Jax Teller as King Arthur – what perfect casting. Knights with geezer accents – what great fun. A new take on the legend of King Arthur – why the heck not! So what’s not to love about Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword?
Answer:
Nothing! Well, some of the special effects go on a bit long, but if you’re a fan
of Guy Ritchie, you’ll love his take on King Arthur.
(Don’t get
me started on the doomed but strangely lovable characters that inhabit the
sinister bikie world in the FX TV series Sonsof Anarchy, particularly its doomed flawed antihero Jackson Nathaniel ‘Jax’ Teller…. but please
do read this article on antiheroes.)
If you’re a King
Arthur tragic like me, you just have to see Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
To qualify
for my King Arthur Tragic Club, you’ll need to have fallen in love with the
Lerner and Loewe musical at a formative age, and to have made a pilgrimage to
Tintagel Castle in Cornwall to confirm that the legend is real.
I was about
10 years old when I first saw the 1967 film version of Camelot starring Richard Harris (watch this charming interview with Parky) as King Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guenevere and Franco Nero as
Lancelot.
It was the
songs that got me…. riding my bike to school singing ‘If Ever I Would Leave You’,
in the flush of young love.
And I still
sometimes sing there theme song about a land where “winter is forbidden until
December, and exits March the 2nd on the dot!” (I fell in love with the Richard
Harris version, but take a look at Richard Burton – wow!)
At 25, my
first overseas trip included a visit to Tintagel Castle. I don’t remember much
about it now, but I do remember eating genuine Cornish pasties and Cornish clotted
cream (separately).
Even if you’re
not a card-carrying member of my King Arthur Tragic Club, you should see King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
Download
it, stream it, borrow it, buy it, but see it - it's terrific, rollicking British fun. Then Visit Cornwall!
No comments:
Post a Comment