Sword of the Valiant - The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Rating:
Summary: The first twenty or thirty minutes is great....
Review: I love the beginning of this movie when the Green Knight(Sean Connery) rides into the banquet hall and directly challenges all of King Arthur's knights. The choice of Sean Connery was great, and I loved the surreal, glittery costume that he wore. It is extremely unfortunate that the rest of the movie turned out to be so ridiculous. This movie doesn't follow the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight very closely, although that isn't my main complaint. The soundtrack is generic, the editing is sloppy and uninspired, and the casting was horrible. King Arthur is portrayed by some ancient-looking individual(who is actually one of the more convincing actors) and Miles O'Keefe looks like a Victorian representation of a shining knight in armor. The fight choreography is sluggish at best. On the plus side, some of the castles used were actual castles in Wales.I will probably buy the dvd based solely on the fact that it is cheap and the minor appearances of Sean Connery are somewhat rewarding. The first twenty minutes is a decent portrayal of the actual story. Everything afterwards is questionable. This movie had potential, but it ended up being mediocre and generic.

Rating:
Summary: Good in spite of its faults
Review: (Three and a half stars, really.) Yes, I agree; not releasing this movie in widescreen was a blunder, and O'Keefe is a bit stiff at times. But Sword of the Valiant is a charming, often amusing and well conceived, fantasy/ adventure/ action flick nonetheless, held together by an interesting literary concept. Sword is not Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but works nonetheless and although it took three viewings for it to sink in, has grown on me. There aren't enough other movies quite like this for it to be tiresome.

Rating:
Summary: Don't release a 2.35 film in pan and scam
Review: Although hampered by a wooden performance from Miles O'Keefe (in a role obviously written for Mark Hamill, which he turned down to do Shakespeare in the Park (and then ended up not getting cast), this is a masterfully directed and clever film from Stephen Weeks, now better known as a documentarian and the restorer of Penhow Castle. I have the old VHS release, with huge yellow bands in the opening titles indicating how wide the image is supposed to be. I imagine the DVD is identical. While it's nice this hard to see film is available, MGM was an irresponsible Procrustes, much like with their Remo Williams DVD.

Rating:
Summary: It wasn't meant to be as funny as I found it, I'm sure.
Review: I got this DVD on a whim, seeing several beloved names in the cast list (Connery, Rhys-Davies, Cushing). What I learned, even from just the trailer, was that good actors can't make up for a low budget, other not-so-good actors, dreadful costumes, or lousy cinematography. That said, I did enjoy watching it, because it was so bad in such obvious ways. It was almost like watching a Monty Python skit. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hadn't seen it before, though.

Rating:
Summary: Good to see in DVD Finally!
Review: I've waited for this film to come out on dvd for a long time. I remember first seeing it when I was kid on occaision when it was shown on channel 5 (Washington, DC Fox affiliate). It would be shown every year, and then it stopped airing and I had almost forgotten about it. Well anyway this film tells the tale of Sir Gwain and the Green Knight in a pretty straight forward play of events. The synthesized music was what drew me in even though it's mildly cheesy. This film was overlooked I guess by MST3K but it's really not a bad movie. It's just something to watch while doing laundry. The guy that plays Oswald looks a little too old to be the son of Baron Fortinbras, among other goofy oddities that are in this film. Peter Cushing plays some seemingly gay regent who has some of the best lines in the whole film. Pretty good for the price.

Rating:
Summary: Strange
Review: Sword of the Valiant is an attempt at a literal adaptation of one of the most truly bizarre and surreal epic poems to come out of medieval Europe; one full of symbolism never meant to be taken literally; with too small of a budget to pull it off. Try picturing Terry Gilliam's Baron Munchausen without any of Gilliam's panache. Watching this when I was a young kid while I was home with a fever gave me a good idea of what a drug trip must be like. This one's more for the Teletubbies crowd than for anyone looking for a good story.

Rating:
Summary: incredible footage
Review: The armour alone is worth getting this DVD. All types of late period armour are present in this film and for the most part it is historically accurate. The exception being when they winch our fair hero into the saddle. This story is excellent, the riddles complex, and the action scenes great. Especially for the time the movie was made. I recomend it to all SCA folks out there and all families who want a jolly good show.

Rating:
Summary: Cheesy costume, film
Review: This is one of those great little films that came out in the Eighties that I used to watch on cable every time it was on. I almost forgot about this film until I saw it come out on DVD. It's a nice way to spend an hour and a half and not tax your brain. My only big disappointment is that the film itself is not in widescreen while the theatrical trailer provided IS widescreen. Go figure. Nice to have anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Nice little 80's film...
Review: This is one of those great little films that came out in the Eighties that I used to watch on cable every time it was on. I almost forgot about this film until I saw it come out on DVD. It's a nice way to spend an hour and a half and not tax your brain. My only big disappointment is that the film itself is not in widescreen while the theatrical trailer provided IS widescreen. Go figure. Nice to have anyway.

Rating:
Summary: tale of sword and sorcery
Review: This movie is a view of the ideal medieval knight in the ideal medieval world and his adventures while out on a quest. The movie is one of the strangest to ever come out of the eighties, but also leaves an impression on you. Full of unusual and magical characters, this film is like an Odyssey of the middle ages. Without Sean Connery, I doubt this movie would have ever been viewed. He truly makes this movie as the mischevious enigmatic spirit we call the Green Knight.