Just seen this great medieval adventures film starring Charlton Heston. I had heard of it before, but despite the good word of mouth I somehow resisted to watching it because it's not exactly a very well known film, despite involving both Heston and the director of "Planet of the apes", Frankiln Shaffner. Now I wished I had watched it before, it's one of the best of its kind I've ever seen.
The film stars an aging warrior (Heston, of course) who has been fighting the Frisians all his life, half because of duty, as his master is an enemy of the Frisians, half to avenge his father, who was once a hostage of these barbarians. As a reward of sorts for his services he is appointed to guard a coastal village in France, as well as to become the local chieftain.
But as soon as he arrives there, he sees complications at every corner. The Frisians attack the region every now and then, the land is swampish and uninviting, and the villagers themselves are barely Christian and don't trust their new master. And to make things worse, there's this beautiful young woman who keeps popping up at the most unexpected places, and who is to marry one of the villagers.
It's almost a pity that a great deal of the movie's second half is devoted to the siege Heston and his people suffer in their tower, as there is enough substance in here to make the film work without all that. You can tell right from the start that great care has been put in the atmosphere (the swamps, the heathen rituals in which the villagers indulge now and then) and in the depiction of Heston's character. There are many hints here of how unsatisfactory he finds his own existence, as well as his inability to escape the confines of a life suffocated by his personal sense of duty and the love he develops for the girl, and while all this themes andsubplots are very well exploited I felt I could have done without most of the battle scenes, no matter how well shot they are.
You could even say the predictability of the plot works in favour of the film. You can tell right from the start the main plot points, but so can, to a certain extent, Heston's character, but there's nothing he can do about it, and that certainly adds to the sense of incoming tragedy and inevitability that drenches the whole film. I mean, nothing good ever came after a redish sunset, did it?
8'5 / 10
Now, quit saying Ben-Hur was gay or I'm throwing you to my dogs! 
