Ironclad Writer/Director: Jonathan English
It is the year 1215 and the rebel barons of England have forced their despised King John to put his royal seal to the Magna Carta in a meadow at Runnymede in Surry. A noble, seminal document that upheld the rights of free-men. Yet within months of pledging himself to the great charter, the King reneged on his word and assembled a mercenary army on the south coast of England with the intention of bringing the barons and the country back under his tyrannical rule. Barring his way stood the mighty Rochester castle, a place that would become the symbol of the rebel's momentous struggle for justice and freedom.
If you want hide from the heat for a couple of hour and not tax your brain then this is the movie for you. This is not the King John that Claude Rains depicted in Robin Hood, clad in silks and bright colors with hair coifed perfect. This is a King John played by Paul Giamatti in war worn robes and muddy feet with a taste for cruel bloodshed. A man fighting for his birthright, the” God given right to be king”. To bring civil war again in his kingdom he lures mercenary to his shores. Their leader carries a man size doubleheaded war ax; I knew we were in for a bit of mayhem when I saw that.
This gore-fest starts off slow with a hanging and tongue cut out. We meet Archbishop Langton (Charles Dance who seems to be taking the place of David Warner as institutional bad guy in a lot of places lately) commanding Lord Albany (Brian Cox) to gather his forces with the help of the “newly back from the crusades, knight Templar warrior monk” Marshell (James Purefoy) who carries a broad sword . Keeping count one big ax and a man size broad sword to wet our appetite of things to come.
The quest for our rebel heroes is not unlike the recruiting in “magnificent seven”. We round up bad guys with good hearts who will fight and die for Lord Albany. Upon arriving at Rochester Castle we find Cornhill (Derek Jacobi) constable of Rochester with his wife Lady Isabel (Kate Mare). Now we are set up for the bloodshed by the bucket full. A little love story between assaults on the castle, once Lady Isabel touches Marshell’s big sword there is no stopping the two of them.
A rational idea for the slaughterous story, history. A group of accomplished actors, fine period sets and dressings, a working trebuchet, always cool. Writer/Director Jonathan English has made a movie that is preferable to a TV movie thanks to the actors who make up what the script lacks with voluminous amounts of hacking, stabbing, slaughter and chopping carnage. It is controlled chaos, as war is expect nothing more.
So “Cry havoc* and let slip the dogs of war” for a few hours at least.
*The military order Havoc! Was a signal given to the English military forces in the middle ages to direct soldiery to pillage and chaos.
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