First Knight is a modern treatment of the Arthurian legend, looking specifically at the love triangle between Lancelot, Guinevere and Arthur. It stars Sean Connery as Arthur, Richard Gere as Lancelot, and Julia Ormond as Guinevere. Most of the rest of the characters fade into the background.
The biggest problem I have with this film is that it doesn't present the Arthurian legend in the way I expected it to be seen. I guess this is pretty much a universal problem too; when I saw a trailer for the film, a friend I was with was absolutely scandalised that they could present Guinevere as a brunette - his mental image of Guinevere was that she should be a blonde. There were parts of the film that challenged my ideas of the mythos that I quite liked however. Particularly the idea of Arthur as a battle-weary war veteran, looking to a much younger wife to bring some joy into his life. I can even buy Guinevere falling for the much younger Richard Gere, but I can't buy the interactions between Lancelot and Arthur.
It is very much a presentation of the Arthurian legend. There is little or no attempt to achieve an accurate portrayal of any mediaeval period. The producers managed not to give the knights guns, and stuck them on horseback, but otherwise there's not much in the way of historical accuracy, which is probably fair enough. People will always be interested in the Arthurian legends, but probably a lot less interested in the Arthurian reality, whatever that may be.
Apart from that the movie is just way too slow, yet the story appears too compressed. The entire action appears to take place in at most a few months, and more likely a few weeks. But in telling this compressed story, there are still a lot of scenes that aren't required, particularly in the period before the triangle assembles itself in Camelot.
Oh yeah, and the ending stinks, from any standpoint, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. Lets just say that given the standard Hollywood definitions of drama, and of what is an acceptable ending for a movie, the concluding scenes will come as little surprise to anyone.
4/10 (and most of those are for the Camelot and Lyonesse sets.)
timnfromoz
© 1997 timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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