No one said it's easy wearing the crown. Especially when uppity types want to strip you of your magical powers. How cheeky. Using a narrative which tracks historical events, the creation of the Magna Carta, the movie chronicles the last stand of a group of defenders at the Alamo, oh, excuse me, Rochester castle. The hordes come in, the hordes go out. The defenders, whittled down, one by one, suffer horrible fates. BTW, the director on this one, limited because of the overwhelming surfeit of men, decided to achieve cathartic effect through the use of violence instead of sex. As the defenders are reduced, there is a hint of questioning of the themes of violence in the name of god. Giamatti is quite satisfying as King John and the key figure of the knight portrays a relatively redeeming degree of torture in the face of temptation and the horrors of war. All in all, you can see the origins, or in a classic case of movie time reversal, the borrowings from the Western genre, with a few modifications, evident in the narrative. I found it satisfying, genuine, with historic authenticity thrown in for added grit. Who knew that pig fat, exhibited in a scene of unspeakable brutality, was used to undermine castle walls because it burned hotter than anything else? Poor pigs. Where's the SPCA when you need 'em?
Review of Ironclad
