Flesh & Blood (film)
| Flesh + Blood | |
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 Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Paul Verhoeven |
| Produced by | Gijs Versluys |
| Written by | Gerard Soeteman Paul Verhoeven |
| Starring | Rutger Hauer Jennifer Jason Leigh Tom Burlinson Ronald Lacey Susan Tyrrell Jack Thompson |
| Music by | Basil Poledouris |
| Cinematography | Jan de Bont |
| Editing by | Ine Schenkkan |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 10, 1985 (SIFF) August 30, 1985 |
| Running time | 126 min. |
| Country | USA Netherlands Spain |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $ 6,500,000 |
Flesh & Blood is a 1985 film directed by Paul Verhoeven. It is set in the year 1501 in Italy, and follows a group of mercenaries as they loot, rape and kill.
The script is partly based on unused material for the Dutch TV series Floris, which was the début for Paul Verhoeven, Gerard Soeteman and Rutger Hauer. The movie was also known as The Rose and the Sword on early VHS releases.
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[edit] Plot
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This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2011) |
The film begins in 1501, where an unnamed city in Renaissance Italy has been taken by a coup d'état while its rightful ruler, Arnolfini (Fernando Hilbeck), is away. With few loyal troops, Arnolfini has hired mercenaries and motivated them by granting 24 hours of looting if they succeed in taking the city. The city is captured, the defenders are slaughtered, and chaos reigns.
Arnolfini, fearing there will be nothing left of his city for him to rule, turns to Hawkwood (Jack Thompson), the commander of his troops, to stop the mercenaries' pillage. Hawkwood is indifferent to Arnolfini's demands, for he has accidentally attacked a young nun during the siege and fears this will doom him to eternal damnation. Arnolfini promises to get medical attention for her if Hawkwood will rein in his men. Hawkwood reluctantly agrees, turning on Martin (Rutger Hauer), his friend and second-in-command. Arnolfini's cavalry, who are personally loyal to him, round up the foot-soldiers and summarily eject them without food, weapons or shelter. They disperse throughout the Italian countryside, bitter and angry.
Soon thereafter, Martin's son is stillborn to one of the camp followers in the pouring rain. Martin buries the infant but in doing so, unearths a wooden statue of Saint Martin of Tours - a saint with a sword. The mercenaries' cardinal takes this as a sign from God that they should all follow Martin as their new leader. Desperate, Martin and his small band soon head out to seek revenge and better fortunes.
Meanwhile Arnolfini's son, Steven (Tom Burlinson), is betrothed to Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a young heiress he has never met. Steven is an intellectual who prefers to work on his inventions than worry about romance or politics and he has misgivings about the arranged marriage. Agnes wins him over once they meet and they eat from a mandrake to magically stay in love, but while taking Agnes back with them, Arnolfini's entourage is attacked and robbed by Martin's band, who have taken to brigandage. Arnolfini is seriously injured, and Agnes hides. She is hauled away, hidden among her valuable dowry.
Martin discovers Agnes' hiding place later that evening when they strip the caravan of its valuables. The men seek to gang rape the pretty noblewoman but Martin (as their new leader) decides to take her himself. He rapes her, but she surprises him by turning into the aggressor in mid-coitus. Immediately afterwards, she begins flirting with the virile Martin, realizing that he will protect what he considers "his" property.
Martin, Agnes and the rest of the band come upon a castle, some of whose inhabitants are suffering from the Plague. The mercenaries capture the place with ease, thanks to the help of Agnes, who appears to be adapting to her new circumstances remarkably well. They set themselves up in style and Agnes begins grooming Martin as a feudal lord. He enjoys his new, fine clothing (formerly belonging to the castle's owner), the food and the notion of being a Peer. While a competent soldier, he has never dreamed of much more. Agnes recognizes this and strokes his ego in order to aid her position. She proves herself a remarkable manipulator and succeeds in making Martin fall in love with her. After a raw sexual encounter in a steaming tub, it is quite clear that Agnes is enjoying Martin at least as much as he is enjoying her. She is soon considered part of the group by the mercenaries. Seemingly content with the situation she finds herself in, she appears to have given up on her former life.
Agnes' fiancé is determined to win her back. Steven, though well educated, is not a soldier and has only a small group of cavalry at his disposal. He desperately turns to Hawkwood for guidance but discovers that Hawkwood only wants to lead a quiet life married to the former nun he had injured. Steven is forced to blackmail Hawkwood by threatening to have the nun — now mentally impaired by her injury — locked away, proving that he can be as ruthless as his father. Steven pursues Martin with Hawkwood's help.
After discovering Martin's whereabouts, Steven finds his forces insufficient to take their castle. During the siege, Martin confronts Agnes about where her feelings lie in regard to himself and her fiancé. He reveals that he loves Agnes and could not exist without her, claiming he'd kill her before losing her to Steven. Agnes, in turn, says she loves them both, because they are one and the same, only of different ages. In spite of her affections for both men, she makes it clear that she's relishing the fact that they are engaged in a duel to the death over her, and says that she doesn't need to choose between them—winner takes all.
When Steven builds an experimental siege tower in an attempt to storm the castle, Martin recalls Steven's earlier (failed) gunpowder bomb and uses a version to successfully destroy the siege tower. The stalemate is broken when the bubonic plague begins to spread among Steven's forces, infecting Captain Hawkwood and others. Trapped in the castle after the destruction of the siege tower, Steven is captured by the mercenaries and shackled in their courtyard. Though she still has feelings for Steven, Agnes joins in the torture and abuse of the captive and even makes love to Martin in his presence.
Using a new Arabic medical technique mentioned by Steven, Hawkwood is able to cure his plague. He has no forces to continue the siege and Steven is presumed lost anyway. Before leaving to get additional troops, Hawkwood flings pieces of a diseased dog into the castle via catapult. One chunk lands near the chained Steven, who flings it into the castle's water well, poisoning the water supply. Agnes observes this and Steven tells her to make her choice whether or not to tell the mercenaries.
Most of the mercenaries wish to leave the castle and flee with their loot, for fear of contracting the plague, but Martin convinces them to stay. The next day they meet for breakfast, and Agnes watches as one by one they drink the infected water. When Martin begins to drink, she slaps the cup from his hands. The other mercenaries soon begin dying of the plague. Furious at Martin, they beat him and hurl him into the well. As she did before with Steven, Agnes joins in with the mercenaries in taunting Martin and hurls a jug at him.
Soon after, as the mercenaries flee the castle, Hawkwood and Arnolfini, who has recovered from his wound, return with an army. Inside the castle, Martin escapes from the well with the help of Steven, whom he promises to release in exchange for his aid. However, on seeing the besieging army, Martin flees to the belfry, leaving Steven still chained. The castle is soon breached and a bitter but one-sided fight ensues.
Steven frees himself and as the final battle rages, he races to find Agnes. During the fighting, the wooden structure of the belfry catches alight. Before long all the remaining mercenaries, save for Martin, are dead. Hawkwood watches dispassionately as one by one, his former soldiers meet their end.
Martin confronts Agnes, who says that she still loves him. Maddened and convinced that she has been manipulating him all along, he seeks to murder her as he promised. Before he can, Steven attacks him. The cunning and hardened mercenary eventually overpowers Steven and has nearly succeeded in drowning him when Agnes strikes him over the head. Leaving the unconscious Martin to drown, she recovers Steven and they run to escape the blazing castle. Hawkwood finds them and leads the pair out. Martin is still alive but before he can confront them, a burning rafter falls from the ceiling, sealing him in. Just before the room collapses, we see Martin staring after Agnes with a look of loss and for the first time, sadness. Agnes is stricken by Martin's plight, and has to consciously resist an impulse to go to his side.
Agnes and Steven leave the burning castle along with Hawkwood and his army. We see the surviving camp followers of the mercenaries beginning their careers anew with the victors. The couple embrace but over Steven's shoulder, Agnes sees a figure, Martin, still alive and escaping from the castle, a sack of loot over his shoulder. She says nothing, allowing him to slip away unnoticed.
[edit] Cast
- Rutger Hauer as Martin, a mercenary.
- Jennifer Jason Leigh as Agnes, virgin daughter of an aristocrat.
- Tom Burlinson as Steven, learned son of Arnolfini.
- Jack Thompson as Hawkwood, a captain of mercenaries.
- Fernando Hilbeck as Arnolfini, feudal lord.
- Susan Tyrrell as Celine, a prostitute attached to Martin.
- Ronald Lacey as Cardinal, a visionary.
- Brion James as Karsthans, a mercenary.
- Bruno Kirby as Orbec, a mercenary.
- Nancy Cartwright as Kathleen, Agnes' lady.
[edit] Theatrical release
Though the film received a worldwide release in the summer of 1985 in the United States, Orion Pictures gave the film a limited theatrical release on August 16, 1985 in New York City and Los Angeles. By 1986, the film was being shown in the U.S. on HBO, a business partner of Orion Pictures.
[edit] Locations
It was shot in Spain, in Belmonte, Cuenca, Cáceres and Ávila.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
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