Season of the Witch: Review

Season of the Witch (2011)

Cast: Nicholas Cage, Ron Perlman

Director: Dominic Sena, Brett Ratner

Season of the Witch, made in 2011 and directed by Dominic Sena and Brett Ratner, was about two knights set on a mission to take an accused witch to a monastery in order to end the plague. It starred Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman as the knights delegated to the task, accompanied with an altar boy, knight, guide and a monk. Prior to the task, Cage’s character, Behman, had an altercation with his captain while fighting in the Crusades. He and Perlman’s character, Felson, had came to the conclusion that God had too many enemies and were questioning faith. During a battle, Behman killed an innocent woman without realizing who they were fighting against. He and Felson desert the army they fought in after confronting the captain about the questionable morals of the war. He is haunted throughout the his mission of the woman he killed. Although a costly task, Behman and Felson succeed in their task and is able to make up for his mistake.

The chief priest suffering from the plague.

The movie determines that the Black Death is caused solely by witches and their evil magic. On the journey to the monastery, the knight in charge, Eckhart, and the guide, Hagamar, discussed the plague. Hagamar stated that every town he has been that caught the plague, a strange woman has passed through the night before uttering incantations. Eckhart corrected him by saying no girl passed through his village. Although the extent of witchcraft that is in the movie is not factual, this conversation did incorporate the issue of the cause of the plague. People at the time didn’t know what caused the plague and tried to make sense of it as much as they could.

While the plot of the film is centered around the existence of witches, a recurring theme was morality. Behman seemed to be the judge of what was morally right, starting with his accidentally slaying of a peasant woman. After he was given the ultimatum by the church to take the witch to the monastery or to be tried as a deserter, Behman judged the church as unfairly accusing the girl of witchcraft. Because of this judgement, he promised the girl a fair trial once they arrived to their destination. Throughout the journey, the troop run into problems and lives are lost. When men started to die, Behman retracted his promise and pulled out his sword against the girl. The monk, Debelzaq, had to remind Behman that they had a job to do and she would get her justice when they got to the monastery.

The slain woman from Behman's vision

Only women were perceived to be witches in the film when the opening was of three women killed for witchcraft. Along with morality being an important theme to the movie, the power women possess and their role was a common topic. Behman’s motivation to give their prisoner a fair trial came from the constant vision of the woman he had killed. As he realized that the prisoner was a witch or something worse, his vision demonstrated it. The woman, instead of falling with a pained look with her hands on her wound, had licked the blood from her hands. Subtly in the film, the topic came up in a more humourous way. Behman told Felson that he has seen a woman make a man lose a year’s worth of earnings in one night. Felson defensively stated that they were in France and she was worth it. A woman was either powerful sexually or she was powerful due to witchcraft. Aside from that, they were innocent and needed to be protected men in general, not as victims of war.

The accused witch leaving her jail cell.

The girl leaving the monastery.