Flesh + Blood (1985) – Verhoeven’s Medieval Plague Nightmare

Some films wear armour. Others just roll in the dirt and let the wounds speak for themselves. Paul Verhoeven’s Flesh + Blood (1985) is the latter. A filthy, blood-soaked medieval fever dream where the sword is never clean, the motives are never noble, and love comes laced with plague.

It’s a film that starts with a corpse hanging from a tree and gets grimmer from there.

Is it a good movie? That depends. Looking for a romanticised epic with swelling violins and heroic speeches? Keep walking. But if you want betrayal, brutality, and the kind of mud-stained realism that smells faintly of rot—this might be your chalice.

A skull for a throne. A raven for a crown. Welcome to 1501.

The Plague Years: What’s It All About?

Set in 1501 but really set in the chaotic heart of human nature, Flesh + Blood follows a band of mercenaries led by Rutger Hauer’s Martin—equal parts knight, bandit, and mad dog off the leash. After being double-crossed by their noble employer, they do what any medieval startup would: hijack a castle, kidnap a noblewoman (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and build their own anarchic kingdom out of violence, lust, and desperation.

Meanwhile, the jilted young nobleman (Tom Burlinson) tries to win her back with science, honour, and a complete lack of charisma.

It’s not so much a love triangle as a knife fight in a burning chapel.

What Works: Grit, Guts, and Rutger

  • Rutger Hauer owns the screen. Martin is charming and monstrous—a man who laughs while stabbing and seduces between sword swings. He’s not a hero. He’s a force of nature with better hair than anyone in 1501 deserves.

  • Verhoeven doesn’t flinch. There’s no romance to the blood, no poetry to the plague. This isn’t medieval cosplay—it’s raw, grimy, and disturbingly believable. The mud is practically a character.

  • The moral compass is broken, and that’s the point. No one’s clean. Every character is compromised, clawing for survival in a world where God has either left the building or is watching for sport.

  • Jennifer Jason Leigh does the impossible—playing a victim, a survivor, and a manipulator all at once. Her Agnes shifts roles like armour—whichever protects her best.

  • Basil Poledouris’s score is thunderous, operatic, gloriously over the top. It sounds like it’s scoring the end of the world, which fits.

What Falls Flat: Mud Without Meaning?

  • The film’s tone walks a razor blade. Some will see daring realism. Others will see misogyny and moral nihilism masquerading as “grit.” It doesn’t offer easy answers. Sometimes it doesn’t offer any.

  • The pacing stumbles. There’s a dragging middle where the carnage dulls and the tension unravels. You begin to wonder if you’ve been locked in that castle too long yourself.

  • The science-vs-religion subplot feels undercooked—like a philosophy student wandered onto the battlefield mid-exam.

  • The sexual violence—and there is plenty—is treated with Verhoeven’s signature provocativeness. That may be the point, but it will split the room. It’s less about titillation and more about dominance, but it’s still hard to watch—and harder to justify.

Verhoeven’s Europe: No Honour, Just Hunger

Before Robocop and Total Recall, Verhoeven made European films that punched through comfort like a morning star to the gut. Flesh + Blood was his English-language debut—and it nearly broke him.

Hollywood wanted a fantasy adventure. Verhoeven gave them syphilis and betrayal.

He wanted to make a film about how people behave when God is gone, when power is everything, and when the line between rape and romance is blurred beyond morality. He succeeded. Uncomfortably so.

⚔ Real History: Italy, 1501 — Mercenaries, Plague, and No God in Sight

The world of Flesh + Blood isn’t fantasy—it’s just Italy in 1501, slightly turned up.

This was a time when the peninsula wasn’t a nation but a battleground. City-states like Florence, Venice, and Naples clawed for dominance while France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire circled like vultures. Loyalty was a coin toss, and war wasn’t fought by patriots—it was outsourced to mercenaries.

These soldiers for hire—condottieri—were thugs with banners, selling their swords to the highest bidder and changing sides whenever the wine ran out. Some carved out entire kingdoms. Most just looted, pillaged, and died of plague in a ditch. Their contracts (condotte) were business deals dressed up in Latin, and the battlefield was often just a means to a better pension.

Flesh + Blood gets this exactly right. Martin’s gang of backstabbers, grave robbers, and plague-dodgers aren’t exaggerations—they’re echoes of real bands of cutthroat opportunists that once roamed the Italian countryside like wolves in borrowed armour.

The plague, too, isn’t set dressing. The Black Death never really left Europe—it came in waves, wiping out towns, collapsing morale, and leaving priests muttering prayers through damp handkerchiefs. Science hadn’t caught up. God had gone quiet. And the bones piled higher.

In this world, honour was a slogan, not a code. And Verhoeven, bless him, didn’t try to clean it up. He just gave us history with the scabs still showing.

The Verdict: A Beautifully Rotten Epic

Flesh + Blood is not for the faint-hearted or the morally fastidious. It’s bold, brutal, and indifferent to your need for heroes.

It’s about the moment the fairy tale dies—and something darker takes its place.

Final Score: 7/10
 A medieval nightmare soaked in blood and ambition. Not a film to love—but one you won’t forget.

 


 🔗 Further Reading – History & Film

🛡️ History (Medieval Mercenaries & Plaque)

  1. Condottieri in Renaissance Italy – Encyclopaedia Britannica
    Authoritative overview of Italian mercenary leaders and their historical impact.

  2. Condottiero – Wikipedia
    Detailed breakdown of condotte contracts, tactics, and notable mercenary figures.

  3. Venice and the Plague – History Workshop
     Masks, mass graves, and death drifting in with the tide.

  1. Paul Verhoeven: Cinema’s Savage Satirist – BFI
    In‑depth retrospective on Verhoeven’s career, including his unflinching early European works.

  2. Flesh + Blood (1985) – A Brutal, Unforgiving Feast – RogerEbert.com
    A modern critical appraisal exploring the film’s realism, controversy, and lasting legacy.

  3. Review: Flesh+Blood (1985) – Slant Magazine
    A sharp analysis of the film’s moral ambiguity, tone, and the performance of Rutger Hauer.

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