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Brother Cadfael - The Devil's NoviceRating:
Release Date: 29 August, 2000 Retail Price: $19.99 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: Complete Cast (6 total) |
Brother Cadfael - The Devil's Novice Reviews
Even in the worst deed there is some good
This tape is also part of Brother Cadfael Series 2 Box Set: The Devil's Novice, St. Peter's Fair and The Virgin in the Ice (1996) ASIN: 6303969631
You know this is going to be a good one when it starts out with a bloody face staring at you. Later there is the bragging priest and you know if he is not the one to die that he should be. And what is with the soon to be bride playing on both sides of the fence?
A new novice that speaks strangely in his sleep, a missing king's chaplain who should have staid in the cars or rather not go out alone, and a mystery wild man is just the right mix for a murder mystery.
Once again Cadfile uses forensics, logic and intuition (with a little last minute information) to smoke out the truth and bring the culprit/s to justice.
You will suspect everyone up to the end.
All the films are worth seeing.
I truly enjoy a murder mystery of the classic who-done-it type, and the Brother Cadfael series is absolutely perfect. The author Ellis Peters (Edith Pargiter, 1913-1995), like Agatha Christie, Nagio Marsh and Dorothy Sayers, was popular during the early to mid-20th Century and wrote prolifically during that time. There are some 20 Cadfael books. Athough the writer is not an historian, she is remarkably well researched and has a genuine feeling for life during her character's time period.
The setting of these stories is 12th Century England, a period of particular turmoil. Henry I had died without a legitimate male heir, and he had designated his daughter Matilda as his successor, binding his nobles by oath to support her. Although many of them did, including her very able half brother, an illegitimate son of Henry made an Earl by his father, many of them threw their support behind her cousin, Steven. Matilda, or Maud as she is referred to, was a granddaughter of William the Conqueror and no push over herself. She fought her cousin from a base in coastal France, where the family held land in fief of the King of France and where marriage alliances had placed her as wife of Geoffery, the Duke of Anjou. With her Norman support in France and her loyal factions in England, she made enough of a threat to Steven's rule to ultimately obtain a guarantee of succession to the English throne for her son Henry, ultimately Henry II. Until that time, warfare turned most of England into a battle ground and life for everyone a matter of ceaseless uncertainty. Added to this was the rancour still apparent in the social divisions between the largely Saxon population and their Norman rulers. The fall of the Saxon monarchy was only a hundred years previous and hostility still existed. The different orders of society: nobleman, servant, military man, tradesman, artisan, abbott, monk, and priest are carefully wrought to produce a period piece with more detail and clearer dialogue than a Shakespearean play. It would be a wonderful way of introducing young people to history.
Cadfael, the central character of the series, is a Dominican monk and herbalist, and Dereck Jacobi is the perfect personification of him. He has a presence which suggests strength, wisdom, and compassion. Unlike most of the other brothers, Cadfael had spent most of his life in the secular world where he participated in the crusades, had adventures, fell in and out of love, and took his order after finding the ways of the world wanting. He comes from a different culture, that of Wales, and sees that of England through an outsiders more objective eyes. His experience with life and the motives of men and his keen awareness of detail makes him the perfect sleuth, and when murder is committed, the civil authorities are more than willing to have him clear things up for them.
In the Devil's Novice an unpleasant cleric is murdered en route to a meeting with the Earl of Chester-a distant relative of my own which makes the story come even more alive for me-with whom King Steven wishes to come to an understanding in his on going discord with Empress Maude. When a homeless man is accused of the murder, a young novice who is a kinsman of the victim, admits to the crime. Brother Cadfael, with his shrewd judge of character and observation of the facts comes to the youth's aide, bringing harmony back to a tortured family.
The film is authentic, Brother Cadfael engaging, and the mystery captivating. An enjoyable way to spend a little time.
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