I just watched the three-hour TNT movie The Mists of Avalon, based on the 1983 book (which I haven't read). Now, I read some Arthurian stuff as a kid, so I know the names Gawain and Percival and what-not, but I've generally been a bit fuzzy on the rest.
While the movie isn't perfect - there are some hokey moments, especially in the first third, some of the action beats feel like filler and the CG is sometimes uneven - it is very good. The trouble with the King Arthur story is that it's the story of an epic failure, the end of Camelot. The brilliance of the film is to concentrate on the women who are powerless to stop it, especially Arthur's half-sister Morgaine (a very attractive Juliana Marguiles); the women's mind games show the guys' macho swordplay for the kid stuff it is. Whenever such key players Arthur and Lancelot appear, they never outstay their welcome, always leaving us wanting to see a bit more of them, though we know that we're getting the full necessary picture already.
Also admirable is how dark and depressing the movie is. There's no false uplift, no shirking from its own story. In its own way, it does the classical tradition of tragedy proud. And I loved the narrative stance that casts Christianity in a villainous role, but not at all hysterically so, as the "good" side is severely flawed also.
I would've appreciated some more skin, decapitations, and all that other good stuff HBO gave us with Rome, but I've got to hand it to this movie: they got the Arthurian story as I understand it about right, I doubt another screen adaptation has done it better, and future ones have a high bar to surpass.
While the movie isn't perfect - there are some hokey moments, especially in the first third, some of the action beats feel like filler and the CG is sometimes uneven - it is very good. The trouble with the King Arthur story is that it's the story of an epic failure, the end of Camelot. The brilliance of the film is to concentrate on the women who are powerless to stop it, especially Arthur's half-sister Morgaine (a very attractive Juliana Marguiles); the women's mind games show the guys' macho swordplay for the kid stuff it is. Whenever such key players Arthur and Lancelot appear, they never outstay their welcome, always leaving us wanting to see a bit more of them, though we know that we're getting the full necessary picture already.
Also admirable is how dark and depressing the movie is. There's no false uplift, no shirking from its own story. In its own way, it does the classical tradition of tragedy proud. And I loved the narrative stance that casts Christianity in a villainous role, but not at all hysterically so, as the "good" side is severely flawed also.
I would've appreciated some more skin, decapitations, and all that other good stuff HBO gave us with Rome, but I've got to hand it to this movie: they got the Arthurian story as I understand it about right, I doubt another screen adaptation has done it better, and future ones have a high bar to surpass.
