William the Conqueror

I'd herd rumour's of this film existing. But only recently have I been able to watch it. Unfortunately the copy was in french with no sub-titles. But I was able to follow the movie with my limited french.

Firstly this movie isn't historically accurate and to be honest is a bit of a mess. It follows Williams rise from Bastard son constantly under threat of assassination to feared/hero Norman duke. As you would expect this film is pro William and tends to gloss over the more controversial aspects of his life and character.

The film portrayal of Harold's character is strange. Harold is shown as charismatic yet ruthless, with maybe a touch of bi-polar.

I must point out there is a good scene where Harold fights a Norman champion. The Norman is on horse back with a spear,sword and shield and Harold uses just a large piece wooden railing to defeat him. This scene works because it dose illustrate the differing fighting styles. Its a shame that this isn't shown battles that follow later.

The battles shown in the film are not accurate. Stamford bridge is very badly staged being decided with champions. Stamford bridge was in-fact one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on English soil.

Hastings comes off slightly better. Unfortunately lack of budget in costumes and extras really shows. But we must remember that this was a low budget movie made in Romania before CGI.

The acting in the film isn't bad with a good performance from John(Hawk the Slayer) Terry.

All in all William the Conquer is not the best of films. But it is the first to try to tackle this story and it dose have a certain European charm that may make me want to see it again.