Shadow of the Sword DVD reviewAustria, the 1500’s. The work of Martin Luther and the ensuing Protestant Reformation are about to sweep across continental Europe, but Roman Catholicism still holds the medieval world in thrall. Two brothers, abandoned as infants and raised by the church grow up to very different vocations. Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) becomes a soldier in the Emperor’s army, while the more timid and mild-mannered Georg (Peter McDonald) trains to become a priest. Martin marries the executioner’s daughter, but as she is an “untouchable” the church will not sanction it and so he is helped by a minister of the newly-founded Anabaptist sect.

That sect is increasingly seen as a heretical threat to the Catholic Church and along with the machinations of the envious and vile Fabio (Eddie Marsan) who had his eyes on the executioner’s daughter as well, Georg and Martin soon find themselves on opposing sides of a hateful and destructive campaign by the church to purge their town of anything perceived as heretical.

*****

There is a place for an interesting, considered, thought-provoking film about this turbulent time in European and Christian history. New denominations and new interpretations of the Bible were arising, the political power of the Catholic church was being threatened and the unspeakably violent and corrupt backlash left scars across Europe that endure to this day. Sadly, this is not that film. It is by no means a cheap or lazy film, but does amount to a terribly mis-handled opportunity to say something worthwhile and relatively new about a turbulent and significant time in history.

Too often, the important historical context is lost amidst the hysterical decrying of witches, heretics and whores. The unfortunate Anabaptists are a significant presence in terms of screen time, but their place in history is obfuscated by a script that refuses to explain what they believed and why this put them at odds with the Catholic church. The power, corruption and hypocrisy of the town council and Catholic priests is portrayed, but generally in such one-dimensional, pantomimic terms as to rob those sequences of any real power. Strapping someone to a chair and ripping their tongue out with a big pair of pliers may have really happened, but when it is orchestrated by a black-clad Steven Berkoff, seemingly intent on hamming it up to 11, it tends to cause audience disengagement.

Aside from Berkoff, the rest of the characters are thinly sketched. Backgrounds are presented, but only superficially so. Martin and Georg taking their different paths and Georg experiencing inner conflict over his childhood friendship versus his loyalty to the church could have given us some dramatic meat, but there is too little dramatic weight to the conversations, too little from the script or performances to help us feel the import of what is unfolding. What could have been presented as something akin to Ben-Hur vs Messala instead feels thin and lightweight, despite a passing attempt very late on at moving Georg’s inner turmoil front and centre.

Although the story deserves relatively broad scope telling, there is neither the budget nor the talent to do it justice and so what is already a relatively modest running time feels long and dragging. A really disappointing mess. You can rent it here now.

[Rating:1.5/5]

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYbp04muxYI’]

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Dave has been writing for HeyUGuys since mid-2010 and has found them to be the most intelligent, friendly, erudite and insightful bunch of film fans you could hope to work with. He's gone from ham-fisted attempts at writing the news to interviewing Lawrence Bender, Renny Harlin and Julian Glover, to writing articles about things he loves that people have actually read. He has fairly broad tastes as far as films are concerned, though given the choice he's likely to go for Con Air over Battleship Potemkin most days. He's pretty sure that 2001: A Space Odyssey is the most overrated mess in cinematic history.