I’ll say up front two things about BLACK DEATH. The first is that it is a well made film, photographed well, acted well, directed well. The second is that it falls into a category of film I’ve tired of: trying to make Christians look responsible for every bad thing to ever happen in the world.
The time is 1342 and England is being ravaged by the Black Plague. The smell of death floats across the air in every corner of every location that exists. The dead are carted to the roadside to be taken away and rotting corpses are nothing unusual.
A monastery is no safer from the plague than anywhere else. Monks are dying just as the everyday citizens are. Young Osmond (Eddie Redmayne) is a monk early on in his life. Having sworn his life to God he also has done the forbidden by falling in love with childhood friend Averill (Kimberly Nixon). Insisting she leave town before she falls victim to the plague, she gives him a last chance: abandon God and follow me. She tells him she will wait for one week in the town they grew up in and then move on with her life.
Once Averill leaves a new group enters. This is an emissary of the Bishop, a warrior named Ulric (Sean Bean) who is en route to find a town where it is said no one dies or is affected by the plague. He’s looking for a guide and Osmond, having just asked God for a sign what to do, jumps at the chance since the town they seek is next to the one he grew up in. That town holds the chance of returning to Averill.
The journey is slow moving as the men walk and one cart is pulled along, a cart that contains the tools of torture used to force confessions of witchcraft and necromancy from helpless victims. The warriors that accompany Ulric all have their own short tales to tell, how they came to this place and what they expect to find. Bloodthirsty and ready for action they get their chance early on.
Near the town, Osmond sneaks off one morning to see if Averill awaits. To his dismay he only finds her cape drenched in blood and a group of thieves, weapons drawn. Osmond runs back and alerts the warriors who take up arms and battle the larger numbered thieves. They win but at what costs as one of their own lies dying and Osmond is wounded.
Moving forward they come to the marshland that holds the mysterious city they are searching for. They enter and find the inhabitants at first inhospitable, but after pretending to seek sanctuary they are welcomed to spend the night. A pale and well groomed woman takes Osmond with her and tends to his wound with a poultice. The rest wander about trying to figure out which one is the necromancer, the wizard, that has taken this village under his wing.
At dinner they discover that there may be more than meets the eye in this group. Are they truly bewitched? Are they pagans, worshipping the devil himself? Or is it just that this town is lucky? Perhaps they’ve discovered a secret that keeps them alive.
In short order (and hopefully without giving too much away) a confrontation involving the warriors being forced to recant their beliefs in order to stay alive is offered and a discussion about the horrors inflicted on many because of their belief in Christianity ensues. Christians are depicted as believe like me or die while pagans are shown as understanding and compassionate yet eventually acting the same way. Follow my way or die. A twist ending feels more tacked on than a part of the whole.
While both sides are shown to have terrible flaws in their religious backgrounds and thinking, the more damaging presentation is tossed at Christians. Certainly if you go back and check history you will find that Christians did some terrible things in the name of God (anyone ever heard of the Inquisition?). But if all you had to go by was this film you’d think Christians did nothing but attempt to exterminate people and that pagans just wanted to be left to their own devices. The truth is a combination. Both sides did wrong at one time or another. To depict one as being more aggressive at it just shows us another movie maker taking a swipe at Christians.
One thing this movie definitely illustrates. Those of us who can remember far back know of a time when Hollywood made movies like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, KING OF KINGS and BEN HUR. All of these movies painted Christianity in a good light. With the inclusion of historical “accuracy” into films in the late 60s, things changed. It was no longer considered cool. Weird religions started popping up and those new age followings were given a wider birth to be explored than Christianity. So what happened? Why did it become wrong to believe in God? And why is it that the only religion that seems to be fair game is Christianity?
I can’t give an answer to that other than to believe offers more restrictions than these new age religions. And God knows Hollywood doesn’t want to be restricted from anything.
In any event out of 5 stars I would give this movie 3 just for the quality of the production. Were it on content alone I’d have to slide down to 2. But if it were rated on the basis of how much it would offend or upset someone its 5 stars all the way. Perhaps I took it to hard or too serious. Then again that just might show the strength of my beliefs and their lack of the same.
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