Review by clanciai

From the beginning you start wondering who is the father of Kate's child. The answer eventually becomes clear but is never satisfactory. The real father almost denounces it, claiming he is only the biological father. It's an interesting love triangle with tremendous complications to an intimate companionship in the beginning getting all mixed up with her two men both being involved in politics - she is caught between two fires, one worse than the other, and one would think that the doctor would have some objections against killing people, while he just keeps looking on when the villain (Jurgen Prochnow) runs amuck with his sadism into inhuman atrocities. The weakness in this film is in the story. Ken Follett wrote some very good books, but here there are some very disturbing biases. There are no nuances to the cynical villain Jurgen Prochnow, the village imam is also depicted as thoroughly inhuman, the mercenaries are mercenaries and not human at all, while all the sympathies have to be with the mountain people and villagers. Timothy Dalton is always good, he was best as Heathcliff in the 1970 film of "Wuthering Heights", but then he was lost in the hard-boiled Bond business. The most interesting performance is maybe by Omar Sharif, although he appears late, but his role is outstanding. The music is also excellent, while actually my only objection against the film is in Ken Follett's book.