King Arthur & Camelot (x3)

Recently I acquired “Camelot” on Blu-Ray, the musical about King Arthur.   With no less than three major films on the subject, my blog topic has arrived.

No knows if King Arthur really existed, and if so, when.  We’re just sure it was England and some time in the Middle Ages, probably in that vague time before the definite lineage was conclusively established, after the Roman Empire collapsed and when the Vikings were raiding from Minnesota, minus the horned helmets we know they never wore.  Our best guess is the fifth and sixth centuries. 

The idea is that Arthur somehow united the knights of England into a Roundtable Coalition of chivalry and honor, as opposed to “might makes right”.  The wizard Merlin served as his advisor and supported him with magic. His Queen was Guenevere.  Unfortunately, Arthur’s top knight, a Frenchman named Lancelot du Lac, fell in love with the Queen and this romance doomed the Coalition to collapse from hypocrisy.  Arthur had a half-sister, Morgan La Fey, who seduced him and gave him a suitably arrogant and cynical bastard child Mordred, consistently a villain in the story.  Fairly early in the story Arthur acquired the sword Excalibur, which gave him “supreme executive power” over England without a “mandate from the masses”.  He either pulled the sword from a stone or was distributed by the aquatic tart, the Lady of the Lake – or possibly both.   

Camelot (1967).   Richard Harris, lately Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” films, and father of Jared Harris, the stuffy Brit on “Mad Men”, plays King Arthur.   Vanessa Redgrave is Guenevere, the Queen, and Franco Nero (aka Django!) is Lancelot du Lac.   Lots of song and dance here, very dramatic and fun…until Lance and Jenny fall in love, which screws everything up.

            I thought I recognized Lionel Jeffries, i.e. King Pellinore, was also Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke’s) father, in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”.  He was only 40 something at the time and was playing characters much older than himself.  He was younger than Dick Van Dyke.

            Like “Excalibur”, the film bogs down in its second half.  The Roundtable Coalition breaks down and knights are exiled because they tell Arthur about Lance & Jenny.  After telling Jenny he’d never leave her no matter what season it was, Lancelot leaves anyway. Then Arthur is manipulated by Mordred (David Hemmings) into trying and condemning Guenevere.  Of course Lancelot comes to the rescue!  [Someone should do a mash-up which splices in Lancelot from “Holy Grail” slicing through the bridal party to rescue Terry-Jones-as-Prince.]

            My parents loved this film and we had it on VHS.  Even as non-music-lovers they still had the soundtrack tape.   Again, reviewing the movie with the benefit of 2014 knowledge… I see:

            A)         Richard Harris’ resemblance, not merely by face but also voice, to Jared Harris.  No way I had seen “Mad Men” back in Paris in the early 80s.

            B)         Guenevere is kind of slutty!  “Lusty days of May?”  Manipulating three knights to take on Lancelot?   The palace whore indeed.  If her promiscuity was common knowledge, why burn her at the stake for romping around with Lancelot?  “Now you’ve gone too far.”

            C)         Mordred.  I never noticed him at all before.  Funny, I had seen “Blow Up” and several other movies Hemmings was in.  However, I had noticed Merlyn, who called him “Wart”, and this business of pretending to be animals.  “What do you see?”  That stuff.

            D)         Did Arthur really NOT know?  I believe he did, but decided the shame of being the cuckold was the price he had to pay to avoid fighting Lancelot and burning Guenevere.  He was even willing to effectively disband the coalition and exile all those knights whose sole crime was telling him what he didn’t want to hear but already knew anyway.  Mordred simply forced his hand. 

Monty Python & the Holy Grail (1975).  The English comedy troupe put its own spin on the story, focusing on the quest for the Holy Grail and completing omitting Guenevere, Mordred, and even Merlin.  The French role here is not Sir Lancelot (John Cleese) but a French castle somehow in England, full of nasty rogues who taunt them from above.   Cast: Arthur (Graham Chapman), Sir Galahad (Michael Palin), "brave" Sir Robin (Eric Idle), Sir Bedevere (Terry Jones in perpetual falsetto) and the aforesaid Lancelot.  Add in also a bit of animation from Terry Gilliam, who also stars as a squire.  Amazingly funny!  Really, this should be mandatory King Arthur viewing.  Hits include “Just a Flesh Wound”, “the Grail Shaped Beacon”, “Huge….Tracts of Land”, “Answer these Questions Three”, “Some Call Me…Tim”, “The Vorpal Bunny”, “The Knights who Say Ni”, “Anarcho-Syndicalist Peasant” (my favorite) and many, many more.  And how can we forget that meaningful ending which resolved all the issues and closed the story so conclusively?  Not likely. 

Excalibur (1981).   “Camelot” was a musical, “Holy Grail” was a comedy, now we had “Excalibur”, which was serious, bloody, cynical, confusing, plus some naughtiness thrown in for the ladies – you know, the crowd who hates “Lord of the Rings” but loves “Game of Thrones”. 

            Arthur (Nigel Terry) pulls the sword from the stone.  Arthur consults Merlin (Nicol Williamson).  Lancelot (Nicholas Clay) joins the gang.  Morgana (Helen Mirren) seduces Arthur and pops out Mordred.  Lancelot falls in love with Guenevere (Cheri Lunghi), much to their shame, so he runs away.  Arthur and his knights go off in a vague and confusing quest for the Grail.  Mordred returns and fights Arthur.  Lancelot returns.  Everyone dies.  Sorry.  Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne, and Liam Neeson all have minor roles as they started out their careers.

           

Which is best?  Well of course you should watch all three, and they tend to complement each other.  As you can tell, “Excalibur” was bloody and naughty, but those otherwise redeeming elements are compromised by a story which drags on interminably and disappears into a vague and confusing plot fog.  “Holy Grail” has little pretense of giving us a real story as opposed to a linear progression of highly funny scenes bordering on super ludicrous.  “Camelot”, as cheesy and musical as it may have been, actually tells the story in the most direct and simple manner.  So that one might be the best to cap off the trio.  Enjoy.