"Flesh and Blood" Topic

1501 story of Landsknechts (mostly German mercenaries including pikemen & supporting foot soldiers, late 15th to late 16th century)

Was this the best war movie of that Era?

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Amicalement
Armand

I watched it in my late teens, i think. There was only one real battle in the film, rather brief, but I did enjoy it.

The rest was interesting too, and at times a bit weird/disturbing for modern viewers (like how they almost casually dispose of the baby, and being so desensitized to the sight/smell of a long-dead hanged man), though it was probably normal for that time, specially after long periods of war.

Believe it or not, it encouraged me to read more texts from that period without the "benefit" of authors who want you to use Modern goggles on everything. That, in turn, helped me to stop judging people of the past based on our modern overdeveloped "values" and sheltered hyper-sensibilities.

Not everyone sees it the exact same way, of course:
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Dan
PS. The semi-permanent relationship between a couple of prostitutes and a company the are attached to was also a common practice, as opposed to simple camp-followers availing themselves of a random passing opportunity.

Don't forget the bits of dead dog in the well. As you say, an oddly disturbing film at times but very good and some good actors.

Thought it was a pretty good movie. Like Rutger Hauer (sp), too.

One of my favorites. I'm also a big fan of Jennifer Jason Leigh. Her role of Chantal Hutchens in Twin Peaks is one of the few high points.

For me it's the use of a "mancatcher" on Arnolfini at the beginning and how to defeat a veteran with javelin armed light cavalry near the end.

Not a lot of films made this period – interesting that Tom Burlinson (young Arnolfini)is considered to be one of the best interpreters of Sinatra songs around
tomburlinson.homestead.com

Not seen this, so I shall keep an eye out. Rutgers is always worth watching. Trouble is it might get me into yet another gaming period.

Actually, with reservations, I've enjoyed it a lot.

But the way Bubonic Plague contagion is depicted is absolute hokum, not to mention it's "instant" onset.

So evocative of the era in so many ways, and yet on this point the scenarist evidently didn't even bother to look the plague up in a dictionary.

Of course, the Renaissance Hot Tub scene does have a very special ambiance….

TVAG

TVAG

I think contagious disease experts are now looking at mass graves in Renaissance Milan(?) because of written records detailing an unusually rapid onset of symptoms. It might have been an isolated incident, on a population already weakened by famine, but they're going to check it out in case it was something new.

Dan
PS. Wealthy and poor alike succumbed quickly to that epidemic in Milan(?), so the famine before the plague may or may not be sufficient to explain what happened there.

Susan Tyrrell + Rutger Hauer in a morbid Renaissance film=
Brilliant!

Good memories!! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

SouriousMilious

Lol. I don't know about the others, but I found Susan herself to be the most disturbing-looking thing in the whole film. :)

Dan

Seen it. Have it.

It's a good movie provided you do as Cacique Caribe did, toss off the modern goggles and expectations. One thing that is sometimes wrenching for people is the often casual and willful brutality of this period. More pertinent was the close connection between any group of mercenary soldiers in this period and a violent biker gang of our period. There is no place in this "renaissance" world for modern sensibilities and feelings. This is no world of faint hearts and fair ladies, or chivalry and gentility.

This movie is in the same genre as the old Michael Caine film about the 30 years War, "The Last Valley." Once again a similar plot in some ways.

The problem with making a film in this era or the 30 years war is that the people are so alien to us. Modern sensibilities of the day to day touch it at almost no point. Oh to be sure when we are speaking of art and literature, of Michelangelo and DaVinci, of Erasmus and Mirandola, we can sense the heritage and lineaments of our own minds.

Howeve when we transcend that to the day to day we recoil in horror. Nothing can prepare us for the juxtaposition of the word "Virtu" translated to "virtue" then and now. Now it means goodness, rightness, purity and the chastity of a woman. Back in the Renaissance it means the brutal exercise of power and strength, of personal magnetism in a Mafiosi-machismo which is horrific to us. I you want to touch "The Renaissance" at the closest point you can, watch "The Godfather" at the Baptism scene" where Pacino is reciting the words a godfather does at any christening when asked "Michael Coerleoni do you renounce Satan and all his ways." At the very moment when his henchmen are gunning down his enemies along with whoever happens to be in the immediate vicinity, innocent or not.

THAT'S The Renaissance.

Beauty and ugliness, violence and humanity, art and destruction, brutality and saintliness, sacrament and excrement, all rolled up in one huge perfumed stinking ball.