Reviews

This together with movies Vlad The Impaler and Michael the Brave is among the productions I can recommend from the Balkans depicting the conflicts between the Ottomans and the local kingdoms of its era,to have a better understanding of the historical nature of them and the traces they have left.The production as overall is pretty decent,giving a good description of the conditions of its time,with local costumes,medieval age market places and castles and of course some fancy Serbian noble and knight armor costumes.The dressing of Turks also was depicted close to accurate of its period. As for the script,it seems to be relied on a mixture of both historical accounts and local mythical legends,but overall I would say it's been worked pretty strait forward, without spoiling it far with too much emotional and one-sided history telling.The events are just reflected as in the sources where the film takes its script.Of course the lines delivered from actors from time to time reflect hostile and patriotic feelings,as well as the ''villain'' Ottoman characters unleashing their cruel,fanatic side.When Sultan Murad gives his last deathbed bequest to Bayezid after the fatal wound he received from Obilic,he has him repeat Ali's words and he recites how they should torture and kill every single infidel who rejects Islam and so on.These kind of conversations however are typical characteristics of movies of its kind,not something proper to this movie only,so it's pretty normal.Some scenes and characters also might not reflect exact historical events.Although it is known that Sultan Murad was killed at the battlefield,it's not clear that Obilic really lived or not,he rather exists as a legendary mythical character.Also Vuk Brankovic is reported to be fighting till the end in some other historical sources,unlike in the film who is described as an envious traitor who abandoned the battlefield.It is also known that Bayezid had his own brother Yakup killed,but the records also say that he never faced him, neither is it clear if he was strangled as told in the movie.The encounter and conversation prior to King Lazar's execution with Bayezid are also questionable.The surgeon Bogoje,who saved Obilic's life and later on switched sides and became Muslim ''Mustafa'',as well as the character Hamza the Serb seem to be not historically real characters either.The Maiden of Kosovo is by the way again drawn from the local legends. Apart from all those,I think this movie succeeded in giving a good description of the battle and its sequence,a good production in its conditions with some good casting delivered especially from M.Zutic as King Lazar and B.Lecic as Bayezid.

The memorable scene for me in the movie is when Bayezid shows Obilic's head fixed on the spear after he was executed and asks if that head really looks like that of a victor,mocking Lazar of his defeat.Lazar responds saying how that head in fact laid a foundation and birth to a nation's spirit and will to freedom.Bayezid gets really angry with that answer and says,pointing out to Lazar: ''Ova glava mnogo prica,odsecite je''(This ''head'' is talking too much,cut it off) and orders his execution.

I have heard about this movie by chance while my search took me to the direction of local movies made on Ottoman conflicts in the Balkans and Central Europe.It was interesting to see the take on historical plots of this era from other views on screenplay.This movie,ticking over 3 hours,tells the adventurous campaigns of the Wallachian prince who aspires all his life to unite all the historical Romanian principalities under one flag struggling against his powerful enemies full of grit,greed and cruelty who would do anything to destroy each other to stay on top of another.The movie starts with Mihai traveling to Istanbul to pay his tribute to the Sultan by borrowing money from a rich Venetian Merchant through the reputation of a noble Countess who just from the beginning admires and loves him.Mihai's only goal is to get to the Wallachian throne through the approval from the Ottoman palace at once eliminating his sneaky rival Alexandru The Evil and set out his plans to free the lands from the desperate yoke of the authority which approves his vassal status as the prince. The Sultan and the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha are taken by full surprise and grow suspicious from his bold courage at the Ottoman palace displayed against them,nevertheless approve him.From then on Mihai wages his own war,defying Sultan's Messenger Selim (who later on becomes Pasha).Now I want to open a bracket here,because the character who is depicted as Mihai's childhood friend and a Muslim convert actually is a fiction character casted by director Sergiu Nicolaescu and did not exist in reality.Mihai later goes on even further this time,waging a campaign against the Ottomans and advancing as far as Adrianople where he awaited the promised help from the Papal State in Rome,which in reality never came.Mihai later encounters one of the most allegedly treacherous characters according to the movie,and his so called ''Christian ally'' Szekely noble Transylvanian prince Sigismund Bathory.Bathory,a jealous,mean and selfish personality, pledges him help against Turks at the Battle of Calugareni but never really sends it,constantly trying to undermine and eliminate him instead, having him sign a humiliating treaty by taking advantage of his dedication to the Christian cause.The rivalries even flame more as Mihai's fame of bravery spreads across Christian Europe.Neither Austrian emperor Rudolph nor his general G.Basta really has him any sympathy and they never really support him.The story line of the movie mostly runs smooth although there are certain scenes doubtful of historical accuracy.The part where Sigismund abdicates from the throne after his defeat at Keresztes is historically true,however the scene where he disguises as monk to meet Mihai at the battlefield and Mihai having him watch the battle winning over his own cousin Andrew in Şelimbar as a captive is dubious.It is also true that Andrew was beheaded after the battle by his own subordinates,however Sigismund watching his cousin being executed probably never happened in real either.The scene where Selim tells Mihai: ''I used your tactics from Calugareni to defeat Sigismund at Keresztes.'' is apparently out of context however the movie is aimed at local spectators and certain praises in favor of the protagonist are noticeable.Sigismund also seems to be demonized far from what he actually is,totally a treacherous villain full of greed and intrigues.The story line of the movie never talks about the fact that Mihai joined forces with Sigismund to beat Turks following the Battle of Calugareni.There is apparently one-sided history telling on some parts of the script.Mihai's love story with the Countess and his disputes with his wife princess Stanca,his tragic loss of his son Nicolai at the battle field are also emotional moments.His son in reality though,did not die at that battle but much later.The movie has great colorful scenes such as the lance duel between Mihai and Sigismund on their first encounter,as well as the waltz in Sigismund's palace during his wedding ceremony with Maria Cristina de Graz.From the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul to the Neajlov swamps at the Calugareni battlefield,from the epic entrance of Mihai to the palace in Alba Iulia to the Prague Cathedral and the beautiful Charles bridge, the movie delivers fantastic scene depictions of the events that took place,taking us with Mihai throughout his journey full of struggles.Whether fully historically accurate or not,the movie has some fantastic depictions of battle scenes with rich costumes,giving a breathtaking realistic experience of the battles in chronological order.Finally great casting delivered by local actors notably Amza Pellea as Mihai,and the music in the movie is pretty decent as well.Some deviations and exaggerations on the plot,but let's not forget this movie was produced in 70's Romania and for the purpose of praising national pride as well to some point.Overall this movie was by far the best among the local productions in Balkans and C.Europe I have seen with similar historical plots and background.

I had seen the trailer for the 2012 Turkish movie 1453 Fetih(Conquest) already,and after seeing it I did not even find it worthy of seeing.But after having heard of the title of this one,I was curious to see it.What I just started to see from the very beginning of the movie though,were the same things I did on that trailer of the Turkish production,amateurish computerized animations thrown in here and there,so apparently visible to the eye that they start being annoying after a while.I was patient however,to get into the developing stages of the plot where the real action was going to happen.All my waits in vain. There are already comments here that mentioned it,so I don't want to repeat the same points over and over but I completely agree with the poor delivery of acting here.Even Murray Abraham,who will always stay in my memory with his unforgettable moments casting for Cuban gangster Omar Suarez in Scarface could not save himself in this misery.(Well,given the horrible plot,there wasn't much he could do) First of all,I won't agree with those who say that not all the things have to be historically accurate as they should have been,if you claim a title depicting an historic event(and as important as this one) I am sorry but there can't be any excuses.Yes there might be of course deviations from the accuracy of the real events at some point,but the plot here so much falls apart that there is not much left throughout the whole picture that actually gives a single idea to spectators what the movie is all about. The characters though are somewhat real except ermm...Abul ? A completely fictitious character,a close friend of Marco D'Aviano and a lover of a young deaf woman,and along with Marco and Kara Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon(yeah this is a Pasha that we are talking about,the Ottoman Grand Vizier) their lives all at some point come across with another ridiculous series of coincidences just made up in this movie.The 11 September message of course is subliminally given to the spectator trying to set the connection with the events of 2001,like it has anything to do with it,blatantly making fun of his/her lack of knowledge on the historical events because the Siege started on 14th July and ended on 12th September. The fictitious Abul's one absurd line while speaking with her lover:''We are Muslims,we are not Westerners,we can't listen to our heart and faith at the same time'' and those lines at the imaginary meeting between Marco and Kara Mustafa,were so out of context and nauseous that a spectator here would completely lose the point of what's going on.I just don't understand that even in 2010s,so pointless and ridiculous vilifying images of another faith,another religious group can be so impudently delivered in cinema.On the final scene where Kara Mustafa is strangled to death for his failure in Belgrade and the executors having his son to watch his execution(the latter I think also never happened) I called it quits but it was already the end of the movie.Is that the expression a kid of his age shows when watching his own father killed for God's sake ? No emotion,no grieving or suffering,shaking,nothing ! Are you kidding me ?

If you are interested in the Ottoman conflicts in East and Central Europe of those times,I advise you to find the 1989 Serbian movie Battle of Kosovo and Romanian productions Vlad The Impaler(1979) and Michael The Brave(1971) with English subtitles if you can.Those too at times deviate from the historical script,but they are way way better in characterizing the incidents and keep you in the main story.At least they do not demean their titles unlike this movie.