Customer Reviews

King Arthur - The Truth Behind the Legend (Documentary)

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I looked to this production to be a very updated and scholarly work looking at recent findings and work done in the field to bring Arthur into a more realistic perspective than is done in the legends we have to date. Unfortunately, this was a disappointment for me.

The visuals show lots of "name places" throughout England. It is interesting to see many places like Tintagle Castle. At times it looks more like a travel log than a documentary.

What is pointed out is the fact that there really isn't much historically other than Godfrey of Monmouth's work that mentions Arthur. They do rightfully point out that Godfrey was fond of filling in the blanks with his own imaginative stories. Issues of the social structure and the need of hero worship at the time does allow the viewer to understand more clearly why Godfrey's work stood for 600 years without question.

The story switches from Geodfrey of Monmouth's "history" to the telling of the story of "Morte d'Arthur" by Malory. There is a nice overview of the history of the story. Also discussed are the lovely illustrated versions by Tennyson. The story is then related from various bits from all these versions of the legend.

What is interesting is the photography of the name places and locations and items that are associated with the legend. In all honesty, the production could have been cut down to about half an hour to 45 minutes and done the job just as well.

This production drags and plods along for much of the 90 minutes the film runs. Nicely photographed, the narrator's voice (Liam Dale) is not really all that pleasant. Much of the material in this production is well known and has been speculated to death elsewhere.

If you have read the "Morte d'Arthur" you know much of what is in this production as far as the story goes. Nice pictures, average story dragged out to 90 minutes.

If you have no background to the legend of Arthur, this is a nice, general overview. But sitting and watching it can be a bit antsy for viewers, as there are a lot of points through out the production that drags. medievalcrusadesbabe

This excellent documentary (although obviously done on a lower budget) was very informative and entertaining: the scenary was very pretty, and the facts and storyline were intriguing. The narrarator sounds like lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous, and I enjoyed hearing a bit more about whether King Arthur and his knights were really real, and who they could have been: it explores the history behind the King Arthur legend and just who he was in reality.

If you saw the movie King Arthur with Kiera Knightley and Clive Owen, or even are just interested in finding out more about this legendary hero, you should check out this DVD!

The narrator is worse! With his very strong British accent, he was not able to give the drama needed for the documentary. He is like reading to a child, and finally the child goes to sleep of boredom. The script is like it was taken out a children's book. Do not waste your money for this.

This has got to be one of the WORST TV productions in recent years. The subtitle "The truth behind the legend" is a joke.
The narrator (ghastly, reading from a script) makes endless stupid mistakes, which even if the idiot script writer had put in the script, he should have known to correct (like substituting "empirical" for "imperial" and "Victorian" instead of "victorious" - I'm not kidding).
Some of the photography of the Roman homeland were clearly Greek islands!
I mean, how bad can it get?
Why waste our time and insult our intellect showing Stonehenge and saying a wizard stole it from Ireland?
I think it should have been titled "The Story Of Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Lies Behind The Legend"
The writer of this silly "epic" clearly never read more than the guidebooks put out by local entrepreneurs trying to sell the Arthur legend on their own patch. Not a scrap of truth or evidence anywhere in view.
Uuugh!