F. Murray Abraham does a great job portraying Marco D'Aviano. His first speech in the movie is magnificent. But also does a great job throughout the movie depicting the faith of a priest in world changing times. Although a Catholic priest, the faith presented is quite ecumenical. This is less an historical drama and more of a reflection on the impact of one man's faith on an event of major impact in history. The only weakness of the film is the low budget CG during the battle scenes, which probably could have been reduced anyway, for the strength of the movie lies in the dialogue and quality acting. Although I am not an historian, I think the ideological representations are quite accurate as well as the challenges and conflicts the leaders faced making decisions to deal with the impending threats of invasion. Truly worth the time to watch and quite memorable.

1683 and an Islamic force of three hundred thousand Turks lay siege to Vienna and the fate of Europe lies in the hands of Capuchin friar called Marco d'Aviano and a Polish knight called Jan Sobieski

In a mood for a historical epic I watched DAY OF THE SIEGE with some apprehension . It's got lukewarm feedback on this site and not long in to the film I can see where the complaints are coming from . It has a good cast and costume and production design are impressive but it's impossible not to notice the musical score is awful . It's intrusive and used badly and by trying to create mood it effectively destroys every scene when it is heard . Noticing music when it's good really enhances a scene and much of my enjoyment of the trashy thriller GONE GIRL was simply down to the Reznor / Ross soundtrack and is one of my favourite scores of recent cinema . DAY OF THE SIEGE must just be my least favourite one

As the story continues there's another element that is a spanner in the works - bias . This is a heavily religious film and in the opening scene we see a supposed miracle . Obviously this miracle happens on the Christian side with Marco present . He's a pious man don't you know and the more pious someone is due to their service to God the better they are . Marco is good and King Louis the king of France is a philistine who wants to stab the Holy Roman Empire in the back . It's the bias against the Islamic Turks that does jar . I did think Kara Mustafa Pasha might be painted in a neutral light but as the story continues it's obvious this film might be having an agenda that there was no difference between the Muslims seen here and hardcore violent terrorists and mass murderers seen today in Iraq and Syria . Words like "Jihad" and "Infidel" are thrown about with gat abandon and the Muslims are not to be trusted . One reason the religion of Islam was so popular in those times was because in the zeitgeist of those days was it was relatively liberal . Now it wasn't liberal as we understand the word in the 21st Century but an enemy of Islam was offered the choice of either dying or converting where the defeated enemy would be allowed to keep his land and property which in the spirit of the time was quite a good deal . You wouldn't really know that from watching this and every opportunity to equate 17th Century Islam with the present day ISIS and Taliban where women are kept as sex slaves gets wheeled out at several points . Even the film's other title ELEVEN September 1683 has an unhidden agenda of sorts . I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a racist film but it is one that is heavily biased which works against it . I'm an anti-theist with a Greek name and even I thought the portrayal of Muslim Turks was ugly

This epic movie about the battle between Turkish and Christian armies is very interesting. This extremely significant battle in history is lavishly produced with some stunning visuals. But as a Polish Italian joint venture with a mix of European and American actors things come off unevenly executed. There is a terrible soundtrack score which is tacky and laughable. The acting is alright but suffers from overacting by some. The focus of the story highlights some strange and irrelevant people and incidents.

Still for anyone interested in history of this period it's quite diverting.