Title: Ironclad (15)
Year: 2011
Running Time: 116 minutes
Director: Jonathan English
Cast: James Purefoy (Thomas Marshal), Brian Cox (Baron William D'Aubigny), Paul Giamatti (King John)
Notes: None
Rating: 9
Thoughts: A group of Knights help defend an isolated castle from the despotic King John and his army, and they are prepared to fight to the last.
It's a nice simple premise and it is historically accurate that King John did sometimes take the fight to his Barons. So far so good.
In fact, the castle under attack is Rochester, again that really happened, post Magna Carta.
Of course, we need a story so instead of surrendering through starvation, the garrison in the film is supplemented by Knights and fights back. So King John takes their Knights and raises them with a band of Viking mercenaries.
It's a film so some poetic licence is allowed but this is a large twist in the history that aficionados might not be comfortable with. Fortunately, they more than make up for it.
The cast has depth (including Derek Jacobi, Charles Dance and Jason Flemyng) and the acting is excellent. There is genuine threat to the story as one by one the heroes begin to drop.
In addition the fighting is excellent. It's gory, brutal, and realistic. In one scene a male is cleaved in half. In another the Baron is dismembered. Slowly.
So suspending the history for a while is worth it as the payoff is great. The brooding Marshal, the crazed King and the resolute warriors, all come to life and this ends up being one of the better quasi-historical films.
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