Wednesday, January 18, 2012

RAVE - Ironclad

I guess it would be unhelpful to summarize this by saying "it all depends on what you're looking for", so I'll elaborate.

If you're looking for a 100% historically accurate tale of medieval England, with grand battle scenes and great cinematography, you'll probably not find this meets your prerequisites. 

If you're looking for a great character study of nobles, kings, and peasants, again you'll find this falling somewhat short.

However, if you're looking for something that's as bloodthirsty - but not as ridiculous - as 300, as down-to-earth as Russel Crowe's Robin Hood, but for 1/10th of the cost, and something much less flashy than Liam Neeson and Orlando Bloom in Kingdom of Heaven, then this could be right up your street.

It's England, 1215. King John has been forced by rebel Barons to sign the Magna Carta, a document that gives new rights to free men, and restricts the King. The film focuses mainly on John's siege of Rochester Castle, which goes badly for him and leads to civil war.

For me it filled in some gaps of what I remembered from school - King John enlisting an army from Denmark to help in his fight against the rebel Barons, while the Barons in turn sought to persuade an army from France to invade England to dispatch the oily John.

All good, mud 'n guts stuff. Just don't expect the wife to like it.


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