Hearts and Armour

I have managed to locate this film on video, but according to Leonard Maltin, it was originally made as a TV mini-series. Does anyone know any information about the length of this particular version, how many parts, etc, and whether it was made for the US or Italy. If you liked this a little, try looking for Giacomo Battiato's BLOOD TIES. The 98 minute version is good, but try to hunt for the original 4-part 4 hour mini-series. A much better story and a damn good film to boot!

We don't get many medieval-fantasy films these days, especially ones with beautiful women, gore, realistic fight scenes, and some of the best crafted armor from the dark ages.

The glorious part about Hearts and Armor is that it absolutely does live up to its name. The tale is themed around love, but the most visually striking thing about the film is the awesome armor.

I know I'm throwing around the word "awesome" a lot, but that's because there's really nothing like this film out there. I don't even remember how I came across it but I'm glad I did and it was well worth the watch.

Keep in mind that this isn't a fancy Hollywood flick, so the choreography is perfectly applicable to the period and fairly realistic in the tactics the combatants use to fight.

One thing I really like about the film is that unarmored foes are dispatched pretty easily here. Piercing, slashing, and thrusting attacks result in usually fairly quick and gory results. Even with armor it's not always a safe bet the combatants will escape unscathed.

The thing that impressed me the most was how throughout the film (and the fights) the armor gets dinged, dented, and systematically destroyed. This film is kind of bizarre insofar that it has some fantasy elements but also tries to keep a lot of the combat encounters grounded and fairly realistic.

It's a difficult movie to rate, because the plot is a little incoherent, or rather non-linear. It doesn't have a typical Point-A to Point-B plot line, but the theme stays consistent and that's part of what helps draw viewers in.

It's also somewhat unpredictable in a way. You can't always tell how the fights will go. The thing that impressed me most, though, was HOW the weapons were used. They have a lot of clever but realistic weapons from that era and you get to see how clawed weapons are used to strip away armor, how ridged weapons are used to break swords, and how long weapons can be used to dismount horse riders. I was really impressed with the broad range of weapons on display. Also, the fact they included hammers as being used to break bones and disable limbs of foes was quite unique, given that we rarely ever actually see that in films.

It's not perfect, and you probably won't be able to get your hands on a quality HD print, but my gosh any fan of medieval-fantasy films owe it to themselves to give this one a watch. Absolutely fantastic entertainment.

I didn´t knew this was made as a television series. If it was, certainly doesn´t show, at least in the version i have on video. I don´t know what editing was done here, but it certainly works just fine.

This might look like a B movie, (and most certain it is), but in my view this story didn´t needed any more production values to be told. If this would look more produced, certainly it would have lost all his authentic look and feel and it would look like another knights movie, (or should i say, unrealistic adventures with knights, american movie)

PALADINI is just fine the way it looks, because it manages to create a very accurate depiction of the days it tries to portrait. And i live in the exact same area of the globe where those types of events occurred, 700 years ago more or less. The type of situations depicted in PALADINI are a part of the History in my country Portugal, (more exactly in the region where i live the Algarve), as well as they are part of Spain and the south of France.

I really like the story in PALADINI. It seems taken out of one of the many legends and historical events that i know from my History classes back in high school. True it´s a simple story, but many times these are the best, and this movie didn´t needed more to be a good depiction of those days of the Arabic invasions to the south of Europe a long time ago.

As a knights movie is probably my favorite ever. I liked EXCALIBUR for example (and it´s truly a superior movie), but it always feels a bit artificial. Specially when compared to the looks in PALADINI, which couldn´t feel more historically correct.

So, i don´t know, how many versions of PALADINI are out there, but the one i have is certainly very good, and it doesn´t feels like a television work at all.

Maybe people are mistaking the lack of an american style in this, for a bad B movie, wich it isn´t. It´s just European comercial cinema. And a very good one.

My version runs for about 100 minutes, by the way and i advise everyone to find it, if you want to finaly see a movie in which knights are depicted with a realistic feel. There aren´t even good guys and bad guys in this movie. just persons who live in a dangerous time.

An excellent movie.

This was shown in a first run theatre in the Philippines under the title Hearts and Armour.

Now that I know from the other reviewers that this was originally a TV series, I begin to understand why the plot was so disjointed and somewhat incoherent when I saw it on its movie run.

It is the time of the crusades when knights from the Christian and Muslim sides sought to outdo one another in chivalrous single combat.

The dramatic acting was "over" especially of the women but the fight scenes were great. The photography and the scenic landscapes are treats to the artistic eye.

The ornate Italian Renaissance armors are gems. Never mind that by the time such armors were made, the Crusades against the Moors were over.

I saw a Manila jeepney (a public conveyance in the Philippines), known for their ornate decorations, on which motifs from the film were used and even displaying the English title Hearts and Armor. There was also an embossed shield. A Manila jeepney driver who fantasizes about being an Italian knight? Who says blue collar workers are prosaic and pedestrian? It would be helpful if a DVD version of the entire series is released so we can better appreciate the story and critique it with justice. By the way, there are Mexican film versions of the book on which it was based.

When I first rented a copy of the film, I thought it would just be another Medieval oater, but was pleasantly surprised to discover it had classic roots. It's a retelling of the Song of Roland. As Excalibur was the best incarnation of Le Morte d'Arthur, and Dark Kingdom was an incarnation of the Nordic Nibelungen Ring Cycle, the roots of this go back to the legends of Charlemagne, most specifically, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.

Naturally, the story is abbreviated from the original, and there are a few changes, possibly for simplicity.

Probably because of its Italian origins, the film features some really artistically designed armor.