year: 2009
runtime: 104′
director: Michael J. Bassett
cast: James Purefoy, Samuel Roukin,
Rachel Hurd-Wood, Alice Krige,
Pete Postlethwaite, Max von Sydow
writer: Michael J. Bassett
cinematography: Dan Laustsen
music: Klaus Badelt
Not on home video in the USA
It’s the year 1600. Mercenary captain Solomon Kane (James Purefoy) is a rather nasty man with a mean disposition, but of excellent talent in the killing arts. While on one of his plunder and pillage escapades with his men, Kane meets a large, faceless charmer of a guy wielding a flaming sword who introduces himself as “the devil’s reaper”, come to bring Kane’s soul to where it belongs.
With luck, the mercenary survives his fight with the creature and escapes. One year later, the film finds its protagonist in England, where he is spending time in a monastery. Which is quite an achievement seeing that there were no monasteries in England at that time anymore; scriptwriters of period pieces should sometimes look into a history book of the era their movies take place in.
