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Arn: Tempelriddaren

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Sir William:
Yea, and I'm not a fan of the bigger swords as I favor a sword and shield style; I like them, but they're too big for me.  The Crecy is a good looking sword and I wanted one once...when I saw one of the forumites on SBG selling theirs.  I ended up with a H/T Greatsword of War and remembered that I didn't like swords longer than 45" in OAL.  Not a bad sword, just not one for me.  I've had it up on eBay a couple of times, lots of views but no bites.

Sir Edward:

--- Quote from: Sir Edward on 2010-09-16, 23:50:50 ---
Sweet! Yeah, I have a copy of the film on order, but it's a pre-order through amazon. I'm assuming it's subtitled as well.

--- End quote ---

My copy arrived last week and I watched it. It's gorgeous on Blue-Ray, I must say. They're still not 100% accurate, but they did a better job than Hollywood typically does, IMHO. And I loved the fact that they took into account the fact that there would be multiple languages encountered between his homeland in Sweden, and the Holy Land. Several scenes are natively in English, with English-subtitled Swedish when he's in his homeland, and even a little bit of French and other languages when they're in the Holy Land. It's the English version of the film, so the credits and menu are all in English, but otherwise the audio track I believe is unchanged.

The film is about a man who is raised as a monk, but through circumstances he and the lady he falls in love with are separated and he's forced to serve as a Templar knight for many years before he can see her again. He meets Saladin both on and off the battlefield, and they have very honorable dealings with each other.

The story itself is well done. It's a historical fiction, much the way Titanic was. That is, it's a story about a few specific fictional characters set against historical events. Since it's not Hollywood, it's paced differently and moves slower, but the story is well told and it has a great visual style. I highly recommend it.

Sir William:
I'm glad you got to see it- I really liked it as well.  In some ways, I consider it a better movie than KoH (and I loved KoH but it was Hollywood all the way, I see that now) - its the little things like the disparate languages, situations and the people seem to be more...realistic.  Maybe there were highly idealistic knights like the one O. Bloom portrayed but it just seemed too pat for me; Arn felt real, he had real impulses and he was an honorable man, it just wasn't seen as such by his own people or the era.  I liked how he took his 20 years of training and fighting as a Templar to aid his people in getting their freedom back from the Sverkers...

Y'know, it is supposed to be a trilogy, at least the books were...so I'm looking forward to the next one!  Man, I would LOVE to be in a movie about knights!!!

Speaking of which, did you know that there are two Arthur 'remakes' slated to be made?  One is supposed to be a remake of Excalibur and another, to be directed by Brian Singer, is supposed to deal with the gathering of the knights of the Round Table.  No casting calls as of yet, I'll keep you posted if I hear anything.

If we ever have a gathering to watch the movie, I'll bring the sword so you can check it out...its a real beauty.

Sir Edward:

--- Quote from: Sir Wolf on 2010-09-17, 12:20:57 ---ive been wanting to see this one as well. can't wait. we need a movie watching party Sir Edward!

--- End quote ---

You know, a movie party isn't a bad idea. Maybe sometime during the winter months, since it'll be the off-season. That would be great! Have a day where we just put on a bunch of medieval and knightly films, and have a bunch of show-and-tell. :)

Yeah, I hope they make more Arn films. Of course, the existing one spans pretty much a lifetime, so I'm wondering where they'd fit it in. Perhaps elaborating on more of what happened in his 20 years of service as a Templar? That would be good.

I had heard Excalibur was up for a remake. I really hope they do a good job of that. I think one of the reasons we don't see more Arthurian stories and other medieval fantasies is that there's a large tendency towards either making them cheesy, or making them dull and flat. Not all the time of course, but often enough that the genre isn't really big right now. Excalibur was very well done but of course does suffer from showing its age as an 80's film now. A remake has the possibility of being truly awesome, or horrendously bad, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Sir William:
I think you're right, the other Arn films will deal with his time in the Holy Land...I suspect they bookended the first film just in case no more were made...nothing worse than a cliffhanger or open ended thread that just ends in movie hell.

I'm all for the movie party idea...that's great; especially during off-season it gives us a chance (not like we need an excuse) to get together and do it medieval-style.  I'd even come in garb, but not armor...wouldn't want to foul anyone's furniture.

I think we're of the same mind about Excalibur; for my part I hope they don't bother trying to get historical or find some nugget from the past to tie it in like they did with King Arthur (which I did love, even with the mishmash of arms and armor from differing periods and regions- I took that to mean they'd ranged far and wide in the service of Rome and adopted clothing, armor and weapon styles that suited their individual tastes); let it be the high fantasy like it was in the 80s...to me, that's what it is, so why not go with it?

From the first time I saw Excalibur I wanted to be Lancelot; I'm like him in one way - I'm flawed too.  ;)

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