In the year 1215, the rebel barons of England have forced their despised King John to put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, a 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.
Similar titles
You May Also Like
Reviews
I love this movie so much
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
The point of this movie was to show some great battle scenes. It worked a lot like those cliché samurai films, only it was worse because of: shaky cameras, sped up motion in fight scenes, and bad eastern sounding music soundtrack.About the clichés: there is a team of mercenaries, a quiet and reserved hero, because his past weights so hard upon him, a young idealist, and a keep to defend. The theme has been done to death and I would suggest the Seven Samurai for a definitive treatment. Kurosawa's samurai have personalities, too.There is another crime this movie commits. They cast Paul Giamatti as King John and don't let him have his way with the character. This could have been an awesome medieval comedy.
A king's birthright is met at the hands of the common people; clashes with the church are rampant, but eventually there can only be one victor – the church forces the king to sign a basic charter to grant human rights to all and limit his power. This same king walks into one of his castles (probably privy to what was going on) and demands all of the secrets out for all to hear – four knight templars and a priest are on a journey delivering articles of faith. The king knows better, but that is not why he is here – the local baron was forced into signing a character against his will, so the king has a proper punishment for him – hanging, but not before having the priest's tongue cut off. This one political event stirs the country men and many others into taking over Fort Rochester, which controls the land as far as can be seen. The rest of the movie is less plot, less interrogation and insults and more action and disembowling. Anyone that isn't wise to stay out of the bloodshed will probably lose a limb, or worse have their body split in two or some such fate. Regular removal of appendages is the norm here, and in a strange twist of fate, one guy uses another's severed arm as a weapon.Do I recommend the movie? If you like the Godfather, then yes. Slow paced misery, extreme violence, and a patient overlord that wants nothing more than to ruthlessly defend his turf, are about the only thing this movie has going for it.
Do not watch this movie if you have epilepsie. Most of the scenes are done with a very shaky camera, I think that the cameraman suffered from several epilepsie attacks during the filming but somehow the director did not want to change the crew. It was really so bad that after 30 minutes i could not watch another second. Battle is like this: shaking shaking, a guy, shaking shaking, a wall behind the guy, guess he's in a castle, shaking shaking, stuff is happening and I'm feeling sick, shaking shaking, you see some short shots of blood and limbs and you hear screams, shaking shaking, more screams and a short sense that you think you saw a guy moving around and attacking another guy, more shaking.thats where i stopped watching this movie. I don't know why people decided a shaking camera is good for any movie all it does is make me sick. If you like to be sick and may want to induce a ceisure then watch this movie.BTW no storyline just screams and shaking camera, so thats why i activated spoiler alert, because thats the whole story
Definitely an underrated film. While some of the CGI was lacking, it is an extremely entertaining watch. Mainly because of the intense yet well choreographed battle scenes that don't hold back. The cast is very the cast are all very well suited to their roles, and this cast actually has several actors that starred in this movie then subsequently became stars, like Kate Mara and James Purefoy. Of almost any medieval war films I've seen, "Ironclad" truly presents the terror and brutality of hand-to-hand combat. combined with an extremely underrated and entertaining cast including Paul Giamati, Jason Flemyng and James Purefoy, this movie is definitely a hidden Gem!
Top Streaming Movies
