"Believe it or not this movie makes you think and it is GOOD."
Rarely do you find a movie that makes an important point, and gets it across in an entertaining fashion.Some archaeological students researching a site find a note from their professor asking to be rescued. The existence of the note shows the professor is trapped in 14th century France. The students go back to 14th century France via a time machine to save their professor. The students have to live through many pitfalls and remain alive until they can be rescued.
In the opening scenes one of the teachers is explaining a point of history with little toy soldiers. When the battle is explained, it is too abstract to seem like a real battle where people die. However, when the time travelers are dropped into the actual battle it is like being dropped into the middle of hell. Therefore when you see the reality of the battle (and not the toy soldier version) it is obvious how bad war is. Thus, the movie points out the reality of the war through the contrast between the academic explanation of the battle and the experience of the real battle.
Like many time travel movies, this move has several faults.
The error that bothered me the most was when a soldier would say “fire” when commanding archers to shoot an arrow. Saying this does not make sense because would one not know to say “fire” if firearms had not been invented. (In “Gladiator” they say “loose.” This makes more sense and seems real.)
Another error was the language. The time travelers would not be able to talk to the locals in either French or English. In the 14th century the English spoken was Chaucer’s English, which is (now) almost impossible to read, and, if read aloud, hard to understand. (Spoken by a native, I’ll bet we could not understand it, and I am sure the same would be true for early French.) I didn’t worry about this error as we have to accept it in order to have a movie. I just wish there would be a way to incorporate the language issue in a believable way.
The paradoxes of time travel are always evident in time travel movies, but not too obvious in this one. I won’t go into them here and ruin the movie for you. I’ll leave It to you to figure them out.
Now, after pointing out the above glaring faults, I would like to mention the good points about the movie.
It was fast moving and gives a good idea of reality of war. Some of the time travelers died almost immediately after arriving in the middle of the war zone because they got themselves into a situation they were not prepared for. (They were expecting some quaint past and got hell instead.)
Characterization was excellent and believable. Billy Connoly in a dramatic role was a treat.Don’t listen to those who rubbish this movie. Go find out for yourself if it is any good. I believe if you take the time to look at this movie with an open mind, you will fine that it is a great film with an important point to make.
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