Flesh + Blood (1985)

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Starring: Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Betrayed by power. Corrupted by love. Bound by honor.

Plot: A band of medieval mercenaries take revenge on a noble lord who decides not to pay them by kidnapping the betrothed of the Noble's son. As the plague and warfare cut a swathe of destruction throughout the land, the mercenaries hole up in a castle and await their fate.






My Rating: 8/10

Would I watch it again? Yes

I've always dug Rutger Hauer. I've seen some of his Dutch, pre-Hollywood, films from the 70s like TURKISH DELIGHT (WOW is this F'd up) and SOLDIER OF ORANGE, both by director Paul Verhoeven. And his early American films like this one, BLADE RUNNER, THE HITCHER and LADYHAWKE (which came a little later) show that this guy, despite his good looks and charm, is a very good actor. I've always found it strange how his career, after such great promise and high profile films, took a turn into B-movie obscurity. Years ago when I saw
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND I was pleasantly surprised to see him turn up
in that kicking all kinds of acting ass and then a couple of years ago in BATMAN BEGINS. It's just too bad that he didn't stay in a more high profile light, cranking out tons of badass genre films.

In this one he's re-teamed with Verhoeven in a great little Medieval picture you probably haven't seen. One thing that a lot of Hollywood pictures set in this time get wrong is they aren't dirty and grimy enough. This one drops you right in the middle of it and forces you to wallow around in it a bit. From what I understand there is quite a bit of accuracy in the film maker's
attempt to bring the middle ages to us. Especially the hot tub scene.




The cast does a great job with Leigh particularly turning in one of her best performances. And the film is aptly named, too. There's plenty of nudity and violence, just like it was in 1501. It's true. I've seen paintings. Mmmmm. What I Haven't seen before in film is a rape scene like the one between Hauer and Leigh. I won't go into details but it's brutal but in a gentle, horrific, erotic way. You've got to see it to understand. On the flip side we get to see A LOT of Leigh unclothed. It's not all roses, though, 'cause we also get to see Bruno Kirby naked. Yes, that's right, Bruno Kirby. For anyone who's ever wondered, here's your chance.

"Jane, you ignorant slut!"

I do have to gripe about something and that's the character of Steven (Tom Burlinson). At first I was excited to see someone with a scientific and skeptic mind, at least having someone of reason in a time filled with the uneducated and religious nut jobs. But then the film jumps the shark and Steven, in the course of a few hours, designs and builds a giant wooden wheeled device that will allow his men to storm the castle without being harmed. This thing is HUGE and is basically an armored fire truck with an extension ladder. I couldn't help but recall the scene from MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975) where the knights build a Trojan Rabbit. It's about as silly. But that's not it. Later, he pulls THIS out of his ass...

That's right, a rocket! If it hadn't been for this childish bullshit I'd have given myself 100% to it. But,no, they have to ruin it with this kind of crap.

Basil Poledouris's (who did CONAN THE BARBARIAN a few years earlier) score is very good. Despite the small budget his music adds much to the film. At least it's an orchestral score. Many in the 80s had synthesizer scores; even some Sword & Sorcery flicks. Ugh. One of my favorite movies of this type, LADYHAWKE (1985), had some electronics in the score but that's another story...

"Bill Clinton: The Estrogen Years"

This film looks like a big Hollywood picture but with a European eye for pushing the envelope in its realism, brutality and sexuality. It's easy to see why Hollywood gave him his first blockbuster with his next picture, ROBOCOP, the first in a string of hits followed by TOTAL RECALL, BASIC INSTINCT, SHOWGIRLS (to a lesser extent) and STARSHIP TROOPERS. I liked his pictures up to BASIC INSTINCT. After that they just fell flat. But that's another story...