Customer Reviews

Sword of Lancelot (1963)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is not a bad telling of the classic "Camelot" tale. The main problem with this film in my view is that in this version Guenevere is immediately smitten with Lancelot, so there is no subtlety at all as regards the betrayal of King Arthur by his favorite knight and by his bride. King Arthur himself in this film is shown as almost impossibly naive not to see what is coming.

There are other redeeming features of this film. The camaraderie of the Knights of the Round Table is charming, and the fight scenes (especially the initial joust) are fun to watch. Despite the above criticisms, this film moves along briskly and holds the viewer's interest. I don't buy the ending (no spoilers here) but the viewer may judge for him or her self.

My DVD is not a particularly good copy. The sound is somewhat uneven, and the transfer of the video is not as good as I had hoped.

Good film, although the quality of the film is a little grainy in addition to colors at times being faded, however, the story is a good one, in addition to the acting being very good.

I first saw this movie in the early 1960s and found it to be a good one. I'm not sure about the existing DVD, since it doesn't appear to be issued from a well-known label. This film has an excellent musical score by the British composer Ron Goodwin.

I had fond memories of this movie from childhood, and should have left it there! Obviously no attempt whatsoever was made to restore this film. Indeed, it opens with a foreground frame that looks like a 60's era TV set, and the quality of the film is so poor that you can easily imagine it was copied direct from TV! The frame goes away, but alas, the poor quality does not.
On the plus side, the acting is good and some of the battle scenes were probably quite graphic for the day. Even so, I can also imagine that Monty Python probably drew a lot of inspiration from some of the early scenes which simply come across as quite laughable. The director, Cornell Wilde (one of my favorite old-time actors actually), apparently thought the movie required a lot of trumpet blowing and that quickly becomes ludicrous.
The Menu system, if you want to call it that, only takes you back-and-forth between the movie and the FBI warning. There are no languages, no sub-titles, and no ability to select individual scenes. Thank goodness fast-forward still works, as it is the only way to watch this thing. In terms of DVD quality, shame on whoever put this junk together!
For the money, Robert Taylor's "Ivanhoe" from 1952 is a much better purchase!