Flesh and Blood (1985)

Original title

Flesh + Blood

Directed by

Paul Verhoeven

Genre

drama film, action film, adventure film, war film, erotic film

Country

Netherlands, United States, Spain

Runtime

2h 08m

Rated

R

Rating

6.6 of 10 from 444 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In 1501 Italy, two rival groups of mercenaries fight a long-running feud. The story follows their violent conflict and the people caught in the middle.

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What happens

Flesh and Blood is a 1985 erotic historical adventure film directed by Paul Verhoeven, and starring Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Burlinson, Susan Tyrrell, Ronald Lacey, Bruno Kirby and Jack Thompson. The script was written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman. The story is set in 1501 in early modern Italy, and follows two warring groups of mercenaries and their longstanding quarrel. The script is partly based on unused material for the Dutch television series Floris, which was the debut for Verhoeven, Soeteman and Hauer. The film, originally titled God's Own Butchers, was also known as The Rose and the Sword on early VHS releases. It was Verhoeven's first English-language film. Upon its release in August 1985, Flesh and Blood was a box office bomb, earning only US$100,000 on a US$6.5 million production budget. The film has since garnered a small cult following. The director's biographer called it "a crucial Verhoeven film, because the fight between logic and spirituality is one that is very familiar to the director; these are the elements still fighting for priority in his own mind." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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