Anyone ever see the mini-series, “Merlin”? What did you think of that one? I liked it!
Eh, I looked at the movie as almost a parody of the Arthurian Legends, not unlike the way Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? was supposedly based on The Odyssey.
Not that FK is nearly as good as OBWAT? .
I think “Merlin” was actually pretty good too, Jurhael. It made some changes from the standard legends, but most modern interpretations (both in literature and on film) do, so that’s fine. The film was obviously aware of this, and even made a point of addressing the disparity (lightly) near the end.
I really liked Sam Neill as a young(ish) Merlin… he pulled it off surprisingly well. Issabella Rosselini is not an actress I normally like, but she was good in Fearless and she played Nimue quite well in “Merlin” as well.
If you’re into “young Merlin” stories, you might like Mary Stewart’s Merlin series. The first three books, starting with The Crystal Cave focus on Merlin’s development, and are very convincing. The fourth book (The Wicked Day) switches focus to Mordred, but is still pretty good.
Fortunately, my only exposure to this movie was cannibalizing its sound effects and music for “Lego Macbeth”, for English class. What I saw didn’t make me want to see more.
However, I doubt Jerry friggin’ Zucker was a good choice for a serious Arthurian movie. Maybe if Leslie Nielsen replaced Richard Gere…
AvalonianWhoooooosssssssshhhhhhhh
My comment was that I felt the adaptation was very poor. The basic tone of the TV movie was completly different from the book.
At least that was my opinion.
Yeah, whoosh indeed. Sorry Zebra.
I agree with your opinion, by the way.
(pipes up) And so do I, re Mists of Avalon tv version. They got the feel all wrong. Like Clint Eastwood did with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, not to hijack.
I saw First Knight in the theater, and while it was pretty much a joke of a movie, I did enjoy a lot of the visuals. (Not least of which was Sean Connery…but I digress.) The splendour of the clothes, carriages, horses, etc… I love all that stuff. As someone else mentioned, the night battle was way cool.
Of course architecturally they always get it all wrong. This took place in the 500s, not the 1400s as the producers seem to think. No Gothic cathedrals, kids. A whole lot more of the buildings would have been made of wood.
Please excuse my nitpick, but aluminum isn’t very shiny. It’s usually a dull gray, unless it’s plated with something (nickel, probably). The armor they were wearing in Excalibur looked more like stainless steel, which is almost as anachronistic. Of course, so was the fact that they were wearing that style of plate armor that early in history. Or that they were using stirrups on the horses, for that matter. Or speaking modern English. Or… well, you get the idea. Still a cool movie.
“Bring out your dead!” clank
Anyway. I’d like to see your perfect Arthurian movie if it ever gets made. 
Actually, I’d like to see a really good adaptation of The Once and Future King – I don’t count Camelot as an adaptation, as the two really have very little in common if you get right down to it.
First Knight was downright wretched. I didn’t much care for Merlin either.
There are different, equally legitimate ways to present an Arthurian story. You can take it as a timeless myth, in which case you can use whatever props you like – Excalibur’s shiny Gothic plate or a romanticized 12-th century look like in Lancelot and Guinevere (good movie) or what have you. You can have magic, or not. You can try it as historical fiction, set it in the 5th century, and try to be realistic. Whatever way you go, as long as you stay true to the spirit of the story, it can still be good.
Now, if the movie does go the mythic fantasy route, as in Excalibur, there’s not much point in talking about historical accuracy, because it’s not set in a real time and place. Some years ago I saw a version made for British tv called “Arthur, the Young Warlord”, which took the historical route, and had wooden forts and a lot of Celts in leather. Not a big budget, but interesting.
I believe Noah Wyle played Lancelot in a made for tv movie, but I don’t know the name of it.
It was Guinevere.
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I like Excalibur, stylized late 15th century armor notwithstanding, even though I’m usually a stickler for historical accuracy. One thing that does bother me is the fact that Orff’s O fortuna was used twice.
First Knight was a horrible, horrible movie, though.
Yes! Yes! Right on brother! And that stupid getaway boat thing…
And let’s paint everything blue…
And a fire in the middle of the round table. There’s a clever idea that never caught on…
This flick is the film equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard. The thought of it makes my teeth hurt.
Everyone seems to be overlooking Camelot! I mean, c’mon, how accurate is it to have everyone belting out a showtune a couple times an hour? I don’t remember that from Morte d’Arthur…
'course, then, I overlooked Katisha’s post, so it’s cool…
That doesn’t bother me so much. The legend of King Arthur has changed and been adapted in different ways by different people over the ages. It doesn’t matter if plate mail wasn’t around or the architecture is wrong for the 500’s. What really matters is that the basic story is left intact. From what I can remember the round table, Lancelot, and the code of chivalry wasn’t originally part of the legend.
Marc
Oh, thanks! I’ll have to see if I can locate it. Mmmm…Noah Wyle…
To which I can only reply… “On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. 'Tis a silly place.”
Hmm, I remember liking First Knight. Then again, Way Back When it came out, I gave pretty much any movie with swords a glowing review. (For awhile, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was my favorite; I think I was in fifth or sixth grade at the time.)
I mean, at least it has swords and armor. I can sit through pretty much any movie if it at least has historical eye candy. The Mask of Zorro, for example, would have been a really crappy romantic action movie, but it had swords in it, so it scrapes itself into the ‘pretty OK’ category, rather than the ‘worse than searing gas pain’ category.
I’m kind of a fruitcake about swords and armor, though… (she says, sitting at a desk next to a closet filled with arms, armor, and medieval/fantasy costumes).