Larger text
Smaller text
Print
E-mail
'King Arthur' reigns
Keira Knightley and Clive Owen
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Stars: Clive Owen, Keira Knightley
MPAA Rating: PG-13, for violence
Michael Machosky can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7901.
But visions of Arthur and a wisecracking Merlin starring in a tough-guy buddy flick -- leaping clear of exploding castles unscathed as Jay-Z thumps in the background -- are quickly put to rest.
Instead of the Arthur of legend, Bruckheimer and director Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") tell the story of the possible historical basis for the legend, a half-Roman, half-Briton leader named Artorius. With all the fanciful sorcery of "Excalibur" cleaved away, "King Arthur" is a tale of the Dark Ages, when the Roman Empire was under siege from all sides by ruthless barbarian tribes.
"King Arthur" is actually pretty good. It takes a page from the Mel Gibson school of historical epics -- if the look and feel of the times is convincing, it doesn't matter if you fudge the actual history.
The bloody, bone-crunching battles and blue-painted Northern warriors seem lifted right out of "Braveheart," although one exciting battle on an icy lake harkens back to Eisenstein's "Alexandr Nevsky" (1938), the mother of all medieval epics.
Arthur (Clive Owen) is a stoic, philosophical, deeply Christian leader, who believes that Rome and Christianity are bringing peace and order to the known world. His knights are pagan horsemen from Eastern Europe, pressed into the Roman army as children.
After years of battling the wild Britons north of Hadrian's Wall, who are led by the fearsome chieftain Merlin, the Romans are packing up to leave the British Isles. Their empire is crumbling on all sides, and the fearsome Saxon raiders have come ashore, slaughtering all in their path.
Arthur's knights are a bunch of hairy, leather-clad roughnecks who look more like a road crew for Lynyrd Skynyrd than knights in shining armor. To secure their freedom, they need to complete one last mission -- to rescue a Roman family north of the wall before the Saxons get them.
The mission is full of trials for Arthur, not all of them physical. The fickleness of his Roman rulers and their cruel and cynical use of the state religion to dominate and punish the local population precipitates a crisis of faith for the young warrior. To the film's credit, this wound is bravely kept raw and unresolved. He finds dozens of native Britons walled up in the Roman family's dungeon who have been tortured and starved to death. The only survivors are a young boy and a woman named Guinevere (Keira Knightley).
For this kind of movie, if you can't have accuracy, believability is the next best thing. And in "King Arthur," you can almost feel the mud, the cold, the darkness and the creeping dread of the unknown in 452 A.D. Britain. This is helped by the casting of so many unknowns in the major roles.
Unfortunately, few of them distinguish themselves. Dodgy accents abound, and are randomly discarded and reclaimed. A few excellent European actors such as Stellan Skarsgard and Ray Winstone fare a little better, but get few lines. Knightley alone carves out a distinctive presence -- very feminine, with hidden reserves of deadly skill, which is rapidly becoming a trademark. When she transforms from a skinny teenage girl into a fearsome barbarian warrior, you don't doubt it for a second.
