4.0 out of 5 stars
Potent anti-war film from John Huston, January 6, 2012
This review is from: A Walk with Love and Death (DVD)
During the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) between France and England, a young student (Assaf Dayan) and a young noblewoman (17 year old Anjelica Huston, still a novice at acting but looking quite lovely) attempt to escape the slaughter by fleeing to the sea and, hopefully, a ship to freedom. Along the way, they find destruction, vengeance, cruelty even from the Church itself while keeping their love alive. While absolutely an anti-war film, the director John Huston doesn't preach to us the insanity of war, he shows us. As these two young lovers, almost still children, walk through the nightmarish existence and images of carnage and havoc, your heart breaks for them realizing it's only a matter of time before they become victims of its apocalypse. The acting is rather primitive (contemporary reviews were particularly unkind to Ms. Huston) but this isn't a film where acting is all that important. Huston's direction keeps the storyline compelling enough to hold our interest. The virile cinematography is by Edward Scaife (DIRTY DOZEN) and there's an eloquent score by Georges Delerue to accompany it. With John Huston as Anjelica's uncle, Michael Gough, Robert Lang and Anthony Higgins.
The MC-One DVD via Germany is an above average anamorphic wide screen (1.85) transfer with the soundtrack in either English or German. I can't speak for the Spanish version (which I hear is poor) or the British DVD (which I hear is quite nice).
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