VHS : Last Valley [1970]

Rating: - Well worth seeing
I chanced upon this film some 15 years ago on TV. It gripped me immediately. A top line cast, some fine acting, a good storyline, wonderful photography and an excellent musical score. All set against a backdrop of the 30 years war. More recently, I came across the DVD on Amazon. I bought it, watched it and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time. Well worth seeing.

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Rating: - A masterpiece indeed!
This film takes place in the midst of Thirty Years' Wars circa 1620. Whole cities are in the grip of religious fanaticism, plague and starvation. Children are accused of witchcraft and burnt alive after torture. Millions are killed among chaos across Europe stuck between warring parties ever changing sides.

One teacher Vogel escapes from all this hell into a completely unknown valley. He surprisingly faces a wealthy village with healthy villagers and warehouses full of harvest. Unluckily for him a small group of mercenaries also discover this spot. The commander has to make a decision to pillage the village, loot, rape and kill as usual or winter there far away from all the hussle of the war engulfing all the continent.

The film is shot in 1971 but can be easily viewed despite the age. Wonderful acting by the great actors are worth mentioning. Sheriff, Caine, Oscarsson, Davenport, O'Connell...Also I spot future stars such as Brian Blessed and John Hallam in small roles.

The music and the scenery is gripping as you really feel what it is to be stuck in the middle of a deadly war, desperately seeking shelter. Also the Commander and Vogel question the reasons and the logic of religious warfare. The climax is the point where Michael Caine accuses the local priest of lying by declaring that he no longer believes in god. The killing of innocent civilians in the name of god finally got to him. In the beginning of the film where Captain does away with one of his men questioning his decision he criticisizes Vogel as he is shocked by the killing. He despises philosophers as after they preach they can not stand the consequences of their own words.

A wonderful film worth watching over and over again.

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Rating: - Thoughtful and timeless
I first watched this film when i was quite young (maybe 15?) and it made quite an impression on me. Watching it again some 20 years later, I enjoyed it even more.

It is a thoughtful (and perhaps even meditative) study on war, religion and humanity. It is well acted (yes...even Michael Caine who is superb as the Captain) with well developed characters and although the film may be quite slow by today's standards, it is compelling viewing.

....and it stays with you for some time afterwards.

Well worth watching.

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Rating: - A forgotten epic well worth remembering
Filmed under the incredibly unwieldy and oh-so-Sixties title Somewhere in the Mountains there is a Last Valley and hindered by financing problems, The Last Valley marked the end of screenwriter James Clavell's directorial career and the beginning of the end of the thinking man's epic genre. Which is a great pity, because this almost completely forgotten Shangri-La tale set during the Thirty Years War, the last of the great European religious wars, deserves to be much better known despite the potentially disastrous miscasting of the two leads. Omar Sharif is no more anyone's ideal casting as a 17th Century German schoolteacher trying to talk his way out of a premature death than Michael Caine is anyone's idea of a German mercenary captain, yet despite a few moments unease at Caine's aksent (a dry run for the one he used in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), within moments you realise that against all odds both actors are delivering surprisingly sincere and well-judged performances.

From the main title animation that sees a cross split into two sword-wielding rival soldiers, it's not always a pretty picture, making few bones about the dirt, ugliness and squalor of the times, with Sharif's schoolteacher wandering from village massacre to plague pits before literally stumbling upon an unspoilt and unlooted valley. Unfortunately he stumbles across it at the same time as Caine's [...]-ugly ragtag band of mercenaries, cutthroats, murderers, rapists, Papists, Protestants and atheists pillaging the countryside for supplies. Convincing them to spend the Winter there in comfort rather than see the valley's food gone in days if they share it among their army, he finds himself cast as an uneasy go-between trying to improvise and keep the fragile peace between the mercenaries and the villagers. But for all its beauty, the valley is no idyllic haven but just as riven with suspicion, prejudice and duplicity as the outside world as the two sides engage in a constant subtle power struggle: ultimately it is not the valley that is destroyed by the soldiers but the soldiers who are destroyed by the valley as they are reminded of the people they almost were. Even Sharif's intermediary has more to fear from the villagers than the soldiers.

A huge box-office flop in 1970 (in the States it quickly ended up as a second feature), it's far from a conventional epic. There are only a couple of action scenes, and only one of them qualifies as spectacular, while its characters are not major figures but human driftwood caught up in the wake of greater events and gradually rejecting the accepted religious and moral beliefs of their time. Instead of a triumphant tone, it's a melancholy picture about people trying to survive in the worst of all possible worlds, where moments of beauty are merely reminders of how much has been lost in the past rather than what could be in the future. John Barry's superb score, possibly his best ever, reflects this beautifully, alternating the savagery he displayed in his earlier The Lion in Winter with an incredibly beautiful theme for the valley. It's not a film for all tastes, but there's a melancholy magic there willing to look for it.

It's a shame that none of the extras-free DVD versions available do justice to the 65mm photography (though the sadly extras-free Region 1 MGM and Anchor Bay releases are at least widescreen, unlike the clumsily cropped UK PAL release), but it's still a film that deserves to be sought out in its original widescreen ratio.

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Rating: - This is a stunning visual movie
I saw this film at the cinema when it first came out, many years ago. The first thing that struck me was that Michael Caine could actually act - let's face it in "Alfie" he played Michael Caine and good though he is, in this he really shows his acting ability. The second thing that struck me was the simply wonderful music score, written if my memory serves me correctly, by John Barry who at that time was know for the James Bond theme and not much more. We all know differently now. Both Caine and Barry are now household names in their particular fields.

The film is set during the Thirty Years War when religous strife ruled everyone's lives, people believed in witches and innocents, both men and women, were burnt at the stake. Life was cruel, hard and short; if you were a soldier it most likely ended in a violent and bloody death, somehow the pure beauty of the cinematograply and music of this film makes the subject matter all the more poignant. A stunning, hidden valley is discovered, totally untouched by the war and bigotry that the rest of the countryside is suffering from - until the soldiers find it.

Watch this film - rent it if you don't want to buy it - but watch this film. It is absolutely superb.