King Arthur

Theatrical Release Date: 2004 07 07 (USA)

UPC: 786936726473

Studio: Touchstone / Disney

Summary: An ambitious attempt to wed the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table with known historical facts of the era, this action adventure drama begins with the fall of the Roman Empire in 450 A.D. as Roman armies flee the British Isles. Arthur (Clive Owen), a heroic knight and devoted Christian, is torn between his desire to travel to Rome to serve his faith and his loyalty to the land of his birth. As England falls into lawlessness, Arthur throws in his lot with a band of knights who hope to restore order to their fair and pleasant land and hopes to win freedom for his comrades, among them Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd), Galahad (Hugh Dancy), Tristan (Mads Mikkelsen), Gawain (Joel Edgerton), Bors (Ray Winstone), and Dagonet (Ray Stevenson). In time, Arthur and his men join forces with Merlin (Stephen Dillane), a shaman whose band of renegade knights were often pitched in battle against Roman forces. Forming a united front as loyal Englishmen against the invading Saxon armies, Arthur, Merlin, and the brave and beautiful Guinevere (Keira Knightley) are determined to unite a sovereign Britain under one army and one king. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Adventure

Features: Backstage - Blood on the Land: Forging King Arthur
King Arthur: A Roundtable discussion
Alternate ending "Badou Hill", with director's commentary
Producer's photo gallery
"Knight Vision" pop-up trivia track
Movie Showcase
Seamless menus

King Arthur

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 04/03/2007

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 139 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Karl Williams

Marketed as a more historically accurate version of the Camelot mythos than previous incarnations, King Arthur is a complicated hash of fact and fiction. Screenwriter David Franzoni and director Antoine Fuqua attempt to graft latter-day theories about Arthur's possible real-life identity as a Roman cavalryman named Artorious Castus (Clive Owen) onto the most famous elements of the beloved legend. The filmmakers preserve the existence of Guinevere (Keira Knightley) and Merlin (Stephen Dillane), this time as Woad tribal leaders at war on two fronts against the invading Saxons and retreating Romans. They endeavor to explain the close kinship among Artorious' followers by identifying them as Salmatian cavalrymen, an allegedly elite corps conflicted by opposing allegiances. And they delve into the religious, ethical, racial, political, and philosophical tensions between these various factions. As might be expected, explaining all of these complicated machinations requires an unfortunate amount of exposition, after which an audience may be too baffled to notice some gripping sequences, particularly a tense skirmish ingeniously executed across the cracking ice of a frozen lake. His previous script for Gladiator (2000) used history as an interesting backdrop for a wholly invented story, but here Franzoni's clever concept is hidebound by his effort to modulate his sources, with murky results. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Pat Kinevane  Actor 
Valeria Cavalli  Actor 
Jerry Bruckheimer  Producer 
Ned Dowd  Executive Producer 
David H. Franzoni  Executive Producer 
David H. Franzoni  Screenwriter 
Chad Oman  Executive Producer 
Hans Zimmer  Composer (Music Score) 
John Lee Hancock  Screenwriter 
Antoine Fuqua  Director 
Mike Stenson  Executive Producer 
Clive Owen  Actor 
Keira Knightley  Actor 
Ioan Gruffudd  Actor 
Stephen Dillane  Actor 
Stellan Skarsgård  Actor 
Ray Winstone  Actor 
Hugh Dancy  Actor 
Til Schweiger  Actor 
Mads Mikkelsen  Actor 
Ray Stevenson  Actor 
Ken Stott  Actor 
Charlie Creed-Miles  Actor 
Joel Edgerton  Actor 
Sean Gilder  Actor 
Ivano Marescotti  Actor 
Lorenzo De Angelis  Actor 

Country: USA