Dutch actor Rutger Hauer is no stranger to medieval epics with Flesh & Blood and Ladyhawke both highlights on his varied CV. In Barbarossa Siege Lord, released on Blu-ray and DVD last week from Metrodome, Hauer takes on the role of Frederick I. The film is an ambitious Italian/ Romanian co-production telling the epic tale of the German Holy Roman Emperor during his numerous crusades through Italy. In Italy during the 12th Century the Northern Lands are ruled by the German Emperor Frederick Hohenstaufen known as Barbarossa, a name meaning red beard in Italian. His dream is to conquer the lands of Central and Southern Italy to revive the Empire that once belonged to Charles The Great. However, in the North there is a young man from Milan named Alberto da Giussano (Raz Degan). His dream is to defeat the Emperor and give freedom back to people from the Northern lands. Originally clocking in at an arse-numbing 200 minutes and first shown on Italian TV, the version being released in the UK is an edited down 2 hour cut. From the outset the film has a very low budget TV movie feel while at the same time trying to invoke the epic nature of films such as Ridley Scotts Robin Hood and Kingdom of Heaven. By using typically mournful music and enhancing battle scenes with CG extras the film has a fair crack at pulling off the modern epic style. However due to obvious budget restrictions the reduced scale of the production is always quite apparent. The most distracting aspect of the film is the fact that the majority of the cast has been overdubbed with particularly bad ADR. As far as I can tell the main language in the film is English, they all seem to be saying the right dialogue but the sound is badly out of sync with the picture and in a number of cases the voices simply do not fit the characters. Somewhere during the post production process a terrible decision has been made regarding the dialogue track and it has pretty much ruined the film and made it difficult to take seriously as the film is so dialogue heavy. Despite being the main star of the film Rutger Hauers Barbarossa actually has little screen time compared to the other, lesser known actors in the cast. The film devotes a lot more time to Alberto da Giussanos story who with his army of just 900, known as the Company of Death, take on the invading forces led by Barbarossa. Giussanos story has a lot in common with Braveheart so much so it even involves a number of scenes where the word "Freedom" is shouted while heading into battle, an idea that just seems clichéd in the wake of Mel Gibsons Oscar winner. On the plus side the battle scenes are generally well staged, relentlessly bloody and realistic. The CG enhancements add fountains of blood spray and ramp up the intensity of the reality of injury by swords and arrows. For fans of military history there is much to savour in the range of weaponry and attention to detail throughout the film. The production design, cinematography and use of the spectacular scenery (Romania filling in for Italy) are also very good and in keeping with the films epic aspirations. For a low budget TV production the film is certainly ambitious. I would have been interested to see the full version of the film as I think there seems to be a lack of cohesion in the cut-down version being released here. It seems rushed in places while other scenes seem to drag, I would expect the pacing of the original version to be much better and it would do no harm to be watched in two parts as it was when shown on Italian TV.
Quality
The film is presented in 1080p with a widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 and a 5.1 DTS HD soundtrack. Generally the picture quality is very good throughout but in places lacks consistency. Skin tones are mostly excellent and every bead of sweat shines with exceptional clarity however a few scenes suffer from visible noise and glitches in the transfer. The sweeping cinematography and landscapes all look particularly impressive. The soundtrack is well presented despite the problems with poor dubbing. Battle scenes benefit from a decent sound mix and dialogue scenes are all perfectly clear and audible without having to reach for the remote.
Extras
There are no extras at all being offered on this release. There are obviously deleted scenes available from the lengthy Italian cut of the film and why not offer the opportunity to see the extended cut as well as the shorter International version. Unfortunately this release really doesnt take full advantage of the space for additional content that Blu-ray allows. Barbarossa Siege Lord is out now on Blu-ray.