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Editorial Reviews
Iréne Jacob (U.S. Marshalls, Othello), Vincent Perez (Cyrano de Bergerac, Queen of the Damned), Jason Isaacs (Black Hawk Down, The Patriot) and Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) star in this epic tale of a great love story thwarted by fortune and men's will.
Set against a sweeping historical fresque, the epic tale of a great love story thwarted by fortune and men's will. 1758-1761: a turbulent period bridging the collapse of New France and the establishment of the British regime. An "era of passions." This tragic love story of a young peasant girl, Marie-Loup Carignan (Godin-Vigneau), from the lower Saint Laurent River and a dashing adventurer is based on fact. As their passionate destiny advances inexorably, driven by fate, it mirrors another story that's already been written: France's abandonment of Canada.
François Le Gardeur (David La Haye), a daring and adventurous young man, rejects his family who he finds too bourgeois, preferring to roam in the forests and live with the American Indians (know as "the savages" by the settlers). Returning from hunting, he hastens back to Quebec. Too late: his father died three days early, leaving his son an inheritance that will bring him more grief than happiness. Discovers that his father was wheeling and dealing on a massive scale with Intendant Bigot. Their financial scams will eventually contribute to the fall of New France.
The day after his return Le Gardeur meets Marie-Loup and it's love at first sight. Marie-Loup is a determined young woman despite her modest origins, in advance of her era. Her outspoken attitude and free spirit is criticized by Father Blondeau, although his rebukes are tinged with indulgence as the poor man is secretly in love with her. And her friendship with "the savages" is frowned upon by the local people - she's rumored to have "witch's powers" because she uses the shaman's remedies for healing the sick.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unfulfilled Expectations, Missed Opportunities And The Absence Of Soul,
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This review is from: Battle of the Brave (DVD)
The exceedingly low marks garnered by this movie from fellow Amazon.com reviewers is I think based in large by their vision of what this film could have been rather than what it turned out to be. In other words it's being deducted a star or two because they expected more and were disappointed.
I also had high expectations of this movie that weren't fulfilled but be that as it may this is not a one or two star film. The production values are superior, the cast is strong and the soundtrack enjoyable. Actually the storyline was rather good as well, a little convoluted at times but it had potential. I also enjoyed the performance of Noemie Godin-Vigneau in the starring role of the ill-fated peasant girl and shamanistic healer. Marie-Loup Carignan. So what went wrong? It's difficult to put my finger on exactly what I think went awry in this film and the best explanation I can come up with is a rather ambiguous "it lacks soul." It seems to me that everything else was in place for a good film but it's missing that intangible something that makes the story and characters come alive for the audience. In view of the lack for a better way to describe that missing something, I choose to call it soul. However you want to describe it the consequences of this missing ingredient is the fact that the film lacks the ability to transport the audience into its world and engage the emotions and intellect of its viewers with the characters and events on-screen. One is left watching, all the while aware of the passing of time and the fact that they are only watching instead of participating. My Rating: 3 ½ Stars.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Only the Brave can sit thru the entire DVD,
By
This review is from: Battle of the Brave (DVD)
This is clearly an example of a movie that doesn't know what it is: a romance? an historical epic? a courtroom drama? a witch hunt? a story of starcrossed lovers? I managed to somehow endure every interminable minute of it wondering when it was going to pick up its lethargic pace and get to some sort of coherent plot. As with other reviewers here, I was simply amazed at the number of very good actors going to waste. Too, I was fooled by the DVD jacket into thinking this was really about the epic Battle of Quebec in which both commanding Generals, Montcalm of France and Wolfe of England, are killed. I think I saw five or so minutes of a British mortar battery's bombardment of the city. The rest of the story wasn't worth the money. Fortunately, I only rented it...but I still feel cheated. I wish I had read the other reviews before giving up 143 minutes of my time.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Whither Canada?,
By
This review is from: Battle of the Brave (DVD)
Despite decades of tax incentives, in terms of international visibility the Canadian film industry still lags behind most central African and Islamic states (surprisingly few Canadian films are released outside their native shores), and Nouvelle-France aka Battle of the Brave is another example of why. More than any other country, commercial Canadian cinema seems unable to develop an identity of its own and is stuck in pale imitation of other countries' failures. On paper this historical drama could look vaguely promising. There's certainly a rich vein of untapped material in Canada's history as the French and English warred over and bought and sold the colony, though none of it makes the cut here unless you count the odd blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene of characters saying "Wolfe is dead" or "Nouvelle-France is no more" before getting back to the soap operatics. But while this isn't a history lesson, it isn't a drama or the epic adventure the new title promises either: there is no battle in the film unless you count 10 seconds of shelling by a half-dozen re-enactors and one collapsed shed. The town square that is all we ever see of Quebec is a rather obvious flatly lit studio interior, giving many scenes an old TV miniseries look, as does director Jean Beaudin's reluctance to offer much in the way of long shots or even exteriors. What you do get for your money is a simple but drawn-out Harlequin romance about doomed lovers constantly separated by events beyond their control where the biggest surprise is that Fabio doesn't turn up in the cast. It's the kind of film where whenever two characters are about to make the beast with two backs the camera pans over to a convenient raging fireplace or waterfall.
An Anglo-Canadian-French co-production that doesn't so much unite once-warring nations as throw any country with a decent tax break into the stew, this massive box-office disaster was clearly intended to be Canada's Titanic - though someone neglected to tell the producers they meant the film, not the ship - but turns out more like Revolution done on the cheap without the battle scenes, crowds or the few moments that threaten to briefly work in the face of overwhelming odds. The Montreal Mirror described it as "so bad that one can't even find the strength to mock it." That's rather unfair, because while for most of its running time the film looks like a below-par 80s miniseries, the last half hour suddenly becomes very funny, with characters accidentally putting their legs in bear traps, dastardly husbands declaring "You'll never see your handsome lover again, cuckold's honor! You'll pay for this, both of you!" and our heroine accused of murder and - gasp! - witchcraft in a trial funny enough to have been in Demi Moore's version of The Scarlet Letter. Throw in caddish British governors, devious slaves and Celine Dion singing at the end and you've got something that at times almost feels like the kind of film that Timbo Hines was aspiring to (and still managed to miss wildly) with his legendarily inept period version of War of the Worlds, albeit without the staggering technical incompetence. Leading man David La Haye's versatility seems limited to the number of other actors he can look like throughout the course of the film: he starts out looking like Andy Garcia, briefly adopts the Al Pacino Revolution look, flirts with the clean-shaven Tchéky Karyo style before turning into a younger Ted Danson as his character ages. While his opening scene where he reacts to news of his father's death with an expression that looks like he's waiting for the director to tell him he can go home now promises a feast of bad acting, in reality he gives the impression more of a mediocre supporting actor who's lucked into a lead at the last minute when whoever was originally cast finally read the script and bailed. He shows willing and gives it a go but the grace and charisma the part needs just isn't there. Billie Piper lookalike Noemie Godin-Vigneau's leading lady doesn't exactly set the screen alight either despite occupying center-stage as the peasant girl who is the prey of giggly Vincent Perez's corrupt and perverted Intendant Le Bigot (that really is the character's name), the duplicitous goateed drunken lackey Sebastien Huberdeau and, saddest of all, Gerard Depardieu's bedridden revolutionary dirty old priest in a manky grey-haired wig. It's a truly pitiful sight to see a once great actor at the absolute rock bottom of his game as he shuffles through the motions looking like he's not just lost the will to act but the will to live along with it. He clearly couldn't be bothered to stick around for the English dubbing sessions (or even a couple of long shots where he is very noticeably doubled). Small wonder he talked of retiring around the time of the film's brief release. Some brief comic relief is provided by Jason Isaacs in his default Patriot mode who overplays Wolfe of Quebec rather like an asthmatic Alf Garnett/Archie Bunker played by Timothy Dalton on speed while Tim Roth's William Pitt stands on the sidelines with the occasional bemused smile of one who's being put up in a rather nice hotel with excellent room service and plenty of days off, though like Colm Meaney's Benjamin Franklin they're both in the film for less than three minutes. (Voltaire and Madame Pompadour pop their heads around the door for a couple of minutes as well but fail to make any impression, comic or otherwise.) The supporting actresses are generally better: Juliette Gosselin and Bianca Gervais as the heroine's real and adopted daughters and a strikingly beautiful Irene Jacob looking for all the world like a young Fanny Ardant are all refreshingly good and deserve much better. Strange that after Atom Egoyan was pretty much ran out of the Canadian film industry on a rail for wasting public money on unprofitable films like The Sweet Hereafter, the National Film Board of Canada should pump cash into this $30m turkey. Strange but, sadly in light of the Canadian film industry's recent history, not that surprising.
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