BLU-RAY
REVIEW: FIRST KNIGHT
05/03/08
Before 1990, Jerry Zucker
was best known for directing comedies. His most notable
comedy is the classic “Airplane”. However, in 1990 he
departed from comedy to direct the romantic thriller
“Ghost”. “Ghost” was nominated for 5 Oscars, including best
picture, and Won 2. Wanting to expand his horizons, his next
project was the 1995 re-telling of the story of King Arthur,
Lancelot, and Guinevere, but minus Merlin in the movie First
Knight. Keep in mind that up to this point Hollywood had
never been able to make a good movie based on the Arthurian
legend. Would Zucker be able to break the trend?
In First Knight, Lancelot (Richard Gere) rescues Guinevere
from a kidnap attempt and is instantly smitten, but
Guinevere (Julia Ormond) is on her way to marry Arthur (Sean
Connery), the King of Camelot. Lancelot pursues her to
Camelot and wins another opportunity with her by winning the
Gauntlet a medieval obstacle course. However, Guinevere is
soon kidnapped by Prince Malagant (Ben Cross), but is again
rescued by Lancelot. Arthur rewards Lancelot making
him a knight of the round table. Now Lancelot must decide
between his loyalty to the king and his love for Guinevere.
First Knight could easily be summed up in with one word:
average. There is nothing special about this movie, but it
is not bad either. It is fairly entertaining. The best thing
about it is Sean Connery’s performance and I’ll way remember
the way he delivered this very memorable quote, “This is my
last act as your king. Do not be afraid. All things change.
I am Arthur of Camelot, and I command you now... all... To
fight! Fight like you've never fought before! Never
surrender! Never Surrender!”
However, except for Sean Connery's performance nothing else
stands out. The magic of the story is gone and I mean this
both literally and figuratively as there is no mention of
Merlin. It as if the writers wanted to make the movie as
real to life as possible, but instead just make the legend
we’ve all come to love just plain ordinary.
Sony is releasing they Blu-ray edition of “First Knight” on
April 29, 2008. The film looks really nice in
high-definition with vivid color that bring to life the
landscape and set pieces. The Blu-ray edition is also load
with features which includes the making-of, knights in
training featurette, deleted scenes and a production
featurette.
So, the year is now 2008 and we still don’t have a decent
movie on the Arthurian legend and no Antoine Fuqua’s 2004
“King Arthur” didn’t break the trend.
Review By Brad Peterson
brad@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen 1080P
AUDIO:
English/French/Portuguese/Japanese (TrueHD 5.1)
Spanish/Thai 5.1 (Dolby Digital)
Japanese (Dolby Surround)
Subtitles: English/English SDH/French/Portuguese/Japanese/Korean/Spanish/Thai/Chinese/Arabic
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio Commentary with Director Jerry Zucker and
Producer Hunt Lowry
The Quest For Camelot Making-of First Knight -
Director and cast discuss the dynamics of the story and
their experience in making the film. (Standard Definition
18:51)
In Shining Armor: Knights in Training Featurette -
John Clements discuses how they looked at middle age fencing
to choreograph the sword fights for the movie. (Standard
Definition 18:52)
The Creation of a Kingdom: Production Design Featurette
- Production Designer, John Box, discuses the look of the
film and how he wanted the look of Camelot to be masculine.
(Standard Definition 18:11)
Deleted Scenes - Three deleted scenes with not much
worth noting.
1. Stable Council (1:29)
2. Horse Whispers (3:14)
3. Swords and words (1:22)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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