IRONCLAD: BATTLE FOR BLOOD – The Review

Directed by Jonathan English with Michelle Fairley, Roxanne McKee, Danny Webb.

IRONCLAD: BATTLE FOR BLOOD is a sequel to Ironclad which was released in 2011. I have not seen the first film but based on what is on view in Battle for Blood it would be worth seeking out. Ironclad: Battle for Blood is a different type of historical war movie. There are no fancy sword moves, no spell casting wizards or dragons running amok. What we have here is a serious version of the type of thing Monty Python used to do, especially in their movie about the Holy Grail, showing what life in the middle ages was really like. Dirty, dangerous, ignorant, short and brutish.

Opening titles tell us that in the 12th Century England had laid waste to Scotland and then withdrawn. Scottish clans raided estates and castles all over the northern part of England in retaliation.

We find a castle under siege by a Scottish clan, including some vicious female warriors. The Knight whose family owns the castle and estate, and who seems to be the only person for miles around who owns a suit of armor is grievously wounded in the first attack and in a horrifying scene has an arm amputated long before antiseptics or pain killers were invented.

The knight sends his youngest son, Hubert, very well played by Tom Rhys Harries, to find his cousin Guy (Tom Austen) a veteran of combat from the first film, to come home and help defend the family castle.

Hubert surprises us at every turn of events. He seems far too young to have such responsibility as to find help in defense of his home, to fight alongside whoever he brings back and to take up the title of the estate when his Father dies, which we know he most assuredly will given the lack of medical attention in those dark days. Tom Rhys Harries is a very accomplished actor, he deserves a long and interesting career, even though Hubert is not the central character, his cousin Guy is who we are meant to identify with, all our sympathy is with Hubert.

Battle for Blood almost becomes a new version of Seven Samurai. In addition to his cousin Guy, Hubert brings back to the family castle a professional headsman played by Andy Beckwith, who steals every scene he is in and brings much more to the character than we expect. Berenger played by David Caves also comes along as he feels he owes his life to Guy from a previous battle. And then they also bring back a crazy woman named…Crazy Mary! Crazy Mary is another astonishing performance in a movie filled with them. Twinnie Lee Moore brings to Crazy Mary a serious edge and a nervous energy and quite frankly is unrecognizable in the role. Watch the film and then do an internet search to see what she really looks like, incredible!

IRONCLAD: BATTLE FOR BLOOD has none of the ballet like movements of a Chinese or Japanese historical battle movie. There is no glamour or beauty in these fight scenes, this is down and dirty, fight for your very life combat. The swords are heavy and pitted and corroded and stained with blood, a lot of blood. Maces, axes, huge hammers, crow bars, in fact anything handy will do, although these people do not seem to have invented the bow and arrow yet.

No one in this film looks to have ever seen a bar of soap and creature comforts of any kind are few and far between.

In the fight scenes people have to be stabbed repeatedly, we do not see the Hollywood style of one stab wound and then you die combat. These people die in agony and keep fighting while their life bleeds away. There is not much humor here but there is an astonishing bit of jest, in a beheading! I am not kidding, someone loses his head and in his last moment of life…well, you would just have to see.

There are pitiful shots of combatants sitting or lying, badly wounded and weeping in agony. And none of this is exploitation, by no means. This is the historical reality; this is what went on in those days, all over the world really. You could be a farmer, a peasant, living peacefully anywhere in Europe or Asia Minor and suddenly be overrun by barbarians from almost anywhere and see your meager crops stolen, your women raped and murdered and then yourself tortured and killed. It happened all the time, all over the world. As Mark Twain said “history is ruled by gangs of thugs.”

And finally IRONCLAD: BATTLE FOR BLOOD is about much more than the fight scenes. Guy will come back to the castle and help defend it only if he is paid. This becomes a major issue with his cousin Kate played by Rosie Day. She rightly calls him out as a mercenary and it is his moral dilemma to choose what exactly he is fighting for.

The English are quite good at this sort of thing, there have been a series of historical battle films in the last few years, most of them quite good at recreating a long vanished way of life. The use of what appears to be a real castle, which I assumed was in Scotland, adds historical weight to the project. In the credits we find that this English production was filmed in Serbia, with a mostly Serbian crew. I’m still assuming the castle is real, if it was built by the film crew that is even more impressive.

IRONCLAD: BATTLE FOR BLOOD is an excellent historical epic. I recognized none of the actors, (and trust me I watch a lot of movies, why else would I be writing for We Are Movie Geeks?) but they are ALL impressive. Everyone involved with this project obviously believed in it and they are at the top of their form. But please be warned, this is not for the squeamish, the pain of death by blunt instrument or repeated stabbing is palpable and difficult to watch at times. Which tells me these film makers did their job, beautifully.

AVAILABLE ON VOD AND iTUNES: July 11, 2014
IN THEATERS: July 25, 2014