Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

[Mark Kohut]

Well, you've made at least one "sale". Knowing only the original packaged Arthur story--that old paperback and Berger's clever parody, which buried it all for me, I did want to see Richie's version to rediscover that story in a new way but got some of those review headlines in my news feeds and gave up the ghost. 

But knocking the current spate of reviewers wholesale, is a convincing argument to me. 

I hardly read movie reviews anymore, before going or even after, but I think I've noticed this from
Those headline sum-ups I see:  with ubiquitous instant communication among those in a group---say all those who get to see movies earlier than they are released, -the range of difference is smaller than ever. Fewer perspectives, expressed insights so similar, that.......

That said, Beauty & the Beast is a very smartly-crafted redo of that mythic story, yet even amidst all the praise it got, it wasn't talked of much in the way I saw it. I think --from my skimming. 

So, judge my difference and judgment  on THAT. 

Sent from my iPad

> On May 13, 2017, at 8:43 AM, Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hey, just wanted to take a moment to say that in spite of almost every movie critic in the Western world piling on it, I found Guy Ritchie's take on King Arthur to be very entertaining and well worth the trip to town and the $20 bucks for the two of us to get in. (Saw the 3-D version which did have MANY 3-D moments as alarming as the ones you used to routinely get in 3-D movies in the 50s. Yes, one time I literally ducked shrapnel...)
> 
> Ritchie had this to say about the criticism that his take on the legend wasn't historically accurate or even accurate to the typical retelling of the Arthur legend.
> 
>  "I don't think anyone else is necessarily interested in a re-telling of the same narrative so as long as you can hold on to the essence of the story.Thereafter it is about dressing it up in a form that I think accessible to a contemporary audience."
> 
> The bottomline is I'm at that point in time where it's hard to pass the 30 minute mark without a trip to the urinal and I was so captivated by this film that I didn't even notice the urge to get up and go until the final credit line rolled off the screen (Spoiler: no easter egg!) 
> 
> I thought the distinctive Ritchie elements in the film, which I find Fellini-esque and all in the forever memorable tone of the Gladiators-as-garbagemen in Roma, were fun and didn't intrude in the retelling of the story at all. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of mood and set for the Game of Thrones fan in this one, but the juxtaposing of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels irreverence in a dark and brooding medieval atmosphere was very welcome.
> 
> All I'm saying is don't let the critics scare you away on this one. It really smells to me like the the fix is  in on this one. This ain't no Blade Runner but you gotta remember the reviews Blade Runner had to crawl out from under for a couple of decades (Hey, the trailer for the sequel to Blade Runner is out now, well worth tracking down!) 
> 
> -Allan in WV where we don't get out a lot
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l