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King Arthur
A USA movie poster for King Arthur
Directed by	Antoine Fuqua
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer
Written by	David Franzoni
Starring	Clive Owen Ioan Gruffudd Mads Mikkelsen Joel Edgerton Keira Knightley Ray Winstone Stephen Dillane Stellan Skarsgård Til Schweiger
Music by	Hans Zimmer
Cinematography	Slawomir Idziak
Editing by	Conrad Buff Jamie Pearson
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	July 7, 2004
Running time	126 min. 140 min. (director's cut)
Language	English
Budget	$90,000,000 US (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

King Arthur is a 2004 epic film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Franzoni. It stars Clive Owen as the title character.

The makers of the film claim to present a historically accurate version of the Arthurian legends, supposedly inspired by new archaeological findings. The accuracy of these claims is subject to debate, but the film is unusual in representing Arthur as a Roman soldier rather than a medieval knight.

A historical approach to the Arthurian legends had already been showcased in film once - in Arthur of the Britons, a 1972-1973 British TV series, and King Arthur, The Young Warlord, a movie-length compilation of some of its episodes.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Main cast 3 Production 4 Historical notes 5 Adapting the material 6 Response 6.1 Historical inaccuracies 6.2 Accusation of Anti-Christian Bias 7 The director's cut 8 Notes and references 9 See also 10 External links

This is Ram Arthur, also known as Artorius Castus (Clive Owen), is portrayed as a Roman cavalry officer and commander, the son of a Roman father and a Celtic mother, who leads a military force of Sarmatian cavalry in Britain at the close of the Roman occupation in 467 A.D. He and his men guard Hadrian's Wall against the "Woads", a Celtic people who resist Roman rule, based on the historical Picts^[1], led by their mysterious leader Merlin. He is not the first Arthur - over the years, many of his ancestors have manned the Wall, leading Sarmatian auxiliaries.

As the film starts, Arthur and his remaining men Lancelot (whose voiceover is heard at the beginning and end), Bors, Tristan, Gawain, Galahad and Dagonet - are expecting discharge from the service of the Empire after faithfully serving for 15 years (Lancelot's entry into service as a youth in 452 A.D. is depicted at the very beginning of the film). However, they are dispatched on a final and possibly suicidal mission by Bishop Germanius of Auxerre in the freezing winter to rescue an important Roman family, which includes the Pope's godson, from impending capture by the invading Saxons, who are led by their chief Cerdic and his son Cynric. The knights are charged with this rescue because Rome is retiring from Britain, now considered an indefensible outpost.

In the course of this mission, Arthur encounters and rescues a Woadish princess, Guinevere (Keira Knightley), from the imprisonment and torture by the Roman citizen he is charged with rescuing. Guinevere reveals that she is the daughter of Merlin, and Arthur himself is revealed to be half Celt (on his mother's) side. His famous sword, Excalibur, is also shown to be his father's, which he drew from the tombstone on Pendragon's burial mound as a boy (inspiring the legend of the Sword in the Stone) in an effort to rescue his mother who died during an attack.

The Roman family is rescued and the knights fight with the Saxons on a frozen lake before they can make it back to the Wall. Dagonet breaks the ice with his axe and succeeds in killing many, but is killed by crossbow bolts. Struck by Rome leaving its subjects to the mercy of the Saxons, Arthur is further disillusioned when he learns that Bishop Pelagius, whose teachings about the equality of all men inspired the brotherhood of his Round Table — has been executed as a heretic by order of Bishop Germanius himself.

In due course, Arthur and his remaining men forsake Roman citizenship and form an alliance with the Woads to fight the Saxons. In the climactic battle, the Battle of Badon Hill, the Saxons are defeated and Cerdic and his son are killed — at the cost of many lives, including Lancelot's and Tristan's.

The film ends with Arthur and Guinevere's marriage. Merlin then proclaims him to be their king. King Arthur and his remaining knights promise to lead the Britons, now united after the Romans leave, against future invaders. The last scene shows Lancelot, Dagonet and Tristan roaming the lands freely as reincarnated horses as told in a legend by Lancelot's father.

• Clive Owen - Arthur
• Ioan Gruffudd - Lancelot
• Mads Mikkelsen - Tristan
• Joel Edgerton - Gawain
• Hugh Dancy - Galahad
• Ray Winstone - Bors
• Ray Stevenson - Dagonet
• Keira Knightley - Guinevere
• Stephen Dillane - Merlin
• Stellan Skarsgård - Cerdic
• Til Schweiger -Cynric
• Sean Gilder - Jols
• Pat Kinevane - Horton
• Ivano Marescotti -Bishop Germanus
• Ken Stott - Marius

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The movie was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Antoine Fuqua; David Franzoni, the writer for Gladiator, wrote the screenplay. The historical consultant for the film was John Matthews, an author known for his books on esoteric Celtic spirituality, some of which he co-wrote with his wife Caitlin Matthews. The research consultant was Linda A. Malcor, co-author of From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reinterpretation of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail where the non-Celtic sources for the Arthurian legends are explored.

The film's main set, a replica of a section of Hadrian's Wall, was the largest film set ever built in Ireland, and was located in a field in Ballymore-Eustace Co.Kildare. The replica was one kilometre long, which took a crew of 300 construction workers four and a half months to build. The fort in the film was based on the Roman fort named Vindolanda, which was built around 80 AD just south of Hadrian's Wall in what is now called Chesterholm, in Northern England.

It would appear that the Arthur depicted in the film is based most closely upon Ambrosius Aurelianus, the Romano-Briton who fought against the Saxons in the 5th century, and was probably the leader of the Romano-British at the Battle of Mons Badonicus (Mount Badon). However, Arthur's full name in the film is Artorius Castus, referring to Lucius Artorius Castus, a historical Roman active in Britain in the 2nd century.^[1] It is specified Arthur was given the ancestral name of a legendary leader.

Also, the film is heavily based on the "Sarmatian connection" theory, which holds that the Arthurian legend is based on the activities and legends of Sarmatian heavy cavalry troops, originally from modern-day Georgia, in Britain.^[1] Some historians such as Kemp Malone and Linda A. Malcor have proposed that Lucius Artorius Castus himself may have led Sarmatian troops and thus became the "original" historical Arthur; however, since this Artorius lived in the second century, the film's Artorius is probably meant to be his descendant.

The film's storyline is mostly original, save for the elements of Saxons as Arthur's adversaries and the Battle of Badon Hill.

This all happened on the day in November 19, 460 AD. Many of the traditional elements of the legends are dropped, like the Holy Grail and Tristan's lover Iseult. The film omits the love triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere except for mutual attraction between the latter two.

The knights' characterizations in the legends are also dropped. The boorish and lusty Bors, father of many children, is very different from his namesake whose purity and celibacy allowed him to witness the Holy Grail.

The film does not feature Kay and Bedivere. Along with Gawain, they already appear as Arthur's companions in very early sources, like Culhwch and Olwen in the Mabinogion. The portrayal of Bors, however, is much closer to the traditional depiction of Kay than to the knight whose name he shares.

Lancelot and Galahad are portrayed as having similar ages while according to traditional versions they are father and son respectively (this approach is also found in modern Arthurian fiction - such as Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles, in which they are brothers).

Lancelot's character seems to have been fused with that of Sir Balin: the Knight with Two Swords.

Guinevere is drastically altered from Arthurian legend - she is portrayed as a barbarian warrior who joins Arthur and the knights in battle. While there was historical precedent for this portrayal (for example, the warrior queen Boudica), no source, early or late, describes Guinevere in this way. Nor is there any evidence for her depiction as a rustic Celt; in fact, in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, which contains one of the oldest accounts of the character, Guinevere has Roman blood while Arthur is an indigenous Celt.

Dagonet, a self-sacrificing warrior in the film, has Arthur's court jester as his namesake. The character appears in Le Morte D'Arthur and Idylls of the King.

The role of traitor, as typically done by Mordred, is given a smaller part in the form of a young British scout, played by Alan Devine, who betrays his people to the Saxons. The character is unnamed, yet is known as "British Scout" in the credits.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

The film has a 32% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of 2007-10-10 - with 57 positive of 180 reviews.^[2] It has a 6.1/10 rating on the Internet Movie Database as of September 9, 2007.^[3]

King Arthur has been criticized for its historical inaccuracies — especially since it claims to be close to or even be the original story, as evidenced by its tagline. Some examples include:

• A trailer for the film claims that historians now agree that Arthur was a real person because of recent archaeological findings. However, historians do not; and the Artognou inscription – the recent find possibly being referenced – has nothing to do with the film's version of events.

• The film has the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain take place after Arthur rescues the Pope's godson. In reality, it was completed in 410 AD, nearly 60 years before this rescue mission. By 467 AD, there were no legions left in Britain, which was now a patchwork of territories ruled by local warlords.

• Sarmatian cavalrymen did come to Britain in the 2nd century, when 5,500 Iazyges were transported there as auxiliaries during the Marcomannic Wars. But despite the film's suggestions, the evidence for them remaining there until the 5th century is slight. There is some but little evidence for the continued importation of Scythian-born immigrants to late Roman Britain.

• In the film, the Picts are called "Woads".^[1] This is a reference to one plant the Picts may have used to make blue paint^[1]; however, the use of woad by the Picts is contested by scholars, and the historical Picts were never known by this name.^[4] In an interview Antoine Fuqua stated that they used "Wodes" (sic) instead of "Picts" because they thought the latter sounded "a little weird".^[5] However, John Matthews said in an online article that the name substitution was "meant to echo similar belittling titles given to enemies".^[1]

• Archbishop Germanus' second (and last) mission to Britain was twenty years before the year the movie is set. Indeed, Germanus died in 448, well before the setting of the film.

• The Roman family which Arthur rescues lives north of Hadrian's Wall. This would be unlikely because the Wall represented the extent of Roman rule in Britain, except for brief periods of occupation during the second century AD. (It should be noted that Romanized client states such as that of the Votadini did exist north of the wall even into the Sub-Roman era.)

• Pelagius is believed to have died decades earlier, but he died of old age and was not burned at the stake. The Pelagian heresy is misrepresented as well - it denied original sin, and was not about political freedom as the film implies.

• The movie implies that the Pope was in control of the Western Empire, though it was actually ruled by the Emperor and de facto controlled by the Magistri Militum and other regional governors.

• The ninth-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions the arrival of the Saxon leaders Cerdic and Cynric in Britain (at Hampshire) in 495.^[6] The film is set in 467, too early for their exploits.

• Cerdic and Cynric could not have died at the battle of Mount Badon. The battle is thought to have been fought sometime between 490 to 516, and according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Cynric succeeded Cerdic as king of Wessex in 534 (Cerdic was the founder of the kingdom).^[7]

• The Saxons are shown attacking Hadrian's Wall from the north. By 467 the Saxons were already occupying parts of Britain far south of the wall, and never invaded Scotland.

• In the film, Cerdic stops a warrior from raping a woman because it would lead to less-than-pure Saxon blood. This is a reference to the long-held belief that the Anglo-Saxons eradicated the Romano-Celts from the eastern part of the island. This contention, largely based on linguistic evidence, has been challenged by modern genetic analysis, which suggests extensive mixing between Anglo-Saxon and Briton populations (some historians have even suggested that Cerdic himself, who bore a Celtic name, was at least part Briton).

• Though he appears in a "historical" treatment, Merlin himself was not originally part of the legends. It is generally agreed that he is based on two figures - Myrddin Wyllt (Myrddin the Wild), and Aurelius Ambrosius, a highly fictionalized version of the historical war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus. The former had nothing to do with Arthur and flourished after the Arthurian period. This composite Merlin was created by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

• The Sarmatians have French (i.e. Lancelot) and Celtic-based (i.e. Tristan, original Drustan) names.

• The Saxons use crossbows for war in the movie; however, they historically used bows (to a limited extent) and spears instead during that time period. Though there is evidence for the use of some form of crossbows among Greeks (actually more like hand-held catapults, which they called gastraphetes), Romans (which they called manuballistae) and, some claim, the Picts^[1] — the weapon was still not widely used in England until much later.

• Similarly, the Woads use a trebuchet-like weapon to hurl flaming missiles at the Saxons, though the trebuchet was not re-introduced to Britain until the siege of Dover in 1216. The Romans reportedly used an early form of it in their sieges, however.

• The Sarmatian costumes and weapons are inaccurate - they should be armoured in the manner of cataphracts (full-length coats of scale armor).^[8][9] Instead, the film's armor is a mishmash of pseudo-Roman, Turkish, Mongol, and Hunnic designs.

• Tristan has a pet hawk. Nonetheless, the hawk flown in the movie is a Harris's Hawk, which ranges from the southwestern US to Argentina. Additionally, the computer-generated hawk shown soaring overhead later in the film, while supposed to be the same individual hawk, appears to be a red-tailed hawk rather than a Harris's Hawk.

• Roman soldiers displayed in the movie are displayed as legionnaires with 2nd century AD armour although by AD 400, legionaries were no longer in use and comitatenses were the new replacements.

Critics viewed the representation of the Roman Catholic Church as unfavorable in comparison to the depictions of pagans, as shown by the unscrupulous Germanus and the priests who help the Roman landowner exploit the British peasants and who lock up Guinevere in prison, as contrasted by the non-Christian knights (especially Lancelot, an atheist) and the freedom-loving Woads.^[10]

Film critic, Brian Tubbs wrote. "Overall, the film serves up a stereotype of a corrupt, sinister Catholic Church. And Arthur’s character arc goes from idealistic Catholic to neo-pagan. It is Merlin, the pagan mystic, who marries Arthur and Guinevere in the end. And it’s fairly obvious that Arthur is turning his back on more than just the political Rome when he refuses to abandon Hadrian’s Wall in the film’s third and final act."

"In King Arthur, the pagans and the atheists are the good guys. The devout Catholics are the bad guys. Typical left-wing Hollywood stereotype of religion."^[11]

A director's cut of the film has been released; it has extra footage of battle scenes as well as more scenes between Lancelot and Guinevere, whose traditional love triangle with Arthur is only hinted at here.

Several scenes are also omitted from the Director's Cut, including one where the knights sit around a camp fire asking about their intended Sarmatian life, in which Bors reveals that his children do not even have names, most simply have numbers. In addition, a sex scene between Guinevere and Arthur is shifted to be chronologically after he is informed of the incoming Saxons towards Hadrian's Wall. This seemingly minor change arguably helps the story flow more smoothly. In the original film he is seen in full battle armor, contemplating the broken image of Pelagius on his floor, and then is disturbed by the call to come outside. When he comes outside, he is wearing a hastily putting on a shirt, and ragged hair, thus if he was due to "come at once" as he was urged, he would have gone through a series of dishevelments just to go outside; however, in the Director's Cut, after an intimate moment between Arthur and Guinevere explaining Arthur's morals, they carry on into their sexual encounter, and are thus disturbed so that Arthur can be briefed on the Saxons. During the sexual encounter, he is wearing the same outfit he wears during the briefing, and the scene where he is examining Pelagius's image is removed.

• Historical basis for King Arthur
• Lucius Artorius Castus
• Ambrosius Aurelianus
• Sarmatians
• Romano-British
• Saxons
• Pelagius
• List of films based on Arthurian legend
• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture

• King Arthur at the Internet Movie Database

• Warrior queens and blind critics from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• "Inspirational Leadership" in King Arthur on Humanscience wikia