THEOCRACY ON SCREEN: Sean Bean in Dark Ages Pulp "Black Death"

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THEOCRACY ON SCREEN: Sean Bean in Dark Ages Pulp "Black Death"
by Darius Kadivar
25-Jun-2011
 

Set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, a young monk is tasked with learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village. Sean Bean plays a religious knight in a genre that might be described as Dark Ages pulp.

Black Death (2011) Directed by Christopher Smith and starring Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean and Carice van Houten

Official Trailer:

Black Death Featurette :

Plot:

The year is 1348. Europe has fallen under the shadow ofthe Black Death. As the plague decimates all in its path, fear and superstition are rife. In this apocalyptic environment, the church is losing its grip on the people. There are rumors of a village, hidden in marshland that the plague cannot reach. There is even talk of a necromancer who leads the village and is able to bring the dead back to life. Ulric (Sean Bean), a fearsome knight, is charged by the church to investigate these rumors. He enlists the guidance of a novice monk, Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) to lead him and his band of mercenary soldiers to the marshland, but Osmund has other motives for leaving his monastery. Their journey to the village and events that unfold take them into the heart of darkness and to horrors that will put Osmund's faith in himself and his love for God to the ultimate test.

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Peter Bradshaw’s Review in the Guardian:

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I was agnostic about horror director Chris Smith's first film, Creep, but this has an insistent, dour darkness and narrative energy that is very watchable indeed. In a genre I can only describe as Dark Ages Pulp, he has created some very effective entertainment with nods to Michael Reeves's Witch finder General and Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man. Sean Bean plays Ulric, a religious knight who, at the height of the Black Death, is leading a band of mercenaries across country in search of a remote village,that has been entirely spared the plague, reportedly because the inhabitants practice satanic rituals, and the Dark Lord wards off the sickness and brings corpses back to life. Bean's mission is to capture the villagers' leader in the name of the church, secure a confession and put him to the sword. But is the village just a mass psychotic myth? Or are godless rituals actually being enacted in the remote fields? One of Ulric's soldiers, Ivo, played by Tygo Gernandt, has a distinct resemblance to Klaus Kinski in Aquirre, Wrath Of God.This could well be a minor DVD classic.

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MISCELLANEOUS : INTERVIEWS / SCENES

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Interview: Black Death Director Christopher Smith:

Sean Bean talks about Black Death :

Exlusive Scene from Film -Discovering plagued villiage :

Witch Hunt – Burning:

Cruxifiction and Death:

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