List Price: $19.98
Sale Price: $7.99
Today's Bonus: 60% Off
Well, folks, it was 1954. Not many of you were there, but speaking as someone who was 10 years old when he first saw this film, it was the "thing that dreams were made of." You have to look at films from the early fifties without reference to what you get today. Good special effects meant that he studio fans actually blew all of the costumes in the same directions. The studio system was about to die. Movies paid the bills with star's faces. A 10 year old went to see the story, and this is a great story. You can watch this movie. It isn't history, or fantasy. It is just a lot of fun from a time when you could set through it a second time for free if you called you mom and asked her not to come get you for two more hours. Put this in your collection and you can watch it once a year and enjoy it. And if you really want historical accuracy, this film is it. It is just exactly what films were all about in 1954 before TV came along and shrunk everything into one syllable.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE is a movie about the classic tale of King Arthur, Sir Lancelot and Guinevere. Lancelot's ill-fated love for Guinevere is played out against a background of cavalry charges, fierce battles and pageantry. The plot is amplified by the rivalry between Lancelot and Mordred as well as Sir Percival's quest for the Holy Grail. Merlin appears in the film as an advisor to Arthur and Lancelot's wife dies while giving birth to the future Sir Gallahad.Robert Taylor as Lancelot and Mel Ferrer as Arthur are both superb. Ava Gardner makes a beautiful Guinevere but her acting seems to be a little flat. The strong supporting cast includes Stanley Blake, Felix Aylmer and Robert Urguhart.
KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE received Academy Award nominations for Best Color, Art Direction and Sound. The main competition for Oscars in 1953 came from STALAG 17, ROMAN HOLIDAY and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.
Richard Thorpe also directed Robert Taylor in IVANHOE in 1952.
Best Deals for Knights of the Round Table (1954)
"Knights of the Round Table" was MGM's first feature in the newly christened widescreen format of Cinemascope and the studio's inexperience with a 2:35:1 aspect ratio, in retrospect, is rather obvious. The audience is treated to drawn out battle scenes (that are thrilling) and lavish spectacle. But the whole look and feel of the film is very theatrical, like Shakespeare on stage. Robert Taylor, usually so natural, is uncomfortably stiff as Lancelot, while Mel Ferrer fairs slightly better as King Arthur. Ava Gardner is wasted as Gueneviere. Sets and rear projection are glaringly obvious. Over all, for its historical context in the early days of widescreen film, more than entertainment value, "Knights" is a worthwhile movie.Warner Home Video has given us a generally good looking print. No attempt has been made to remove age related artifacts from the negative. Overall, the quality of the transfer is very smooth though, at times, it can seem somewhat digitally harsh. Exterior footage tends to suffer from a considerable amount of film grain while interiors are well balanced. Black levels are perhaps a bit weak and fine details are lost in the darker scenes. Close ups look gorgeous. Long shots suffer from pixelization. Fades between scenes tend to suffer from a sudden grainy quality that is customary for all Cinemascope film stock of this period. The audio is stereo surround and amply provided for considering the limitations in the original recording.
EXTRAS: Mel Ferrer comments on the film's production. There's a featurette movietone trailer and the film's original theatrical trailer too.
OVER ALL: Not a bad movie but an incredibly dated one, "Knights of the Round Table" nevertheless offers up a good example of vintage Cinemascope film making from the 1950's.
Honest reviews on Knights of the Round Table (1954)
Three cheers to fellow reviewers who identified problems discerning adults will have with this film: the miscasting, the dull acting of Robert Taylor, the AWOL acting of Mel Ferrer, the bad accents, the lost plot threads (what about that Holy Grail?).But for watching with a little boy, plastic sword in hand, this is great stuff. It's good where it needs to be good: the action, particularly the battle scenes; the scenery; the costumes and weaponry. Moreover, the talk of honor is done seriously, and the Christian piety expressed is a very good thing (and a rare thing, too, in films these days). One can talk around the business of adultery and talk about trust and promises and love on the one hand, and gossip and intrigue on the other. Overall, a delightful film for the young; my six year old son and I will be seeing this a few times. Recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment