It's hamstrung by leaden dialogue and the motley international cast - Python and the Grail are never that far away - but it's admirably unsentimental and by no means stupid.
Flesh + Blood
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Netherlands, Spain, United States · 1985
2h 6m
Director Paul Verhoeven
Starring Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Burlinson, Jack Thompson
Genre Adventure, Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
A band of medieval mercenaries takes revenge on a noble lord by kidnapping his betrothed son. As the black plague and violent warfare cut a swathe of destruction throughout the continent, the mercenaries hole up in a castle and await their fate.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
CineVue by Christopher Machell
Paul Verhoeven’s first English language film Flesh + Blood is bloody, cynical and unrefined, but indicative of his later satirical tendencies.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
A medieval adventure-love saga in which all the cliches have been turned inside out. Instead of chivalry, the 1985 movie focuses on swinishness and brutality. Instead of love it offers lust and lechery; instead of heroism, pillage and murder. The "instead-ofs" go on and on, leaving us no one to root for and everything and everybody finally a turn-off. [10 July 1988, p.TV2]
Though Flesh + Blood tells a terrific story, written by Verhoeven with his longtime collaborator Gerard Soeteman, the presentation is rough, and not just because the film is packed with gore and rape. Verhoeven doesn't believe in tasteful framing that implies nudity; he prefers the bare-assed variety, the kind that makes the body's frailty plain.
Users who liked this film also liked
Hunting and Gathering
(Ensemble, c'est tout)
Love might be closer than you think.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2007
- Director Claude Berri
- Cast Audrey Tautou, Guillaume Canet, Laurent Stocker, Françoise Bertin, Danièle Lebrun, Marie-France Mignal
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on Hoopla, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, VUDU Free, Kanopy
The Things of Life
(Les Choses de la vie)
After getting into a car crash, a middle-aged architect reflects on his past and present life.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Switzerland, France, Italy • 1970
- Director Claude Sautet
- Cast Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, Lea Massari, Gérard Lartigau, Jean Bouise, Boby Lapointe
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Hoopla, Apple TV, Vudu, Amazon Video, Kanopy
Beowulf
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States, Romania • 1999
- Director Graham Baker
- Cast Christopher Lambert, Rhona Mitra, Oliver Cotton, Götz Otto, Vincent Hammond, Charles Robinson
- Genre Adventure, Fantasy, Action
- Available on Hoopla, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Demons
(Dèmoni)
A group of unrelated people are invited to the screening of a mysterious movie, only to be trapped inside with ravenous demons.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1985
- Director Lamberto Bava
- Cast Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento, Paola Cozzo, Fabiola Toledo
- Genre Horror
- Available on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel, Screambox Amazon Channel, Shudder Amazon Channel, Night Flight Plus, AMC+ Amazon Channel, Shudder Apple TV Channel, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Amazon Video, Pluto TV, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Subspecies
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Romania, United States • 1991
- Director Ted Nicolaou
- Cast Anders Hove, Angus Scrimm, Laura Mae Tate, Irina Movilă, Michelle McBride, Ivan J. Rado
- Genre Horror, Fantasy
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Full Moon Amazon Channel, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Freevee
Romance
A schoolteacher frustrated in her relationship seeks to satisfy her sexual appetites in increasingly risky ways.
- ✭ ✭
- France • 1999
- Director Catherine Breillat
- Cast Caroline Ducey, Sagamore Stévenin, François Berléand, Rocco Siffredi, Reza Habouhossein, Ashley Wanninger
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Vudu, Tubi TV, Kanopy
The Fourth Man
(De vierde man)
An alcoholic writer begins having visions apparently warning him of impending danger.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Netherlands • 1983
- Director Paul Verhoeven
- Cast Jeroen Krabbé, Renée Soutendijk, Thom Hoffman, Dolf de Vries, Geert de Jong, Hans Veerman
- Genre Crime, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Official Story
(La historia oficial)
Our Moving Story
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Argentina • 1985
- Director Luis Puenzo
- Cast Norma Aleandro, Héctor Alterio, Hugo Arana, Guillermo Battaglia, Chela Ruiz, Patricio Contreras
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Cohen Media Amazon Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Kanopy
Fortress
For one teacher and nine children, the lesson of the day is kill or be killed.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Australia • 1985
- Director Arch Nicholson
- Cast Rachel Ward, Sean Garlick, Elaine Cusick, Laurie Moran, Marc Aden Gray, Ray Chubb
- Genre Drama, Horror, Thriller
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Big Doll House
Their bodies were caged, but not their desires. They would do anything for a man - or to him.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Philippines, United States • 1971
- Director Jack Hill
- Cast Judith Brown, Pam Grier, Brooke Mills, Roberta Collins, Pat Woodell, Sid Haig
- Genre Action, Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Freevee, Shout! Factory TV, Plex, Plex Channel
Hammer of the Gods
Blood will Reign
- ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2013
- Director Farren Blackburn
- Cast Charlie Bewley, Clive Standen, James Cosmo, Elliot Cowan, Ivan Kaye, Michael Jibson
- Genre History, Action, Adventure
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Redbox, FlixFling, Crackle, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, VUDU Free, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Wounds
Disturbing things begin happening to a bartender in New Orleans after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States, United Kingdom • 2019
- Director Babak Anvari
- Cast Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, Zazie Beetz, Brad William Henke, Karl Glusman, Christin Rankins
- Genre Horror, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on Hulu
Come to Daddy
A man travels to his estranged fathers remote cabin to reconnect.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada, New Zealand, Ireland • 2019
- Director Ant Timpson
- Cast Elijah Wood, Stephen McHattie, Michael Smiley, Madeleine Sami, Martin Donovan, Ona Grauer
- Genre Comedy, Horror, Thriller
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV
Freaks – You're One of Us
(Freaks – Du bist eine von uns)
Wife. Mother. Waitress. Superhero?
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany • 2020
- Director Felix Binder
- Cast Cornelia Gröschel, Tim Oliver Schultz, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Nina Kunzendorf, Frederic Linkemann, Finnlay Berger
- Genre Drama, Fantasy
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
The Kid Detective
A naive woman brings a once-celebrated kid detective his first ‘adult’ case—to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada • 2020
- Director Evan Morgan
- Cast Adam Brody, Sophie Nélisse, Tzi Ma, Peter MacNeill, Maurice Dean Wint, Jonathan Whittaker
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Mystery
- Available on Starz, Starz Roku Premium Channel, Starz Amazon Channel, Starz Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, AMC on Demand