Black Death

I sort of stumbled on this film by accident. I had attended the Toronto International Film Festival once many years ago, to see a little horror film called Severance. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which straddles the often un-straddle-able (hyphen abuse!) line between horror and comedy. Director Christopher Smith sort of dazzled me with some very unique visual flair during the course of some of the films more harrowing scenes, and left me wondering what else this director has done. Long story short, I discovered he went from horror comedy, to dark medieval epic with the unfortunately titled "Black Death".

Cool.

I say unfortunately because the title of the film makes it sound like some cheap straight to DVD exploitation movie trying to make a quick buck by having a heavy handed title. When I look at this title I don't think "Plague!", I think "trashy slasher horror flick", which this film is not. Honestly, I truly believe they could have come up with a better title. The one that stuck will most certainly turn people away. Maybe it is just me.

Anyway, I was already excited, but it wasn't until I found out who was headlining the film that I decided I MUST watch this movie NOW: Sean fucking Bean.

Bean's turn as Boromir in the first Lord of the Rings was the best performance in the entirety of the trilogy. And his death scene gets me choked up all the time... And then there is the fact that Bean is convinced that healing a stab wound attained from defending searingly hot woman's honor is done with a pint.

Having said that, the film itself includes a hefty dose of pathos during its little romp through the black plague. Religion and faith take center stage as "Black Death" examines how faith can both divide and unify and that the beliefs of people are not beyond manipulation for malicious purposes.

The story takes place during the time of black plague. Just this setting presented many fascinating questions from me, namely how would a populace understand why the plague was happening? It seems they would rationalize it any way they could. It is almost like anyone's theories are acceptable. Throw out an idea and it might stick! This is an incredibly dangerous climate to live in. Many innocently turn to god to explain the unexplained. Very quickly, sides are taken, stands are made, and suddenly, instead of banding together against a foe that is indiscriminate, we fracture and fall divided. I don't want to go into too much of the plot, since I was quite engrossed in the movie from the opening credits to the epilogue, but suffice to say the film is poetic. It will leave you pondering the many layers of religion, faith, and politics and how they can be twisted together to manufacture hate, prejudice and destruction that dwarfs the devastation of the "pestilence" in question.


Lets talk about Sean Bean. Here he plays a similar character to Boromir; a flawed knight. He plays the role with such utter conviction that the faith of Boromir Ulrich the Christian knight becomes quite unsettling. He's big, hes burly, he's got an awesome beard, awesome hair and an awesome voice. He is The Bean, and he is displayed in all of his gravelly, earthy glory here.

The main character's arc was satisfying. I bought into his delivery of some of the emotional scenes, especially the events of the end of the film. The acting ranged from competent to great, which is more than I can say for other films with similar budget and subject matter. 

The action scenes is where the movies low budget reared it's ugly little head. Kills are made with the actors facing the camera, which obscures the actual effects of slashing and tearing. A cheap, but effective little money-saver move. But, the film does has some very satisfying kills, which I would expect coming from the director of Severance. When central characters go in this movie... They go in style.

This is truly a great and honest take on how a population ruled by Christianity would react to a force such as an unstoppable, unseen viral outbreak. What all factions fail to see is that the plague stops for no one, and does not discriminate between the faithless or the faithful. Humans create their own rationale, and then destroy each other when the rationale is challenged.

Moral ambiguities run rampant through the movie, which is something I truly enjoyed. Overall, the film came as a bit of a surprise to me. While the action beats and gore are all present, it is also a thought provoking take on the views of various factions during the time of an un-explainable terror, and how those views destroy more than any plague.