James Clavell's heartfelt film of paradise found and lost in the midst of the bloody Thirty Years War, a senseless religious conflict long since degenerated into a rabble of looters preying on peasants, is a triumph of passion over style. Michael Caine stars as the Captain, a happily tolerant leader whose army of mercenaries, a mix of Protestants and Catholics, murders, pillages, and rapes side by side for whatever faction is paying more this month. Omar Sharif is Vogel, a lone refugee whose flight from the marauding band leads them all to a beautiful village in the mountains. The Captain and Vogel make an unlikely pair, the shrewd mercenary with the dream of peace, and the philosopher peasant hanging on to his own life in the face of certain death, and their alliance to preserve this Eden and her people stands in contrast to the soldiers who soon become splintered by greed, lust, and religious zealotry. Clavell isn't exactly subtle, but his sense of irony is biting: one Christian soldier is ready to lead an mob in righteous battle after a perceived blasphemer, and in the next scene attacks and rapes an innocent Christian maiden he's sworn to protect. The film falters in clumsy battle scenes and awkward dramatic staging, but Caine's complex characterization of the guarded Captain and Sharif's haunted performance keep the story alive, and the beautiful photography sets the film like a jewel into its setting. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Rating:
Summary: Medieval
Comment: The setting is beautiful. The valleys are green and lush but the air is fill with feelings of bad auguries. The man in rags running away from a decimated town takes your thoughts to the days of the Black Plague in Europe. It is a slow pace movie full of intrigue and treachery. Michael,Caine,Omar Sharif, and the rest of the cast performance is good. The story, a chapter in Europe's dark history.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Thirty Years' War -- in real time
Comment: The Last Valley is set during the Thirty Years' War and this movie seems to be filmed in real time. The Tirolean countryside is breath-taking (kudos to the cinematographer) but the story line is as uneven as the terrain. A band of battle-weary soldiers discovers a valley apparently untouched by the war and decide to winter over, but not without setting down their rather draconian ground rules. (One does wonder why the villagers --who vastly outnumber the soldiers-- don't tell them to take a hike at this point, but logic plays no part in the plot.)

In an attempt to depict religious intolerance, considerable time is wasted on a plot point about relocating a shrine, and everyone in the cast gets to depict some aspect of his or her own bigotry. Some even seem a bit schizophrenic as they are tolerant one moment and combative the next. Michael Caine fares best in this mess as the more or less principled captain of the soldiers and is devastatingly handsome but oddly detached from all the melees between soldiers and villagers, and the viewer is never quite sure from whom he's receiving orders. He and the rest of the cast, are directed to speak in hokey German accents that come and go (Why? Hey, otherwise how would we know it takes place somewhere in Germany?) Omar Sharif is the exception, but like the late Yul Brynner, has an all-purpose "foreign" accent and plays a disgraced teacher also on the run. Claiming no allegiance, his presence is justified by his assertion that he can "talk" to both sides (not that there's a language barrier, just mutual mistrust). He does not fare well in his role; caught mid-career between the dashing hero of Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and Funny Girl and the variations on Foxy Grandpa he often portrays today, he comes off as scruffy and confused. Other supporting actors also are wasted. (Look for a brief appearance by a very young Brian Blessed at the start of the film, sporting an odder haircut than his Caesar bangs in I, Claudius.) One of the female interests runs afoul of a fanatic priest and is tortured, then burned at the stake. Lucky girl. The viewer has to endure 20 more minutes of this silliness before the film finally, mercifully ends.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Expurgated Cut
Comment: This is very much a movie worth seeing, but I am not at all pleased that some ninny took it upon themselves to censor this film. This is not the movie as it was released to theaters and shame on ABC Pictures for failing to release this in its original form. The image of the DVD itself is grainy and apparently no effort was put into trying to clean the film up (from a technical stand point at any rate).

Having said that, IMO this is the single best performance Michael Caine ever turned in, and he is a darn fine actor. See it if you get a chance, but look for a version beside the MGM/ABC Pictures release.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Involving, Low-Key Epic
Comment: Smart script but mostly uninspired filmmaking prevent this from being quite the lost classic it's sometimes billed as. Both leads are good with Caine doing one of his rare accents and it doesn't falter. Florinda Bolkin fascinates. Unfortunately, the villagers are done up in such garishly colorful clothes the picture at times looks like Heidi and the brutal truths the film tries to get at are undercut.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Last Valley
Comment: At best a 3 star production. Old style filming looking more like a spagetti Western at times. Good story line with mediocre results.

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