Flesh + Blood (1985)

[6]

Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh star in medieval tale of a young noble girl (Leigh) who is kidnapped by a band of traveling mercenaries. While her betrothed (Tom Burlinson) searches for her with a rescue team, she begins to feel at home among the bandits — and even in love with their leader (Hauer). Under the direction of Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Spetters), Flesh + Blood plays less like a serious drama or period action movie, and a bit more like a party movie set in the middle ages.

The film features cool castle and hillside locations, a big score by Basil Poledouris, and a few moments of Verhoeven’s trademark gore and sexuality. The film requires a leap in logic to believe Leigh’s character could ever fall in love with someone who kidnaps and rapes her. But if you can get past that issue, Hauer and Leigh are beautiful together, especially in a candlelit bath scene. The two get to demonstrate some acting ability as well. Hauer is a bad boy who sneaks in a few good deeds when his fellow scoundrels aren’t looking. Leigh is a good girl eager to be bad. By the time her knight in shining armor arrives with the cavalry, she’s not sure where she really belongs anymore.

The moral ambiguity — a woman’s eternal choice between a good boy or a bad boy — is one of the film’s greatest assets, and as you can imagine, it results in a finale where Leigh’s character has to choose one man or the other. The ending didn’t go quite the way I wanted. But I still dug Flesh + Blood‘s escapist angle, especially when Hauer, Leigh, and their band of merry people takeover a small castle and hideout there. I also enjoyed the cast of supporting players, which features notable character actors Susan Tyrell (Forbidden Zone), Ronald Lacy (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Brion James (Blade Runner), Bruno Kirby (City Slickers), and John Dennis Johnston (Wyatt Earp).