![]() ![]() While on route to Camelot, Guinevere’s carriage is ambushed by a group of Malagant’s soldiers. The marriage is partly out of admiration for the king and partly for security against Malagant, but also because she does love Arthur despite their 35-year age difference. The nasty Malagant ( Ben Cross) has been making a nuisance of himself by burning down villages in Lyonesse, a small country ruled by Guinevere ( Julia Ormond), which leads her to going forward with an arranged marriage to King Arthur ( Sean Connery). “I will not follow a king with poor party etiquette.” Now, he found cause to quarrel with Arthur and left Camelot with hatred in his heart.” And exactly what caused Malagant to quarrel with the King? We never do find out why, but I’d like to think it was because Arthur was one of those guys who double-dipped his potato chips. The most powerful of Arthur’s knights, Prince Malagant, had long been jealous of the King’s glory. Who wants to watch a movie about a royal senior citizen settling down to some peace and quiet? Lucky for us, the crawl continues, “But the peace was not to last. Now he wished to marry.” So, right off the bat, we’re left wondering if this is a sequel to a more exciting and possibly better movie. The great king of Camelot had devoted his life to building a land of peace and justice. ![]() Our film opens with a text crawl explaining to the audience that, “At long last, the wars were over. This version of the King Arthur legend also continues the annoying tradition of leaving magic out of the story (something I’ve never quite understood). In this 90s big budget Arthurian epic, Hollywood decided to give Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur a rest - it being the basis for such Arthurian classics as John Boorman’s Excalibur - and instead embraced the romances written by French poet Chrétien de Troyes, who actually invented the character of Lancelot. ![]()
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