Black Death

Let’s watch Sean Bean die… for the 23rd time.

The term Black Death refers to one of the most annihilating pandemics of all time, occurring from 1346-1353 AD.  Several types of the plague spread primarily in Europe, killing up to 200 million people.  This provoked relentless social, fiscal and religious disorder.  Most of all, people such as Jews, lepers, women or anyone who looked funky, were blamed by religious extremists for causing the contamination.  Customarily punishable by death.  Duuh ;)

The film opens during the onset of the bubonic plague in England.  Osmund (Eddie Redmayne), is a young monk living in a monastery.  He spends his days anointing the afflicted and offering last rites.  It’s divulged that Osmund has broken his holy vows to God and has fallen in love with a young girl named Averill (Kimberley Nixon).  Fearing for her health, the monk insists that she vacate the area to escape the plague.  Averill desires for Osmund to flee with her, and tells him that she will wait for him in the woods for one week.  Afraid to exasperate the lord again, Osmund prays to God to give him a sign of approval.  Immediately thereafter, Ulric (Sean Bean), a delegate from the bishop, arrives in their town.  He is in search of an escort to lead his band of rebels to a specific village that has remained intact during the plague - which also happens to be neighboring Averill’s meeting spot.  Osmund takes this as a gesture from the almighty, and submits himself to the group.  He is unaware that the men are enroute to capture the town’s alleged necromancer - a person who can resurrect the dead.  The expedition surely succeeds in putting Osmund’s love and faith for his lord to the utmost test.    

Minus the stylistic aspect, the plot of this movie is everything I wanted Valhalla Rising to be.   The narrative evolved and transformed over and over.  It engaged my interest the entire time.  Not to mention, it was chock-full of rotting plague victims, accusations, burning witches, torture - the whole nine yards.  As mentioned before, Black Death counts the 23rd time Sean Bean has been killed on screen - and I promise, this may be one of the more gruesome occasions.  After refusing to denounce God, an imprisoned Ulric is tied to four horses and quartered.  Ouch.  The whole movie is only made more daunting by throwing the religious perspective in there.  There’s just something about manic religion that gives me the hebejebes.  

In a way, it was almost like watching a combination of Valhalla Rising and Game of Thrones.  If you are a fan of either of those, you will most likely appreciate Christopher Smith’s Black Death - which comes in at #21.  

You can stream this movie online via Netflix. Get the DVD via Amazon. Or purchase via Apple iTunes and Youtube.