Listmania!
Favorite Films Featuring the Highland Bagpipe
By an Amazon.com customer
Tunes of Glory - Criterion CollectionTunes of Glory - Criterion Collection
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $16.95
Simply the finest piping movie ever made. Shows the pipes in the context of daily life in a Scottish regiment (fictional version of the Argylls).
Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $5.66
Scottish (Royal Scots Fusiliers), French, and German soldiers put down their weapons to fraternize on Christmas Eve, 1914. Features lots of fine piping from the four Scots regimental pipers and a piping padre. My favorite of all these films!
Gunga DinGunga Din
Buy new: $5.79 / Used from: $4.84
Not at all p.c., but highlanders marching to the rescue to the tune "Pibroch of Donald Dhu" is the archetypical cinematic picture of piping.
Breaker MorantBreaker Morant
Buy used from: $6.50
The Anglo-Boer War military courtroom drama plays against a backdrop of barracks life of the highland regiment (Cameron Highlanders) assigned to guard the accused Bushveldt Carbineers in Pietersburg, Transvaal. Limited onscreen piping, but historically accurate.
Mrs. BrownMrs. Brown
Buy new: $11.49 / Used from: $4.89
Poignant and gentle story of the love between Queen Victoria (Dame Judy Dench) and her highland servant, Brown. Wonderful cameos of P/M William Ross (muttonchops and a') doing the duty piping at Balmoral.
Margaret's MuseumMargaret's Museum
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Quirky Canadian film about a Cape Breton mining family. Features some truly tasty kitchen piping.
Rob RoyRob Roy
Buy new: $10.49 / Used from: $3.00
A highland story, to be sure, but the on-screen piping (a single ceilidh scene) features the bellows pipes of the Borders and Lowlands. This is not inaccurate (certainly no less than Walter Scott's novel, upon which the film is based): bellows pipes were widely used in the Highlands in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Charge of the Light BrigadeThe Charge of the Light Brigade
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $3.99
Crimean War epic with the 93rd Highlanders as part of the cast of thousands. Some bagpipes seen and heard in Kalamita Bay landings and Battle of Alma sequences.
Waterloo [Region 2]Waterloo [Region 2]
Buy used from: $20.40
The actual pipes and drums of the First Battalion, Gordon Highlanders play (of course) "Cock o' the North". Splendid!
The Alamo (Widescreen Edition)The Alamo (Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $1.90
Piobaireachd in Texas! The latest Alamo epic correctly depicts piper John McGregor, a Scot who taunted the Mexican army from within the walls of the mission with ceol mor. We only get to hear a fragment of the ground of "Lament for the Children" (appropriate choice of tune given the fate of the Texians, I think).
GallipoliGallipoli
Buy used from: $3.75
Take a refrigerator break and you'll miss the kilted pipe band playing "Cock o' the North" as the Western Australian volunteers embark from Perth for Gallipoli in WW 1.
Chariots of FireChariots of Fire
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You probably only remember the Vangelis theme, but there are several piping sequences, too: "Murdo's Wedding" in the background of Eric Liddell's impromptu running victory at a 1920 highland games, piping the Marseillaise at a Scotland-France track meet, and the pipe band accompanying the British team in the opening ceremonies of the 1924 Olympic Games.
PattonPatton
Buy used from: $5.00
Recreates Montgomery's triumphant entry into Messina, led by the pipes and drums of the Black Watch playing "Scotland the Brave".
The Longest Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)The Longest Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Buy new: $14.49 / Used from: $9.99
The piper of Lord Lovat's commandos plays "Black Bear" during the D-Day landing and again while marching to the relief of Pegasus bridge on D+1. Even though Lovat (Peter Lawford) orders him to play "The Blue Bonnets Over the Border". Cinematic license aside, a nice bit, as played in the film by the real P/M of the London Scottish.
Amazing GraceAmazing Grace
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $2.60
The film is about William Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade. It has nothing to do with bagpipes. But the Irish Guards Pipes and Drums and the Balmoral Pipe Band (dressed in 1830s regimental kit) perform the title tune over the end credits.