Flesh + Blood
Short description
Set in war-torn Europe at the start of the sixteenth century, with plague sweeping through the towns, the film follows a band of mercenaries led by Martin, a soldier who has been betrayed by the nobleman Arnolfini. Having been dismissed without payment, Martin and his men take revenge by abducting Agnes, the young woman promised to Arnolfini's son Stephan, and they go on to plunder the surrounding lands. The mercenaries eventually take refuge in a castle abandoned after the plague, where they are besieged by Arnolfini's forces.
Paul Verhoeven directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Gerard Soeteman, and the film was produced by Gijs Versluys. It was Verhoeven's sixth feature as director, following The 4th Man in 1983 and preceding RoboCop in 1987. Rutger Hauer plays Martin, with Jennifer Jason Leigh as Agnes, Tom Burlinson as Stephan, Jack Thompson as Hawkwood, Susan Tyrrell as Celine and Ronald Lacey as the Cardinal. The production credits list 27 cast members and 55 crew.
Made for about 7 million dollars across Dutch, Spanish and American companies, the film was released in August 1985 and runs 126 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.7 from around 22,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.5 from 454 votes, indicating a modest but durable following. A critics' rating of 6.1 from 22 reviews places it in similar territory to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was entirely shot on location in Spain. The castle was filmed in Belmonte, near Cuenca, in the province of Castile-La Mancha, while the remaining scenes were shot in Cáceres, in the province of Extremadura, and Ávila, in the province of Castile and León.
- Another anachronism: in the opening scene, the cardinal distributes clearly modern communion wafers during the sacrament.
- The film was the last collaboration between Paul Verhoeven and Rutger Hauer. Their creative partnership lasted more than 15 years, beginning with their joint work on the television film 'Floris' in 1969. The director called Rutger the embodiment of the 'bright side of existence' (Verhoeven’s other favorite actor, Jeroen Krabbé, was the embodiment of the 'dark side'). During the making of 'Flesh and Blood,' a conflict arose between Verhoeven and the film's producers regarding the plot, with Hauer siding with the latter.
- The film was director and screenwriter Paul Verhoeven's response to numerous films that, in his opinion, presented an overly romanticized version of the Middle Ages. He wanted to show the Middle Ages as a period dominated by cruelty, disease, poverty, and hardship, where death from natural causes was rare.
- Paul Verhoeven and Rutger Hauer (who played Martin, a former mercenary) argued so frequently during filming that the rest of the crew literally demanded they argue in English so everyone could understand what was going on.
- The actors in the film were so competitive with each other for the amount of screen time allocated to each character that some of them soon began calling the film “Blood + Flesh + Elbows,” because figuratively, the actors were practically elbowing each other out of the way for screen time.
- Before filming this movie, Paul Verhoeven and Rutger Hauer had worked together on five pictures, but this time they argued a lot, and after the film's release, they never worked together again. After Hauer’s death in 2019, Verhoeven once said he regretted inviting Hauer to be in this film. Hauer signed on to the film before becoming a world-class movie star thanks to films like the action movie “Nighthawks” (Bruce Malmuth and Gary Nelson, 1981), the science fiction action film “Blade Runner” (Ridley Scott, 1982), and the thriller “The Osterman Weekend” (Sam Peckinpah, 1983). He now didn't want to play an overtly negative character for fear it would affect his career. Verhoeven didn't release him from his obligations to the film. Because of this, they constantly argued during filming and subsequently, when the actor, to Verhoeven’s great displeasure, began to criticize his directing style, and even the film itself, which hadn’t even been released yet. Verhoeven admitted that he himself was “quite stubborn” at the time, and that he and Hauer eventually reconciled.
- The character named Hawkwood was named after a real historical figure – Sir John Hawkwood (1320 – 1394). John Hawkwood commanded a band of mercenaries known as the 'White Company', which operated in Italy in the 14th century AD.
- The film contains an obvious anachronism: when Captain Hawkwood announces to the mercenaries that Arnolfini has deceived them, the cannons behind him are so-called 'parrot guns', which only appeared in the 19th century and were actively used during the American Civil War, while the film is set in medieval Europe.
- The production of the film was plagued by misfortunes. During filming, crew members and actors from Spain, the USA, and Denmark treated each other with poorly concealed animosity. Filming often had to be interrupted due to bad weather, which caused schedule delays and, consequently, budget overruns. Director Paul Verhoeven later described the work on this film as the most difficult shoot of his life and admitted that he even considered leaving the profession.
- Paul Verhoeven wanted to explore the rivalry between two former allies who had over time become bitter enemies. He mentioned that he was always disappointed by the fact that the enemies in Sam Peckinpah's Western 'The Wild Bunch' (1969) never came face to face. In this film, he strongly wanted to shoot a scene in which Martin (Rutger Hauer) and Hawkwood (played by Jack Thompson) take a bath together, each gripping the hilt of a knife underwater. However, studio management insisted on more screen time for the character played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and on expanding the love story in the plot; therefore, the bath scene was replaced by a love scene, and the feud between Martin and Hawkwood was pushed to the background, which Verhoeven later deeply regretted.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
