The Last Valley

The Last Valley is set in the German countryside during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), a conflict originally motivated by religious differences that soon became mainly political (if there’s any difference at all). Vogel (Omar Sharif), a former teacher constantly running from the ravages of war, discovers a village hidden in an idyllic valley; unfortunately for him, the Captain (Michael Cai...

**_Wintering in a paradisal vale in the Alps during the Thirty Years' War_** In 1643, during the horrible Thirty Years War in Europe, a band of ruthless mercenaries and a drifter discover a hidden vale, the last valley untouched by the horror. The drifter, Vogel (Omar Sharif), talks The Captain (Michael Caine) into wintering in the peaceful valley rather than pillaging it and raping/killing the...

It might be possible 50 years on, to make the casting choices work that James Clavell tried to do with this. Back in 1971, however, casting Omar Sharif as the teutonic "Vogel" opposite Michael Caine's only marginally more convincing "Captain" really does stretch the imagination a little too much. Add arch-Englishmen Nigel Davenport ("Gruber") and Brian Blessed ("Korski") and you have a recipe for ...