Picked this up a long while back....
BLACK DEATH
Christopher Smith keeps his run of success with this grim and brooding look at the devastating effects of religious fanaticism, no matter what the religion.
Sean Bean leads a solid cast (though he's only really one of three lead characters and it is Eddie Redmayne who steals the show as a torn Monk) and the low budget may sometimes show in the scale of things but the film still manages to have some impressively authentic looking sets and costumes.
There are also some good, if brief, gore FX that add a dash of grim excitement to this very sombre and meditationary tale.
They are mostly used during a wonderfully brutal fight scene between Bean's men and some bandits but other scenes of general grim grue pop up throughout.
Well scripted and intellectually astute in its examination of religious fervor, Smith's film may be a tad on the lethargic side at times and suffers a rather glaring logic problem in how things get turned around for Bean and his men and how they behave (especially given they were on the alert all along) but these relatively minor flaws aside "Black Death" is a gritty and thankfully serious movie that paints all involved in the shade of black.
The Christian zealotry is not the only boogeyman here as it is joined by the film's take on the Pagans not being so innocent and honest and just as ruthless.
But their brutal methods, sly cruelty and lies and even out and out trickery used for personal reasons by their leader (to cling onto power) do not paint either them or their religion in a very moral or particularly different light, even if they are ultimately defending themselves.
The, surprisingly extended (and very grim indeed) finale ultimately comes down harder on 1300's Christianity and The Church and its all consuming power and ideology on the individual, but the swipe at Paganism (which basically means the swipe at all other organised religions in general) is still felt in the fact it was ultimately just as equal in blame as Christian ideology on what happens at the end.
Sometimes lethargic, suffers from a couple of plotting hiccups, but ultimately "Black Death" is a very well made, very well acted, very well scripted and suitably grim and bloody movie that's astutely critical of all organised religions and the brainwashing that can turn a good man bad and turn good ideals into selfish and cruel ones.
