Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas Blu-ray Movie Review

Quit horsing around.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 25, 2014

It’s hardly a secret that we live in a litigious society, where merely looking at someone crossways can lead to a lawsuit. The glut of small claims court shows dotting the television landscape are just another potent example of how willing people are to sue for any perceived injustice. At least this tendency points up the generally egalitarian nature of today’s society, where even a hardscrabble blue collar type can take on a corporate white collar type, at least if he has the requisite filing fee. Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas travels back to feudal times when such conveniences were not yet part of the societal compact. Justice was a rather elastic concept back then, one formulated by the ruling class, even if there was lip service given to lower classes who might have suffered some sort of indignity. Rather peculiarly, Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is based upon a 19th century novella by Heincrich von Kleist which changed the name of its actual historical character from Hans Kohlhase to MIchael Kohlhaas for some reason. Despite that change from the historical record, Von Kleist’s piece actually began resonating more and more as time went on and Europe was rent asunder by the dissolution of the noble classes and general societal unrest that swept the continent for the rest of the 19th and 20th centuries. The existential element of Michael Kohlhaas’ quixotic quest for justice after two of his horses are taken from him provided grist for the literary mill of everyone from Franz Kafka to E.L. Doctorow. Kafka is reported to have actually read from Von Kleist’s work in one of his rare public appearances, and Doctorow’s character Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime is a fanciful reworking of the historical Kohlhaas. Kohlhaas’ tale made it to the world of film in 1969 as Michael Kohlhaas — der Rebell (released internationally as Man on Horseback) and in 1999 as the HBO offering The Jack Bull. Like its 1969 counterpart, Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas was screened at Cannes, where perhaps unexpectedly it was nominated for the Palme d’Or.

There’s a scene early in Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas where Kohlhaas (Mads Mikkelson) is reading his Bible in a candlelit cave. He attempts to explain a passage from 1 Corinthians 13:12 to his illiterate helper. This is the scripture that includes the famous phrase “for now we see through a glass, darkly”, and Kohlhaas muses about what that might mean. Film lovers will of course immediately be thinking of Ingmar Bergman’s 1961 film of that name, and while there’s an undeniably Bergmanesque flavor to at least some of Age of Uprising: The Legend of MIchael Kohlhaas, its bleak feudal ambience might be more appropriately compared to The Seventh Seal, in tone if not in ultimate quality or impact.

Kohlhaas is a horse trader in feudal 16th century France. Taking a small herd of horses to market, he’s accosted by some thuggish types at a bridge, insisting he needs to pay fealty to the local Lord to be able to pass. The “negotiation”, such as it is, has a henchman running between Kohlhaas and an arrogant young Baron (Swann Arlaud). At one point the Baron actually aims an ornamented pistol at Kohlhaas, as if to suggest “cross me—or my bridge—and you’re a dead man”, but ultimately the Baron simply says “He’ll leave the two black ones with me”, and the henchman relieves Kohlhaas of two of his prized stallions. It’s not initially made clear (and in fact one of this film’s shortcomings is how laconic and discursive it simultaneously is at times), but the Baron is evidently not actually stealing the horses, but keeping them as collateral until Kohlhaas returns from his journey to market.

However, the Baron is not above a bit of subterfuge, and he initially tries to pass of lesser horses to Kohlhaas when Kohlhaas returns. That sets a rather amazing cascade of dominoes into motion, where Kohlhaas attempts to right this injustice, repeatedly running into obstacles that are evidently designed to keep the unwashed masses in their place. While director Arnaud des Pallières actually seems to prefer either stoic silence or reasoned debate to outright depictions of violence, it’s made clear that Kohlhaas ultimately resorts to vigilantism, especially after a devastating loss is inflicted upon his family.

The major problem here is the very silent stoicism that the film favors and which seems to be the overriding character trait of Kohlhaas himself. Mikkelson is short on dialogue here, but long on anguished glances into the beautiful but severe French countryside. With only one sequence which might be termed a big action set piece, this is a slow, meditative piece that fails to connect with the audience for the simple reason that Kohlhaas himself doesn’t ever seem to betray much emotion. There’s certainly an aggregating sense of frustration as Kohlhaas and a motley crew he soon assembles have to take matters into their own hands, but the film could have used some jolts of electricity along the way to further animate what ends up being colorful but surprisingly uninvolving.

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. Whatever the dramatic shortcomings of the film, it's often breathtakingly beautiful, with impressive sweeping views of sun dappled vistas or autumnal and wintry landscapes. There's been a fair amount of color grading here, including a lot of amber-honey syrupy yellow slathered on a lot of scenes, but the image is typically sharp and very well defined, with close-ups exhibiting excellent fine detail. Contrast is also strong and stable, and there are absolutely no signs of problematic denoising or other digital intrusions, with the result being a very organic and striking looking presentation.

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's an old adage in the film industry that the best underscore is one that you don't particularly notice when it's happening. The good news is that Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (in the original French) supports Martin Wheeler's really effective score quite beautifully, opening it up to substantial surround placement. However, the overall sound designers here evidently don't subscribe to the "less is more" belief, and this film is awash in very loud and at times actually distracting foley effects, including a nonstop whipping of wind which admittedly zings through the surround channels but ultimately makes things sound like they were recorded in a wind tunnel. That anomaly aside, dialogue is cleanly presented and the overall mix here is quite agreeable. Fidelity is excellent, and there are no issues of any kind to report.

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Mads Mikkelson Cannes Interview (1080p; 8:16). Mikkelson talks about how he joined the project and things like the multilingual first meeting he had with director Arnaud des Pallières.


• Arnaud des Pallières Cannes Interview (1080p; 20:10). Des Pallières seems a bit reticent here, and it takes the interviewer a while to get him to talk very much, but he details what interested him about the story and aspects of the shoot. In French with English subtitles.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 16:22)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:51)

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a reserved distance about much of Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas that keeps the viewer at arm's length. A lot of this has to do with the formulation of the Kohlhaas character himself within the film. Occasionally things spring to life here, as in a great scene where a kind of dilapidated priest (Denis Lavant) takes on Kohlhaas' self-righteous attitude, but director des Pallières seems more intent on fashioning a feudal travelogue rather than a compelling drama. Mikkelson is oddly remote here, and so makes for a hard (anti?)hero to root for, but there's no denying the film's visual sweep and nicely gritty recreation of the dour 16th century society against which Kohlhaas rages. Technical merits here are very strong for those interested in this title.