[Randall Moffett]

So I was told about this movie, Ironclad, which soon will be released and was surprised I did not remember anything about it here on myArmoury.

Here is the trailer-

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/ironclad/early-trailer

Thought some might find it interesting. Wish movie makers would drop the funny stud decorated leather armour, leather aketons and general odd costuming.

Plot seems interesting but really cannot find much else out about it.

RPM

[T. Hamilton]

Looks really historically accurate! Must be a Ridley Scott film! Of course, I'm so starved for anything in that genre, I'll probly rent it anyway!

[Glennan Carnie]

Steve Stratton made the bows; so at least they're good!

I think James Purefoy is overcompensating with that sword, though!

[Randall Moffett]

It is not Ridley film (which may be a good thing). Good to know at least the bows are good.... Hope Steve had fun making them all. Looks to be a great deal of them in the trailer.

RPM

[Jojo Zerach]

Is it like a crusader film?

[Joshua R]

The blip of text on the trailer before you start it says that it's about a group of Templars holding a castle against "the tyrannical" King John.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Probably very very loosely historical if at all but if the story is good, why not ? As long as one approaches it as " pseudo history " or alternate universe history one avoids a lot of frustration and one can enjoy it with a bit of turning a blind eye to minor nonsense.

Armour looks tend to be mostly costume designer fantasies combined with lack of expertise, caring little about period authenticity, what the designers think looks cool and " gritty/dirty " and budget considerations.

Fight scenes might be good " stage fighting " anything based on real technique would be a bonus and maybe some HEMA /longsword knowledge might be getting to some fight coordinators and they might include some that look cool if done in an exaggerated way that the general public might be able to appreciate: Real stuff at real speeds might not be understandable to the uneducated eye. But sometimes I think this is underestimating the public as usual and that a fast effective technique might be "short " but impressive in it's efficient lethality i.e. long and stupid sword fights lasting multiple minutes as normal movie fare because it is thought to create tension and drama but at time a quick end of a fight could really make a character be perceived as very very dangerous ( could be the good guy or the bad guy ). Once this character's competence has been established a much longer fight would be more impressive since then the level of difficulty of fighting against this character would add to the drama of a final long drawn fight if the fight is clever.

[Adam D. Kent-Isaac]

I'm notoriously hard to please when it comes to movies. Big-budget action movies almost uniformly turn me off. Anything with choir music accompanying overhead shots of battles in the trailer is generally a tip-off to me that I'm not going to like it. After watching films like Cromwell and Barry Lyndon where the only battlefield music comes from the pipes and drums marching into battle, any movie with an overwrought orchestral score and bombastic choir music swells accompanying melee combat seems horrendously fake and cheezy to me. Non-period or made-up armour and costumes look as silly to me as a movie about the American Revolution with troops wearing camo fatigues would. So...probably won't be watching this one.

When a medieval movie comes out that the members of this forum praise unanimously, then I'll watch it!

[Sam Gordon Campbell]

Hey Adam, try a film called 'Arn', it's Danish I think and seemed to recieve pretty good reviews.
Oh, and for something more old-school, try 'The Seventh Seal'.
Just my opinion.

[Dave Leppo]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233301/

IMDb link, for what it's worth

[A. Spanjer]

When I saw this title, I thought it would be about the 1860s era ironclad warships.

Oh, well...


Anyway, as far as historical accuracy goes, did anyone notice the double-bladed axe?

[Jean Thibodeau]

[David Sutton]

[Hisham Gaballa]

Anything with James Purefoy and Paul Giamatti in it can't be too bad, I hope.

On subject of films with a vaguely historical setting, has anyone seen "Black Death" yet?

[Tom Speight]

I know this is a necro-post, since the thread went to sleep in 2010, but I just watched the film. It wasn't bad-- the centerpiece of the plot was the siege of Rochester Castle in Kent by King John's army during the war fought after he repudiated the Magna Carta.

There's a few oddities and anachronisms in it-- e.g. John's army is composed of Danes fighting for him in exchange for the Pope (who backed John) ceasing to send missionaries to Denmark--at this point, Denmark had been Christian for what, 200 years?

Lots of gore. More than Braveheart. This is not a family-friendly movie.

Paul Giamatti and Brian Cox did very well as King John and Baron Albany, respectively (as if we should expect anything else), and most of the supporting cast (Jason Flemyng, Jamie Foreman, Derek Jacobi, Aneurin Barnard) did pretty well too. I have to admit I wondered about the two-handed greatsword that Purefoy's character was toting around, but this isn't really my home period.

It was fun to play spot-the-weapon- I saw a fair bit of stuff used that I've seen here and on other forums, including a lot of close-ups of knives and daggers, and one character was making bits fly off of people with a Maciejowski chopper. The variety of axes was really interesting, and the overall level of realism in most of the weapons was pretty good. They did what looked to be a very good job of recreating the castle (as well they should-- it still exists, after all). We get to see trebuchets, scaling ladders, siege towers, and a sapper's mine.

The Danes weren't as well done as the English-- a little too much Viking and Road Warrior there, with a lot of Generic Leather Armor. Vladimir Kulich (the guy from The 13th Warrior) plays a Danish leader rather improbably named Tiberius.... and essentially repeats his previous role pose for pose and grunt for grunt.

[Thomas Peters]

Has anyone seen the movie "The Seven Samurai". It is a Japanese movie that was made in 1954 and takes place in the year 1587. America did a remake of it called the Magnificent Seven. If you are not familiar with The Seven Samurai, watch it and then watch Ironclad and you will find it is nothing more than a remake of The Seven Samurai with a different story line.
Not a bad movie though it you like this type of film.

[D. Phillip Caron]

I own a copy of "Ironclad". There are no Hollywood "Pretty Boys" in it which makes it sort of a B movie. I enjoy a good yarn so total accuracy is not an issue. A Templar, about to be outcast, with one baron and 19 men at arms types are holding this castle against the Bad King John. A number of different weapons are spotlighted to include a two-handed something or other. That is a handsome sequence fairly early on in the defence. It does have blue painted Danes in it, and other Hollywood history additives. But then Hollywood does not write history. It is fun and well worth while to watch. However, we will all have out favorite elements to hate. All in all, a good yarn. It is in Redbox now. amd for sale at Wamart, $15.00. Enjoy.

[D. Phillip Caron]

Mister Peters, since "Magnificent Seven" every movie with a handful of fighters and a peasant is a remake of "Seven Samari" in some form or fashion. That's where suspention of belief, or disbelief comes in..