Sword of War [Import]

It seems that Hollywood in the past few years has been content in releasing to the American filmgoer bathroom humor comedies, angst ridden dramas and CGI action movies overly populated either by the comic book genre or popular for their time Sixties television series. European filmmakers, however, have taken up the gauntlet of the Epic film genre and this one 'SWORD OF WAR' , an Italian Romanian co-production, is the latest and deals with an historical subject never treaded on before. The film is an accurate depiction of 12th Century Italy when German Emperor Frederick 1 Hohenstaufen named by the Italians as Barbarossa decided to revive the ancient empire of Charlemagne by conquering all of Italy and how a Milanese peasant named Alberto Da Giussano formed an army of 900 men from different parts of Italy called 'the company of death' and put the Germans to the test on the battlefield. The film stars Rutger Hauer back in the action saddle as the emperor and Raz Degan in an extremely mumbled voice over as Alberto. F. Murray Abraham supplies the villainy and Kasia Smutniak plays Eleanora, the visionary seer who bridges the action between prophecy and coincidence and aids Alberto. Written, Produced, and Directed impressively by Renzo Martinelli, the film supplies the goods with excellent production values by Rosella Guavna ,sweeping cinematography by Fabio Ciancetti and symphonic orchestration by Pivio and Aldo De Scalzi. The film has some wild touches such as Barbarossa secretly seeking the occult advice of the abbess Hildegard Von Bingen, black plague enveloping Rome and extremely graphic battle scenes. It's also good to see Rutger Hauer looking extremely regal and enjoying himself in his role. Lionsgate deserves kudos for releasing this film in a beautiful 2.35 widescreen transfer with 5.1 Dolby digital sound , a nice behind the scenes featurette on the making of the movie showing the sets and locations and mini interviews with the actors. Although the film loses its bite half way thru the film , it picks itself back up for its bloody finale and its highly recommended for Epic film lovers and even the regular moviegoer will be in for a rousing good time.

The quality of the DVD is poor. The first third of the movie the voices and mouth movement don't match up at all. The basic premise of the story is similar to Braveheart (except without good action or acting). Especially early on the story is choppy and uninteresting. The first fight scene is horrifically bad (laughable). You can see the actors hesitating and waiting until the guy they are fighting is ready. The battle scenes do get better as the movie goes on. The siege of Milan is pretty good but can't save the poor acting and unlikable characters. Intertwined in the choppy story is just plain weird, silly, and sick scenes. Examples: 1. Rutger Hauer's character Barbarossa, catches the blacksmith assassin who somehow manages to get through thousands of German troops and into his tent. So, what should you do with this guy who is threatening you and just tried to kill you? Well, of course it just makes sense to let him go so he can organize the resistance to your kingdom! I should say the blacksmith guy had saved his life when he was young but I think when he just tried to kill you and is threatening you you go ahead and kill him. 2. The blacksmith is unconscious after the initial fight scene and this "witch" lady who has random "visions" does the rational and sane thing, she fondles and kisses him when he is unconscious? Ew! That isn't necrophilia but its unconsciousaphilia and still just plain sick. 3. During the siege of Milan the German forces capture a food scavenging party from Milan and plaster them to the front of the siege engines-OK that's a cool idea if your a German I don't have a problem with that. But then, suddenly the Milan defenders let a whole bunch of women on top of the wall to scream at the soldiers not to fire on the approaching "War machines" because they are going to hit their own men. First, why are there screaming women on the wall? Second, I don't think the Germans are exactly bringing cookies and milk to share. What exactly are you expecting to have happen when they take the city? OK, so finally they decide they should fire on the siege engines and try and save the city. Now, instead of aiming for the Germans on the sides who are pushing the war machines, they aim right for their own men. I mean heart and neck and head shots? What? Do they suck that bad with crossbows? Really. Only after they shoot all their own men do they start to shoot at the Germans but without fire, just plain crossbows.
So overall, poor quality DVD, poor character development and unlikable characters, lots of slow painful scenes, random and silly scenes. Initial fight scenes is ridiculous and there are some good battle scenes later they are punctuated with unrealistic and just plain silly parts. I regret buying it. Maybe a rental if you have insomnia or something!

I sat through the whole movie though there were a number of times my mind just wandered without missing anything. Battle scenes were OK, but the direction wasn't tight and the film sorely needed a good editor. A decent effort, but in addition to some of the dialogue not being able to be heard (as noted in another review) there were also scenes that went too long and honestly the "900" only went into action the last 30 minutes or so of the movie. With editing and clearer audio, it would have been a four star in my view. I'd say a potentially great story that took too long to tell here.