The High Crusade

1994
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla) brings you John Rhys-Davies in a Monty Pythonesque tale of a band of Crusaders who find themselves in possession of an Alien ship a... Read allRoland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla) brings you John Rhys-Davies in a Monty Pythonesque tale of a band of Crusaders who find themselves in possession of an Alien ship and the Alien to pilot it. Armed with the means to conquer the Holy Land, the naive Crusade... Read allRoland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla) brings you John Rhys-Davies in a Monty Pythonesque tale of a band of Crusaders who find themselves in possession of an Alien ship and the Alien to pilot it. Armed with the means to conquer the Holy Land, the naive Crusaders set off on a grand crusade, only to find themselves not in Jerusalem, but at the mercy ... Read all

Directors
- Klaus Knoesel
- Holger Neuhäuser
Writers
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

660

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Klaus Knoesel
- Holger Neuhäuser
Writers
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos32

+ 24

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Storyline

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Trivia
There were two different versions of the film made. Version one: The aliens mostly speak in an alien language, with subtitles. There is one alien that speaks English, but it is a lifeless dialogue, with an equally dull voice. Version two: Same version as above, in terms of video. But the alien subtitles and dialogue have been completely removed, along with their dull voices. It has been re-dubbed with a silly Monty Python styled English dialogue, and just as silly voice actors. Who are extremely funny, the alternate audio transforming the movie completely.

Crazy credits
As the credits roll, a remixed song featuring funny quotes from the movie plays.

Connections
Referenced in Der Freund meiner Mutter (2002)

User reviews17

Review

Featured review

Another massacre of a great book

Poul Anderson had done all the screenwriters' work for them. With a solid historical backbone, subtle wit, and an engaging story, his novel was enough to relegate the writing of the script to a fill-in-the-blank exercise. Instead, the movie emerges as a pale ripoff of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, yet with even more historical inaccuracies (HIGH CRUSADE has Jerusalem falling to Saracens in 1345, not 1187, and even has a trio of Saracens attacking a keep in England!)

The dialogue does flirt with intelligence, as when John Rhys-Davies's character, Brother Parvus, insistently tries to "educate" spacefaring aliens about the Holy Trinity and geocentric cosmology, but ultimately it's just a tease. Things quickly descend into weak farce, and some devices, such as the aliens' construction of an evil human clone, are pure throwaway filler.

I sure hope Poul Anderson never saw this film. My fear is that he would never sell film rights for one of his excellent books again, which would be a shame, since in the right hands some fine movies could be produced.