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Directed by: Paul Verhoeven Starring: Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Burlinson Flesh + Blood is like The Seventh Seal meets Total Recall. The film is placed in a similar setting as Bergman’s classic (war-torn and plague ravaged Europe), but with Paul Verhoeven behind the camera, quiet reflection of faith and justice are thrown out the window in favor of extremely graphic violence and sexuality. There are still many strong (and still relevant) thematic elements presented throughout the film, but like a good satire, you have to look underneath the exterior to find them. This was actually Verhoeven’s first American film, though it has fallen into obscurity for the most part, only recently resurfacing on DVD. The film opens with a great battle, where a King is trying to take back his castle from usurpers. He enlists an army of mercenaries to fight for him, promising them great wealth if they are victorious. After they succeed in taking back the castle and city, the King decides that rather than let them collect their well-earned fee, he will turn them away and keep the spoils for himself. After this betrayal, one of the bands of sell-swords decides to get revenge. They plot to ambush the King’s caravan as it travels through the countryside, and take back what is theirs. Their plot seems to go as planned, but they soon find that they accidentally kidnapped a princess, who was to wed the King’s son. This leads to a hunt across the country as the King and Prince try to recover the Princess from her captors. Like a lot of Verhoeven’s other films, the characters in Flesh + Blood have a lot of difficulty maintaining a consistent sense of morality. As the film goes by, the heroes and villains trade places more than once, and the audience’s sympathies are thrown out the window as we see who we were led to believe were the “good guys” commit horrible atrocities against others. Of course, there really aren’t any true heroes to be found in this film, only characters with an overwhelming sense of self-preservation, which often drives them to do these horrible things. This characterization works very well in the film’s setting of medieval Europe, where life was so short, miserable and unpredictable, that people were known to do anything they felt like, no matter what the cost, because everyday they lived could be their last. Verhoeven is often criticized for his presentation of violence and sex, and people who found his other films unsettling might want to pass on this one. The violence and gore aren’t as shocking as some of his other films, but the sex is quite graphic, and there’s almost more nudity than dialogue. Of course, like his other films, everything is so over-the-top and unbelievable it becomes hard to be seriously offended, but those who find that sort of thing objectionable now have their warning. The film does a great job of showing the medieval world as a completely miserable place. People die at every turn of the corner, rape is a common occurrence, and the streets are filled with filth, poverty and plague. There are a few moments of fantastic Da Vinci style technology thrown in, but for the most part it is a very realist portrayal of medieval Europe, so history buffs might want to check this out and see how it measures up to other films set in the same era. Visually, the film is extraordinarily beautiful. Though it was only made on a moderate budget, it looks like an epic, with great armies, giant castles and a thundering score by Basil Poledouris (who did the music for Conan) driving the action on. The sets, props and costumes are all very convincing, and many exquisite images from Christian theology help enhance the film’s criticism of religion as a weapon of influence and power (especially the statue of St. Martin). The art direction also helps emphasize the contrast between the poor mercenaries and the wealthy nobles, comparing torn rags and rusted weapons against glorious plate mail armor and colorful dresses and banners. The acting is top notch as well. Rutger Hauer makes a great anti-hero in Martin, the leader of the mercenary outfit. He is charismatic and intelligent, which makes it easy to better understand some of his actions and sympathize with his plight, even when he is capable of truly horrible things. The rest of his mercenary outfit is a bit cartoony at times, but it helps distinguish them from one another, and works well in the context of over-the-top violence and sex. Jennifer Jason Leigh (Agnes) plays something of a medieval femme fatale, and though it is sometimes hard to understand her motivation or if she’s being sincere, it’s a pretty complicated character, and she does the best she can considering what she goes through. Tom Burlinson plays Steven, the Prince who wants to rescue Agnes from Martin and his band of outsiders. Though he is capable of the same kind of violence and destruction as the others, he seems more reluctant to do so, and shows a modern sense of intelligence and pragmatism. The film gives a pretty damning criticism of the way the Church operated at the time. The preacher character is obviously a crazed zealot, and uses his status as a way of pressuring other characters to do his bidding, threatening them with damnation at times, and even killing another man when he refuses to follow. The way the monks refuse to use modern medicine because it comes from Islamic clerics also demonstrates the harm of dogmatic ideology and cultural prejudice. The King’s son, who is something of a scholar and inventor, tries to help the victims of the plague, but the monks turn him and his science away in favor of their practiced methods, which are known to be ineffective. Early in the film, a nun is accidentally attacked by one of the soldiers, who slices her head open, effectively lobotomizing her. Her helplessness mirrors the way religion can be rendered useless in times of helplessness and death by fear and zealotry, which is ironically when faith and comfort (which is what the church should provide) are most needed. Flesh + Blood is without a doubt the best non-fantasy medieval film I’ve seen, and is one of Verhoeven’s strongest outings yet, mixing the artistry of his European films with the graphic excess of his American films. Hopefully it will be able to find a new audience on DVD, because it would be a shame for such an excellent film to remain so underappreciated. Highly recommended. RATING: 5.0 PROS: exellent presentation of medieval life, great acting, beautiful imagery and art direction CONS: extremely graphic at times ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089153/
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Aug 14, 2004 19:03
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 20:55 |
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