King Arthur: Director's Cut
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Touchstone Home Entertainment / 2004 / 139 Minutes / NR
Street Date: December 14, 2004 
As I prepared my September ’99 review for writer/director John Boorman’s Excalibur, I couldn’t resist doing a little research to satisfy my curiosity about the historical Arthur. I found that "Some historians write that there’s no definitive evidence that Arthur ever existed. Yet, many agree that references in ancient texts indicate that one Arthwyr Pendragon lived from the late 400s to the early 500s, from the end of the Roman Empire and to the beginning of the Merovingian period. Historical Arthur was apparently not a king, but rather, a warrior chieftain serving Breton kings by destroying Saxon invaders. Arthur is most likely responsible for a victory at Mont-Badon in about 516. He’s believed to have died at the battle of Camlann after many years of successful campaigns." (quoted from my review) Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter David Franzoni have re-imagined the Arthurian legend and, with embellishments and modifications, have created a film that more closely resembles that historical concept. And the film is described to contain enhancements claimed to be related to new historical discoveries about the origins of Arthur. This retelling of the Arthurian legend is set hundreds of years earlier than the better-known story of the Knights of the Round Table and the Holy Grail. By the mid-400’s, the Roman Empire had accepted Christianity (the Emperor Theodosius I established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman state in 392), but the empire is in decline, contracting in response to attacks by barbarous hoards. In Britain, indentured warriors from Sarmatia (now Eastern Europe), required to serve the empire for fifteen years, are lead by a charismatic leader, Arturius (Arthur - Clive Owen), a loyal commander who has embraced Rome. Having served their terms, they return to a Roman fortress adjacent to Hadrian’s Wall, a barrier designed to control the native Woads (or Picts). Bishop Germanius (Ivano Marescotti) has come from Rome with letters that would free the warriors and give them safe passage throughout the empire. Alas, circumstances make necessary one more mission, one more mandatory risk of dismemberment or death. The Pope’s godson, Alectus, is living with his family deep within Woad lands well beyond the Wall. And a brutal Saxon army led by Cerdic (Stellan Skarsgard) is reported to have invaded lands in the North and are moving South, destroying all lives and property in their wake in a campaign of conquest. Arthur and his knights - Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd), Tristan (Mads Mikkelsen), Gawain (Joel Edgerton), Galahad (Hugh Dancy), Bors (Ray Winstone), and Dagonet (Ray Stevenson) - are ordered to travel through Pict lands to save the Roman family and bring them back to safety. The film portrays their adventures and battles. We meet Guinevere (Keira Knightley), who is not a demure maiden but a fierce Woad warrior. We learn that Merlin (Stephen Dillane) is more of a Woad leader than a sorcerer. In a series of revelations, perhaps inspired by a growing attraction to Guinevere, Arthur has an epiphany; it isn’t Rome that has captured his loyalty but the land that will become England. Under his leadership, the band ultimately will face the Saxons in mortal combat. This director’s cut is thirteen minutes longer than the PG-13 theatrical release. Not only are some of the brutal battle sequences prolonged, but also many of the practical gore effects that had been removed with CGI to achieve the target theatrical rating have been restored. This version is clearly more intense, adding clarity to the brutality of hand-to-hand combat of the time. The excellent cast offers fine performances that perfectly reflect the anguish of indentured military service, the loyalty the knights have to one another and their commander, and the fatalism with which the knights and the Woads accept their fates. In the most simplistic terms, this film is a series of battles connected by exposition that drives the conflicts forward. Not all the main characters will survive, but their story arcs are neither complex nor do they have deep psychological roots. The simplicity is more than overcome with remarkable style and a feral ferocity that’s downright primal. King Arthur may lack the emotional conflicts we’ve all become conditioned to expect from a telling of this legend, but it is involving on the level of a sweeping epic of ancient war. The Video: How Does The Disc Look? The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in anamorphic video. Touchstone Home Video is, of course, a member of the Buena Vista family and before I spun the disc, I was concerned that I’d have to deal with another sub par transfer from that studio. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this transfer was not as contaminated with edge halos as other recent DVDs of Buena Vista films (as opposed to animation). Halos are present, but not intrusive. What I did find was that the film is dark and of contrasty, with a bit of black crush that diminishes shadow detail. I was unaware of which scenes were shot with digital cameras and which were shot with film, but that might be because the video was low pass filtered and fine textures were masked by the reduced video bandwidth. Chroma is quite good. Flesh tones are natural and the bright red of the Roman uniforms and the copious blood was vivid. I saw no smearing or chroma noise. I noticed no macroblocking or mosquito noise. The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound? There are two Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks on this disc, one in English and the other in French. Both have pleasingly active surround channels that immerse the viewer in the action. EX decoding definitely improves the illusion of the surround sound field. Deep bass is present, requiring a fine subwoofer to fully appreciate. The clanging of swords and the beat of hooves is conveyed with authority. Hans Zimmer’s dynamic score is presented across a broad soundstage with a fine sense of clarity. The dialog remains distortion-free throughout, without any annoying compression raspiness. Nicely done. Optional subtitles are available in French, Spanish and in English for the Hearing Impaired. English Closed Captions are also included. Supplements: What Goodies Are There? The disc is programmed to open with trailers and previews: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2:32) and The Village (2:30). They may be skipped and viewed later in the Sneak Peeks supplement. There are two full screen featurettes on this disc. Blood on the Land: Forging King Arthur (17:47) is a fairly comprehensive overview of the making of the film. Casting, set design, costume design, visual effects, practical effects, weaponry, stunts, and training are all touched upon. The duration makes the coverage somewhat superficial, but at least most of the short is substantive rather than fluff. In Cast & Filmmaker Roundtable (15:39), producer Jerry Bruckheimer hosts a discussion among screenwriter David Franzoni, director Antoine Fuqua, Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd, and Hugh Dancy. They sit around a small round table about a quarter of the size depicted in the film and chat about the experience of making King Arthur. The cast members and filmmakers seem totally at ease and enjoy sharing their impressions. This is arguably the best supplement on the disc. Alternate Ending: Badon Hill (4:11) shows us the original ending before test screenings motivated the filmmakers to add a sense of closure to the relationship between Arthur and Guinevere and reveal Arthur’s ascension. The original is a bit darker and has a deeper emotional impact. The sequence may be watched with and without a director’s commentary. Knight Vision is a text trivia feature that may be displayed during the film. If you’re a great multitasker, enable this feature while listening the commentary. The text delves into historical factoids more than it adds to our knowledge of the film, but I found them consistently interesting. For a deeper understanding of the making of the film, director Antoine Fuqua provides a fine feature-length director’s commentary in which he explores the work he did prior to shooting the film and the challenges of bringing it to the screen. He’s open and generous with his comments, and I enjoyed what he had to say. The Producer’s Photo Gallery offers a couple of dozen stills from the shoot. And lastly there is a Demo of the King Arthur XBox Game. The demo is not a video presentation; it requires that you load the DVD into an XBox to see the game in action. It seems to me that a video demo would be almost as helpful to XBox owners and might provoke people who don’t yet own the gaming system to buy one. Oh, well. This THX certified DVD has the requisite THX Optimizer to adjust your display for this particular disc. The 139-minute feature film is organized into fourteen chapters. Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC? There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD, simply a text invitation to connect to www.video.com/support to register your DVD. Final Thoughts I enjoyed this retelling of the Arthurian legend. Depending on how deeply invested you are in the more traditional tale, you might enjoy it as well. The plot may be simplistic and predominantly action oriented, but it’s presented with great style and a refreshing grittiness. The presentation is reasonably good and the supplements inform and entertain. Be aware that this film is available in its PG-13 theatrical form, but that DVD release is in full screen only. Considering buying this film? The widescreen Unrated Director’s Cut is the way to go. |
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