Flesh & Blood (film)

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Flesh & Blood

Directed by	Paul Verhoeven
Produced by	Gijs Versluys
Written by	Gerard Soeteman Paul Verhoeven
Starring	Rutger Hauer Jennifer Jason Leigh Tom Burlinson Ronald Lacey Susan Tyrrell Jack Thompson
Music by	Basil Poledouris
Cinematography	Jan de Bont
Editing by	Ine Schenkkan
Release date(s)	August 30, 1985 [1]
Running time	126 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Flesh & Blood (1985) is a film directed by Paul Verhoeven. The film is set in 1501 in Europe, and the title is an allusion to "Sex & Violence", the main themes. A group of mercenaries is followed as they battle, loot, rape and party.

The script is partly based on unused material for the Dutch TV series Floris, which was the debut for Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven and Rutger Hauer.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Cast
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film begins in 1501, where an unnamed city in Western Europe is under attack by a mercenary army. The mercenaries were hired by the city's former ruler, Arnolfini (Fernando Hilbeck), to reinstate him. To encourage them during the next attack, Arnolfini grants them 24 hours to take any spoils they can find within its walls. The plan works, but backfires when the men begin stripping the city bare.

Arnolfini turns to the mercencary captain, Hawkwood (Jack Thompson), to stop his men's rampant pillaging. Hawkwood is indifferent to Arnolfini's demands. Captain Hawkwood had injured a nun during the attack and feared her death would lead to his damnation in the afterlife, so Arnolfini promises to get medical attention for her if Hawkwood will rein in his men. Hawkwood reluctantly agrees, even turning on Martin (Rutger Hauer), his friend and second-in-command. Hawkwood personally helps to drive the drunken revellers from the city at the point of a cannon. The mercenaries are in no shape to resist and are ejected without food, weapons, or shelter. Later, Martin's son is stillborn to one of the camp followers (prostitutes). Martin decides to bury the infant, but in doing so unearths a statue of Saint Martin. The mercenaries' chaplain takes this as a sign from God that they should all follow Martin as their new leader. Desperate, the mercenaries soon leave to seek revenge and better fortunes.

Meanwhile, Arnolfini's son, Steven (Tom Burlinson), is betrothed to Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a young woman he has never met. Steven is an intellectual who prefers working on his inventions to romance or politics and has misgivings about the arranged marriage, but Agnes wins him over once they finally meet. Agnes is manipulative, but also appears to have genuine feelings for Steven. Their entourage is later attacked and robbed by Martin's mercenaries who have returned for their revenge. Arnolfini is critically injured in the attack, and Agnes hides so the mercenaries will not find her. She is later taken away, along with all the caravan's other valuables, without their knowledge. It is now up to young Steven to get Agnes back without the more experienced leadership of his ruthless father, who is barely even conscious.

Martin discovers Agnes later that evening as they begin to strip the caravan of all its valuables. She begs him not to tell the others, but she is discovered anyway while pleading with Martin. The men attempt to gang rape Agnes, but Martin (as their new leader) decides to take her for himself. She soon begins to have feelings for Martin as well as for Steven, and even helps the mercenaries sneak into a castle and take it for their own. Now, the balance of power begins to shift in their favor.

Steven, though well educated, is not an experienced commander and has only a small group of soldiers at his disposal. He desperately turns to Hawkwood for guidance, but discovers that Hawkwood only wants to lead a quiet life married to the former nun he had injured. Steven is forced to blackmail Hawkwood by threatening to have the nun — now mentally impaired by her injury — locked away, proving that he can be as ruthless as his father when necessary. Steven then pursues Martin with Hawkwood's help.

While Steven's small army pursues the mercenaries, Martin becomes obsessed with the beautiful Agnes, even threatening to kill her before he would ever allow her to leave him. He also frustrates the other mercenaries with his increasingly elitist behavior and his obvious feelings (and favoritism) toward Agnes.

Steven discovers Martin's whereabouts, but his forces are insufficient to lay a proper siege. When Steven uses one of his inventions in an attempt to storm the castle from above, Martin uses another of Steven's inventions to destroy the siege engine in turn. The stalemate is finally broken when the Black Death begins to spread among Steven's forces, infecting Captain Hawkwood as well as others. Finally, Steven is captured by the mercenaries and shackled in their courtyard.

Hawkwood has heard Steven argue about a more modern cure from the Arab world; lancing the large sores to release infected blood. Hawkwood attempts to have this treatment performed upon him by a physician, who refuses this practice as barbaric. Hawkwood agonizingly cuts open his own boils with his knife and soon recovers from his illness; though not before helplessly watching a dog lick up his infected blood. Before fleeing the siege, he uses a small catapult to hurl infected body parts from the now-perished dog into the castle. The mercenaries attempt to remove the contagion, but miss an infected specimen that Steven throws into the castle's water supply. Only Agnes sees him do this.

The mercenaries meet for breakfast the following day. Agnes watches as, one by one, they drink the infected water. When Martin begins to drink, she slaps the cup from his hands. The other mercenaries quickly grow ill and begin dying of the plague. A final battle follows, and Steven's forces are victorious. The camp doctor, having learned from Hawkwood's example, orders the lancing of plague boils, consistent with the movie's theme of proto-science invading a still-barbaric Europe. Steven and Agnes ride off together, but as she looks back at the burning castle she sees Martin climb out and escape. She tells no one.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

The character Hawkwood bears a considerable resemblance to the famed English mercenary John Hawkwood, who also rose to prominence, earning a reputation for chivalry and brutality in Italy, albeit a century and a half before the events of Flesh and Blood take place.