ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

paul2001sw-1 I read another review of this film which described it as a "clunker", and sadly it's true. Based on a novel itself inspired by a true story, it's the tale of a horse trader who comes into conflict with authority. The problem with this movie is not just that it's slow and solemn, though both of these things are true, but that it's dramatically inept: the main events all occur off-screen, and we see how they affect the protagonist without ever really understanding the power relationships that have led to the critical decisions being taken. Pondering the ethics of rebellion, justice and loyalty can make for a good movie - think of 'A Man For All Seasons', for example - but this one is leaden and dull.

eyeintrees In this day and age of fast scenes and bloody gore, apparently this movie left some critics calling it dull and lifeless. Not me.The measured pace was right for this film. It's simplicity was correct and fitted the era. By simplicity, I mean the lack of 'Hollywood-ised' scenes that we're used to seeing about peasants, barons and queens.If you're a thinking person who enjoy very good actors, a movie that travels at a pace that reflects an actual story about human beings, social justice and conflicts, irony and dilemma, the stuff of life, this is a powerful and intense drama.As always, anyone who fights for what is right, is never seen in a perfect shade of black or white.

fossicle I concur with many of you that this movie was way to long, slow and anticlimactic. Pictorially it was beautiful but there was so much lost potential with this film that was left omitted.It contained lots of chatter and religious doctrine about turning your cheek, etc from a church at that time was about as ruthless as royalty in feudal times. It started out with great expectation but ended with sad disappointment. I had thoroughly enjoyed Mads Mikkelsen in the Pusher, and his role as Michael Kohlhaas was great. In the end the director needed to tighten the film belt by a few notches to have made this movie a good movie.

kathhallam What would you do if the legal system didn't support you or your rights? What would you do if you tried to take someone to court for compensation for something that was taken from you, and then, because of this, your family is dealt a terrible blow? Knowing you have no way to legally seek justice, would you take matters into your own hands? And once you have taken the law into your own hands, do you simply become as bad as the original aggressor? This is not something most of us have to worry about, if we live in country where rule of law is upheld. But in 16th century Europe (and in some parts of the world even now) not everyone could rely on the law.This movie asks us to explore these questions and more. It doesn't provide us with the passive experience of sitting there and having the story, the moralities, the emotions, fed to us, as so often happens in films. It presents the material to us, and ask us to decide on who is right or wrong, who is at fault, and maybe to ask us what we might do in the same situation.Visually, it is sumptuous, organic, exquisitely beautiful. Rugged mountain vistas, timber, earth, stone and leather. And let's not forget that it has Mads Mikkelsen as the lead character, speaking French and riding horses. This is a combination that is hard to beat, for sensory appeal. I don't speak French so I have no idea how his Danish accent is accounted for in the film, but his steely stares to the horizon and his drive for justice, and the consequences that follow, are powerful to watch.This film is definitely on the art-house side of film-making, and probably wont appeal to those who want everything delivered to them, but asks us powerful questions about rights and wrongs, actions and their consequences, while delivering a beautiful visual experience.