At the end of the 16th century, Wallachian ruler Prince Michael the Brave overcame the adversity of the Ottoman and Austrian empires to unite Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania into one country.
The story is historically less authentic, but is full of grand battle scenes, political plots, betrayals and family drama. To reenact the battles that Mihai Viteazul fought against the Turks, some 5,000 soldiers of the Romanian Army were brought to the set.[3] Some reports put this number around 10,000 soldiers.[4] The film has two parts and was shot in several locations, such as Istanbul, Prague, and Călugăreni,[5] but also the Danube, the Black Sea, Alba Iulia, Carpathian Mountains, Bucharest, Sibiu, Sinaia, and Mirăslău.[6]
The budget at the time was around 14 million lei,[3] which in 2010 was estimated to be worth to be around 500,000 US dollars, a relatively high sum for its period.[1]
In 2000, the soundtrack of the film was redone in Dolby Surround.[9] It is estimated that the film will be re-released in Blu-ray format sometime in 2010.[10]
Reception
The film is the most viewed Romanian film worldwide.[4][2] It was Romania's entry for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1972,[7] but was not accepted as a nominee.[11] At the Moscow International Film Festival in 1971, it won a Golden Award,[12] but lost to Bilyy ptakh z chornoyu vidznakoyu (The White Bird Marked with Black).[13] Nevertheless, it won at the Beaume Historic Film Festival in 1974, ahead of El Cid.[14][15]
With a rating on 8.4 on Internet Movie Database,[16] it is rated as the twentieth best historic film of all time. It is considered 18th in the biography category,[17] 40th in the war category,[18] 34th in the action category,.[19] The director himself, Sergiu Nicolaescu, declared that he was impressed by the rating especially as it is an American website and the film was released four decades before.[6]
