Flesh + Blood

The Director's Chair Network · Dec 12, 2025 · 1h 1m · transcript

Join Ryan and Sicco for a passionate 40th-anniversary celebration of Paul Verhoeven’s brutal, chaotic medieval epic Flesh and Blood (1985). The two dive deep into the film’s unique place in Verhoeven’s career as the transitional work between his raw Dutch style and the hyper-stylized American films that followed, exploring its grimly realistic portrayal of medieval life, its total lack of heroes, the central role of religion and superstition, Jennifer Jason Lee’s fearless performance as the cunning noblewoman Agnes, Rutger Hauer’s frustrated attempt to play a heroic mercenary, and the…