Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

rogerdarlington Over my many years of cinema-going, I've viewed a whole range of movies with titles beginning "The Last .." including "The Last Emperor" (1987) and "The Last Samurai" (2003). "The Last Valley' may not be the best-known film with this kind of title, but it made an impression on me when I first saw it at the cinema in 1971 and still resonated with me when I viewed it again on DVD some 46 years later.It is partly the unusual historical context: the story is set during the repeated bloody clashes of Catholic and Protestant armies largely in German-speaking continental Europe in the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648 and reference to a particular battle in a line of dialogue places the period more precisely in late 1643 and early 1644. It is partly the important subjects that it addresses: the narrative is a sharp critique of the role of religion and superstition in fostering hatred and war and the leading character eventually shouts at the local priest: "There is no Hell. Don't you understand? Because there is no God. There never was. Don't you understand? There is no God! It's a legend!".This British film was written, produced and directed by James Cavell before he became famous for his blockbuster novels. The 17th century village in question was recreated in the valley of Trins in the beautiful Tyrol region of Austria. The Catholic villagers who live there may look rather too clean and well-clothed for the period but the mainly Protestant soldiers who occupy the valley certainly look the part. The music is from John Barry who had made his name with the early James Bond movies.At the heart of the story is the changing fortunes of the characters as they are subject to competing sources of power: civil authority in the shape of the head villager Gruber (Nigel Davenport), religious dogma provided by the village priest Father Sebastian (Per Oscarsson), military authority imposed by a character known only as The Captain (Michael Caine), and the voice of reason and tolerance offered by the academic refugee Vogel (Omar Sharif). In the course of the story, each will have his moment of triumph but each will suffer grievously in this under- known and under-appreciated film.

guylyons I remember this film in 1971,almost as much for the John Barry soundtrack, as i loved it. As an 18 year old the whole religious slant in the film, was music to my ears, as being brought up a catholic always raised questions about everything about my supposed faith. I found the film one of the most thought provoking movies, that i had ever seen.With fine performances by the cast, headed by Caine, and a great script, it held my interest throughout, even when i struggled to come to grips with 17th century Europe, as my history knowledge was found wanting. Should you want to see something completely different, then i would urge you to see this fine film

Theo Robertson Vogel a teacher treks through early 17th Century Germany . Stopping at a village it comes under attack by a mercenary force . Narrowly escaping with his life he comes across a village in a valley , Resting there he awakens only to find himself captured by the mercenary band . He is given two days to negotiate with the village elders and the villagers and mercenaries come to an uneasy alliance I first saw this movie perhaps as much as 30 years ago and despite forgetting its title do remember the cast names and the amount of violence it contained . This is a relatively brutal and violent film for its era , not so much gory but containing a brooding and nihilistic mood , worthy of the time its set in . I had little knowledge of the 30 Years War so had a quick look on Wikipedia and was shocked that it had as many as 8,000,000 casualties . The Great War of 1914-18 led to 10 million war deaths but you've got to put this in to perspective that war involved of millions of combatants from standing armies armed with the most effective weapons of slaughter ever devised at that point in human history . It says a lot about the horrors of the 30 Years Wars if millions of people were being killed by personal weapons like axes and swords . Worse too was the fact that no matter what none of the sides fighting would appeal to anyone on the side of secular democracy or humanism What this film does very well is point this fact out with the mercenary band led by the unnamed Captain being very pragmatic and ulterior because to give in to religious dogma would be to spell disaster though this doesn't make his character any nicer . Of course this means you're watching it from a 20th Century viewpoint with the voice of reason of Vogel being far too reasonable and anachronistic to be an entirely credible character from the period but it does paint a grim picture of the past with plague , famine feudalism and worst of all religious conflict blighting civilisation and I wonder how many people watching this film in 2013 were constantly reminded of Afghanistan ? As we all know Michael Caine has a very checkered career but 1971 was something of a vintage year for him with GET CARTER released at the same time . We don't get Caine's grating cockney tones and whilst his Germanic accent sounds more Dutch than German it never falls in to parody which is what easily could have happened . The supporting cast are also more than competent featuring a host of well known Brits like Davenport , Blessed , Gothard , Hogg , Shepard and Hallem but the stand out performance is Swedish actor Pers Oscarsson as Father Sebastian whose dogma is always in conflict against the pragmatic unbelieving Captain and it's this abrasive character interaction that makes the movie a must watch Some things don't work entirely and the story has a rather strange structure where a power struggle/revenge subplot that should be the natural climax taking place far sooner than it should . Indeed my memory cheated on this point and thought this where was the film ended on my first viewing of it . There's also a relatively unnecessary subplot about witchcraft but upon rewatching the film ( This movie demands to be seen more than once ) was slightly startled that perhaps this character may indeed have had second sight and might not have been an unnecessary subplot . But these are minor problems and apart from the excellent cast , intelligent subtext we also have fine cinematography alongside a haunting score from John Barry in a film that strangely flopped when it was released in 1971 and appears on TV stations very rarely

clivey6 Touted on IMDb as a lost gem, as you know this is set in Germany in the 1600s, during the 30 Years War, where Protestants are fighting Catholics and death and destruction is commonplace. It stars Omar Shariff as a wanderer who happens upon this idyllic valley hidden from the rest of the world, and a bearded but still handsome Michael Caine as the head of a bunch of mercenaries who've seen their share of fighting and massacre.James Bond composer John Barry does the score and there's an early prototype of Moonraker's Space March as the main war theme, though Space March is more melodic to my ears. I know Barry can do no wrong supposedly, but it does seem to be that he and Bond were a perfect match. In other films his signature style is often distracting and the romantic theme of this film, used repetitively and sometimes inappropriately, is intrusive and pretty corny.Caine has an early protype too - the "Ve ALL love you Freddie" German accent he would adopt 15 years later in the comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. It's pretty iffy and unintentionally comic at times, he's the only one who bothers with a German accent, perhaps to take away the London wideboy. "You're only supposed to sack the bloody church!" The film didn't quite grab me. For a start, it's odd that Omar Shariff should be fleeing a plague pit and soldiers for only 2 minutes before stumbling upon this idyll. The valley doesn't seem too hidden to me, and if it is, how come the other soldiers found it at the same time? The happy and lovely aspects of the village passed me by, as the inhabitants - especially the women - had that neurotic German temper and look characteristic of the Luthran era, if you believe historian Kenneth Clark's take on it. The Lost Horizon did all this much better.Still, it's a noble and unusual idea, just let down by unintentionally risble moments. It only really picks up when there's a bit of discord, which runs counter to the film's message.