Too much of everything

Pretty Good

A Masterpiece!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Film is usually so absorbed with superficiality and "drama." Not in this case... a rare and satisfying journey into the heart of the storm winds of change called "history" which discharge their energies against the movable objects of each individual pathetic individual person during the relatively brief and, in the big picture, barely noticeable time of our lives.The film is literature, in the sense that it uses the art of the Story to shed light on the immense and incomprehensible Themes that force us to take sides - religion, philosophy, love, destiny - and plays out in dramatic form a tale about the consequences of our choices and the impossibility to escape them, or to escape the fate that awaits each of us, regardless.

Vogel a teacher treks through early 17th Century Germany . Stopping at a village it comes under attack by a mercenary force . Narrowly escaping with his life he comes across a village in a valley , Resting there he awakens only to find himself captured by the mercenary band . He is given two days to negotiate with the village elders and the villagers and mercenaries come to an uneasy alliance I first saw this movie perhaps as much as 30 years ago and despite forgetting its title do remember the cast names and the amount of violence it contained . This is a relatively brutal and violent film for its era , not so much gory but containing a brooding and nihilistic mood , worthy of the time its set in . I had little knowledge of the 30 Years War so had a quick look on Wikipedia and was shocked that it had as many as 8,000,000 casualties . The Great War of 1914-18 led to 10 million war deaths but you've got to put this in to perspective that war involved of millions of combatants from standing armies armed with the most effective weapons of slaughter ever devised at that point in human history . It says a lot about the horrors of the 30 Years Wars if millions of people were being killed by personal weapons like axes and swords . Worse too was the fact that no matter what none of the sides fighting would appeal to anyone on the side of secular democracy or humanism What this film does very well is point this fact out with the mercenary band led by the unnamed Captain being very pragmatic and ulterior because to give in to religious dogma would be to spell disaster though this doesn't make his character any nicer . Of course this means you're watching it from a 20th Century viewpoint with the voice of reason of Vogel being far too reasonable and anachronistic to be an entirely credible character from the period but it does paint a grim picture of the past with plague , famine feudalism and worst of all religious conflict blighting civilisation and I wonder how many people watching this film in 2013 were constantly reminded of Afghanistan ? As we all know Michael Caine has a very checkered career but 1971 was something of a vintage year for him with GET CARTER released at the same time . We don't get Caine's grating cockney tones and whilst his Germanic accent sounds more Dutch than German it never falls in to parody which is what easily could have happened . The supporting cast are also more than competent featuring a host of well known Brits like Davenport , Blessed , Gothard , Hogg , Shepard and Hallem but the stand out performance is Swedish actor Pers Oscarsson as Father Sebastian whose dogma is always in conflict against the pragmatic unbelieving Captain and it's this abrasive character interaction that makes the movie a must watch Some things don't work entirely and the story has a rather strange structure where a power struggle/revenge subplot that should be the natural climax taking place far sooner than it should . Indeed my memory cheated on this point and thought this where was the film ended on my first viewing of it . There's also a relatively unnecessary subplot about witchcraft but upon rewatching the film ( This movie demands to be seen more than once ) was slightly startled that perhaps this character may indeed have had second sight and might not have been an unnecessary subplot . But these are minor problems and apart from the excellent cast , intelligent subtext we also have fine cinematography alongside a haunting score from John Barry in a film that strangely flopped when it was released in 1971 and appears on TV stations very rarely

Jonathan Swift wrote "We have just enough religion to make us hate one another, but not enough religion to make us love one another." Swift, an Anglican minister, was writing scarcely a century after the Thirty Years' War, one of the bloodiest in European history before Napoleon. The war started out as a feud between Catholics and Protestants in what is now the Czech Republic but spread like a wildfire to engulf most of Europe. Germany was hardest hit. Although it began as a religious struggle it essentially became a free-for-all with all the great European powers jockeying for position--Spain, Austria, France, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia--while marauding bands of mercenaries made life hell for an already impoverished peasantry. This film brings to life a conflict most Americans have never heard of. It's surprisingly graphic for its PG rating; it bears comparison to another saga of warfare in Early Modern Europe, Paul Verhoeven's "Flesh and Blood." Written and directed by James Clavell ("Shogun," "King Rat," "The Great Escape") it shows just how horrible both Protestants and Catholics were during this period; ironically, one of the few sympathetic characters is a practicing Satanist (Florinda Bolkan). Once you get past Michael Caine's German accent and Omar Sharif's blond hair-dye, the whole cast is superb. Caine plays a mercenary chief persuaded to spare a tranquil Alpine village from plunder by Sharif, who plays his usual wounded idealist, the voice of sanity in a world gone mad. Particularly noteworthy among the international cast is Hollywood veteran Arthur O'Connell in a surprisingly convincing portrayal of a superstitious, mean-spirited farmer. The movie grippingly demonstrates the horrors of ethnic cleansing and religious conflict, with both sides committing unspeakable acts. The battle scenes are rousing, and there's a love story between Caine and the local witch (Bolkan). This is a movie that makes you think, but also leaves you with a queer feeling in the pit of your stomach. A must for action fans and history buffs.

I had the chance to watch this movie at the 70mm Festival in Schauburg (Karlsruhe/Germany). I was stunned that I hadn't heard about this movie before, more so as the movie did progress. I found myself caught up in the religious and social commentaries the movie had. It is well made, has a fantastic location (therefor a great cinematography) and although some might call the acting "emotionless", I think it fits the bill perfectly.Maybe one of the only criticisms I can really hand out, is the length of the movie. The pace is OK, but it could have been a bit shorter. Not as much action packed as some might expect, but with a good tension throughout that makes up for that