Arn: Tempelriddaren

[Sir William]

This is a Swedish production film, set during the middle of the 12th Century, it tells the story of a young man, part of the family of Folkungs (the other side being the Sverkers) who ends up being sent on a 20 year quest for absolution following a sin committed between him and another.  I'll not tell you the whole story but I'll say this- as far as cinematography, location, and costumes go, this film is top notch.  The only bad thing I could say is that there is no real English version...mine's in Swedish with English subtitles- some segments are in English but then revert back to Swedish.  For some this won't be a problem but it is what prohibits my wife from watching it in depth.

I loved it; and it is but the first of a trilogy of books so I look forward to future installments if they make them.  In truth, I loved it so much that I just HAD to have Arn's sword so...a year or so later I found myself w/some free cash and I got it, from Albion.  A true beauty.

[Sir Edward]

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. The sword really looks great, though I haven't had a chance to handle it. But it's an Albion. I'm sure I'd love it. The only one of theirs I've handled that I don't care for (in terms of feel) is, ironically, one of the Museum Line pieces and thus is designed to handle exactly like the museum original... The St. Maurice.

[Sir Wolf]

ive been wanting to see this one as well. can't wait. we need a movie watching party Sir Edward!

[Sir William]

Ahhh yes, the St. Maurice- I've heard others say the same; with a balance point 9" or more out from the guard, it definitely is not one I'd call lively in the hand but in use, from a mounted position, it must've been devastating.  For me, anything with a PoB further than 6" I'm probably not going to favor.

I've only handled a couple of Albions and this one is my first; I thought about amassing a number of Albions but I've got one, I love it but I think I'm going to move onto custom swords.  At one time I wanted a collection like Bill's but you know, there just isn't enough years left to me to do that!  LOL

Plus, I've been loving Odinblades from afar for years and its time I owned one.  Or three.

[Sir Edward]

Yes, that is one downside to the Albions. Some of them are expensive enough to start pushing against the price boundary for custom or even some period-antique swords. Thankfully not all of them are that bad. The Crecy is affordable and is a wonderful sword. The Museum Line are very expensive of course, but a few of the Next Gen line are getting a bit high as well, such as the Dane.

[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]

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.

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]

ive been wanting to see this one as well. can't wait. we need a movie watching party Sir Edward!

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. 

[Sir Wolf]

awesome! i wanna see it too!

[Sir William]

It is definitely worth watching...if for nothing else, the battle scenes were well done...from small skirmishes to full-scale.  I am looking into gettin the books but they're kinda pricey right now.

I just noticed something...there IS a second movie that's already out, in Swedish, called Arn: the Kingdom at Road's End; now, it is said that Arn was in fact 2 movies, consolidated for the international market (as such, it seems a lot was cut) but for the native market, it was released as 2 full length features; each a little over 2 hours long.

I guess I should not complain, why shouldn't they get the full ride but can't we get it eventually?  The last one was released 2 years ago!  Yea, I'm bitchin a little bit!  lol

[Sir Edward]

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?

I agree, I'd like to see it kept as high fantasy, though grounded with realism. It's when they go off the deep-end with either the magical aspects or forcing it into a period that it doesn't work well with that I have a problem.

The movie "King Arthur" was OK in its own right, I thought, but I got really frustrated with it because it felt like they were forcing it to be something it wasn't. It wasn't an Arthurian movie at all. It just had the names. One of the worst examples of this is the movie title itself, since Arthur is never a king in the movie. While supposedly the stories are set after the fall of the Roman Empire, they've always been written in the context of medieval feudal society with knights and kings. The movie sets it in a time when the notion of knighthood as we know it didn't exist yet.

Since the stories have always been anachronistic, even when they were first written down, it's a bit silly to force it into a time and context that doesn't fit the characters. So by ignoring all the character names I was still able to appreciate the movie, but as an Arthurian story I felt like they brought together the proverbial square peg and round hole.

[Sir James A]

This movie is "Arn: The Knight Templar" in english, right? It's on my "to watch" list. I just saw the 2009 Robin Hood, and it was garbage. Robin Hood: Men In Tights seemed leaps and bounds better.

[Sir Edward]

Yep, that's the one. The English version of the disc was just released recently, but it's just the menus, credits, titling, etc that are in English. The movie has a few scenes in English, but most is subtitled.

I haven't seen the new Robin Hood yet. Someone was telling me they were pleasantly surprised by it. I'll keep an open mind until I see it.