Alatriste is not much better than the best Hollywood productions as far as the historical details are concerned. The clothing is way too drab for example and you get some truly silly stuff in the battle scene like the charging cavalry firing their pistols in the air rather than at the Spanish infantry. And of course in reality the Spanish infantry did surrender at Rocroi after a long and heroic resistance against overwhelming odds. But for some reason fighting to the death in a last stand is seen as more heroic rather than being granted an honourable surrender on terms by an enemy commander awed by the superb performance of the Spanish troops.

Hwever it has some good scences and unlike a lot of "medieval" movies the clothing and equipment is good enough to suspend disbelief most of the time. While the cavalry scence in the final battle was poor to say the least the infantry fighting was very well done and truly conveyed how a unit of advancing pikemen would look.

Henry V. I think is pretty accurate considering is based on Shakespeare play. I like it better than the 1944 version. However, is not one of my favorites.

and lets not forget the more recent adaptation of romeo + juliet with leonardo di caprio as romeo,
the scene now set in a modern city, with guns replacing firearms, (notably in the initial fight scene of romeo and juliet when the father says 'give me my longsword' in the movie he reaches for what looks like a shotgun.

there was also a recent adaptation of the play macbeth, set in the scene of an australian criminal underground

xenephons story of the 10,000 was turned into the american movie 'the warriors' being about a bunch of street gang members trying to get to safe territory when their leader is killed and they become targetted by all the other gangs.
and even kurosawas film the seven samurai was adapted to be used as the plot for the pixar movie 'a bugs life' (not to mention the magnificent 7)

also, one thing about accuracy of things in movies and the general look and feel is ironically a self sustaining cycle,
i get the feeling movie makers show people what people already think things should be like,

for example in the realm of sword making, one issue noted over and over with the making of rapiers is that many people expect certain things from swords

its been noted that most people see a balance point that is far from the hilt as 'poorly balanced', regardless of how the sword is meant to be used, rapier repros are often lighter and with a POB further pushed back towards the guard than the originals (the hanwei gustav rapier for example) because as was noted on the myArmoury review of the sword, most people think rapiers (even the earlier varieties) should behave like smallswords or olympic fencing swords with balance points extremely close to the guard, which is contrary to how they ACTUALLY behaved

another misconception is that swords should be quite stiff,

i have a personal example of these 'perceptions' and how one thinks that what is in fact accuratly presented info, is wrong,
for example is the RTS PC game, rome total war (set in the period of the roman republic roughly around the time of ceaser).
one recruitable unit of the greek city states' faction is the famous spartan hoplite, the units costume includes a bronze faced aspis, xiphos, spear, hes wrapped in his cloak (not sure if historical), and wears a conical pilos helmet,
now i think a VERY large number of people playinh thought that the presence of the pilos was flat out wrong, since most people would have seen spartans, like most hoplites, portrayed with mostly attic, thracian or corinthian helmets in either books or films.
and indeed several 'mods' of the unit skin were created to make it look like what people thought was more accurate.
(particularly, a corinthian helm with sideways crest, and not being wrapped in its red cloak

then i learned, to my utter surprise that the spartans indeed used pilos helms pretty much exclusively.

(that said the game is stillvery wrong with many other things, case in point, egyptian soldiers dont look ptolemaic/ macedonian in style, but instead look like new kiingdom era egyptian soldiers
and their elite spear wielding warriors and archers are all seen wearing that famous golden helmet found in the tombs of the sumerians!

although in reality a movie maker should probably do abit of research. so that hes at least close to the time period.

it is really common for Shakespeare plays to have costumes and props in various settings, some which make more sense than others.

Now it is considered a good thing to be historically accurate, but mostly it applies to costuming, and that usually only applies to more recent settings. Of course really considering movie consultants are the same sort of experts used in deadliest warrior, it is not surprising the lack of historical accuracy.

Il Mestiere delle armi (2001) is a movie about Giovani de Medici and his part in the Pavia campaign. It's been awhile since i watched it, but I liked the overall feel of the interpretation. It can't remember seeing any other film that showed S-curved crossguards, and I think the clothing part was quite good. But grilling meat on a dagger might not help the heat treating. Some armour and specially helmets were a bit strange if not downright fantasy (the italians' visors), and the shallowly curved german sallets were a bit off I think, and then there were the classic 16th century syle halberds so much assosiated to the swiss guard. Then again, I've looked at historical arms and armour that much that helmets that please my eyes often come with a 350+€ price tag...
I recommend that movie, atleast for the reason that someone more knowledgeable can civilize me about the details of the props :D

you guys should check out tvtropes.com it talks about the various reasons why movies and such are unrealistic, besides artistic license and lack of research, sometimes the public won't believe reality.

There was a Russian movie "1612", made a few years ago, about Polish invasion of Russia during Time of Troubles. The movie itself is rather silly and the plot is very Hollywoodish, but I thought that arms, armor, and period costumes were some of the most accurate I've ever seen. Granted I am by no means an expert, but I do tend to notice some oddities every now and then. From what I've seen on period illustrations, the Polish nobility, including the winged hussars, the Polish commoner soldiers, the Russian nobility, the Russian commoners, and the Spanish mercenary in Polish service were all wearing "correct" period armor and attire (although I was quietly wondering if the Spaniard would be the only morion-wearing soldier in an army where everyone else wore a hat or a szishack (sp ?).