Eureka: Flesh and Blood

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Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Eureka: Flesh and Blood

#1 Post by Ribs » Wed May 23, 2018 12:14 pm

Paul Verhoeven's film is being released in the Eureka Classics line in August, to be announced formally tomorrow

A deliriously violent medieval epic from genre master Paul Verhoeven ( Robocop, Total Recall), Flesh + Blood sees a savage and amoral band of mercenaries take revenge on the noblemen who betrayed them.

In Western Europe, 1501, a small army of mercenaries led by the charismatic and mercurial Martin ( Rutger Hauer; Blade Runner, The Hitcher) reclaim a heavily fortified castle for its owner Arnolfini, who then betrays the band and ejects them from the city by force. Swearing revenge, Martin leads a violent assault on the nobleman and ends up accidentally kidnapping the beautiful Agnes ( Jennifer Jason Leigh The Hateful Eight), the fiancée of Arnolfini s son Steven, who in turn pledges to wipe out the mercenary group once and for all.

With its vision of a brutal and morally bereft Medieval Europe, the film shocked audiences who had become used to the highly romanticised depictions of the era commonly seen on the big screen. Originally censored in the UK due to its extreme amounts of sex and violence, Eureka Classics is proud to present Flesh + Blood fully uncut, and on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK in a special Dual Format edition.

DUAL FORMAT SPECIAL FEATURES

Limited Edition O-Card slipcase (first print run only)
1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray, with a progressive encode on the DVD.
Uncompressed LPCM audio (on the Blu-ray)
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Audio commentary by director Paul Verhoeven
Paul Verhoeven in the Flesh (21 mins)
An extensive interview with director Paul Verhoeven from 2016, covering the entirety of his career up until that point (45 mins)
Audio interview with actor Rutger Hauer (24 mins)
Interview with screenwriter Gerard Soeteman (17 mins)
Interview with composer Basil Poledoris
Original theatrical trailer
A collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film (first pressing only)
Last edited by Ribs on Thu May 24, 2018 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

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DarkImbecile
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Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
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Re: Eureka: Flesh and Blood

#2 Post by DarkImbecile » Wed May 23, 2018 12:28 pm

This film is mostly a misfire, but successful in subverting the more clean and fantasy-tinged medevial epics of the 1980s, and at least interesting as a bridge between Verhoeven's Dutch and Hollywood periods, with plenty of the violence, sex, sexual violence, disease, depravity, and anti-heroic protagonists that would define much of his career.

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MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
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Re: Eureka: Flesh and Blood

#3 Post by MichaelB » Wed May 23, 2018 1:51 pm

If only the BBC didn't charge a gazillion pounds per second, they could include Michael Parkinson's legendary Film 86 review, which propelled me to the front of the queue as soon as it opened.

(He walked out after 45 minutes, and described why in some detail.)

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Eureka: Flesh and Blood

#4 Post by JamesF » Tue Jun 12, 2018 9:28 am

Parky's review was uploaded to YouTube the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SHviwqFAm0

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