The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, November 16-22
Flesh + Blood (1985)
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Verhoeven so rarely got to say precisely what was on his mind, wrapping his arch political discourse in sarcastic violence and crunchy edifice. He fed Americans a steady diet of their own hypocritical reflection by telling them it was fantasy. Before that, he gave us Flesh + Blood, a bloody, pulpy religious bolero. Rutger Hauer leads a ragged bunch of bloodthirsty mercenaries on a righteous quest for freedom and vengeance after their last patron turned on them in the middle of a bout of raping and pillaging. They kidnap a lord’s son’s bride-to-be, commandeer a castle, and wait for fortune to find them. Verhoeven plays an interesting (and as usual giddily despicable) game with the kidnapped princess (Jennifer Jason Leigh). She’s soon playing all the mercenaries like an orchestra conductor, not only to stay out of mortal danger but to see if she can’t spin a sweeter deal out of her captivity than she would have married to a nobleman. All the while the blood, disease, sick and fervor all slosh together in a trough. Until Elle, this was his best film, so just try not to lap it up. Scout Tafoya (November 20, 3:30pm at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Total Verhoeven”)