Motion Picture: Ironclad.
Directed by Jonathan English.
Inspite of making no claims of being a 100% historically accurate movie, Ironclad with its twelfth century feudal England settings, characters loosely inspired by actual figures and story line that masterfully brings out the tension and turmoil coursing through the veins of the age, can leave you hooked for infinite re-runs.
Based on the reign of King John, the controversial English Monarch who ruled England after the death of his more famous brother, Richard the Lion Heart, the movie focuses on the Baronial revolt that plunged England into a state of civil war in the twelfth century and the historically true battle fought over Rochester Castle, located in present day Kent, South East England.
Like preceding Robin Hood movies, the script does not hesitate to weigh the virtues and vices of John with the eyes of a historian but instead casts him in the popular role of villain, choosing to portray the Barons and their allies, who fought to be free of his tyrannical rule, in heroic light.
Starring James Purefoy (Mark Anthony in the mini series Rome), Brian Cox (Agamemnon in Troy released 2004), Derek Jacobi (Alexander Corvinus in Underworld: Evolution) and Paul Giamatti (The amazing Spider-man 2) as King John, the film is a gripping action epic with knights and barons embroiled in a clash of ancient arms that refuses to yield from the beginning to the bloody end.
