Film Review: First Knight

           

 “A man who fears nothing is a man who loves nothing, and if you love nothing what joy is there in your life?” -King Arthur. This I believe to be true fear is never a bad thing. We grow up as kids wanting to be strong and fearless, but when we get older our perspective in that, changes completely. I guess that is how life works.

The film is called First Knight; I believe it takes place in the late medieval times. The film is a romantic drama film. It was filmed in 1995; making the equipment required to make the film not at all good, and is easily noticeable. The actors are Richard Gere as Lancelot a common man who’s a fearless swordsman, Julia Ormond as Lady Guinevere of Lyonesse, and one of my favorite actors Sean Connery as King Arthur of Camelot.

The primary story of the film is about the love triangle between Lancelot, Lady Guinevere, and King Arthur. Lancelot falls for Lady Guinevere and Lady Guinevere and King Arthur love each other, but during the film Lady Guinevere falls for Lancelot. The secondary story is about Malagant a villain who was in the council of Camelot. He was a member of the round table. He left Camelot to pursue against King Arthur.

The film’s message would have to be justice and love; having a law to do right and stop the wrong. The film shows very little relating to Joan of Arc. The obvious was the locations or landscapes and the costumes used to show what people wore in the medieval times. Most of the locations were obviously computerized such as the view of Camelot from a far distance when King Arthur showed Lady Guinevere her new country at the welcoming ceremony. Other locations appeared to be real locations in England. Relating to Joan of Arc, I noticed at the welcoming ceremony Lady Guinevere had what is called a saddle while riding her horse. A saddle is like a chair placed on top of a horse to allow the rider or in the medieval times women to ride with both legs on one side of the horse. Although, Joan of Arc was going to battle, the saddle is very irrelevant in that situation. And one could think, after seeing this film, the saddle is used for ceremonial purposes. By being produced in 1995 the film did a great job presenting how things were in the medieval times.

The directors, producers, writers, and actors were very important to this film. When producing a historical film, details of the events that occurred at that time are very important. The only thing modern about the film was the use of the special affects for the locations of Camelot and Lyonesse. It doesn’t really have that big of an effect on the film, but when looking into details it does changes things a little.

Overall, I gave the movie five stars. There were scenes that were sad, there were scenes that were very intense, and there were scenes that made me happy. The scene that made me sad and in a way hurt was the scene when King Arthur caught Lady Guinevere kissing Lancelot; the scenes that were very intense were the battle scenes; and the scene that made me happy was the scene when Lancelot rescued Lady Guinevere, and stopped under the tree to rest and get out of the rain. It was a romantic scene, I really liked it. I wouldn’t recommend it to be used in class, because when learning about Joan of Arc the film doesn’t cover much around her.