Black Death (Blu-ray) (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Featurette-Making Of-Bringing Black Death to Life (11.34) Interviews-Cast & Crew Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	101:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Christopher Smith
Studio Distributor	Eagle Entertainment	Starring	Dario Poloni Eddie Redmayne Sean Bean Carice van Houten David Warner Kimberley Nixon David Masterson Tim McInnerny
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	Christian Henson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (3254Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     British director Christopher Smith is a dab hand when it comes to depicting the brutality that man inflicts on others; his Creep and Severance were bloody depictions of people hunted by would-be killers. His soon-to-be-released on DVD Triangle is a supernatural thriller set on an ocean liner. Smith turns the clock back to 1348 for Black Death which, as the title may suggest, is no romantic comedy. Instead it is about a bunch of hardened knights and killers on the trail of a necromancer. Though widely promoted as a horror film this is instead a moody drama film with sporadic violence to keep genre fans happy.

     1348 was a pretty bad year to be a European. The Black Death had swept the land taking almost half the population with it. This was no easy death; the plague, with its boils and vomiting blood was a cruel and violent end. Little wonder then that those of strong religious faith saw this as a punishment from God for the failings of men and an incitement to drive out wickedness in the name of the almighty.

     In a monastery in England Osmund, a young monk (Eddie Remayne), is faced with several challenges. The numbers of monks are dwindling and each day the bodies of the common folk pile up outside. He is a conflicted young man as he has failed to fully renounce sins of the flesh and is in love with a villager Averil (Kimberley Nixon). He urges her to escape the plague by going to the forest and she agrees, but implores him to join her. But how can he abandon God?

     Into the monastery comes Ulric (Sean Bean), a knight on a mission from the Bishop. It is said that there lies a village some distance away in the marshes where the people are untouched by the plague and witchcraft, not faith, is the reason. He is charged with the duty of catching the head witch, believed to be a necromancer (capable of raising the dead) and bring it back for interrogation. Desperate to leave, Osmund agrees to be their guide into the marshes. Outside the monastery Osmund is introduced to the grim band of killers that Ulric has gathered to meet the challenges on the road. They are ex-soldiers, each one a scarred shell of a man: Wolfstan (John Lynch) is the rare level headed former soldier, Dalywag (Andy Nyman) the psychotic torturer, Ivo (Tygo Gernandt) a mute, Mold (Johnny Harris), Griff (Jamie Ballard) and Swire (Emun Elliott).

     The troupe descend deeper into the forest, away from society, into an increasingly strange world. Director Smith compares the film to the journey into the heart of darkness to find Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. Death lurks around every corner. When Edmund slips away to meet Averil he finds bandit killers instead and the blood soaked clothes of his beloved. By the time the group reaches the village their numbers have dwindled. What they find is a seemingly utopian society. The plague has not touched them and under the gentle ward ship of Hob (Tim McInnerny) and the beautiful Langiva (Carice van Houten) they have thrived. Of course, the dangerously fanatical Ulric senses the absence of God bringing forward a dangerous conflict between the villagers and the newcomers. But is Langiva a necromancer or just a realist in a world god has forgotten?

     Black Death was wholly funded through Germany and filmed in that country. As a result it looks and feels different from an English film. The use of Dutch actress van Houten, previously seen as the lead in Black Book, also gives a slightly otherworldly atmosphere. Sean Bean has kept his medieval costume on from Lord of the Rings and is keeping it on until he finishes filming the Game of Thrones series for HBO. He suits the role as the knight dedicated to destroying anything anti-Christian to a tee. There is always an elephant in the room when making a film about the Black Death and the moment plague victims start being wheeled around on carts and an ugly villager shouts “She's a witch, burn her!” it is hard not to think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The presence of Tim McInnerny also risks a Blackadder snigger. Chris Smith was aware of this risk and went for a sober approach far from the black humour of his earlier works, in particular Severance), without a hint of humour to avoid the connection. As a result it is closer to The Name of the Rose and The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey in presenting a medieval world which is dark and dirty without overplaying the boils and burning. There are also hints of The Wicker Man and John Fowles' novel The Magus.

That sobriety will, however, put some off as the film is often a hard slog with very few action scenes to liven up the proceedings. One for fans of the era.

Video

     Black Death was shot on 35mm film and shown in cinemas at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. That ratio has been preserved for this Blu-ray release.

     Assessing the video quality of the film is a little difficult for a couple of reasons. Smith has filmed the movie using "Shaky-cam" and drained the print of colour to make it look more raw and real. This means that we rarely get moments to analyse the quality of the transfer and the colours and flesh tones are deliberately stripped down to look cold and grim. The close-ups however, particularly of van Houten's lovely face, do show off the wonders of high definition. Also, a lot of the film is in murky light or fog-bound which shows up the grain structure.

     These are criticisms or, rather, limitations of the original film not the Blu-ray. This is as good as the film has or will look and fans will find nothing to be unhappy about in this transfer.

     There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired which give a good account of on-screen action. The subtitles are coloured differently for each of the characters to allow a viewer to follow who is speaking.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Black Death comes with an English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack as well as a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 track running at 640Kb/s.

     The dialogue can all be heard clearly. The surrounds are put to good use not only for ambience but also for directional effect during the battle scenes. The sub-woofer is engaged frequently, mainly to support the soundtrack. The actors appear to be in audio-sync.

     The music is by hard-working British composer Christopher Henson who contributes a moody synth based score to the proceedings.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     There are a few extras on the Blu-ray.

Bringing Black Death to Life (11.34)

     This featurette spends a little too much time on the backslapping with cast and crew extolling the virtues of director Chris Smith and lead Sean Bean. It does have some virtues though as there is a lot of on-set footage (the actors are interviewed in costume).

Interviews

     There are a wealth of on-set, in costume, interviews here including the producers, directors and cast members totalling about 30 minutes. Chris Smith and Sean Bean get the most airtime though it is good to see at least some comment from the actors playing the more minor roles.

     The interview material was used to feed the Making of feature so it is not all fresh but there are some interesting comments. Topics centre around the usual; attraction to the project, working with the cast and crew and filming on location.

Gallery-Photo

     A series of on-set photos.

    Early reports suggest that the film does not have the interviews in other Regions.

    Black Death is a little bit difficult to place. It is not rapid enough for action fans, not gory or scary enough for horror fans and drama lovers might find it a bit slow. The transfer is fine and consistent with the cinematic presentation of the film. The extras are lengthy but a bit disorganized.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall