Starring Paul Giamatti as a manically evil King John and directed with relish by Jonathan English, the handsomely produced picture recreates the siege of Rochester Castle in Kent where a handful of doughty rebels resisted King John in 1215 after he decided to renege on the Magna Carta.
Our heroes are a typical band of rough-looking misfits with the exception of James Purefoy’s handsome Templar Knight, a warrior monk whose troubled soul will, you just know, be soothed by the castle’s resident cutie, Isabel (Kate Mara), wife of its ageing homosexual proprietor Reginald (Derek Jacobi).
The picture’s raison d’etre are the numerous action scenes, staged with a bloodthirsty verisimilitude and attention-to-detail that summon up the horror and stench of medieval combat (no one can accuse English of stinting on the limb-severing). Catapults, siege towers and vats of boiling tar all add to the fun.
The characters and dialogue lack the vibrancy of the action but, all in all, this is much more enjoyable than Ridley Scott’s po-faced Robin Hood.
Ironclad 3/5
(15, 121mins)
Director: Jonathan English
Stars: James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Derek Jacobi, Paul Giamatti
By Henry Fitzherbert