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King Arthur

Starring: Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd, Mads Mikkelsen, Joel Edgerton, Hugh Dancy, Ray Winstone, Stephen Dillane, Stellan Skarsgard and Til Schweiger
Director: Antoine Fuqua

Reviewed by Larry Stanley

Mythology (my·thol·o·gy):

A body or collection of myths belonging to a people and addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors, and heroes. b. A body of myths associated with an event, individual, or institution

Mythology is wonderful, a useful tool for science and scholars to search the past and to try and define and discover how humanity described it’s heroes, heroines and histories.

One of the most enduring legends of British fame is that of Arthur, the King of the Brits.

According to legend, as a young boy, Arthur pulled the legendary sword Excalibur from a stone, thus decreeing that he would lead the people of Britain.

He founded Camelot, formed the Knights of the Round Table, and fought for justice and freedom for his people.

His deeds have been written about for over 1,000 years and many of the past Kings of England have traced their own lineage back into history, claiming to be Arthur’s descendant.

All well and good. But, there are at least two major things everyone needs to remember about mythology.

First, truth is often different then the myth.

Second, most myth’s are based on some facts.

In this version directed by Antoine Fuqua, an attempt is made to look at who Arthur might have been and what he might have done. It is possibly the closest that anyone has ever gotten to the ‘real Arthur’ and they still made some mistakes.

Here Arthur is a British-Roman Captain in the Roman Army that is maintaining the fragile peace in the British Isles at the order of Rome. He and his men are part of a indentured nation called Sarmatian’s who when defeated by the Roman army generations before were drafted into the service of Rome.

Each tribe of Sarmatians surrender a boy to the army, who must serve 15 years, before being given his freedom and is able to return to his home.

Arthur and his men, including Lancelot, Galahad, Bors, Tristan and Gawain, are all famous fighters, each look forward to the time when they will be allowed to leave the service of Rome and go about their own lives.

As the time of their discharge nears, they are drafted once more into a mission to save the favorite God-Child of the Pope himself from the invading Saxon army as Rome prepares to leave the Isles forever.

The mission is an eye-opener for Arthur and his men as they find tortured Brit’s in cages starving and dying. They see people enslaved to their Roman masters under the orders ‘of God’, the people believing that to refuse to serve would mean they go to hell.

Freeing these people, Arthur invited the anger of the owner of the villa, a renowned citizen of Rome.

Among those freed is Guinevere (Keira Knightly), a young woman of the Woads, a ferocious people fighting the Romans, and named for the dye they use to decorate their bodies and faces.

She is also an excellent warrior in her own right, able to shed as much violence as Arthur and his knights at any time.

She and Arthur strike an uneasy truce with the leader of the Woads, Merlin, and together they stand in final battle against the vicious and murderous Saxon horde led by Cerdic
(Stellan Skarsgard).

I found David Franzoni's script to be entertaining, without any of the schlock I really expected. Yes, the climactic battle scene was somewhat of a “Magnificent Seven” turn, but I anticipated that. It fit with where Franzoni was going with his story.

I enjoyed this film, finding it realistic and gritty. The lack of blood and gore made the film something I could enjoy without being too squeamish and make it easy to recommend to others.

Yes, it does away with the pageantry, magic and fantasy. These are real people, their story told in real manner. No, they probably never existed outside of the mind of Mallory or T.H. White. And that is probably why everyone is upset about the movie.

Folks, that is the problem with looking at history; it can tear down the walls of mythology you have built up or allowed to be built up in your mind.

The story here is not centered around a beautiful love story even though it is easy to see Lancelot’s own physical and emotional attraction to Guinevere even though the two of them never exploit this attraction.

In fact, looking at the Arthurian legends from the early 6^th and 7^th century, Lancelot,Gawain, Galahad, nor Guinevere show up in the legends until the early 12th century when the story began to be told in Europe.

Arthur was a story about a man who fought against the Saxon army and defeated them, who led Britain into becoming a united nation, and who finally died at close to the age of 100 at Camlann fighting Medraunt. At least, according to legend.

But, this film plays fast and loose not only with White and Mallory, but with the archaeological evidence as well.

But, that is the operative word: Film. It is not a factual account of what happened, it is a fictional tale using as much realism as you can get in a fictional story. Instead of magic, Angels and devils, we have warriors who cry at sad songs, love their children and have sex with good looking women.

We have men who love each other as brothers and stand together. We have women who are not less then men, but are able to take up their own blood-lust and see it through.

No wonder people don’t like this film. It destroys the image they want to see. It destroys the idea in their head that men are all war-mongering tyrants or that women are all frills and lace and need to be protected.

“Lancelot: There is a large number of lonely men out there.

Guinevere: Don't worry, I won't let them rape you.”

This was a woman who didn’t need protecting, but demanded equality as well as womanhood.

These were men, who were loyal to a nation, but more loyal to a man who was their friend and leader.

This was a time when great leaders fought beside of or in front of their men. This is not a mythological legend brought to the big screen with laser shows and digital images of dragons and trolls.

This is a story about men and women, united against a common foe. This is a story about life, love and ‘Freedom’.

I don’t care what you say, this is a good film.

Oh, and about some of the ‘arguments’ about how inaccurate the film is

1)Women in the clans did fight alongside men in many cases.

2)The lack of ‘Armor’ on the knights is appropriate for the time. The full body armor many are expecting did not come into use for another 3-400 years. At the time of Arthur, chain mail and leather was the predominant form of body armor. Plate armor began to appear (ca. late 13th/early 14th century) first as reinforcements to vital areas such as the chest and shoulders, and finally as a complete suit (ca. early 15th century).

3)Camelot and the Lady of the Lake were both introduced about the 12^th century. Same with the ‘Round Table’. None of these were found in any of the original legends of Arthur. Like I said, ‘fast and loose with myth and history’.

Finally, to quote Maxwell Scott “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”.  If you want the pageantry, the magic, then go rent “Excalibur”. If you want some realism, watch King Arthur.

Rating:

(3 out of 4 stars)

Larry Stanley is the editor and publisher of Penguin Comics and Movies, located at http://www.penguincomics.net and has done over 500 movie reviews in his career. He is also a contributing reviewer to Cultcuts magazine (http://www.cultcuts.net) and Columbia360 (http://www.columbia360.com/) as well the magazine Devine Exploitation.

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