Flesh and Blood (1985 film)

Flesh+Blood
Theatrical release poster by Renato Casaro
Directed by	Paul Verhoeven
Screenplay by	Gerard Soeteman Paul Verhoeven
Story by	Gerard Soeteman
Produced by	Gijs Versylus
Starring	Rutger Hauer Jennifer Jason Leigh Tom Burlinson Susan Tyrrell Ronald Lacey Jack Thompson
Cinematography	Jan de Bont
Edited by	Ine Schenkkan
Music by	Basil Poledouris
Production companies	Riverside Pictures Impala Studios
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release dates	June 10, 1985 (1985-06-10) (SIFF) August 30, 1985 (1985-08-30) (United States)
Running time	126 minutes
Countries	United States Netherlands Spain
Language	English
Budget	US$6.5 million
Box office	US$100,000 (United States)[1]

Flesh and Blood (stylized as Flesh+Blood) is a 1985 romantic historical adventure film directed by Paul Verhoeven, and starring Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Burlinson, Susan Tyrrell, Ronald Lacey, Bruno Kirby and Jack Thompson. The script was written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman. The story is set in the year 1501 in Italy, during the early modern period, and follows two warring groups of mercenaries and their longstanding quarrel.

The script is partly based on unused material for the Dutch TV series Floris, which was the debut for Verhoeven, Soeteman and Hauer. The film, originally titled God's Own Butchers,^[2][3] was also known as The Rose and the Sword on early VHS releases. It was Verhoeven's first English-language film.^[4]

The film follows a group of mercenaries who carry out missions for a lord who has lost his castle but after retaking it they are betrayed and forced to leave. During a revenge attack the group find and take a young woman who is betrothed to the lord's son. This changes the dynamic of the group during a dangerous time of medieval fighting and the plague.

The film was a huge box office flop, only managing to make back US$100,000 out of its estimated US$6.5 million budget, although the film has a small cult following.