The Last Valley
|
Our Price: $43.50 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.88 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Last Valley
Movie Review: A Great Period Film Well Made
Summary: 5 Stars
The Last Valley, written and directed by the historical novel writer James Clavell. It is co-written by J. B. Pick, whose only other claim to fame is being the screenwriter of the Dean Martin, Matt Helm movie, The Wrecking Crew. That aside this is a well made film with a great story. Filmed on location in the Tyrol area of Italy, these natural and scenic backdrops add historical credibility to this film, as well as providing breathtaking views.
The story is about a Captain, played brilliantly by Michael Caine, in charge of a group of multi-national mercineries during the 17th Century Thirty Years War. It is also about a wanderer, seeker, and a man escaping from the ravages of war, Vogel, played by Omar Sharif. There is also a large international supporting cast, who all do their part, most notable being Nigel Davenport as the Village elder, Per Oscarsson as the village priest, and Arthur O'Connell, most known for his part on the 70's TV show, Chico and the Man.
What started out as Religious Wars, mainly in what is present day Germany, and Alpine Valleys quickly turned into political jocking by petty German Princes, the Holy Roman Emporer, the Kings of France, Sweden, and Denmark. Added to all this war destruction were outbreaks of the plague. The film does a wonderful job with reconstructing this historical backdrop, even with minor details, like when the village priest asks one of the soldiers "Are you a Lutheran Protestant, a Calvin Protestant, or God forbid a heretical Anabaptist or Satan worshiper." While the Catholics and Protestants, throughout the 17th century, had a love-hate relationship, to put it mildly, the both agreed on their disdain for all things Anabaptist (present day Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites.)
Michael Caine, as the Captain, plays a freebooting leader of a religiously mixed group of mercenaries, who wreak havoc and destruction on any city, town, or village in their way. They have two rules, the Captain calls the shots, and they are not allowed to discuss religion. Omar Sharif plays Vogel, an educated wanderer, all too familiar with the ravages of this hypocritical war. He has been running from it for 20 years. Things are so bad, that even gold and silver, have lost their appeal. All people want is peace and the ability to farm their small part of the world. The film opens with an emaciated Vogel wandering into a small village trying to purchase food and shelter, not seconds later, rumbling down the moutains into the valley are the Captains soldiers, who burn, pillage, and rape with abandon, and some with a self-imposed blessing by God in their warrior pursuits. So, once again Vogel is forced to run, over mountains and valleys until he comes by a deserted, idyllic, little village in a naturally protected valley. But, his peace doesn't last long before the Captain arrives in the same place. They find the villagers hiding in the mountains. Vogel convinces the captain that this, little piece of paradise, would make a great place to winter over, and he being educated could act as the go-between soldier and peasants. I don't want to give more away, but against the backdrop of war, fanatical religion, lust, and a search for peace this story continues to unfold.
This is a great movie, running, 2 hours and 5 minutes. Michael Caine is brilliant as the pragmatic, unbelieving warrior. Omar Sharif, as a kind of naive 17th century, Parsifal, plays off of Caine's cynicism and hatred of all things religious and political. There is great inter-personal relationships in this film also.
This movie should be shown in all world history classes as it provides a great tool for what life was like during the Thirty Years War. 5 Stars Plus for this wonderful movie.
Movie Review: A forgotten epic well worth remembering
Summary: 5 Stars
Filmed under the incredibly unwieldy and oh-so-Sixties title Somewhere in the Mountains there is a Last Valley and hindered by financing problems, The Last Valley marked the end of screenwriter James Clavell's directorial career and the beginning of the end of the thinking man's epic genre. Which is a great pity, because this almost completely forgotten Shangri-La tale set during the Thirty Years War, the last of the great European religious wars, deserves to be much better known despite the potentially disastrous miscasting of the two leads. Omar Sharif is no more anyone's ideal casting as a 17th Century German schoolteacher trying to talk his way out of a premature death than Michael Caine is anyone's idea of a German mercenary captain, yet despite a few moments unease at Caine's aksent (a dry run for the one he used in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), within moments you realise that against all odds both actors are delivering surprisingly sincere and well-judged performances.
From the main title animation that sees a cross split into two sword-wielding rival soldiers, it's not always a pretty picture, making few bones about the dirt, ugliness and squalor of the times, with Sharif's schoolteacher wandering from village massacre to plague pits before literally stumbling upon an unspoilt and unlooted valley. Unfortunately he stumbles across it at the same time as Caine's [...]-ugly ragtag band of mercenaries, cutthroats, murderers, rapists, Papists, Protestants and atheists pillaging the countryside for supplies. Convincing them to spend the Winter there in comfort rather than see the valley's food gone in days if they share it among their army, he finds himself cast as an uneasy go-between trying to improvise and keep the fragile peace between the mercenaries and the villagers. But for all its beauty, the valley is no idyllic haven but just as riven with suspicion, prejudice and duplicity as the outside world as the two sides engage in a constant subtle power struggle: ultimately it is not the valley that is destroyed by the soldiers but the soldiers who are destroyed by the valley as they are reminded of the people they almost were. Even Sharif's intermediary has more to fear from the villagers than the soldiers.
A huge box-office flop in 1970 (in the States it quickly ended up as a second feature), it's far from a conventional epic. There are only a couple of action scenes, and only one of them qualifies as spectacular, while its characters are not major figures but human driftwood caught up in the wake of greater events and gradually rejecting the accepted religious and moral beliefs of their time. Instead of a triumphant tone, it's a melancholy picture about people trying to survive in the worst of all possible worlds, where moments of beauty are merely reminders of how much has been lost in the past rather than what could be in the future. John Barry's superb score, possibly his best ever, reflects this beautifully, alternating the savagery he displayed in his earlier The Lion in Winter with an incredibly beautiful theme for the valley. It's not a film for all tastes, but there's a melancholy magic there willing to look for it.
It's a shame that none of the extras-free DVD versions available do justice to the 65mm photography (though the sadly extras-free Region 1 MGM and Anchor Bay releases are at least widescreen, unlike the clumsily cropped UK release), but it's still a film that deserves to be sought out in its original widescreen ratio.
Movie Review: One of the great "Sleeper" films!
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Last Valley" starring Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, falls under the heading of a "sleeper" film, as it largely went ignored at the time it came out (1971), and continues to be unknown due to our historically uneducated public. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was one of Western history's most influential eras, and as far as I am aware, this film is the only one that deals with this period on a grand scale. Michael Caine is fantastic in the role as "The Captain." Indeed, in another review I read where this role is considered one of his best. The Captain leads a group of soldiers, who, although are fighting for the Protestants, includes Catholics and even atheists. The movie typifies the era when allegiance, militarily and theologically, could be bought and sold.
Vogel, played by Omar Sharif, literally stumbles into a valley that has been virtually untouched by the outside plague-infested, war-ravaged mayhem and chaos. Unfortunately, his trail has been tracked by The Captain's soldiers and thus, the "Utopia" the peasants in the village have experienced is now in jeopardy of being looted and destroyed. Thus, we have our first and most interesting interpersonal conflict, the relationship between Vogel and The Captain. The evolution of The Captain's disdain for Vogel as a worthless (but educated) opportunist, to valuing him as a friend was, for me, the most captivating part of the movie.
In addition to the main plot, every great movie has sub-plots and this one is full of them. The makers of this film obviously did their homework. Martin Luther's main impetus for his arguments over the practices of the Catholic Church, was the Church's sale in indulgences, the practice of forgiveness of one's sins for a fee. This is even dealt with in the movie, as well as the hypocrisy, treachery, and misguided loyalties of the supposed believers of both Protestants and Catholics. The lingering effects of pagan superstitions are also manifested by many of the villagers, showing that the transition from secular to spiritual was another reality of the time. It is indeed unfortunate that this film was, is, and will continue to be largely ignored by the masses. But, just as the peasants in the village held on to supersitions as well as to the whims of corrupt leaders surrounding them on every side, the masses today of 2010 aren't really all that different.
Indeed, 2nd Timothy Chapter 4 describes both the era this movie covers and our day as well. "3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4. And they shall turn away their ears from the TRUTH, and shall be turned unto fables." All we need to do to link this scripture to the movie's theme AND to 2010 is to substitute the word "fables" with "technology"...or how about "sports"? Actually, one could compile an entire list of things that distract us from the truth!
Movie Review: Apart at the Seams
Summary: 5 Stars
'The Last Valley' is an intelligent film dealing with a seldom discussed period...the Thirty Years War...in which Germany became the battleground for virtually every disputed issue in Europe. The proximate cause was the Protestant Reformation with the strenuous and often lethal Catholic reaction. As the war...or wars...went on for years, the religious issues oftentimes became blurred by dynastic and other power issues. French, English, Spanish, Dutch and Swedish armies ravaged Germany. Half the population died of warfare and plague. Horror produced tsunammis of superstition and tens of thousands were hanged, burned, mutilated as witches.
'The Last Valley' is just that...the last valley in Germany not yet utterly devastated by war. All that is about to change when 'The Captain's' [Michael Caine's] gang of mercenary marauders chances on the hapless populace. The war has gone on so long that Caine is not only known as only 'The Captain' but he may have actually forgotten his original name. Like all of his men, he is brutal, but unlike the rest of them, he is intelligent. The Burgomeister [Omar Shariff] of the town/valley knows that his people are doomed so he makes a Faustian bargain with the 'Captain'. "Don't devastate the Valley. Over-Winter, here, and protect it. We, the people of this valley will provide for your men...food, women, shelter.
One of 'The Captain's' men protests that such a deal is against military/religious/political precedent. 'The Captain' answers him by thrusting his picklehaubed, pointed helmet into his guts. 'The Captain' has made his decision. This film, which is a 'small' film and never got nearly the credit it deserved, is a genuine classic. Perhaps the most memorable line of the movie is uttered by the Captain when asked about his belief in witchcraft. His reply is one of harrowing belief and profound cynicism. A wonderful film.
Ron Braithwaite, author of novels on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico...'Skull Rack' and 'Hummingbird God.'
Movie Review: a lost cinematic masterpiece; a parable of heaven and hell on earth
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps this film was fated to be neglected in its time. It puts its characters through all the tribulations of Europe in the Thirty Years' War; it isn't light entertainment. But as cinematic history it's important: James Clavell in a rare role as director; Michael Caine and Omar Sharif in brilliant performances; early roles by young actors like Brian Blessed.
And it may seem overwrought. The director took at least some visual motifs from Breughel and other dark artists of the period. Others have told me this last valley seemed almost a surreal vision of Alpine heaven, an unrealistic "Sound of Music" setting. Perhaps that was the point, that this village would represent a vision, a haven from the hellpit that Europe had become by 1640. It's almost a fantasy, a fever dream. In truth there may have been no such haven in that war; probably every village, town and city in Germany or Bohemia were sacked at least once, and the population of Germany fell by anywhere from a fifth to a third.
Perhaps Omar Sharif's character is a metaphor, as is the Captain -- as much as the carnival fool and the knight in "Seventh Seal", although the Sharif and Caine characters are far more haunted. (Indeed, the icy Captain is still guilt-ridden merely for having been present at the sack of Magdeburg, and the burning of the city's people). Hoffman, the superstitious peasant (played, competently enough, by Arthur O'Connell) and Gruber as the cagey, cunning village chief, are also parable characters of all the people of this village and those times. As a refraction of those terrible years, the film works.
The cinematography, the staging, the score, the script are all first-rate. The transfer, given the age of the film, is good. If this film is in stock, get it: it's worth a place in your DVD library.