>>5864313recently I watched the Paul Verhoeven (Starship Troopers director guy) film Flesh + Blood (1985) which apparently inspired Berserk and also is based very tangentially upon Renaissance history with the mercenary Hawkwood etc.
This film possesses the EXACT AESTHETICS of OSR and I would also say those black and white illustrations from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition hehe, the costumes and look of the characters is a complete embodiment of the look of WFRP 1e, the cast of Blade Runner appears to be here with Rutger Hauer and some other replicants lol also that bloke who burnt his hand in Indiana Jones Raiders Of The Lost Ark? There are camp followers and mercenaries and lots of slashed doublets and swords and breastplates and things.
This film exhibits incredible moral complexity, it felt like the narrative is turning moralistic somersaults which confounds and utterly bewilders the audience: the hero good guy does a rape? So he is bad? But the abducted noblewoman loves him now? So he is good? The bad antagonist man tricks the good guy and betrays him, withholding all their mercenary pay and confiscating their weapons, so he is bad? But he saves a nun, so he is good? But now he flings some mutilated plague corpses at the good guy, so he is bad? But the bad nobleman's son is good, because he is trying to rescue the abducted woman his beloved? But he poisons the well with a plague dog corpse, so he is bad? I was incredibly impressed by the contorted and shifting allegiances and morality of this film, it felt like at any moment any of the characters might kill/torture/rape/mutilate each other or conversely befriend each other and both do indeed happen. Also the soundtrack is by Basil Poledouris lol he did the Conan one, this is not quite as iconic, but this film opens with some impressive mass battlefield scenes (actually lacking in the Conan films themselves), I was impressed by the costumes and armaments. In fact, I had heard of this film a long time ago (it is hyperviolent and features a lot of bizarre nudity) for some reason, I was turned off by the cover image and what I thought was Rutger Hauer's silly looking sword... this was long before I learnt what a zweihander was lol. The most surreal scene of this film is a love proposal that occurs beneath the dangling and decomposing limbs of two garrotted corpses swinging from an impromptu gallows tree. Everything else is sunlit meadows, flower blossoms, romantic lighting, innocence and idealism and bashful naivety. There is just the raw gristle bone joints of a rotting skeletal foot in between the young lovers and their blissful faces.