Most of you fellow movie lovers have probably never heard of this film since it is a direct-to-DVD release from Lionsgate. The movie revolves around Barbarossa (Rutger Hauer), the evil emperor of Germany and his conquest to rule all of Europe. After taking over Milan, the citizens decide to take revenge against Barbarossa and destroy his reign. The cast includes F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, Scarface).
After saving Barbarossa from a boar attack, young Milan native Alberto da Giussano (Raz Degan) is rewarded with the emperor’s dagger, as a token of his appreciation.
After saving Barbarossa from a boar attack, young Milan native Alberto da Giussano (Raz Degan) is rewarded with the emperor’s dagger, as a token of his appreciation.
Years later Alberto is reunited with Barbarossa but under different conditions. Barbarossa and his large army is wiping through Europe and taking over empire after empire. Alberto attempts to defend Milan; although decisions get complicated when his love interest Elenora predicts the brutal outcome of the battle because she is psychic. Siniscalco Barozzi (F. Murray Abraham) is a political figure in Milan who is assisting the enemy. He acts as an informant for Barbarossa. All of this eventually leads to Barbarossa taking over Milan. As he makes his way to Rome he runs into the plague, which kills off a good portion of his soldiers. Beatrice, the German queen pushes for Barbarossa to continue his rampage through Europe but he decides to head back home. This is the perfect time for Alberto and the rest of the Milan natives to rebel against their cruel ruler. Alberto rallies up men from Milan and recruits other soldiers from cities that have also taken over by Germany to fight against Barbarossa and his massive infantry. With a total of nine hundred soldiers, Alberto is ready to take his revenge and fight for his freedom…a story that seems unoriginal and predictable.
Sitting through this movie I noticed that there was a lot of over-dubbed dialogue within most of the scenes. It might be because most of the cast is Italian and they had to re-dub their voice with someone else’s, but that’s unlikely. The bad part is that it’s extremely obvious. The facial expression of the character doesn’t match the tone of the voice. The camera work and cinematography keeps your eyes entertained since the acting does not do so. Most of the acting was poorly executed and overly dramatic at times. F. Murray Abraham gives the only well acted performance along with Rutger Hauer. The screenplay wasn’t actually too bad but it wasn’t produced properly. With a larger budget this movie could have been much better and maybe even had a wider release. Multiple aerial and pan shots show beautiful landscapes and brutal battle sequences. The fighting scenes were gory and decently choreographed. It’s no 300, but it gets the job done. The different medieval sets were stunning reconstructions of the actual cities. Large castles and villages look authentic along with the costumes.
This is a routine good guy vs. bad guy revenge story. From the start you already knew what was going to happen, but then you got to sit through two more hours of it. There were some little things thrown in to spice things up such as a psychic women and a double-crossing political figure, but it wasn’t enough. If the budget had been increased just a little more the movie could have been something worthy of watching. But since it is not, I wouldn’t suggest this one. Even more history buffs, you will be annoyed of the constant over-dubbed voice over mixed with bad acting.
DVD Bonus Features
Not much to be found under the special features section of the menu. All you will find is behind the scenes of “Sword of War” and other movies from Lionsgate. The behind the scenes segment is almost all subtitled because the director and majority of the cast are Italian. The short includes interviews with the cast and some crew and the construction of the large medieval sets.
"Sword of War" is on sale March 22, 2011 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Renzo Martinelli. Written by Renzo Martinelli, Giorgio Schottler. Starring F Murray Abraham, Raz Degan, Rutger Hauer.
