Blood and Glory is a 2018 historical war drama set during the Anglo Boer War where prisoners of war take a stand against their captors.
We are a people in conflict, and while over the eons that has fallen further to the wayside with each passing decade, our history is blotted with war and strife with no place on our planet ever free of it. With Sean Else newest epic Blood and Glory (Modder en Bloed), we travel back more than a hundred years to the battle torn landscapes of South Africa and the Second Boer War – often simply the Boer War or South African War – soon shifting to Saint Helena, a remote island far off the western coast most famous for the point of exile of Napoleon and here, home to over five thousand Boer prisoners of war.
Beginning with a bloody skirmish on the mainland where we meet Willem Morkel (Stian Bam), a hard-working Boer family man who loses much when he makes a desperate attempt to save someone important is eventually captured by the British Army, along with thousands of others. The Boer are not a truly organized military, a collection of farmers and blacksmiths, speaking Afrikaans, struggling to keep hold of their land. Seen as worthless and less than human, they are horribly mistreated when taken to Saint Helena, the largest of the prisoner of war – or rather internment for traitors as they are told – camps in the conflict. There, Morkel faces off against the ruthless Colonel Swannell (Grant Swanby), a contemptible leader with nothing but hatred for the Boers.
The story is familiar of course, with the headstrong and proud Morkel, already a towering figure, refusing to submit to the vicious rule of Swannell, who treats his inmates with a brutal hand. Along the way though, sport becomes the marker for manhood, and it’s not long before rugby is the new battleground. Swannell already has a top-notch team and is looking to take on the Boers, with Morkel forming his own opposing crew.
The film then becomes one of parallels, where we witness plenty of the conventional human atrocities committed at the camp, as the men are put to hard labor and all sorts of belittlement. Then we head to the pitch per se where the men take to hard hits in a game of honor and survival. Both of these elements, while based on reality, are pretty standard nonetheless, even as many are hard to watch and often inspiring. Else builds a great sense of authenticity with the setting and direction, the film always feeling genuine, made all the more so by some terrific performances. It’s a dual language movie and the impassioned words of these men in their native Afrikaans is stirring. The only prominent female in the cast is Charlotte Salt, who has some small but effective presence, even if she is somewhat sidelined (sometimes literally) by it all.
Naturally, watching these men endure the worst Swannell can dole out is uncomfortable to sit through, even if it’s all built on tropes of the genre. Beatings and horrific punishments are part and parcel to these movies. Either way, there is a bit of a tonal shift as the film heads into its second half, the story more centered on the sport (and a victory worth a great deal), giving these men the spirit they need to keep going. This also, while indeed well shot and motivating, is once again all very standard, and doesn’t take a lot to see where it’s going. Nonetheless, this is such an earnest and well-intentioned movie, it’s hard not to appreciate the effort. There is a lot to like here, especially if history and sport are your thing. If anything, it really ought to have you heading to your favorite search engine and learning more about this troubling slice of history.