MovieChat Forums > De leeuw van Vlaanderen (1985) Discussion > Horrible, just horrible

Horrible, just horrible

posted 17 years ago by michieldg
3 replies | jump to latest

I just finished watching de leeuw van vlaanderen and i must say it wasn't that bad untill the final battle scene. Offcourse, before the battle you had bad acting, stupid extra's who are just standing there not knowing what to do, french people who cannot speak french, .... But i could bare with it, it was still rather entertaining if you can look beyond all that. But once the final battle started i had a really hard time watching the rest of the movie. I cannot begin to explain how bad it was. Is there anyone who liked that scene? and Why?

[–] dagon-9 17 years ago

The french-speaking was deliberately replaced by dutch to have one more or the same "language": Flemish and Dutch. I think it is not a bad move actually.
As for the final battle: I LOVE IT!! the concept with the golden knight standing symbol for Flanders and conquering all is great!
People who complain and whine about "too much space between actors in the battle-scene" are just narrow-minded *beep* if you look at "Barry Lyndon" for example, the battle scenes are also not completely packed with people. In fact one needs space to wield one's sword. And... have you noticed the size of that plain the battle is fought upon? It is HUGE!. So two thumbs up for "De Leeuw van Vlaanderen"!!!

[–] lorddeseiz 12 years ago

Most people are used to Hollywoodian fightscenes, when a natural one is filmed they call it bad as it aproaches it as natural and not with the intention for making it eyepleasing.
Best example of what i mean with "natural" is seen in the very beginning, the french soldier who gets thrown flat on his back against a tree. Was this Hollywood, he wouldnt have cried out like he did.
Or the 4-camp, one cut and they are incapacitated, as it should be.
But of course it is much cooler to see the Hollywodian way and see people get chopped in half who still go on fighting. Is no way a guy who falls flat on his back against a tree is gonna be taken out in Hollywood ^^
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[–] thingmakersback (1318) a year ago

Just saw it, and I'm with dagon-9 on this. Of course, the languages are all "greek" to me, but I got the idea and noticed the Germanic sound of what the French were speaking in contrast to the Flemish. I liked the bit where the Flemish can distinguish a Frenchman by his distinctive inability to correctly pronounce a particular Flemish phrase - like "shibboleth" in the Old Testament.

The Gold Knight was a moment worthy of Lord of the Rings and overall the film feels like a true period piece. The conflict is tribal and brutal and if the scope, scale and details of the action are limited or less than perfect, it doesn't harm the film.