Friday 19 May 2017

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

On general release in the UK from 19 May 2017.

Described as a non-traditional, modern retelling of the Arthurian myth, Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is an epic fantasy, planned as a six-part franchise, as a big-budget rendition of Arthurian legend. This is the first major Arthur film since Antoine Fuqua’s 2004 outing with Clive Owen and Keira Knightley.


Filming for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword included dramatic locations in Snowdonia (Tryfan, Nant Gwynant, near Beddgelert, and Capel Curig) North Wales and the Isle of Skye.

When his father is murdered Vortigern (Jude Law) seizes the crown. Deprived of his birthright without knowing, Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) grows up as a streetwise youth raised in a whorehouse on the streets of Londinium. But when he pulls the sword from the stone his life is turned upside down and he is forced to acknowledge his true legacy.

There’s no Merlin here, Ritchie is probably saving the emergence of the wizard for one of planned five sequels, but we do find David Beckham playing a guard named 'Trigger'.

Followers of Arthuriana will  be compelled to see this Guy Ritchie take on the classic legend which has opened with mixed reviews; this a "marmite" film; you'll either love it or hate it.

http://kingarthurmovie.com/


REVIEWS

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword review – medieval banter, slapdash mythology

"Guy Ritchie’s film is low on originality, but might please devotees of his shtick.
The slapdash mythology, with its super-size CGI elephants and slithering octopus-women, is a lazy Lord of the Rings rip-off that barely attempts to convince. A murky video game aesthetic and impatient, maniacally fast cutting do it no favours."

- Simran Hans The Observer 21 May 2017

"Elephants twice the size of a mutant T-Rex rampage in the open air"

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword review: Guy Ritchie's combat-heavy Camelot is a very silly place


"....misshapen and inert, your imagination and memory never come close to being sparked by it. Just sticking with the plot soaks up every ounce of concentration you have.........His acquaintances include such classic Arthurian figures as Chinese George (Tom Wu) and Goose Fat Bill (Aidan Gillen)."

"[The] hero’s journey takes the character in directions the film is never able to make sense of."
"The problem with a King Arthur blockbuster is that it needs sweep and scope, and the attempts at spectacle here feel far outside the director’s comfort zone."

- Robbie Collin The Telegraph 19 May 2017


Vortigern (Jude Law)
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, film review – Epic fail

"Guy Ritchie’s attempt to create a mythic franchise stumbles out of the gate. Having no feel for nor apparent interest in the mystical, Ritchie devolves responsibility for the wonderment to CGI monsters."


"Flailing out of his depth, Ritchie clings to the life raft of what he knows. Substituting caricature for character, he barely scrapes the emotional surface of Arthur’s quest to adapt to the kingly demands of his fate. Raiding the comfort zone pantry for cheap laughs, he finds the cupboard bare."

"By midway, it had occurred that were he hired to make a Christ movie, he’d have Jesus say, “Thirty pieces of silver? Judas, mate, are you pulling my bell-end? You should’a held aht for 90."

"When Arfur tells a woman, “Put your ring back on, honey tits,” you fear Ray Winstone is about to pitch up as Merlin and ask who the daddy might be."

"It is a film as long on tediously stylised fight scenes and portentous electro-folk music as it is short on emotional involvement." 

- Matthew Norman Evening Standard 19 May 2017

Arthur's modern looking wardrobe seems out of place

 Rotten Tomatoes Reviews:

"This latest take on the Arthurian classic is epic in many ways, none of them good."

"The movie becomes a long, unstoppable, barely sufferable explosion of digi-battle scenes, digi-pachyderms, digi-snake-monsters, digi-Armageddon."

"Ritchie's movie is handicapped by its obedience to the rules of modern franchising, putting aside much of the most potent Arthurian lore to instead tell a protracted Round Table origin story."

"In a poor film, the use of David Beckham in a minor but significant role stands out as an own goal. It's a towering misjudgement and a good example of the way filmmaking for Ritchie is really just an extension of socialising."

- Rotten Tomatoes


The sword in the stone

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Monday 15 May 2017

New Book: The Warrior Queen

The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed, Daughter of Alfred the Great
by Joanna Arman

Published by Amberley Publishing 15 May 2017

From the Publisher:

Æthelflæd, eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, has gone down in history as an enigmatic and almost legendary figure. To the popular imagination, she is the archetypal warrior queen, a Medieval Boudicca, renowned for her heroic struggle against the Danes and her independent rule of the Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. In fiction, however, she has also been cast as the mistreated wife who seeks a Viking lover, and struggles to be accepted as a female ruler in a patriarchal society.

The sources from her own time, and later, reveal a more complex, nuanced and fascinating image of the ‘Lady of the Mercians’. A skilled diplomat who forged alliances with neighbouring territories, she was a shrewd and even ruthless leader willing to resort to deception and force to maintain her power. Yet she was also a patron of learning, who used poetic tradition and written history to shape her reputation as a Christian maiden engaged in an epic struggle against the heathen foe.

The real Æthelflæd emerges as a remarkable political and military leader, admired in her own time, and a model of female leadership for writers of later generations.


Joanna Arman is currently a PhD Student at the University of Winchester specialising in Women's History; exploring topics such as 15th century Queens, female landowners in Medieval records or the impact of the Magna Carta on women's marriage rights. She has a passion for the Anglo-Saxon period and researched Æthelflæd of Mercia, daughter of Alfred the Great, as the subject of her MA research.


See: Æthelflæd: The Making of a County Town  (Stafford 913 - 2013)


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Thursday 11 May 2017

New Book: Britain in the Age of Arthur

A Military History 
by Ilkka Syvanne

Published by Pen & Sword 30th July 2017
£20.00 Introductory Offer (RRP £25.00)

From the publisher:

King Arthur is one of the most controversial topics of early British history. Are the legends based on a real historical figure or pure mythological invention? Ilkka Syvannes study breaks new ground, adopting a novel approach to the sources by starting with the assumption that Arthur existed and that Geoffrey of Monmouths account has preserved details of his career that are based on real events. He then interprets these by using common sense and the perspective of a specialist in late Roman military history to form a probable picture of what really happened during the period (roughly AD 400-550). This approach allows the author to test the entire literary evidence for the existence of Arthur to see if the supposed events of his career match what is known of the events of the period, the conclusion being that in general they do. Arthurs military career is set in the context of the wider military history of Britain and Europe in this period and along the way describes the nature of armies and warfare of the period.

Dr Ilkka Syvanne gained his doctorate in history in 2004 from Tampere University in his native Finland. His doctoral thesis was published as The Age of Hippotoxotai, Art of War in Roman Military Revival and Disaster 491-636 (Tampere University Press, Tampere 2004). He has also written numerous articles on late Roman/Byzantine warfare, and contributed seven entries for Blackwell's Encyclopaedia of the Roman Army (2011). From 2007 to 2016 he was Vice Chairman of the Finnish Society for Byzantine Studies. Dr Syvanne is An Affiliated Professor of the University of Haifa and lives in Kangasala, Finland.

Other books by Ilkka Syvanne available from Pen & Sword:

Military History of Late Rome 284-361 (16th September 2015)
The first volume, of 5 planned, covers the period 284-361, starting with recovery from the 'third-century crisis' and the formation of the Tetrarchy, providing a detailed account of the changes in organisation, equipment, strategy and tactics among both the Roman forces and her enemies in the relevant period, while also giving a detailed but accessible account of the campaigns and battles.

The Military History of Late Rome AS 361-395 (30th May 2017)
The second volume in the series gives the reader a comprehensive narrative of late Roman military history from AD 284-641.

Caracalla: A Military Biography (30th May 2017)
Ilkka Syvanne explains how the biased ancient sources in combination with the stern looking statues of the emperor have created a distorted image of the man and then reconstructs the actual events, particularly his military campaigns and reforms, to offer a balanced view of his reign


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