Black Death

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source: Black Death

In 1348, year of our Lord, England is devastated by the Bubonic plague that spreads death in the lands and villages. The young monk Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) asks his beloved Averill (Kimberley Nixon) to travel to a remote village after the Dentwich Forest where the Black Death has not reached yet. She tells that she will wait for him in the forest, but Osmund tells that he will stay in the Staveley Monastery since he is a man of God. However, the emissary of the bishop Ulric (Sean Bean) arrives in the monastery recruiting a religious man to guide his soldiers and him through the forest and the swamp to the village. They believe that there is a necromancer resurrecting people and protecting the village from the plague. Along their journey, they fight against forest thieves and Osmund finds Averill's clothes dirty of blood. When they reach the village, they find happy and healthy villagers that have renounced God living in peace, and they are welcomed by the leaders Hob (Tim McInnerny) and the alchemist Langiva (Carice van Houten). She shows Osmund the dead body of Averill that they have found in the woods. However, during the night, Langiva brings Averill back to life and Osmund tries to warn Ulric and his men. But they have already been drugged and sooner they have to renounce God to survive. "Black Death" is a great film the depicts the horror of the superstitious Dark Ages. The story recalls the 1973 "Wicker Man" in the environment of the Middle Ages. Christopher Smith maybe is the most promising director of the young generation. His previous movies ("Creep", "Severance" and "Triangle") shows that he is improving his work. This intriguing and violent story of religion, faith, superstitious, ignorance and fanaticism has a magnificent screenplay that only reveals the consistent truth in the very end and is supported by top-notch performances. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Morte Negra" ("Black Death")

One of the most boring movies I have ever seen! Why? Because it fails to draw its audience into the story. You have no love nor interest in the characters and you don't really care about their goals. There is a lovestory I couldn't have care less about. And the main story starts after what feels like hours of boredom. The camera seems hand-held at moments which is really strange in a historic movie. The allover message seems to be "the inquisition was right". The only thing preventing me from giving it 1 star is the decent acting and the beautiful landscapes.

The story takes place in 1378 during the beginning of the Plague in England. A group of soldiers with the guidance of a young monk, named Osmond, travel to a remote town that has seemed to be free of pestilence. The monk willingly agrees to accompany them to do "the Will of God." However, as they get closer towers their destination he learns of a darker secret that may cause the residents of the town to be free of the sickness. Black Death is very well-paced and thought provoking. The acting is very well which helps you connect with the characters better. There is a creepy tension throughout the movie and builds up immensely when the group reaches the village. You start to wonder what is really going on and if the residents of the village are as evil as they were told. There is also a great amount of action which is quite brutal. The conflict between Christianity and Witchcraft creates a tense buildup between the soldiers and the villagers. The soldiers are tested on their beliefs and must make tough decisions for their will to survive, The movie makes you think after you watch it and portrays a historical event in a way that it's never been looked at before.

Overall I was entertained by Black Death and would watch it again (at some stage). I'm a harsh critic - so there were quite a few aspects that annoyed me about the storyline and character portrayals. Here are my reasons. The good and bad in production: The production details and casting of many of main characters were visually good and helped to immerse me in the story. The sets were great. But... tweezed eyebrows always look wrong on the pretty young things in medieval flicks. The level of violence I suppose was realistic and as far as that goes "creative" although the a little too graphic for my liking as I'm not overly fond of hiding behind my fingers while trying to watch a movie. The good and bad in the provocative storyline: As an atheist studying theology I certainly didn't find this movie to be about Christianity triumphing over paganism. It was heading that way towards the climax but then suddenly that tacked on ending with narrative that was hell-bent on making a statement about trauma causing people to view the world with hideous distortion in the name of Christianity - as though it were an excuse. Equally trite was van Houten's explanation for actions and events - her portrayal (or the director's) was terribly flat for such a character. Witch, necromancer, whatever... woman! She surely would have an abyss of attitude for facial expression. I had to ask at the end of this movie, "what on earth is the point?" I hope the writer/director were just wanting to do a period piece with gratuitous violence and a bit of moral ambiguity for titillation and sensationalism. That so many reviews commented on the theological reference is too disturbing.

I'm from Holland, and we are not known for our great history of actors, let alone the Dutch cinema. Some of you might know Paul Verhoeven, Rutger Hauer and Black Book...but that's about it. So when a Dutch actor or actress makes his or her way to Hollywood (although some of the Americans despise Hollywood, in Holland it's still Mecca for movies), it's of national importance. Carice van Houten is our latest Dutch acting jewel who made her way to Hollywood with movies like Black Book, Valkyrie, Repo Men and the recent Black Death. She is a major reason why I'm writing this review. In this review I would like to point out some good and some weaker elements in this movie. I will not give a summary of the plot, I'll just give my view on some things. So I know a lot of things will not be addressed in this review, sorry for that, just wanted to share some things with you. GOOD After watching this movie I could only think of one thing: this is a great piece of cinema! First of all the cast is very well selected. Eddie Redmayne and Sean Bean share the lead and they are both very strong characters. Redmayne impresses with his performance as a boyish monk who transforms in a hardened revenge seeker during the movie, due to the fact that he is torn between his dedication to the church and his forbidden love for a girl. Bean is good, as he always is in my opinion. Watching Bean was like watching a Christian version of Boromir, brainwashed by faith and dedicated to his goal. And then there was Carice... Stunningly beautiful, enchanting and mysterious, both lovable and scary and....well I can continue like this. She was just good, just so good. Furthermore, the plot is a very strong element of this movie as well. Unpredictable and exciting, but always keeps your attention until the final narrative. Great setting as well, I thought it was shot in UK somewhere, maybe Ireland, but I didn't expect this movie to be shot in Germany! Kudo's for Germany... BAD I thing BAD is a strong expression and does not really apply to anything concerning this movie. Although I have some mixed feelings about the underlying theme: the question whether there is a God or not and how to deal with religion in times of the plague. My major concern with this theme in this movie is that at the end, there is no real statement about what's right and what's wrong, or who was right and who was wrong. For instance: our Christian crusaders slaughter everybody who is against their faith in name of the Bishop (or God, or the Church, or Christianity), so to say that these crusaders are lovable people...no not really. Than the village-people, who seem to be nice at first, but the more intelligent viewer will conclude that they are not what they seem at all. After they show their real nature, they are not that lovable as well. Even the holy monk turns out to be a bad- ass revenge seeker at the end! Conclusion: God and Christianity suck big times (concerning our knowledge of the Middle Ages we already knew that), atheists suck as well (the sad thing is, in real life, most Americans will agree on this one) and even a man from God himself is not trustworthy. The end of the movie does justice to it's title: this is a very BLACK movie. All in all this is a movie you must see. Very interesting and intriguing on many levels, with a good plot, great setting and even better actors!

Set in 1348, during the time of the first outbreak of the bubonic plague in England, Osmund (Eddie Redmayne), a young monk, is tasked to accompany a determined knight named Ulric (Sean Bean) and a group of mercenary soldiers in learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village, where the plague has not reached. While Osmund sees this as a mercy mission, Ulric believes necromancy is involved and is determined to bring this necromancer to justice. Their journey leads them into various obstacles and darker moments as secrets are unveiled. Despite its grim mood and subject matter, this film is an entertaining and generally a thought-provoking, medieval horror/thriller. Even with the film's low budget, it is impressive to look at. The misty landscapes, the costumes, the filthy details, and the sets are impressive. Some of the makeup and soundtrack may seem a tad modern, but they are not distracting. While the film is considered a historical horror film, it is also a bit of an action flick, as it has some energetic, gritty swordplay, with some blood and limbs flying off. The film takes place around the time of the Inquisition when there was much distrust from the Catholic church and the government toward pagans. Ulric is a zealous warrior driven by hatred. He believes he is serving God through the use of his sword against suspected necromancers. Osmund, the monk, on the other hand, believes that in order to love God, one must serve through mercy and love. There are no characters here that are fully saintly. I felt Eddie Redmayne's performance as Osmund really made this film work. His performance feels genuine and he acts as I would imagine a monk would act and talk, and he is emotionally relatable. As the film progresses, one can appreciate his good range of emotions and acting ability. As for Sean Bean, one can't help but feel he is reprising his role as Boromir from Lord of the Rings. He has the same type of hair. He is wearing medieval armor. Again, he plays that proud, brash character who we know will do something…brash. I would love to see him someday play a real calm, jovial, intellectual character. To the film's credit, Sean Bean gets to stretch a bit as Ulric is not completely two-dimensional and we do get to know more on how he became the type of character that he is. The rest of the cast, who have their own special look and quirk, do a laudable job and work together well. The action scenes have a good amount of tension and intensity, but the shaky camera effect can be dizzying. There is about one major fight scene, which happens midway into the film. Once the main characters make it to the village, things get a little more surreal and one realizes that this is not necessarily an action film, at least in a conventional sense. I've noticed the characters in the village feel, talk, and look strangely modern. I'm guessing these villagers still farm for a living, but they seem quite clean and manicured. The script is sharply written, with good detail in the dialogue. The film attempts to explore how extreme situations can turn people into hateful zealots, or a violent fundamentalist. There is a twist at the end, which is interesting, but somewhat hard to swallow. The film doesn't attempt to give any big answers, but it is an interesting exploration of man's dark nature, the cycle of vengeance, and how good people can turn cruel when evil is done on them. For more of my movie review updates, you can find them on http://twitter.com/d_art

Medieval scholars will probably find substantial problems with the film's depiction of the Middle Ages, but to a non-historian it certainly feels closer than many other period movies: buildings are mostly squalid and insubstantial, the weapons and armor of the soldiers are crude and ill-assorted - Ulric (Sean Bean), the bishop's envoy, has the best of everything, while his followers are progressively less well-equipped as they descend the social scale - and it gives a good sense of the unwelcoming, sparsely-populated landscapes of medieval Britain. The casting works well too: the soldiers are, for the most part, neither Hollywood pretty-boys nor stock grotesques, but have the look of real people, 'warts and all'. The impression of a brutal, bleak time when life was not merely cheap but nearly worthless is reinforced by the look of the film. It's coldly lit, and everything is misty and uncertain. This distinctive atmosphere creates a feeling of constantly impending disaster without the need for the cheap frights and minor chords of a horror movie. The characterization is often surprisingly complex: Ulric may be a fanatic, but he's also a pragmatist who is no crueler than he needs to be. Even his soldiers are not one-dimensional brutes, but have their own personalities, with subtly-sketched human traits. The film encourages you to think about the motivation of even the most minor characters. Eddie Redmayne as Osmund does a good job of presenting a complex and conflicted character for much of the film. The weak point where the characters are concerned are the women. Averill (Kimberley Nixon) and Langiva (Carice Van Houten) sometimes feel more like plot devices than people. This is not the fault of the actresses, who both deliver good performances. It's just that their characters are more constrained by the requirements of the plot. As with any film in which religion plays a major part, there's been some debate as to whether the film is pro- or anti-Christian. To my mind, it's neither. All the characters, whichever faction they represent, are badly compromised. The only value system that it really seems to promote is that of simple humanity. It's no accident that the director gives the final voice- over to Wolfstan (John Lynch), who emerges ultimately as the film's most sympathetic character, a somewhat tarnished and world-weary ideal of what it means to be a 'good man'. By and large, the film works well in terms of plot and pacing. It doesn't drag, and there are few obvious plot holes. Where it falls down badly, however, is with the ending segment, which feels like a hurriedly-sketched afterthought. The fact that the director felt it necessary to deliver key material in the form of a voice-over should have warned him that he needed to rethink his approach. The film would probably have been not only complete but also stronger if that whole section had simply been cut. It isn't a standout film, but it's certainly an interesting one. It's well made and acted and it leaves you with plenty to think about. Any film-maker who wants to truly convey the feel of the Middle Ages - brutal and squalid, and at once alien and familiar - should watch "Black Death" and take notes.

What is right and what is wrong ? Who was "good" and who was "bad" ? Is there a god ? Or devil ? Or no one ? Or both ? After seeing a movie you will not be able to find the answers to above questions for sure. According to medieval knowledge about diseases this scenario could have been possible. There are many lessons to learn in the movie corroborated with many sociological perspectives, however they remain untold clearly and could be interpreted in many ways, each of us has its own view. In a religious or a non-religious way. Acting is super, Tim McInnerny and Sean Bean are great, also the rest of the crew follows and keeps the audience convinced at all times. Atmoshpere is (I guess) reflecting our present perception of "medieval", no special effects were used for that besides interesting camera angles, but this will not be disappointing but rather encouraging. I highly recommend this movie, it has something ... special.