''Michael the Brave'' ( ro, Mihai Viteazul) is a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

historic

epic film Epic films are a style of filmmaking with large-scale, sweeping scope, and spectacle. The usage of the term has shifted over time, sometimes designating a film genre and at other times simply synonymous with big-budget filmmaking. Like epics in ...

, directed by

Sergiu Nicolaescu Sergiu Florin Nicolaescu (; 13 April 1930 – 3 January 2013) was a Romanian film director, actor and politician. He was best known for his historical films, such as ''Mihai Viteazul'' (1970, released in English both under the equivalent titl ...

and starring

Amza Pellea Amza Pellea (; 7 April 1931 – 12 December 1983) was a Romanian actor noted for playing Romanian national heroes on film. He was born in Băilești, Oltenia, and attended the Carol I High School in Craiova. He later played at the Craiova T ...

in the leading role. The film is a representation of the life of

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...

's ruler

Michael The Brave Michael the Brave ( ro, Mihai Viteazul or ; 1558 – 9 August 1601), born as Mihai Pătrașcu, was the Prince of Wallachia (as Michael II, 1593 – 1601), Prince of Moldavia (1600) and ''de facto'' ruler of Transylvania (1599 – 1600). ...

, and his will to unite the three Romanian

principalities A principality (or sometimes princedom) can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under ...

(

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...

and

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

) into one country. The film was released in 1970 in Romania, and worldwide by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

as ''The Last Crusade''.

Plot

At the end of the 16th century, Wallachian ruler Prince Michael the Brave overcame the adversity of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires to unite Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania into one country.

Cast

Production

The film was produced in 1970 after a script by

Titus Popovici Titus Viorel Popovici (16 May 1930 – 29 November 1994) was a Romanian screenwriter and author. Biography He graduated from the University of Bucharest in 1953. Two years later, he published his first novel, ''Străinul'' (The Stranger). H ...

. It starred

in the lead role, while the cast included a number of the best Romanian actors at the time, including

Ion Besoiu Ion Besoiu (; 11 March 1931 – 18 January 2017) was a Romanian actor. Biography He was born in Sibiu in 1931 and graduated the city's Theater and Music Academy. After making his debut in 1957, he played for 16 years at the Radu Stanca National T ...

Olga Tudorache Olga may refer to: People and fictional characters * Olga (name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters named Olga or Olha * Michael Algar (born 1962), English singer also known as "Olga" Places Russia * Olga, Russia ...

Florin Piersic Florin Piersic (; born 27 January 1936) is a well-known Romanian actor and TV personality. He is particularly famous for his leading roles in ''The White Moor'' and the ''Margelatu'' series films. He has a reputation, often parodied in popular ...

Ilarion Ciobanu Ilarion Ciobanu (; 28 October 1931 – 7 September 2008) was a Romanian actor. He has been described as "a legend" in the press and the last true Romanian comic. Biography Ciobanu was born in Ciucur, Tighina County, Kingdom of Romania (now Mold ...

Silviu Stănculescu Silviu Stănculescu (; 24 January 1932 – 23 October 1998) was a Romanian actor. He appeared in more than forty films from 1960 to 1998. Born in Timișoara, he graduated in 1956 from the I.L. Caragiale Institute of Theatre and Film Arts (IA ...

, and

Mircea Albulescu Iorgu Constantin Albulescu (4 October 1934 – 8 April 2016), known professionally as Mircea Albulescu (), was a Romanian actor, university professor, journalist, poet, writer, and member of the Writers' Union of Romania (''Uniunea Scriitorilor'' ...

. The film had initially been intended to be an American-Romanian superproduction, with

proposing actors such as

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten C ...

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

Laurence Harvey Laurence Harvey (born Zvi Mosheh Skikne; 1 October 192825 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to South Africa at an early age, before later settling in th ...

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...

, or

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Do ...

. But at

Nicolae Ceauşescu Nicolae may refer to: * Nicolae (name), a Romanian name * ''Nicolae'' (novel), a 1997 novel See also *Nicolai (disambiguation) *Nicolao Nicolao is an Italian given name and a surname. It may refer to the following: Given name *Nicolao Civitali ...

's intent, the production was approved only with Romanian actors. The story is historically less authentic, but is full of grand battle scenes, political plots, betrayals and family drama. To reenact the battles that

Mihai Viteazul Michael the Brave ( ro, Mihai Viteazul or ; 1558 – 9 August 1601), born as Mihai Pătrașcu, was the Prince of Wallachia (as Michael II, 1593 – 1601), Prince of Moldavia (1600) and ''de facto'' ruler of Transylvania (1599 – 1600). ...

fought against the Turks, some 5,000 soldiers of the Romanian army were brought to the set. Some reports put this number around 10,000 soldiers. The film has two parts and was shot in several locations, such as

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and Călugăreni, but also the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

, the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

Alba Iulia Alba Iulia (; german: Karlsburg or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; hu, Gyulafehérvár; la, Apulum) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical ...

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...

Sinaia Sinaia () is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. It is situated in the historical region of Muntenia. The town was named after the Sinaia Monastery of 1695, around which it was built. The monastery, in turn, is named after t ...

, and Miraslau. The budget at the time was around 14 million lei, which in 2010 was estimated to be worth to be around 500,000 dollars, a relatively high sum for its period.

Release

The film was released in Romania in 1970 and ran in the cinemas for several years. Worldwide, it was distributed by

, under the name ''The Last Crusade''. The film debuted outside of Romania in July 1971 at the

7th Moscow International Film Festival The 7th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 20 July to 3 August 1971. The Golden Prizes were awarded to the Italian film '' Confessions of a Police Captain'' directed by Damiano Damiani, the Japanese film ''Live Today, Die Tomorrow! ...

and in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, and in March 1972 in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, in June 1972 in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and in April 1973 in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In 2000, the soundtrack of the film was redone in

Dolby Surround Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Stereo (also known as ''Dolby MP'' or ''Dolby SVA'') was developed by Dolby in 1976 f ...

. It is estimated that the film will be re-released in

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

format sometime in 2010.

Reception

The film is the most viewed Romanian film worldwide. It was Romania's entry for an

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

in 1972, but was not accepted as a nominee. At the Moscow International Film Festival in 1971, it won a Golden Award, but lost to ''Bilyy ptakh z chornoyu vidznakoyu'' (''The White Bird Marked with Black''). Nevertheless, it won at the Beaume Historic Film Festival in 1974, ahead of ''

El Cid Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099) was a Castilian knight and warlord in medieval Spain. Fighting with both Christian and Muslim armies during his lifetime, he earned the Arabic honorific ''al-sīd'', which would evolve into El ...

''. With a rating on 8.4 on

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

, it is rated as the twentieth best historic film of all time. It is considered 18th in the biography category, 40th in the war category, 34th in the action category,.IMDb: Genre: Action
/ref> The director himself, Sergiu Nicolaescu, declared that he was impressed by the rating especially as it is an American website and the film was released four decades before.

References

External links

* *http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/mihai-viteazul-no-49/ {{Sergiu Nicolaescu Michael the Brave 1971 films 1970s historical films 1970s biographical films Romanian biographical films Romanian historical films 1970s Romanian-language films Epic films based on actual events Films set in the 16th century Films set in Romania Films directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu Cultural depictions of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor Historical epic films