Retro Film Review: First Knight (1995)

Whenever some inexplicable crime involving children or young people occurs, violence in Hollywood films is usually blamed as an inspiration. The author of this review doesn't believe that violence in popular media can actually motivate people to commit evil acts, but he still remembers an event that showed him that Hollywood films indeed can stimulate some dark forces within human subconsciousness that would otherwise have remained well hidden. A friend of mine, man who could have been struck with severe case of depression after accidentally hurting fly, was watching Greenaway's Baby of Macon. During the course of the film character played by Julia Ormond is subjected to vicious gang rape. My friend's instant reaction to this nasty scene was "Serves her right for starring in film like First Knight". At first, I was appaled. Then I remembered 1995 pseudo-historic melodrama directed by Jerry Zucker and began to understand such sentiment.

The plot is set in mythical Arthurian times of earliest English history. Good king Arthur (played by Sean Connery) and his Knight of the Round Table have brought peace, justice and prosperity to England, but they are faced with the greatest challenge yet – a renegade knight Malagant (played by Ben Cross) who wants to topple Arthur and rule as a tyrant. Malagant's hordes have threatened small kingdom of Leonesse and Lady Guinevere (played by Julia Ormond) is sent to Camelot to get Arthur's help and cement the alliance by marriage. Along the way her caravan is attacked by Malagant's forces, but Guinevere is saved by Lancelot (played by Richard Gere), vagabond who roams the land working as mercenary. Arthur is quite impressed by Lancelot's act and makes him into one of his knights. Lancelot is also impressed by Arthur and his ideals of chivalry, but his infatuation with Camelot is followed by infatuation with Guinevere. Arthur's bride also can't hide the feelings for the young knight and this love affair would have disastrous consequences for Camelot.

There were few good indicators of bad quality of First Knight. Most visible was the appearance of Sean Connery, great actor whose career in 1990s consisted mostly of using his past glory and star power to advertise bad films. Another was Jerry Zucker, director specialised for hilarious parodies, here taking care of serious melodrama. But few things could have prepared viewers for incredibly inept and spiritless script by William Nicholson. Whole Arthurian legend was changed almost beyond recognition and in this revisionist version Lancelot is thug for hire instead of embodiment of the purest knightly ideals. Probably in order to save on the special effects, every reference to magic and plenty of Arthurian characters, including Merlin, were erased. Perhaps the reasoning behind this was idea to make "revisionist" and more realistic version of Arthurian legend, but this effort is already compromised with the utter disrespect for historical accuracy. The most blatant example probably stemmed from Zucker's inability to direct scenes featuring swordplay. So the solution was elegant - instead of swords the protagonists fight with medieval version of pistols - miniature crossbows.

This travesty could have at least some entertainment value if it featured some compelling story or characters. But, alas, Richard Gere proved to be terrible choice for the role of Lancelot. Despite all of his efforts, he couldn't make audience forget that they look into 20th Century Hollywood star instead of medieval punk. Even worse case is with Julia Ormond who doesn't have an iota of chemistry with the actor playing her character's romantic partner. Sean Connery is good as usual, but his character appears in too few scenes to significantly improve the impression of the film. Ben Cross, on the other hand, is totally ineffective in the role of one- dimensional villain, probably aware that all of his acting skills can't save this film. Same things in this film are passable, like production design or Jerry Goldsmith's score, but not memorable. In the end, First Knight is probably the last choice for anyone who wants to see good film adaptation of Arthurian legends.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on November 26th 2002)

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