Akin to his contemporary Neil Marshall, Christopher Smith began his career in genre cinema with competent horror entries (‘Creep’, ‘Severance’ and ‘Triangle’) and then moved into what could loosely be described as ‘medieval thriller’ territory. Therefore banish any comparisons to previous entries. ‘Black Death’ is an altogether different beast.
Set in plague-ravaged England (actual shoot location: Germany) ‘Black Death’ concerns the emotional plight of young monk Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) who is torn between the love of God and the forbidden love of a girl named Averill (Kimberley Nixon). Anticipating a spiritual sign Osmund joins a group of Satanist-banishing mercenaries (led by Sean Bean‘s Ulic) who infiltrate a suspiciously plague-free community ruled by the mysterious matriarchic Langiva (Carice van Houten).
Part historical epic, part horror story, part road movie, human drama and fantasy adventure ‘Black Death’ attempts to cover so much generic ground it’s disorientating. Events commence from suitably gritty outset in monk monastery territory, where Osmund confers with his superior (an aptly cast David Warner) and mingles with his repented love Averill. Then events are spiced up further when Sean Bean’s rugged mercenary leader turns up to whisk the young boy on what promises to be a journey of exciting deadly proportions.
Unfortunately, bar a jarring would-be witch burning, (staying on the right side of ‘Monty Pyphon and the Holy Grail’), it’s all a bit of a dead end street. We never really get to neither know or respect the would-be wild bunch of mercenaries nor really come to care about Osmund’s transgressive emotional journey. Equally disappointing is the isolated community that the group finally happen upon, which shamefully evokes comparisons to ‘The Wicker Man’ remake thus conjuring up very little of the potential threat and terror you’re supposed to feel at this juncture in the film.
Luckily Bean is a resourcefully enough presence to lift the film to watchable proportions and the numerous fight sequences are encouragingly brutal and visceral, due in part to Smith’s pleasingly organic direction, which makes commendable use of handheld cinéma vérité style cinematography.
‘Black Death’ certainly looks aesthetically pleasing enough and there are moments of gut-wrenching brilliance but the misjudged emotional journey, predictable character consequences and ambitiously wayward epilogue distance the film from its blatant high-end genre aspirations ‘Witchfinder General’, ‘`The Wicker Man’ and ‘Aguire Wraith of God’.
Never has a film felt so undernourished when the potentials have been so high. Don’t avoid like the plague but instead approach with considerable caution.
EXTRAS
A good round up of pat-on-each-others-back interviews with cast and crew, the usual brisk featurette (where Christopher Smith is compared to the likes of David Lean, Terry Gilliam and err Russ Meyer), disposable deleted scenes and a well intentioned but brain-dead director’s commentary whose only saving grace is the snarky comparison of a similarly helmet-clad cast member to that of Klaus Kinski in ‘Wraith of God’.
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2 Comments
What planet is this guy on?
Who peed in his cornflakes?
The film critic is probably a failed actor or failed director. I worked in Hollywood film industry in the early 1970′s. I grew up in the film industry as a little whippersnapper. I grew up near Malibu and Pacific Palisades in the 1960′s.
I worked in the early days of cable tv in the early 1970′s. I also was employed in industrial films, education films and the Paramount studio lot. I worked in the music industry and the general mileus of “cafe society” in West L.A. during the 1970′s. My sinecure was white collar, marketing, promotion and office management. I am not an actor and had NO desire to do anything except be “behind the scenes” in the entertainment industry.
I witnessed a plethora of failed performing artists who became “film critics” because they could not “cut the mustard”. So much of film criticism and art criticism is littered with snarky, elitist, acrid, vitriolic writers who nitpick and obsess about arcane minutae which is irrevlant, mean spirited and downright cruel.
“Black Death” is an artful, masterpiece treatiste on
socio-polititical dynamics of Medieval Europe. Considering it was shot an a shoe-string, miniscule budget – it is a masterful film. Beautifully mounted and elegantly shot – the film evokes the dirt, ignorance and brutality of Medieval Europe during the plague. It educates the viewer about the dangers of crypto-facist, religious fanaticism. It was a visceral, enthralling experience for me to watch this film.
As an amateur Cosmologist, Medievalist and Grail scholar – I was entrhalled by the authenticity of this film. Every moment was spellbinding. The narrative was well developed and it was a fine ensemble cast of European and UK character actors. The cast and crew were paid “peanuts” but were passionate about this film because of it’s finely wrought script and artful direction.
The entire cast gives compelling performances. Most notable is the actor who portrayed the idealist monk Edmund Reymond, luscious and terrifying Sean Bean, enigmatic cult leader Catrice Van Houten and David Warner give memorable performances. Bean and Van Houten dominate the screen with electric, high voltage stage presence. Their sheer personna transported me to a heightened state of endorphin rush watching their bravura performances.
The film critic snipes the band of rogue mercenaries were “not well developed”. There is this thing called a “Budget” – this was indie art house, low budget and the screening time was down to 1 1/2 hours. If Hollywood gave the director/producers a $60 million budget and 4 hour “epic” blockbuster production values the film could have been expended in screen time. Every single member of the band of rogue mercenaries were given several lines of dialog to “set up” their character. A memorable expository scene sets up the band or rogue mercaniers. Each character has a few lines of dialog which give the viewer the 411 on their motives and machinations.
I had no problem understanding the band of rogue mercenaries who were in the employ of medieval, crypto-fascist Vatican and powerful aristocratic politicans – they were all thugs, brutes, sociopaths and amoral mercenaries. One man alone was just a hard scrabble, rough and tumble working class bloke trying to feed his wife and children.
Most of the thugs in the mercenary band were sadistic rapists and marauders.
The film critic must have been “asleep at the wheel” or stoned to have missed this. Maybe too many Mocha Latte’s at his local java house where he blathers on and on as a coffee house “Armchair Intellectual”.
I loved, loved, loved this film and watched it 5 times online download bootleg for free. I still have it archived in my bookmarks but will happily plunk down my hard earned cash to purchase the DVD. It will be treasured in my colletion of indie, art house films. I am an avid supporter of indie art house films and it PAINS ME to no end that these stone broke, visonary film makers get ripped off with bootleg, pirate sites that post their films and cause them to lose significant revenue.
PLEASE BUY THE DVD. I cannot emphasize this enough.
I have the link to watch it for FREE but refused to spread that around the Sean Bean drooling fan girl online discussion boards and forums. He’s a rich bloke – but the film makers and producers probably just broke even on this film
So BUY THE DVD and support your indie, artisnal on a shoestring budget film maker. OK?
BTW – for any gushing, drooling fangirls who are afficiandos of Sean Bean – Lord Sexitude – His Holy Hotness – this is a GREAT ROLE. IMHO it is the best thing he’s done since LOTR. BIG starring role, great script, plenty of screen time and a juicy meaty role portraying a complex, thrwarted, fanatical messianic warrior who sacrifices his own life to serve god. It’s the performance of a lifetime. You even get a bit of Sean’s glorious nekkid, rock solid body without an inch of fat – even at 51 years old – he’s a “Sliver Fox” – he’s shirtless in the torture scene – shades of “Hitcher” when the hitchhiker kid is torn asunder – his arms ripped off his torso.
Sean Bean has been underused by Hollywood big budget studios. They don’t understand him and don’t know how to cast him. IMHO, he’s in the same league as Sir Laurence Olivier, Nicholson, De Niro and Pacino. Classically trained Shakespearean actor – RADA graduate, class of 1983.
Because he’s British and a quirky, hard to categorize performing artist – he’s frequently typecast as villianous, snarling, vitriolic, spitting nails “Second Banana” in Hollywood big budget films. The only thing he’s done recently in Hollyoowd where he’s not a villanous miscreant is his juicy – but all too short performance as Zeus in “Percy Jackson the Lightening Thief”.
The Mighty Bean deserves so much MORE than this.
Hey fan girls – if you winced at mediocre, misguided, incoherent “Cash” please buy the DVD of “Black Death”. I was swooning, swirling, hyperventilating watching “Black Death”.
This is a magnificient film and it is borderline criminal this beauteous, spellbinding film never received a USA theatrical release. It only got minimal UK and European release. It will linger as a lost masterpiece for a decade or 2 until it finds it’s audience.
Long Live the Mighty Bean!
colleen whalen
Wow, love the enthusiasm!