King Arthur Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)July 7th, 2004
King Arthur
Matinee with Snacks
It's not Monty Python, and it's not the Royal Shakespeare Company. It's a new take on the Arthurian legend, which may or may not be based on newish archaeological evidence that this legendary Briton did exist. This case states that he did so during the late 5th century Roman occupation of the current land of southern Britain when the Scandanavian Saxons were swarming south and the native Celts (Woads) were struggling to survive. It's kind of too bad about the Norman Conquest 500 years later messing up everything with written history. Based on real data or no, I rather like this grittier, wilder version of Arthur and Guinevere and the knights. It does help to know who the Saxons are, who the Woads are, and what the Romans thought they were doing all the way out there on the edge of the world. Only partially armed with slim history, I was able to follow it, but many of the ladies on my row were not in the know. Yes, many ladies.
The distaff crowd at my screening was not swooning over Clive Owen or Ioan Gruffudd as I think producer Jerry Bruckheimer hoped. We were there to see a fun action movie with a romantic legend behind it. Gone is the courtly intrigue and love triangle. Gone are swoopy gowns, golden plaits, and British superiority. Instead we have a rag tag band of fiercely loyal pagans banding behind a born leader of Arthur and struggling to save themselves and this land that is not even theirs. It was a surprisingly enjoyable take, and all the actors were fully committed to this tale, regardless of the veracity of it. Who will ever know the true story of Arthur? But you can forget shimmering ladies of the lake and extraordinary miracles of divine coronation. This is a grunting dirty man's world in 492 AD and you're lucky to get out in time to name all your children.
Two battle sequences in particular are fantastically rendered and intense; yet I was glad to see relatively bloodless (no Braveheart squibs and flying limbs). I am not all that bothered by it, but generally the less squirty the movie, the more little squirts might go see it. Arthur can still inspire mythological wonder, he deserves to keep on doing so.
Bruckheimer movies are always good for a visual feast. He has an eye for what really makes visual interest in a battle sequence. David "I wrote Gladiator" Franzoni also knows how to pace the fighting so it's not a boring slash fest like Troy, but not inserting a goopy inappropriate love story like Pearl Harbor either. Helming this Anglo-Saxon clutch is Antoine Fuqua, who created a realistic battle zone in South Central Los Angeles. Here he takes the lush hillsides of Ireland and imbues the land with holy purpose.
What Bruckhemer movies often lack is humanity. We don't know why these knights follow Arthur even when they have every reason not to; but we believe their performances and therefore their conviction. Saxon king/general Cerdic (Stellan Skarsgård) is low key and hypnotic, and relentlessly interesting. Keira Knightly seems better cast to be the typical Hollywood Guinevere, and not so much this proto-Druidic warrior princess. Clive Owen (Arthur) is strong without seeming godlike; human without seeming weak. The preview makes him look like a second choice casting, but the film works around him as a grounded leader. He's no hero, he is merely one of some who fight for a real cause; and it is this drive that takes him to heights greater than bloodlust or greed. Hence, legend.
Seriously - it's a good movie, even if Bruckheimer did pay for it.
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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
