Watched on DVD

Probably, "L'Armata Brancaleone" (German title "Die unglaublichen Abenteuer des hochwohllöblichen Ritters Branca Leone" -The Incredible Adventures of the Highly Sincere Knight Branca Leone)is one of the most unique Italian comedies of its time. Internationally the third most sought-after Italian production of 1966 was directed by comedy specialist Mario Monicelli, who directed no less than 69 films.

Brancaleone could be considered an epic, comedic, slightly surrealistic odyssey through the early Middle Ages. Not surrealistic in the sense of incomprehensible but in the absurdity of the events, the numerous bizarre characters and also in some of the images. This element appears most strongly here in the scene with Teofilatto's degenerate family.

Vittorio Gassmann plays his role with absurd-comic theatricality, and here is also a peculiarity of the film that could not be reproduced like this in the German version: the language. The screenwriters Age & Scarpelli developed a completely independent diction, composed of several Italian dialects, late Roman Latin, student vulgar language, strung together with medieval sentence structure.

And there is nothing squeamish about it. Right at the beginning there is murder, rape, a hand chopped off, a barbarian grabs a cute little yellow chick and bites it in half. Brancaleone himself has a love-hate relationship with his (yellow!) stubborn horse Dulcinante, the similarity in name to Don Quixote's Rosinante is hardly coincidental. Dulcinante's stubbornness is possibly due to the fact that Brancaleone prefers to drive his horse with punches to the head. If Dulcinante sees an opportunity to get back at him, she does so.

Gian Maria Volontè plays the snooty knight Teofilatto so convincingly that you only really recognize him in the original by his voice. And then there is Barbara Steele -you have to see the whip duel between her and Vittorio Gassmann. Rarely has Barbara Steele been so naked as she swings the whip in her thin little shirt, but with the tips of her breasts taped off as a precaution, since it was hard to avoid everything slipping back and forth and out.

In terms of humor, "L'Armata Brancaleone" offers everything: situation comedy, slapstick, intelligent dialogue wit and of course the absurd comedy of the scene sequences. The early Middle Ages themselves are portrayed quite realistically and without transfiguration. This is also evident in Abacuc's death scene, a strangely poignant scene in which he is promised a better life in the afterlife, without hunger, without beatings, without poverty, without dirt.

Even if you have already read it many times by other reviewers, if you know the two Brancaleone films, you will quickly realize their influence on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". Of course, Brancaleone is on a higher budget level. And one thing I can promise, you'll never get Carlo Rustichelli's snappy theme tune out of your head.

Four years after "L'Armata Brancaleone", Mario Monicelli, again with Vittorio Gassmann in the title role, directed the sequel "Brancaleone alle Crociate", which directly continues the events of this film.