Sacra Corona

This movie was created by the financial support of the Hungarian government as part of the various celebrations of 1000 years of Hungarian statehood. This is a very respectable act, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to create an enjoyable movie. This is indeed a pity, as it could have been a very memorable costume movie. The script is based on true events of XI. century Hungarian history: the story of King László I. whose coronation closed the long chaotic interregnum after István's (the founder of the state) death and consolidated Hungary's position as a strong Christian Kingdom in medieval Europe. This story is full of battles, politics, conspiracy, hate and love. It could have been the basis for a script as exciting and deep as a Shakespeare tragedy. Unfortunately the script-writer was not able to come up with anything usable: the script is extremely weak. So is the acting, although I don't want to blame the actors too much, as it is quite hard to act well in a story falling apart. It seems that the creators of this movie were concentrationg too much on celebrating and on telling us lessons, instead of creating a good movie.

A lot of people have bad feelings about this film, because it was partially financed by the Hungarian government reigning between 1998 and 2002. As a result lot of critics argued that the money could have been spent on supporting more than one movies with lower budgets instead of just one. Many times the critiques had strong political flavours in them. The above mentioned things are important because I do not think that the rating given to the film by IMDb voters (who are most likely Hungarians) reflects the true quality of the film. It shows how important a strong ruler was in the middle ages and how he must have been approved by the nobility as well. The actual history told by the film proves that even without democracy how necessary it was for even a monarch to gain some kind of legitimacy, and how difficult it was somitimes to gain this legitimacy even amongst the narrow ruling class. It is certainly not amongst the best films I have ever seen, but it gives a pretty good view of the political intrigues of the era, and how difficult it was for Hungarians to adopt Christianity even though they did not have any viable alternatives. I would recommend it mostly for Hungarians and/or those interested in Hungarian or at least Central-Eastern European history from the Middle Ages.

Sacra Corona was a very nice surprise for me after my disappointment over Koltay's previous film the Honfoglalas. The first few minutes seem to be indeed a bit "out of place" at first sight - I didn't know where to put the silent pictures. However, the film becomes more and more exciting as the story goes on. At least it became for me. I was satisfied with the acting too. The three main characters had memorable scenes. Of course the battle scenes could have been mare spectacular, they cannot challenge those of the huge budget Hollywood pictures. (Also the amount of money spent on the making of the movie cannot be compared to the Hollywood movies' with or without government support.) I am happy that this film was made. It was a good feeling to be a Hungarian during watching it.

The story-line is hardly known for Non-Hungarians. King Laszlo was a Saint of the Catholic Church and his regnum was source of several legends of a hero like those about King Arthur, especially in Transylvania. This kings were descendants of the archaic Hungarian tribal leader, later Royal family Arpad. Why such an accent on religion? Saint Stephen the founder of the modern Hungarian state was an apostolic King. Overall, you need a good command of history to get all the messages not like for blockbusters as Ben Hur or the Gladiator. Many of the scenes played in wonderful old buildings existed that time already and on plots calling the landscape must had been the times the movie played in.

After watching The Conquer (Honfoglalás) about the foundation of Hungary, I thought thats the worse costume movie I ever seen. I took into account that it was a low budget film, and some parts I enjoyed but still it was bad. After this, I wasn't optimistic about Sacra Corona at all. Well, I wasn't disappointed at least. Where to start...acting is weak, battle scenes are..well..laughy :) I know, no money to make them spectacular. But even without money you can teach the actors how to hold a sword. Even without money some could learn how to use the camera in battles....ahm..i could continue it for ages. I just pity that in our 1200 years old European history there is many many heroic moments, worthy of a decent film, and I wont ever see one :( This ? Forget it.