Ironclad

Ironclad Information

Ironclad is a 2011 adventure film directed by Jonathan English. Written by English and Erick Kastel, based on a screenplay by Stephen McDool, the cast includes Paul Giamatti, James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Vladimir Kulich, Mackenzie Crook, Jason Flemying, Derek Jacobi and Kate Mara. The film chronicles the siege of Rochester Castle by King John in 1215. The film was shot entirely in Wales in 2009, produced on a budget of $US25 million.

Plot

The film opens with a prologue describing how the barons of England, aided by the Knights Templar, rebelled against King John in a war that lasted three years and ended with King John signing Magna Carta ("Great Charter"), a document granting equal rights to all Englishmen and reducing the power of the monarchy. Not long afterwards, he breaks his word and begins a bloody campaign of revenge against the barons who humiliated him, commanding an army of Danish mercenaries to whose leader he has promised that the Pope would keep his missionaries out of Denmark.

The abbot Marcus, leading three Templar knights who have taken vows of silence, shelters from a storm at Darnay Castle on his way to Canterbury for pilgrimage. Abbot Marcus speaks with Thomas Marshall, one of the knights and promises he will secure Marshall's release from the Templar Order once they reach Canterbury. The next morning, King John arrives with his Danish army and overruns the castle. John orders Darnay hanged, and Abbot Marcus has his tongue cut out by the Danes when he tries to intervene. Marshall and the two other knights fight the Danes, during which Marshall manages to escape the castle on horseback, carrying the abbot, while the other two knights are slain. The abbot dies of his wounds shortly after, and Marshall breaks his vow of silence to swear that his sacrifice will not be in vain.

Once he has reached Canterbury, Marshall meets with Archbishop Langton, the author of the Magna Carta, and Baron William d'Aubigny, a former soldier turned wool merchant. Langton reveals that the Pope has sided with King John and that he himself is to be excommunicated for writing the Great Charter. The three men agree that John must be stopped, and that the place to do it is Rochester Castle, a strategically important stronghold that controls the route from southern England.

Aubigny persuades three of his men to join him, including his squire Guy, but a fourth turns down the baron's call to arms. A party of seven finally leaves for Rochester where, on arriving, they discover six of the King Danish mercenaries have already claimed the castle after the fourth man had betrayed them to the king. Aubigny's party fights and kills the Danish scouts and then claims Rochester Castle in the name of the rebellion, much to the displeasure of Baron Cornhill, its lord. When John's army finally arrives and lays siege to Rochester, the garrison holds fast and manages to beat back the initial Danish assault. In the aftermath, Aubigny offers his men the chance to leave if they wish; none accept.

For the second assault the Danes build a siege tower, but the defenders destroy it with a makeshift trebuchet and the attackers are repulsed again. The King's army holds back and begins to starve the defenders out. The Archbishop is informed that Prince Louis is biding his time in France and negotiating with John, and sets off immediately to expedite affairs. As weeks become months and the hunger and suffering of the castle's occupants increase, Marshall leaves under cover of night and steals food from the Danish camp, making it back just ahead of his pursuers. The defenders' morale is bolstered for the first time in months, and Marshall finally succumbs to the advances of Cornhill's wife Isabel, breaking his Templar vows.

The Danish leader, Tiberius, under pressure from John to take the castle or risk the King reneging on their bargain, adopts a different approach in his next assault and manages to sneak a small force of men over the walls before dawn to open the castle gates from within. Guy discovers the infiltrators and sounds the alarm, but it is too late. Tiberius leads the charge into the castle grounds while his Danes slaughter the garrison. During the chaos d'Aubigny is wounded and left behind in the chaos of the retreat. Marshall recovers in time to don his knight's battle armor and charge the Danes on his war-horse, buying time for the survivors to pull back to the keep.

Aubigny is dragged before the King and forced to watch as the hands of two prisoners are chopped off. After a defiant verbal exchange with John, he is subjected to the same fate and then killed by being flung from the makeshift trebuchet against the keep walls. Cornhill tries to surrender but after being stopped, he goes upstairs to his bedroom and hangs himself instead. John's royal engineers then collapse part of the keep after tunneling under its foundations, and the final assault begins.

The last defenders are killed except Guy, Isabel and Marshall, knocked unconscious by rubble from the keep's collapse. Guy goes out to die fighting where he encounters Tiberius and is almost killed until a recovered Marshall intervenes. Tiberius challenges Marshall to single combat, and Marshall triumphs after an exhausting duel. Horns are heard in the distance as the combined English rebel and French army arrives at last, and John and the remaining Danes disperse in panic. Marshall meets Prince Louis and Archbishop Langton at the castle gates; the latter tells him that he is now free of the Templar Order. Acknowledging England's new king with a nod, Marshall rides off with Isabel, while Guy tells his dead baron that "We held".

The film ends with an epilogue describing King John's death during his retreat and the reconstruction of Rochester Castle, and how it, like the Magna Carta, still stands today.

Cast

James Purefoy as Thomas Marshall
Brian Cox as William d'Aubigny
Kate Mara as Lady Isabel
Derek Jacobi as Reginald de Cornhill
Paul Giamatti as King John of England
Charles Dance as Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury
Jason Flemyng as Becket
Jamie Foreman as Jedediah Coteral
Mackenzie Crook as Marks
Rhys Parry Jones as Wulfstan
Aneurin Barnard as Guy
Vladimir Kulich as Tiberius
David Melville as Baron Darnay
Annabelle Apsion as Maddy
Steffan Rhodri as Cooper
Daniel O'Meara as Phipps
Bree Condon as Agnes

Production

Actress Megan Fox was attached to the film when the film's production company, Mythic, began promoting it to investors at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Fox left the film and was later replaced by Kate Mara. Due to the decreased amount of credit and financing available in 2009, the budget of the film was reduced and the entire supporting cast was changed, with the exception of actors James Purefoy and Paul Giamatti. Producer Andrew Curtis described the financing of the film as "more complex than a London Underground map" to Variety magazine; the film ended up crediting 18 executive producers.

Principal photography for the film began at Dragon International Film Studios near the village Llanharan in Wales on October 9, 2009. A replica of Rochester Castle was built on the studio complex. Producer Rick Benattar strove to make the film as historically accurate as possible, recreating the historical violent siege of Rochester Castle, and letting viewers experience the battle as if they were there. Ironclad was the largest independent production that has been filmed in Wales, and was among the largest independent films shot in Britain in 2009.

Fictional elements

The film is only loosely based on reality. William d'Aubigny commanded the garrison but contemporary chroniclers do not agree on how many men that was. Estimates range from 95 to 140 knights supported by crossbowmen, sergeants, and others. John did take the castle, most of the higher nobles being imprisoned or banished; and the French did not arrive in England until some six months after the siege had ended. Characters departing significantly from the historical record include William d'Aubigny who was not an ennobled wool merchant (nor was he tortured and killed in the siege).

The closing narration explains that this was one of the first victories that the French had that would eventually lead to total victory. However, the rebellion was defeated by Royalist supporters of nine-year-old Henry III in 1217.

While the castle itself is depicted realistically, the nearby Norman Cathedral and the City of Rochester itself are completely missing from the location shots. In reality the Cathedral is only a few hundred yards from the castle walls and Rochester has been a substantial settlement since Roman times.

The film's Danes are depicted as pagans when Denmark had been Christianized by that time. Also, King John's mercenaries were mostly Flemish, Provencals and Aquitainians, not Danes.

The main character played by James Purefoy is based loosely upon medieval knight and statesman William Marshal.