THE BLACK PRINCE CHIVALROUS HERO OR EMBODIMENT OF “ULTRAVIOLENCE”?
The camera sweeps across the chaos of battle. Volleys of arrows are unloosed. Horses roll on the ground in agony. Newsreel type headings flash across the screen. This is “the war of the century”, and “God is on our side”. We are transported back to 14th century France and the opening clash of the Hundred Years War. And it is brought to life with frightening immediacy.
Anthony Burgess was fresh from the success of his novel, A Clockwork Orange, its “ultraviolence” – the pursuit of brutal, senseless killing – shocked and disturbed its readers, and was rendered into a powerful film. Now he had a new
