To get the important part out of the way, this is not a good movie.
I was trying to find a historical drama on the 30 years war and this is one of the only ones I found. It is a Spanish language film that stars Viggo Mortensen. When I first looked up the film, I was confused by the casting, but it turns out he grew up in Argentina and speaks Spanish very fluently. The plot itself is a combination of all the books from El Capitan Alatriste, which, unfortunately, means the story spans 10+ years and is very convoluted. It revolves around political intrigue and love triangles, but the worst of both. One particular lowlight (or highlight) was a "no one expects the Spanish inquisition" scene that was done with full seriousness. The movies does make an effort to portray the cultural factors of the time, such as Spanish honor and how central Catholicism is to their world view, which is well executed (minus the previously mentioned scene).
For us muzzleloading nerds, there are some notable highlights. The siege of Breda is shown and the trench warfare aspect is well portrayed. It is also one of the only movies I found with wheellocks used, which is neat. The end of the movie is the battle of Rocroi, which has some off putting scale issues but shows a faithful display of a Tercio in action and "push of pike". There is also a charge of French Cuirassiers with wheellocks in hand.
If you have any interest, here is a link to it on YouTube. It is worth scrolling around the video for scenes of Viggo sword fighting or the large battles.
If anyone knows an actual good movie on the matchlock era, please let me know.
I was trying to find a historical drama on the 30 years war and this is one of the only ones I found. It is a Spanish language film that stars Viggo Mortensen. When I first looked up the film, I was confused by the casting, but it turns out he grew up in Argentina and speaks Spanish very fluently. The plot itself is a combination of all the books from El Capitan Alatriste, which, unfortunately, means the story spans 10+ years and is very convoluted. It revolves around political intrigue and love triangles, but the worst of both. One particular lowlight (or highlight) was a "no one expects the Spanish inquisition" scene that was done with full seriousness. The movies does make an effort to portray the cultural factors of the time, such as Spanish honor and how central Catholicism is to their world view, which is well executed (minus the previously mentioned scene).
For us muzzleloading nerds, there are some notable highlights. The siege of Breda is shown and the trench warfare aspect is well portrayed. It is also one of the only movies I found with wheellocks used, which is neat. The end of the movie is the battle of Rocroi, which has some off putting scale issues but shows a faithful display of a Tercio in action and "push of pike". There is also a charge of French Cuirassiers with wheellocks in hand.
If you have any interest, here is a link to it on YouTube. It is worth scrolling around the video for scenes of Viggo sword fighting or the large battles.
If anyone knows an actual good movie on the matchlock era, please let me know.
