tvanderweyden This is my first review. Why? Because normally I don't say much about movies, just discuss them with friends. But this movie was so painful to watch, I just have to warn people!I love history and watch a lot of movies that cover a lot of different era's of the worlds (war) history. If you love history as much as I do, don't watch this movie, as it is really, really bad (couldn't believe this movies rating is above 4! too high for this movie).The only decent actor is Rutger Hauer and I have no idea why he agreed to do this movie (must have been a promise to a friend or a lot of money). All other actors, especially the "protagonist", are really painful to watch.Besides that, apart from being based on a historical event, it is very inaccurate (some people stated this before). That doesn't have to be bad as long as the entertaining value is there (look at Braveheart & Kingdom of Heaven for examples; those movies are highly inaccurate, but very entertaining).This movie is also the perfect example that "love stories" are more a burden on a movie than added value. It was not convincing at all and sounded too forced. If this is what Italy has to offer, then please, stop making movies!

Vicki S. Nikolaidis Italian movies about Italian history are the best! The cast of this movie was chosen from throughout Europe, from France to Russia, many of them actors and directors in their own name. Viewers who adore films where soldiers are drugged and immune to their actions, those are the viewers who will be shocked by how war was conducted only a few hundred years ago. No doubt they will interpret passionate emotions as over- acting. Killing another man requires a powerful will in men who wish for peace. Desiring freedom is a part of human nature in most cultures and gives meaning to life for men, women and children. This is a movie for rebels, who value life and liberty. The horrors of war on those who are on the receiving end of preemptive attacks are eloquently shown. Iraqi, Arabian, Greek, Turk, Spanish, Afghani, or in the Americas -change the nationality of the Milanese to any nationality and the pathos (suffering) of human beings is the same. The best version is in Italian, so for those who cannot understand Italian or find a version with English subtitles - the English dubbed version is the presentation of less quality; but well worth a watch.

Dr Sky Tower There was a lot of the same horse sound effects being used for every single horse scene (of which there are many). The end battle scene was OK. It just took 120 minutes to get there. So whilst waiting for the big money scene, you are forced to sit through a boring, impossible romance, some boring politics, some peasants trying to take on the bad guys, and one peasant fellow who was probably the most useless character in the entire movie.Not one of the characters was engaging. The movie spends a lot of time with a feral witch female character who looks like she was born in the jungle. She spends a lot of time crawling around on all fours like a rabid mutt, sniffing the ground and her boyfriend, and peering at the camera through dirty oily curtains of hair. She also spends the majority of time wearing a potato sack for clothes. What exactly did the BF see in this dirty little rat creature again? Oh, and she had magical powers.After the prerequisite love scene (interspersed with the death of her sister, how utterly original) you'd think things would start moving. Nope, it takes another hour. The end is an impossible-to-read narration of events that happens, but at least our hero lives happily ever after with his feral wife and they have lots of children together.This looked like it was made for TV. The production values were strangely cheap looking and the same locations were used to portray totally different places. How utterly boring.1/10

jimakros This is about the campaigns to conquer Italy of German Emperor Frederick ,whom the Italians called Barbarossa because he had a red beard.Its obvious that a movie of this scope would need a Hollywood grade-A budget and basically everything grade-A.They didn't have it in this movie,they tried with second-grade actors like Rutger Hauer and a mediocre budget.Which means its not exactly cheap,some battle scenes are pretty decent but its also not exactly satisfying in size and scope of such events.If they had managed to bring to life such historical events,they would be worthy of academy awards.That said,its not bad as a mediocre medieval movie,but its just too small for the story it is undertaking.They could have limited themselves to a smaller part of the Barbarossa campaigns.Yet,for people who like medieval historical movies with battle scenes,its an OK effort.