Review

Review Date: 11-July-04
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Juicy

King Arthur (2004)

If truth be told, there's nothing on this green earth I'd rather contemplate than comely men with braids or curls, clad in leather and mail, brandishing swords astride high-stepping chargers and sharing the camaraderie of warrior brotherhood. Thus, I thoroughly enjoyed "King Arthur," Hollywood's latest take on Western civilization's most famous legend, as indeed I enjoy almost anything having to do with the once and future king. The plot might be simplistic and the characters more prescriptive than lifelike, but it cannot fail to engross those with a penchant for bygone times, whether mythical or real.

The marketing machine for "King Arthur" claims that the movie reveals the truth of the legend's origins. While it is likely that an actual man from the 5th century spawned the myth, David Franzoni's script uses recent scholarship merely as a framework for a traditional tale of men who love each other and men who kill each other (as well as a recurring anti-Christian motif which I found quite gratifying). The narrative revolves around a half-Roman, half-British captain named Artorius, or Arthur (Clive Owen), whose success at maintaining an imperial fortress in a volatile region has earned him fame and the staunch loyalty of his men, all of whom were conscripted into the army from Sarmatia, near the Caspian Sea. Whereas in many versions of the story the Knights of the Round Table embody a love of the land, here they all ache to get off the island and return to points east (even Arthur, who idolizes the Eternal City); they are protectors of a Roman province by necessity and brave soldiers by dint of nobility and friendship.

The defining moment for this crew --- which includes Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd), Bors (Ray Winstone), Gawain (Joel Edgerton), Tristan (Mads Mikkelsen), Galahad (Hugh Dancy), and Dagonet (Ray Stevenson), a right fetching group of lads --- arrives when the Romans decide to pull out of Britain and leave the locals to the mercy of invading Saxons. (Led by Stellan Skarsgård, these baddies are depicted as greasy animals for whom all speech is grunts and all intercourse violent.) Just before the initial skirmish, Arthur rescues Guinevere (Keira Knightley), a beauty from an indigenous tribe who begins to lead him toward a lasting union with his homeland and its people. For the major battle, this feral damsel dons war paint and kicks hairy Saxon ass alongside the men, which is refreshing to see. (Lest anyone think this ludicrous, Hollywood has several Boudicca films in the works to teach them otherwise.)

Director Antoine Fuqua renders the fight scenes with a blend of lushness and brutality that pervades the whole film, emphasizing the order that Arthur promises as opposed to the barely suppressed chaos with which he must contend. Yet it would be strange if so enduring a legend really derived from such an unspectacular series of events; there's a gravity missing from the film that all its talk of freedom cannot replace. Perhaps the absence of the tale's magical aspects, as well as the famous love triangle, is part of the problem (though forgivable in light of the movie's pseudo-historical intent). Certainly Owen's extreme seriousness and the studio's mandate that Fuqua change his work from a dark, R-rated drama to a PG-13 adventure midstream are also to blame. Still, as a brothers-in-arms yarn and a speculative bit of history about a period not often projected onto the big screen, "King Arthur" manages to capture the imagination.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.