The late 15th century and early 16th century were an absolute peak in fortress building and siege engines. Inventors like Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci are better known as artists today, but they spent a good part of their lives designing fortresses, siege equipment and weapons. The siege engine in the film is certainly unusual, but within the realm of what was technically possible at the time. The unlikely factor, of course, is that ordinary soldiers in this mini-siege would have had the skills, tools and materials to carry out the plans.
I remember seeing this on VHS and loving it. The chaotic nature of the filming must have helped, because having rewatched it recently, it came across as really authentic. Rutger was great, and I think this was one of his best performances. This movie was gritty, down, and dirty, but fantastic nonetheless.
As for the comment on Selene being ready to go again after her giving birth i'm gonna say this. My great grandmother was picking olives with the whole village (this has the same importance as harvesting) when her water broke, she gave birth to a cave nearby, and by afternoon she was back at it and the baby was given to the village midwife to be taken care of. People in general were pretty hardcore, it's us that have gone soft.
That was a grim film, but better than I expected. One of the few that portrayed war realistically. You might like Soldier of Orange, but his other Verhoeven films -- not for most people.
Of course it's hard in an adventure film to crave historical accuracy, but I think looking at Martin's weapon we can conclude that his role in his Company was that of a double mercenary. These were seasoned veterans armed with two-handed swords and were in the forefront of their army. Due to their willingness fighting in very first line they were paid at least twice as much as a normal mercenary - often many times as much. The unit in which Martin fought was probably the “Lost Bunch” - this was the name given to a unit that was not typically in formation but fought freely and stood in battle in front of the closed ranks of his own pikemen and the enemy. As skirmishers, they should either provoke the enemy into rash attacks, circumvent them, or guard strategically important points such as bridges. The task was quite dangerous, hence the name “Lost Bunch”. When the actual battle begins, these units should fall back into the actual order of battle. Martin was probably less of a "leader" within his company by official rank, but comparatively like an unofficial NCO in today's times, he was certainly the person to contact when it came to implementing plans in battle - at least as far as his unit was directly concerned.
Omg! I’m the one who requested this on Patreon! Thank you 🙏😎 it piqued my curiosity when you mentioned it briefly in another video, and I went and watched it and it was wild.
Flesh+Blood may have its shortcomings but alone for Jennifer Jason Leigh's depiction of a strong, resilient female character this movie is worth watching and worth preserving. I see zero chance that anything realistic like that could be made today within the Hollywood-System and I wouldn't even expect it from independent filmmakers these days. I don't even want to imagine how Anges character would be portraied today.
As a Dutch person, I understand that for people who do not speak Dutch, Dutch is not the nicest language (although Dutch is the language after Frisian that is most closely related to English). I have this with films in which French is spoken and I had to take 2 years of French in high school. But as far as Soldier of Orange is concerned, I would like to advise you to get over that for once. It is probably the best film from Dutch soil with good actors and a fascinating story. It is a typical Dutch film of that time. Gross, and quite a bit of nudity. But afterwards you won't regret investing your time in this film.
I had heard from another channel that Gambino from Berserk (Guts' mercenary father figure) is based on Martin. A friend of mine in highschool introduced me to this movie on VHS, and to this day hardly anyone I know has heard of it. Love Rutger Hauer and Verhoven films. Much like Berserk, not for everyone, but worth checking out if you dig a dark medieval story, and a loaded cast of character actors from the time.
It has recently emerged that an icelander invented gunpowder in the 10th century , an image of Frederick vier finger (Freddy four fingers ) was used as lining for a manuscript ,during restoration it was discovered, tells how Freddy lost a finger when he made the discovery, the illustration shows a tube attached to a wooden staff carried by Frederick.
5:10 Whoah, watched this last month on Tubi, and I was thinking the whole time about Berserk. Hauer’s character here feels like both Guts and Griffith during their Band of the Hawk years.
Never watched this movie, It has a crazy history, also classic style of production with good practical effects, and filmed on location, it sure looks like it is worth watching
I haven't ever heard of this, and it's a Paul Verhoeven flick! I'm blown away, I'm gonna have to check it out thanks lads 👊. Also with the YT overlords cracking down we need a showgirls review ASAP! Just kidding brohams 😂👍
Verhoeven had a falling out with a friend on set - are you sure wasn't that the reason for the script change? The mandrake root thing is interesting because that reminds me how Odin used to get his magic power while not being female. In any case, every single person in this movie would be the most villainous villain in another story
Guns have been around since 15th century. It's also been said that the last man at the battle of Agincourt, was killed by a gunman. So pretty historical accurate. Great review guys!
I met my ex husband when I was 13, and this was one of the first movies we ever watched 😂. It holds a soft spot in my heart. But great review guys, I look forward to them every week!
Dude I looked everywhere for this movie! All I remembered when I was a kid was the guy impaling himself against the damn wall lol, that scene really stuck with me but could never find the film. Recently saw MacBeth thinking it was from that movie too lol... thanks guys 😂
For those who are interested just be aware, there are two different versions of this film. A censored r-rated cut. And then an NC-17 version. (It's Paul Verhoeven of course) I believe the kino lorber version is the uncensored version but it is out of print. So hopefully for those who have a region free Blu-ray player the next best thing is the German release. That one is uncensored, all you need to do is just change the audio to English. Surprisingly the Eureka version from the UK is the censored version.
I love when a production hell movie turns out great 😂 Shame we didn't get more of these two together...Imagining Rutger playing Murphy is crazy..but it could have been awesome. 😂
You can see what kentaro miura took from the movie, the camp, the hanging corpses 😳. I felt like when i saw griffith for the first time with uniform and took me back to winslow in phantom of the padarise
This movie is one of my favorite medieval period flicks. JJ Leigh gives a really good performance that feels very realistic. The Plague sub plot should have been taken out completely. It made me not care about anyone after that point. The movie would have been much better without it. The impossibly fast working plague plot was so absurdly unrealistic. We could have seen them siege the castle again and see each character fight.
I got this on VHS in a random job lot years ago and I loved it, it felt like a Warhammer Fantasy story to me, very grim, very dark and could be classed as low fantasy if they mentioned like one wizard or something.
It's a shame that you almost immediately mention that the Dutch films by Rutger Hauer and Paul Verhoeven aren't really that good. As a Dutchman, I obviously don't agree with that. You could say that the films are very "Dutch" for viewers from abroad. I would say that “Turkish Delight” is a really good film. And “Soldier of Orange” certainly paved the way for Paul Verhoeven's breakthrough into Hollywood. It did the same for Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé, for instance. “Soldier of Orange” definitely made an impression in the United States. “Floris” was an “Ivanhoe”-type television show for children. “Flesh and Blood” was actually a continuation of those scenarios by Gerard Soeteman, curiously enough. If you still want to watch the films, I would definitely recommend checking out “Turkish Delight”, “Soldier of Orange”, and “Spetters” because those are truly great films by Paul Verhoeven and actor Rutger Hauer. By the way, my favorite Dutch Paul Verhoeven film is “The Fourth Man”, in which Rutger Hauer doesn't appear, but it does feature Jeroen Krabbé. So, I would definitely recommend watching that film as well, with English subtitles, of course. Besides that, you always do a great job with the reviews, and I would say, keep up the good work. Greetings from Tim in the Netherlands.
Pay them no mind. Thats absolute nonsense. His dutch movies are fantastic. Turkish Delight and Spetters particularly. Fourth Man is also a straight masterpiece.
As much as I adore Rutger Hauer and P. Verhooven.I could never watch this film. It is falling apart in places,narration is insane,editing SUCKS, the score is way over the top and placed throughout the film randomly...
this is the most heavy metal milo manara style story telling to ever movie, heavy metal dont always have to be sci fi, its like the term "PUNK" but in a magazine form filled with graphic novels, go to hell zack snyder
Lads, you should check out another obscure Jennifer Jason-Leigh films, The Men's Club. It sports an all-star cast, including Roy Scheider, Harvey Keitel and Frank Langella. Jennifer portrays a high class prostitute. Anyhoo, the film was a hot mess. This was the epitome of having some of the best actors in a terribly written film. Though Jennifer was a delight! Cheers!
guys, don't start with the film music like that, i was in danger of just ending the video there and going back to watch the film again... with my attention span i'd never have made my way back here afterwards...
This Director is notorious for throwing an unnecessary sexual assault sequences into his movies and the way that the two guys doing this handled. It was abysmal… I’m unfollowing this channel and never listening to this crap again.
@@deraykrause4517 I noticed recently these type of comments attacking small channels, I don't want to sound conspiratorial - the guy could be just a random buffoon - but I do wonder.
I can see how Beserk was derived from this: band of the hawk , mercenaries hired to fight battles, Guts, etc.
The late 15th century and early 16th century were an absolute peak in fortress building and siege engines. Inventors like Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci are better known as artists today, but they spent a good part of their lives designing fortresses, siege equipment and weapons. The siege engine in the film is certainly unusual, but within the realm of what was technically possible at the time. The unlikely factor, of course, is that ordinary soldiers in this mini-siege would have had the skills, tools and materials to carry out the plans.
and if you look closely the interior extension parts of the ladder are clearly made of metal.
Rutger had an incredible 80s. Cult classics and Bonafide hits!
I remember seeing this on VHS and loving it. The chaotic nature of the filming must have helped, because having rewatched it recently, it came across as really authentic. Rutger was great, and I think this was one of his best performances. This movie was gritty, down, and dirty, but fantastic nonetheless.
As for the comment on Selene being ready to go again after her giving birth i'm gonna say this.
My great grandmother was picking olives with the whole village (this has the same importance as harvesting) when her water broke, she gave birth to a cave nearby, and by afternoon she was back at it and the baby was given to the village midwife to be taken care of.
People in general were pretty hardcore, it's us that have gone soft.
Damn! She cave birth to an entire cave??!!
That was a grim film, but better than I expected. One of the few that portrayed war realistically. You might like Soldier of Orange, but his other Verhoeven films -- not for most people.
Of course it's hard in an adventure film to crave historical accuracy, but I think looking at Martin's weapon we can conclude that his role in his Company was that of a double mercenary. These were seasoned veterans armed with two-handed swords and were in the forefront of their army. Due to their willingness fighting in very first line they were paid at least twice as much as a normal mercenary - often many times as much.
The unit in which Martin fought was probably the “Lost Bunch” - this was the name given to a unit that was not typically in formation but
fought freely and stood in battle in front of the closed ranks of his own pikemen and the enemy. As skirmishers, they should either provoke the enemy into rash attacks, circumvent them, or guard strategically important points such as bridges. The task was quite dangerous, hence the name “Lost Bunch”.
When the actual battle begins, these units should fall back into the actual order of battle.
Martin was probably less of a "leader" within his company by official rank, but comparatively like an unofficial NCO in today's times, he was certainly the person to contact when it came to implementing plans in battle - at least as far as his unit was directly concerned.
Omg! I’m the one who requested this on Patreon! Thank you 🙏😎 it piqued my curiosity when you mentioned it briefly in another video, and I went and watched it and it was wild.
15th century saw a variety of gunpowder based weapons being used.
Rutger Hauer , what an actor! A great review, again, guys! Thank you so much! 👍
Flesh+Blood may have its shortcomings but alone for Jennifer Jason Leigh's depiction of a strong, resilient female character this movie is worth watching and worth preserving. I see zero chance that anything realistic like that could be made today within the Hollywood-System and I wouldn't even expect it from independent filmmakers these days. I don't even want to imagine how Anges character would be portraied today.
As a Dutch person, I understand that for people who do not speak Dutch, Dutch is not the nicest language (although Dutch is the language after Frisian that is most closely related to English). I have this with films in which French is spoken and I had to take 2 years of French in high school. But as far as Soldier of Orange is concerned, I would like to advise you to get over that for once. It is probably the best film from Dutch soil with good actors and a fascinating story. It is a typical Dutch film of that time. Gross, and quite a bit of nudity. But afterwards you won't regret investing your time in this film.
Appreciate you guys! Great review as always! Keep up the great work!
Thanks again Skaro! Much appreciated, and thank you for the kind words
Nicholas Hawkswood was an English leader of a company of mercenaries operating in Italy .
This film's 39th anniversary is tomorrow. Great timing with the review.
Which is exact day as it was in 1985.
Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh....IN ......THE HITCHER Together again.................I love both of them movies...................
The drummer boy was played by Jake Wood, Max from EastEnders.
I had heard from another channel that Gambino from Berserk (Guts' mercenary father figure) is based on Martin. A friend of mine in highschool introduced me to this movie on VHS, and to this day hardly anyone I know has heard of it. Love Rutger Hauer and Verhoven films. Much like Berserk, not for everyone, but worth checking out if you dig a dark medieval story, and a loaded cast of character actors from the time.
It has recently emerged that an icelander invented gunpowder in the 10th century , an image of Frederick vier finger (Freddy four fingers ) was used as lining for a manuscript ,during restoration it was discovered, tells how Freddy lost a finger when he made the discovery, the illustration shows a tube attached to a wooden staff carried by Frederick.
5:10 Whoah, watched this last month on Tubi, and I was thinking the whole time about Berserk. Hauer’s character here feels like both Guts and Griffith during their Band of the Hawk years.
This definitely partly inspired Berserk
Never watched this movie, It has a crazy history, also classic style of production with good practical effects, and filmed on location, it sure looks like it is worth watching
I’ve heard of it and saw it yrs ago. Rutger Hauer was a fantastic actor RIP 🤍
I haven't ever heard of this, and it's a Paul Verhoeven flick! I'm blown away, I'm gonna have to check it out thanks lads 👊. Also with the YT overlords cracking down we need a showgirls review ASAP! Just kidding brohams 😂👍
Verhoeven had a falling out with a friend on set - are you sure wasn't that the reason for the script change?
The mandrake root thing is interesting because that reminds me how Odin used to get his magic power while not being female.
In any case, every single person in this movie would be the most villainous villain in another story
Yes!!!! One of the most fantastic medieval/fantasy movies of the 80's.
Guns have been around since 15th century. It's also been said that the last man at the battle of Agincourt, was killed by a gunman. So pretty historical accurate. Great review guys!
Makes me wish Rutger Hauer played more villains.
Imagine this being the first live action anime if this and Bezerk were switched.
All the other girls at camp and Martin has to mess with Stacey?!
I met my ex husband when I was 13, and this was one of the first movies we ever watched 😂. It holds a soft spot in my heart. But great review guys, I look forward to them every week!
This movie rules. Rutger Hauer is a fookin legend!
Dude I looked everywhere for this movie! All I remembered when I was a kid was the guy impaling himself against the damn wall lol, that scene really stuck with me but could never find the film. Recently saw MacBeth thinking it was from that movie too lol... thanks guys 😂
For those who are interested just be aware, there are two different versions of this film. A censored r-rated cut. And then an NC-17 version. (It's Paul Verhoeven of course) I believe the kino lorber version is the uncensored version but it is out of print. So hopefully for those who have a region free Blu-ray player the next best thing is the German release. That one is uncensored, all you need to do is just change the audio to English. Surprisingly the Eureka version from the UK is the censored version.
I kept expecting Ronald Lacey to shout “Your bottom will wish it had never been born!”
I should give this film another go but it was a bit much.
"I'm too old for this game !" Jack Thompson beat Danny Glover's immortal line by 2 years ! Also, amazing movie, very realistic !
I love when a production hell movie turns out great 😂
Shame we didn't get more of these two together...Imagining Rutger playing Murphy is crazy..but it could have been awesome. 😂
Yes they did have guns in the 16th century very rare and expensive to have one at the time though so that’s why you see only two
You can see what kentaro miura took from the movie, the camp, the hanging corpses 😳. I felt like when i saw griffith for the first time with uniform and took me back to winslow in phantom of the padarise
Always love the OCP shirt
Rutger Hauer never got the fame he deserved! He was a great actor that deserved to be a bigger name!
This movie is one of my favorite medieval period flicks. JJ Leigh gives a really good performance that feels very realistic. The Plague sub plot should have been taken out completely. It made me not care about anyone after that point. The movie would have been much better without it. The impossibly fast working plague plot was so absurdly unrealistic. We could have seen them siege the castle again and see each character fight.
Thanks for the hard work boys
One of my favorite animes were influenced!? THAT IS AWESOME!!! Great review guys!
I got this on VHS in a random job lot years ago and I loved it, it felt like a Warhammer Fantasy story to me, very grim, very dark and could be classed as low fantasy if they mentioned like one wizard or something.
To think Verhoevern made Robocop as his next film, he was just warming up! 😁
Someone gave me this on VHS back in school saying it was a 'dirty' movie.. I was a bit scarred after watching it age 12 😮
If you like obscure films check out Village of the giants. This always stuck with me as a kid.
shelf life! ❤
I loved this film. Always have
I loved this movie when it came out 🙈
It's a shame that you almost immediately mention that the Dutch films by Rutger Hauer and Paul Verhoeven aren't really that good. As a Dutchman, I obviously don't agree with that. You could say that the films are very "Dutch" for viewers from abroad. I would say that “Turkish Delight” is a really good film. And “Soldier of Orange” certainly paved the way for Paul Verhoeven's breakthrough into Hollywood. It did the same for Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé, for instance. “Soldier of Orange” definitely made an impression in the United States. “Floris” was an “Ivanhoe”-type television show for children. “Flesh and Blood” was actually a continuation of those scenarios by Gerard Soeteman, curiously enough.
If you still want to watch the films, I would definitely recommend checking out “Turkish Delight”, “Soldier of Orange”, and “Spetters” because those are truly great films by Paul Verhoeven and actor Rutger Hauer. By the way, my favorite Dutch Paul Verhoeven film is “The Fourth Man”, in which Rutger Hauer doesn't appear, but it does feature Jeroen Krabbé. So, I would definitely recommend watching that film as well, with English subtitles, of course.
Besides that, you always do a great job with the reviews, and I would say, keep up the good work. Greetings from Tim in the Netherlands.
Pay them no mind. Thats absolute nonsense. His dutch movies are fantastic. Turkish Delight and Spetters particularly. Fourth Man is also a straight masterpiece.
Iain always presents his opinions as facts, just ignore it.
15:27 true, just ask David Carradine.
How is 15th Century Medeival Europe "dated"?
berserk makes game of thrones look like harry potter
Any Berserk fans?
As much as I adore Rutger Hauer and P. Verhooven.I could never watch this film. It is falling apart in places,narration is insane,editing SUCKS, the score is way over the top and placed throughout the film randomly...
this is the most heavy metal milo manara style story telling to ever movie, heavy metal dont always have to be sci fi, its like the term "PUNK" but in a magazine form filled with graphic novels, go to hell zack snyder
The 97/98 Berserk series still remains the best version. I can't recommend the trilogy that started in 2012, the animation is jarring.
Lads, you should check out another obscure Jennifer Jason-Leigh films, The Men's Club. It sports an all-star cast, including Roy Scheider, Harvey Keitel and Frank Langella. Jennifer portrays a high class prostitute.
Anyhoo, the film was a hot mess. This was the epitome of having some of the best actors in a terribly written film.
Though Jennifer was a delight!
Cheers!
guns had been around for about two hunderd years at the time.
guys, don't start with the film music like that, i was in danger of just ending the video there and going back to watch the film again... with my attention span i'd never have made my way back here afterwards...
lads, when is the Romulus reaction video coming?!
Think they reacted on a recent podcast.
@@HerneHunter Cheers, I see the lad's views on it were as negative as mine!
This Director is notorious for throwing an unnecessary sexual assault sequences into his movies and the way that the two guys doing this handled. It was abysmal… I’m unfollowing this channel and never listening to this crap again.
Oh no, that's terrible, oh no.
@@deraykrause4517 I noticed recently these type of comments attacking small channels, I don't want to sound conspiratorial - the guy could be just a random buffoon - but I do wonder.
I guess thats the door. I hope you are happy amongst your puritan friends.