leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (11/30/85)
KING ARTHUR: THE YOUNG WARLORD
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Occasionally interesting, episodic
story of King Arthur treats him as an historical figure
rather than as a legend. Often it feels a little sugary,
like a children's TV series.
To start with, I am not sure this is even a movie in the usual sense.
It may be just episodes of a British TV series cobbled together for the
videocassette market. It is not about the legendary Arthur. There is no
witchcraft or wizardry. Instead, it is about a chieftain who wants to unite
his neighbors against common enemies. To some extent it does try to explain
how the legends got started. As an object lesson, he has four neighboring
chieftains each push with one hand on a rock and it moves enough that he can
pull out a sword on which the rock was resting. None had been able to
withdraw the sword himself. When they allowed Arthur to organize them,
Arthur could withdraw the sword. This could easily be a de-embellishment of
the story of the sword in the stone.
The film itself is very episodic and could easily be edited from
episodes of a good TV series (does anyone know if Oliver Tobias starred in a
British TV series about King Arthur around 1975?). Actually the show was
stolen by Brian Blessed as Mark of Cornwall, a dangerous and troublesome
ally of Arthur's. Of course Blessed has never been in a role in which he
didn't steal the show. As a film, rate this a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper