Wilhelm Tell (1961)

This lavishly produced film depicts the struggle for freedom of the native population in the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. It begins with the flight of Konrad Baumgarten, who had killed one of the Emperor’s castle bailiffs because he had tried to violate Baumgarten’s wife. It goes on to portray the best-known scenes from the liberation legends, such as the Rütli Oath, the apple shot, the journey across Lake Lucerne, and Gessler’s murder in the Hollow Way. The dramatic scenes are interrupted by conversations between Ulrich von Rudenz and Berta von Bruneck, a young woman of the landed gentry. The film ends with a (fictional) uprising in which the bailiffs’ castles are stormed and burned down.