Gloranthophile overnight. I've finally succeeded in convincing my gaming group to play a game that is not Dungeons and Dragons. 

I love how Runequest stories combine the mythic sphere of storytelling with the grounded and human. I want to inspire my players to think about fantasy in this way using some pop-culture sources. I was going to host a "Glorantha Movie Night" to get their imaginations flowing. 

Are there any films that people can think of that have that right "Glorantha Feel"?

 

10,000 BC (the 2008 film) comes closest. 

Gods of Egypt has the right mix of Human and Divine interaction.  One could claim it represents the Holy Country.

[dumuzid]

There's an Italian film that Amazon Prime picked up recently, The First King, about Romulus and Remus in Bronze Age Italy, that feels like it could've easily been set in early Dawn Age Tarsh.

[AndreJarosch]

The indian movie "Bahubali" represents for me best what Glorantha and RuneQuest COULD look and feel like. 

[Brootse]

13th Warrior for what the combat is like.

[Brootse]

Rapa-Nui and Apocalypto feel also very Gloranthan.

[Richard S.]

I saw the thread name and I was like "ooh is someone trying to put together a Gloranthan movie watching night?" and now I'm sad. All the suggestions are cool though, I've only seen Bahubali part 1 but I'll check the others out.

[Brootse]

A German Nibelungen film with a silly name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Kingdom:_The_Dragon_King was also very Gloranthan. Some parts of the saga the film is based on have been used in RuneQuest and HeroQuest scenarios.

[gochie]

1 hour ago, olskool said:

10,000 BC (the 2008 film)

Literally one of the worst films I've ever seen... lol.

 

Conan the Barbarian for me.

[Akhôrahil]

Conan the Barbarian, which also has the advantage of being a genuinely good movie.

Moana for understanding exactly how a heroquest works.

The Troy movie has awful writing, but the design and acting are quite good.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Bergguy]

These have all been great suggestions! Hopefully more pop up. The Bahubali movie seems really rad. I've always wanted to try some Bollywood films out and it looks like a good segway. (Probably just for my own personal movie night, I doubt my group would be keen on subtitles.)

The Moana suggestion might resonate strongly with my group because half of them are obsessed with Disney princesses. But hey! If that what it takes to steer my group into the realm of myth, so be it! 

There's also an australian film called Ten Canoes, it's one of my favourite films because just watching feels like entering a myth realm. No magic, just cool story structure. It was floating on youtube for a while. 

I'm also sorry Richard S for bringing you sadness!

[Bill the barbarian]

 Bahubali 

LotR I know I know, but still, LotR

Bilal

The Tempest (sorry can not recommend a movie but have seen the play at least a dozen times and read it a few! Good stuff!

I will get into more trouble for this one but the TV series, Vikings. And The Kirk Douglas Movie of the  same name for that matter... ((That bill, he’s a loose canon!)

Moana

Quest for Fire was kinda okay for Balazar.

A New Hope for the HeroQuester

Watership Down for the same type of player as the previous choice.

Dark Crystal for the look at alien critters with alien motivations

Planet of the Apes (those of you who play your  Morakanth tongue in cheek know what I mean, and it has to be the Charton Heston one)

Am American Werewolf in London for the  sheer terror of a lycanthrope on the moors.

A lot of the old sword and sandal movies from the 50s (the claymation ones)

Conan

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Bill the barbarian

[Austin]

44 minutes ago, Bergguy said:

The Bahubali movie seems really rad.

I watched it (parts 1 and 2) for the first time last year, and I'm pretty sure it was my favorite movie I saw that year--including Avengers: Endgame and Detective Pikachu. Which may say something about my taste in movies, but besides the point. It's super-crazy over-the-top and the lead's a total Wind Lord of Orlanth.

23 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Dark Crystal for the look at alien critters with alien motivations

Good call, Bill. The TV show of it on Netflix is decent enough, too. Though not great for a movie night.

I'd say Terry Gilliam's film Time Bandits has the right sort of zany, and his Baron Munchausen is obviously an Earth heroquest. All of his work's got this sort of bizarre lunacy to it. Jabberwocky probably maps well to Glorantha, but for the life of me I couldn't say where or how...

I've seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon mentioned regularly on this topic. I don't know how Gloranthan it feels to me, personally, but I can see why it gets brought up. Solid martial arts action flick, and has a great dub. I saw it originally dubbed, and didn't realize it was for years and years.

Most Studio Ghibli films map well to Glorantha's style, with their weirdness and transition into magical realms. In particular, I think Princess Mononoke really gets the man & divine-world relationship Glorantha hinges on.

[Ian Absentia]

3 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Moana for understanding exactly how a heroquest works.

Before Moana, there was Whale Rider, which I'd totally forgotten about until just now.  Contemporary, and not especially "Gloranthan" at all, but there's a heroquest at work here.  And evidence that Disney steals yet another story.

4 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

The indian movie "Bahubali" represents for me best what Glorantha and RuneQuest COULD look and feel like. 

Damn, just...damn.  These movies were a lot of fun.  And, yes, good inspiration for the look and feel of Glorantha, particularly under the current art direction.

4 hours ago, olskool said:

10,000 BC (the 2008 film) comes closest. 

Even the huge soft spot in my heart for this film can't give it a pass.  But you finds Glorantha where you finds it.

31 minutes ago, Crel said:

In particular, I think Princess Mononoke really gets the man & divine-world relationship Glorantha hinges on.

I watched this just last week!  Almost explicitly part of the world of Glorantha (see RQG, p.364).

!i!

Edited May 29, 2020 by Ian Absentia

[Gallowglass]

I’m gonna plug Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner for a good depiction of shamans and spirit hijinks, also plenty of action and drama. It’s a bit long though. +1 for Ten Canoes as well.

[Dissolv]

Frozen II struck me as exactly the blueprint of a heroquest, honestly. 

[Akhôrahil]

9 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

Before Moana, there was Whale Rider, which I'd totally forgotten about until just now.  Contemporary, and not especially "Gloranthan" at all, but there's a heroquest at work here.  And evidence that Disney steals yet another story.

It was a while since I saw it, but to me, it felt more like an initiation story (into a rulership cult).

[MOB]

Tanna - nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar. "Tells of a sister's loyalty, a forbidden love affair and the pact between the old ways and the new" There's tribal lore, shamans, and a smoking volcano. And the hilarious scene with the Christians would be just like meeting Lunarised converts.

 

[Bergguy]

So many cool movie suggestions. Tanna looks pretty awesome. A lot of these are going to end up on my own personal movie watching list. 

[Ali the Helering]

Almost anything by Kurosawa, I know not Bronze but.... 

Definitely the Mahabharata series. 

Ashoka, if you ignore the songs

 

[buckwheats]

"Immortals"

"Centurion"

"The Eagle"

"Clash of the Titans" & "Wrath of the Titans"

"Valhalla Rising"

[Darius West]

Sometimes you guys make it too easy:  

It should probably be called Howard Le Carnard.  Don't get the English version, it's just awful.

 

[Ian Absentia]

7 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

It was a while since I saw [Whale Rider], but to me, it felt more like an initiation story (into a rulership cult).

And it pretty much is... until the beaching of the whales, and Pai riding the lead whale underwater and dying.  The story takes place superficially in the mortal world, but passes through all of the stations of a heroquest, culminating in passage to and return from the underworld, bearing boons of cultural tradition and leadership.

The more I think on it, the more it really does look like Disney cribbed the story after Taika Waititi walked.

!i!

[Shiningbrow]

IIRC, Troy: Fall of a City was a bit better than Brad Pitts' version... A bit more down to earth and realistic.

If we're mentioning Vikings, then also The Last Kingdom (although, the time is off by a few centuries).

[AndreJarosch]

2 hours ago, Darius West said:

Sometimes you guys make it too easy:  

It should probably be called Howard Le Carnard.  Don't get the English version, it's just awful.

 

It´s a very good ctholoid movie too!