Bid budget flop from ABC Pictures which essentially ended James Clavell's movie career - did he have any other chances, I wonder? I can see why it didn't do well although there is much to admire. It looks like a dream, gorgeous photography and Austrian locations, it's about the Thirty Years War so has lots of novelty, there's star power in the form of Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, it tries to handle some complexity of the time (Protestants, vs Catholics). The acting is very strong - Caine is excellent, Sharif good and Michael Gouthard brilliant as a nasty mercenary. It's a smart epic. It has theme. Interesting support characters. Beautiful John Barry score.
And yet...
It's confusing. The basic concept is simple - peaceful valley tries to avoid war. Mercenaries come to valley. Try to hide out. War ensues. But Clavell - while writing complex support characters - can't quite nail the basic story. He doesn't really dramatise the mercenaries falling under the spell of the valley in the way say The Magnificent Seven did. For instance, the Caine romance with Florinda Bolkan is desultory. I think Sharif should have been at the valley to start off with. It's confusing to have him strolling through the waste lands and discover it at the same time as Caine does. Making Sharif more part of the valley would've been easier.
And the people in the valley aren't very nice. Nigel Davenport's village headman gives up his wife and waits to turn on Sharif once Caine leaves. There's a religious nutter priest who burns a woman at the stake.
I think American audiences were turned off by the foreign-ness of it despite Caine and Sharif. I know everyone was fake Russina in Zhivago but it would've been easier just to have Caine play a British mercenary captain. The accent is distracting. i mean good on him for putting in thought but the merc could've come from anywhere.
The film didn't need to cost as much as it did. The battles are appreciated and the townsfolk dancing... but you just need a village, a valley, and wreckage. They could've done it cheaper. I think it would've been a better movie. Like, did we need that final siege battle outside the valley?
It's got a downer ending, Caine dies. Bolkan is burnt to death. Sharif gives up his woman. The valley is no good.
I appreciate this. Can understand people loving it.
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