gsfsu Sometimes a movie can get lost trying to make a point. The Last Valley is one of those. An excruciatingly bloody tale which is excruciating to sit through as well. All I could think of watching this mess was how humans ever survived this period of history. It is little different than all the rest of the movies made about this period of history when slaughter, butchery and destruction were commonplace.

guylyons I remember this film in 1971,almost as much for the John Barry soundtrack, as i loved it. As an 18 year old the whole religious slant in the film, was music to my ears, as being brought up a catholic always raised questions about everything about my supposed faith. I found the film one of the most thought provoking movies, that i had ever seen.With fine performances by the cast, headed by Caine, and a great script, it held my interest throughout, even when i struggled to come to grips with 17th century Europe, as my history knowledge was found wanting. Should you want to see something completely different, then i would urge you to see this fine film

Radu_A There are a lot of reviews on this, so I'll just limit myself to what hasn't been said before.This is a rather faithful adaptation of John Barclay Pick's novel, who was a Quaker and therefore pacifist. On the outbreak of WWII, he volunteered for the Friends Ambulance Unit, interrupting his history studies at Cambridge; after the war, he became a correspondent and author. That explains why this film is so unique. As mentioned before, this is the only English-language movie dealing with the Thirty Years War, which Britain was not involved with. It therefore doesn't figure highly in English-language history; however, Pick identified it as an explanation (not exoneration, to be sure) for the German xenophobia that would ultimately culminate in Nazidom. The brutality of this war cannot be overstated - the population of Germany declined from 18 million ca. 1600 to 6 million ca. 1650. The film can therefore be used as excellent education material, as the plot of the novel is even more complicated and bleak.James Clavell, who got to direct this with a huge budget on the rep of his successful social drama "To Sir with Love", is most famous for his Asian-themed novels like "Shogun" or "Tai-Pan". Like Pick, he relied strongly on the idea that people are the product of the times and conditions they live in, but his characters cannot afford themselves the luxury of moral considerations of what they are doing. As a result of this, the principal characters of the novel, Omar Sharif's Vogel, and Michael Caine's nameless Captain are evenly matched - one as the mostly passive voice of reason, the other as the maker of hard choices. Clavell ended the film on a more optimistic note than the book. Nevertheless, "The Last Valley" proved too difficult for audiences and made just about 10% of its money back. Clavell never directed again.The film has a pretty decent pace of action helped by John Barry's magnificent score, but as other reviews pointed out, the focus is on Caine and Sharif's many exchanges, which may frustrate younger viewers; and the female characters are severely underwritten. Just imagine that Brazilian actress Florinda Bolkan did this film back-to-back with the notorious giallo "A Woman in a Lizard's Skin", a much more challenging role. And the German accents are neither very convincing nor necessary. Apart from those negligible weaknesses, "The Last Valley" is a one-of-a-kind historical pacifist masterpiece, and would deserve a better release to do its 70mm widescreen cinematography justice.

hkfilmbuff Watched this when I was in college. The brutality and hypocrisy of man just hit you like a ton of bricks. The cinematography was breathtaking, even though most of the images were drab, grimy, and dark. It was not a pleasant experience, but eye-opening; and it is for this reason that even though I bought a copy of the DVD about 10 years ago, I have not been able to bring myself to watch it again.As pointed out by others, John Barry's score was out of this world. At the time, I had only known him for the James Bond movies, then he gave us his masterpiece: "Out of Africa". He is right up there together with Maurice Jarre and Michel LeGrand. Coupled with the animated opening credits, it was the one jewel in the film that I don't mind watching again and again.A solid cast: Michael Caine and Omar Sheriff, and the beautiful Florinda Bolkan. Director James Clavell is very talented, recognized his name in the opening credits when I watched the movie - having just read his novels "Tai- Pan" and "King Rat". Not for the faint of heart.