Henry of Navarre rises from battlefield warrior to France's revered King Henri IV in a wide-ranging, exciting period play. In spite of the brutality and several raunchy sexual interludes, director Jo Baier's epic manages to remain a classically entertaining adventure film. A religious battle erupted between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots in late 16th-century France. As a gesture of peacemaking, the French dowager queen, Catherine de Medici, calls Henry to her court and asks him to marry her daughter. On St. Bartholomew's Day, the Protestant wedding guests are slaughtered by Catholics, and Henry, newly married, must use all of his cunning to survive and maneuver for the throne. [Palm Springs International Film Festival wrote the article]
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Henry of Navarre rises from battlefield warrior to France's revered King Henri IV in a wide-ranging, exciting period play. In spite of the brutality and several raunchy sexual interludes, director Jo Baier's epic manages to remain a classically entertaining adventure film. A religious battle erupted between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots in late 16th-century France. As a gesture of peacemaking, the French dowager queen, Catherine de Medici, calls Henry to her court and asks him to marry her daughter. On St. Bartholomew's Day, the Protestant wedding guests are slaughtered by Catholics, and Henry, newly married, must use all of his cunning to survive and maneuver for the throne. [Palm Springs International Film Festival wrote the article]
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