Contain's SPOILERS so beware....
Now I have to admit, I really do not like historical epics, films about men in castles and knights. I dislike Gladiator, Kingdom Of Heaven, Troy, BraveHeart et...But I recently sat down and watched the film IRONCLAD. One thing that intrigued me after reading the plot synopsis on the back of the case was that it said 'A medieval Magnificent Seven' and being a big fan of that film I decided i'd take a look at it, Sure you aint gonna get Steve McQueen and Yul Bryner shooting shit up but but damn it i'll give this film a blast....And I'm Glad I did. The film follows Templar knight Marshal, recently returned from the crusades who has hung up his sword and taken a vow of silence. He is forced to reclaim his blade when his entire group are slaughtered and is asked by the church to secure Rochester castle from the evil King John who has gone against the magna carte and decided with the blessing of the pope to take back his country, the only thing standing in his way is Rochester Castle, under the control of the Archbishops and being guarded by Marshal and his gang of 6 more 'bandits'. With the assistance of the Danish, King John bombards the castle with everything from fire balls, full on attacks and catapults but the seven, along with castle's garrison hold out and manage to push them back until a dawn attack forces them to retreat into the castle keep where they face off against the attacking Danes and the king of England and hope to survive until the French arrive to help them..
There's a sort of pride in me for this film as it was filmed entirely in Wales, and that's where I hail from, in fact it was filmed only 14 miles from me. It was filmed at Dragon Studios, the large film
production complex being built in Wales and had a budget of $125mil so it wasn't a low budget film. So here we have a film, based on British history, although partially fictitious due artistic licence for story reasons, made in my country, a small place compared to most with a first rate cast and some brutal violence, man was this film fucking violent, how it passed for a 15 I have no idea, IRONCLAD is one of the most hardcore historical epic's I have ever seen, limbs, blood and blades flying everywhere. It was a brutal watch, not that it was bad and difficult to sit through, quite the opposite, it was brutal in it's depiction of violence. You had, axe' being swung in to arms, heads and bodies, knives slicing and dicing people, a man getting slices in two down the middile and James Purefoy's huge Templar blade causing a lot of damage as it ripped people apart, and poor old Brian Cox, no man should ever have to face what he faced...
But enough with the violence for now, I shall return to the blood guts and chaos shortly. Let's look at the cast.
James Purefoy, an underrated actor if ever there was on, plays the lead, Thomas Marshal, the templar knight, a god given killing machine, given his licence to kill by the church, who although mostly plays the silent type of killer, all dark and brooding also brings a lot of heart to his character, the shit this guy has had to do, the death he's witnessed and the vow to god he has taken all come across as emotional baggage for the tortured individual and Purefoy plays this very well, he should have been bigger, a sort of Hugh Jackman like actor, but he never reached that which is a shame because he could be an exceptional action hero.
Brian Cox, in his 700th film in 5 years appears as baron Albany, the man who leads the seven who does so in the name of the rebellion against King John. As usual Cox is on the money, a great actor, not exactly versatile but always great to see, although with Cox, every time I see him I can't help but remember his intro scene in Long kiss Good Night, watching a dog lick it's own ass, but that's just how my movie mind works. He unfortunately suffers the most horrific death at the hands King John, it really is disturbing.
Derek Jacobi, that most English of Thespians, and a man not unfamiliar with working in a medieval setting (he starred in Cadfael), plays the man of the manor Cornhill, a feeble, if that's the right word, man and as usual, the Brits show everone else the art of action dear, great as always but if you really want to see a full on Jacobi performance, check out his 1976 TV show I, Claudius. Truly remarkable.
Then we have Kate Mara, I knew the name and the face but could not work out where the hell i'd seen her before, so I IMDB'd her and realised where I knew her from, god awful superhero kids movie Zoom, starring Tim Allen, I told you my mind works weirdly. Anywho, she plays the wife of Derek Jacobi, obviously it was forced marriage, who finds a way of breaking Marshal's vow and allowing him to have a taste of what it's actually like to be human and not just a killing machine. She's ok, nothing to right home about. I think the character should have been written as a stronger female but in a film full of battle hardened men it's always good to have a little less testosterone in the film, she's quite fit too.
The most interesting casting choice is that of Paul Giamatti as King John, an exceptional actor in anyone's book, here playing a tyrant with a slightly dodgy british accent, but none the less a powerful performance. His diatribe about being king to Brian Cox is, emotional. Raw and very powerful. I like Giamatti, he chooses random films to be in, Shoot 'Em Up, Cinderella Man, Big Fat Liar and he's not averse to starring in indie pictures either, so apart from his slightly dodgy accent, which is still far better and more convincing that Russell Crowe's Robin Hood accent, Paul Giamatti is very very good as King John.
The rest of the cast is made up of well know British actors, McKenzie Crook plays the archer called Marks, Jamie Foreman plays the illiterate Coteral, Charles Dance pops up as Arch bishop Langdon and a british film wouldn't be complete with out Jason Flemyng popping up either, Flemyng is great fun to watch everytime.
Jonathan English's direction is good, although it suffer from the usual 'Chaos Camera' where the action is shot hand held and at times it's a little dificult to make out what is happening, but you get used to it after a while, but he made Wales look brilliant, the rolling hills, the rivers and the castle all look brilliant. So I have no complaints there, what I did find a little off putting was the use of CG for some of the background images such as buildings, unfortunately they were a little obvious and it looked as if they were trying to mask the fact it was CG by putting glaring sun over the buildings, it was quite annoying at times but back at the castle, it was back to normality.
So to end my review, what was my final verdict on IRONCLAD?
A well made, fast paced action film set in the 1215AD with some good performances and some of the most brutally violent action scenes i've seen in a long time. I really do recommend this film.
It doesn't last three hours, it's a straight story about a group of men who have to hold a castle and I enjoyed it very much. So if you want to see a violent, action packed medieval action film shot in a beautiful country, Wales, then you can't go wrong with this film....
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