Despite the big opening scene, Ironclad is a historic epic focusing on a single siege of Rochester Castle. It tells a little-known story of what happened after King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta, one of the most important documents in our history. Believe it or not, this was the first document explicitly stating that the king and his government were not above the law. The year 1215 and King John wasn’t ready to let go of the reigns of power. Opposite him, a band of honorable men decide to fight for justice. What follows is a classic tale of good versus evil.
Ironclad is a bit messy and raw retelling of that tale. It makes up for the lack of epic scenes with realistically brutal fights. Fights in which severed limbs will be flying left and right. Director Jonathan English chose to use as little CGI as possible. This means that all of this bloody mayhem was done using good old prosthetics and practical effects. I just wish that the camera work was better. Alas, we will again have to work hard to try and figure out what’s going on because of the shaky camera. At least when there’s no fighting, the camera and framing are excellent.
Moreover, performances by a veteran cast added even more flavor and authenticity. In the lead role, we find James Purefoy, whom you might remember from Solomon Kane and Rome. His brooding screen presence created an atmosphere of its own along with solemn Kate Mara. Paul Giamatti plays villains so well that King John was a piece of cake for him. He filmed his role in just seven days. Brian Cox, who was King Agamemnon in Troy, didn’t get a lot of screen time, which is a shame. And the same goes for Charles Dance.
Finally, it was so good to see Vladimir Kulich play a big Norseman again like in The 13th Warrior. Ironclad is not a perfect movie. The character development is a bit off and the pacing varies wildly. Additionally, I would cut about 30 minutes of footage and ditch the forced romantic subplot. However, the strength of the story along with performances and raw visuals make it worth watching. I should also add that the real defense of the castle included around 75 to 150 highly trained soldiers and not around 20 like in this movie.
Of course, if we’re speaking about siege movies, Kingdom of Heaven is confidently sitting on the throne. Blood for the Blood God, skulls for the Skull Throne! And I guess that Khorne’s slogan describes Iron Clad well. I guess they knew that the bloody fights were their strongest feature so we will get one every fifteen minutes. At certain points, the whole thing looks like straight out of a splatter horror movie. The sets were also quite believable. Everything looks so grimy and dirty adding to the overall realism of the movie.
Rochester Castle was recreated at the Dragon International Studios in Wales. The production also used the real St. Donats Castle, Vale of Glamorgan also located in Wales. If you’re looking for movies like Ironclad, do check out Black Death, Centurion, and The Eagle. And if you’re interested in movies about Templar Knights, Pilgrimage is a great choice.
Director: Jonathan English
Writers: Jonathan English, Erick Kastel, Stephen McDool
Cast: Paul Giamatti, James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Kate Mara, Jason Flemyng, Charles Dance, Jamie Foreman
Fun Facts: The swords the templars use in this movie are historically accurate. Templars usually had two swords, one smaller and one huge, two-handed sword that could cut a man in half.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233301/
