Name: Retro Film Review: The High Crusade (1994)
Item: The High Crusade
Rating: 30
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Roland Emmerich might be criticised of many things, but lacking enthusiasm for his films is not one of them. Unfortunately, although enthusiasm often happens to be one of the major ingredients of success, it is never the only one. In case of Emmerich, his constant efforts to realise childhood dream of topping Star Wars and making the best science fiction film of all times never produced desired results. Emmerich failed even when only as producer, like in the case of The High Crusade, 1994 German science fiction directed by Klaus Knoesel and Holger Neuhäuser.

Failure of this film was especially painful for the fans of Poul Anderson, whose popular 1960 novel was the basis for the script. The plot begins in the year 1345 in England, when the group of English noblemen led by Sir Roger of Jernyngham (played by Rick Overton) just begins to prepare to go on the crusade and liberate Holy Land from the Muslims. In the midst of their preparations, an alien spaceship lands and attacks their castle. However, it turns out that even the technologically superior aliens aren't good match for the sheer brutality of medieval knights – Sir Roger and his men manage not only to repeal the attack but also to take control of the ship. Crusaders, equipped with this miracle of alien technology, want to go to Jerusalem and fulfill their mission but the crusade they are going to take part would lead them much further.

The basic concept of the original novel - first contact between medieval knights and extraterrestrials – probably looked quite silly to the filmmakers, so they decided to make film into comedy. Unfortunately, they also believed that the concept would be not only silly but also funny enough to make audience laugh throughout the whole movie. This was not the case, partly because the whole concept had one important flaw - humour based on cultural clash didn't connect with the modern audiences. For them both the extraterrestrials and the medieval knights were equally alien. So The High Crusade ended like a disorganised and not very funny mix of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Les Visiteurs, at times very impressive special effects and not very convincing aliens. The general impression of film is somewhat improved thanks to the very good cast (although at times underused, like in the case of MTV's host Jay Cokes) led by John Rhys-Davies who is very good in the role of Brother Parvus. However, The High Crusade is nevertheless hardly anything more than often boring and incredibly unfunny farce and another proof that good literature seldom results in good films.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on September 25th 2001)