I didn’t watch the whole thing (in the early 80’s) because this scene was pretty offensive to me. It was on video.
Set in the Dark Ages, the authorities were, of course, corrupt and evil. In one scene, the bad guys were looking for certain people. Inside a castle or some such place, they see that someone is hiding behind the massive drapery. A guy swings (a sword?) at the figure, which falls. It is a nun.
The scene which really disturbed me was where one bad guy shows another bad guy the nun, who survived, in bed. She is in constant convulsions, but basically a vegetable. The guy throws the covers back. She is naked, convulsing. I can’t remember if an overt or implied invitation is made to the guy, suggesting that sex with her would be exciting because of the convulsions.
Yeech! I told my boyfriend at the time that I didn’t want to watch. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Thanks, detop, but I’m not sure that’s it. I read it about it at the IMDB and various reviews, and though it sounds right (like I said, I don’t remember much of what little I saw), it was released in 1985, and I’m pretty sure I saw the video in 1983 or 1984 (going by when I was with the boyfriend).
I vaguely remember seeing some movie on video in the 80’s where the bad guy whacks someone who turns out to be a nun. Later in the movie, you find out that he apparently felt guilty about the whole thing and settled down on a farm with her as his wife(?). She never fully recovered from the blow, and you see her out in the field with farm impliments tied to her hands. She sees the former bad guy partner and screams and goes into convulsions or some such.
Can’t remember the name of the movie though.
Maybe this additional info will ring a bell in someone else’s memory.
I just saw this movie a month ago. It is Flesh and Blood.
As far as the OP goes, I agree with detop. It’s the same movie. The scene with the nun is in the beginning, during a big battle. The scene on the farm occurs later in the film after the nun has recovered (somewhat) and is living with the guy who whacked her.
I thought that she started screaming and such (in addition to recognizing evil-bad-partner-guy) because she knew he had come to the farm to take away her husband (reformed evil-bad-guy) to fight.
The movie has also been re-released on video with the Title “The Rose and the Sword”.
This happened after an Asian movie (Japanese?) came out that was entitled “Flesh and Blood”. Note that the title of Verhoven’s piece is officially “Flesh + Blood”
Maybe I should have mentioned that I have a copy of the movie. Oh well.
Now I have a question about the movie. Although it is never explicitely mentioned in the movie, I always had the feeling that it was more of a Renaissance, set in Italy movie, than the generic “Western Europe” as described at the beginning. Anybody else have that feeling ?
I always felt that it was set in “Olden Times”. The discrepancies between attitudes, costuming, and seige weaponry ranged from medieval through Rennaisance to the ridiculous.
I mostly enjoyed the film, but thought it was pretty fluffy. Individual bits were very accurate, but unfortunately accurate to a variety of time periods.
The mercenary leader - the guy who hit the nun - was named John Hawkwood. Hawkwood was a real historical figure, an English captain of a highly succesful mercenary army which fought with and against the various Italian princes and dukes.
