I saw this film about twelve years ago, and I thought it was very good then. I recently got the DVD from Netflix, and was amazed to find that not only is it as good as I remember, it was better.
The first thing that struck me is how very correct to the medieval point of view the movie is. All of the characters act as they should for the times they live in. The Lord Arnofini is a scheming jerk with a will of steel, which you had to be back then to be a Lord. After all, things could change so quickly, such as when the mercenaries raid and take the castle later in the movie. You could lose your standing and/or your life, if you weren't ruthless. Martin and his band of mercenaries are crude, sly, jolly, practical, greedy, and hardened by life-as mercenaries would have been, trading their lives for a bit of cash all over Europe. Some might have been disturbed by the cheerful lasciviousness shown by the women, but back then women knew that they had only a few things to trade for safety and security, namely their bodies or their standing. If they had no standing, their bodies were the only coin they had. They had to find a strong man to protect them, or they were vulnerable to any man that came along with bad intentions. Jennifer Jason Leigh's young noblewoman knows that lesson as well, and schemes ruthlessly to stay alive and escape once she's taken by the mercenaries. The casual nudity and dirtiness are also characteristic of the middle ages, when practically no one bathed and clothes were seldom washed. In fact, the lower orders thought that washing invited devils into your body and made you sick, so it isn't surprising that Martin's mercenaries never bathed.
The plague scenes towards the end of the movie were ingenious and showed how terrified people were of the disease-and rightly. it killed off a third of Europe's population, and spread like wildfire. The scholarly Steven's telling the monk to lance Hawkwood's plague boils is correct, because Nostradamus himself studied among the Arabs for a time, then came back and tried to convince people to lance the boils. A movie is in the details, and Verhoeven gets almost all of them right. He captured the mad religious practices of the time, as terrified people grasped onto any sign that might have been from God. They were starving from a little ice age, dying from a dreadful disease, and plagued by wars. Its no wonder that people fell into such a religious fervor.
The interaction between the characters is wonderful. The rivalry of Martin and Steven over Agfnes is very interesting to watch. The two men, like young and older alpha wolves, circle and attack, watching for every opening. And Agnes, an alpha female, watches and makes her choice of mate in the end.
I'll definitely be buying a copy of this movie on DVD, because it is one of my favorites. For once, Hollywood actually got it almost right. That is astounding, especially since it was made in the mid-80's, not a time known for depth or realism in movies.
The first thing that struck me is how very correct to the medieval point of view the movie is. All of the characters act as they should for the times they live in. The Lord Arnofini is a scheming jerk with a will of steel, which you had to be back then to be a Lord. After all, things could change so quickly, such as when the mercenaries raid and take the castle later in the movie. You could lose your standing and/or your life, if you weren't ruthless. Martin and his band of mercenaries are crude, sly, jolly, practical, greedy, and hardened by life-as mercenaries would have been, trading their lives for a bit of cash all over Europe. Some might have been disturbed by the cheerful lasciviousness shown by the women, but back then women knew that they had only a few things to trade for safety and security, namely their bodies or their standing. If they had no standing, their bodies were the only coin they had. They had to find a strong man to protect them, or they were vulnerable to any man that came along with bad intentions. Jennifer Jason Leigh's young noblewoman knows that lesson as well, and schemes ruthlessly to stay alive and escape once she's taken by the mercenaries. The casual nudity and dirtiness are also characteristic of the middle ages, when practically no one bathed and clothes were seldom washed. In fact, the lower orders thought that washing invited devils into your body and made you sick, so it isn't surprising that Martin's mercenaries never bathed.
The plague scenes towards the end of the movie were ingenious and showed how terrified people were of the disease-and rightly. it killed off a third of Europe's population, and spread like wildfire. The scholarly Steven's telling the monk to lance Hawkwood's plague boils is correct, because Nostradamus himself studied among the Arabs for a time, then came back and tried to convince people to lance the boils. A movie is in the details, and Verhoeven gets almost all of them right. He captured the mad religious practices of the time, as terrified people grasped onto any sign that might have been from God. They were starving from a little ice age, dying from a dreadful disease, and plagued by wars. Its no wonder that people fell into such a religious fervor.
The interaction between the characters is wonderful. The rivalry of Martin and Steven over Agfnes is very interesting to watch. The two men, like young and older alpha wolves, circle and attack, watching for every opening. And Agnes, an alpha female, watches and makes her choice of mate in the end.
I'll definitely be buying a copy of this movie on DVD, because it is one of my favorites. For once, Hollywood actually got it almost right. That is astounding, especially since it was made in the mid-80's, not a time known for depth or realism in movies.