Review of Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas (2013) by Keehwan H — 16 Sep 2013

If you've decided to buy a house in France and want to know what the Cevennes region looks like, watch this film. Otherwise there is really no point.

The film has two main problems. The first one is material, the story calls for castles being destroyed, hundreds of men fighting and glorious court scenes... but the money's not there so everything is done on the cheap. For instance, when a man is attacked by a pack of dogs, instead of shooting that which would have required stuntmen the director just shows the reaction of the people watching the scene... cheap trick which leaves an impression of having been robbed of a good scene.

Even more problematic, this story is a richman's story. A wealthy farmer, living in a lush landscape attracting the rapacious attention of the local lord. That's basically the setting of a western. The film instead shoots it like a samurai movie. It's set in the barest landscape in France where a horse would never survive, there's barely a house around, people SHOULD starve, look like lean wolves ready to jump on the smallest piece of meat passing by them. This dichotomy is a catastrophe, everything's off. These people talk as if they had money yet we do see they have none... the result after two minutes of incomprehension is advanced levels of boredom.