The movie King Arthur made in 2004 claimed in the beginning of the movie to be a true story behind the legend of King Arthur. This is far from it and instead did relate to the myth of King Arthur and some of the “true story” behind it. The movie was changed to a more gritty and realistic portrayal of the King Arthur story instead of magic users and fantasy aspects like in the original story. The roundtable is shown in the movie and the purpose of it is the same in the movie, that all of the knights are equal.
There were many changes to knights in the King Arthur movie such Sir Dagonet. Sir Dagonet in the myth is portrayed as a coward and a fool. He is the jester of King Arthur’s court. Sir Dagonet is very annoying and is not a fighter at all because he runs away at the slightest fight.
In the 2004 movie, Sir Dagonet is quiet and doesn’t even talk. He’s not a fool or coward. Sir Dagonet is also a fighter like the rest of the knights. He also sacrifices himself to save the other knights. This act showed him to be a very loyal knight to King Arthur.
This is such a vast change then the cowardly and foolish Sir Dagonet portrayed in the myth. Sir Bors is instead part of the comic relief and has some elements of Sir Dagonet, like he is quite foolish out of all the other knights. Sir Bors in the actual legend is far different than the one in the movie. Sir Bors practices celibacy in the King Arthur story and is shown to be kinder and less aggressive unlike the Sir Bors in 2004 movie who is shown to revel in killing and is like a blood knight.
Sir Bors in the movie is shown to be lustful because of his multiple children which is opposite on what the original story is about him. The King Arthur in the movie isn’t even a “king” at all. He’s not introduced in the movie as a king but instead is shown as an officer in the Roman army at Britain. He is not referred as King Arthur in the movie but as Artorius Castus.
He’s the commander of his knights and is shown to lead other people but he is not a king at all. Arthur and his knights are also supposed to be Sarmatian in the movie. His iconic introduction of pulling the sword out of the stone is shown very brief and the reason being is to defend his village from attackers. The sword was from his father’s burial too. There was magic or fantasy aspect around him pulling the sword like in the original stories. That aspect wasn’t shown that important but that act was in the stories.
The sword pulled out of the stone, Excalibur, is shown in the movie and is King Arthur’s sword in battles. King Arthur in the movie is portrayed as a darker and more ruthless character in the movie also. This is also shown in the other knights. They use violence to solve most of their problems and the film is more darker and edgier than the original King Arthur story. The knights are very ruthless when they need to be and acknowledge the amount of people they have killed.Many other important elements are gone from the King Arthur movie such as the Holy Grail, which is a very important item in medieval stories because of the religious symbolism it brings in the tales. Another important missing character was Sir Tristan’s lover, Iseult.
Iseult was a major characther in the stories and she was very important to Sir Tristan. The film does imply a love triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere and that love triangle was a big part in the King Arthur story. Lancelot in the movie though is very distrustful towards Guinevere. Guinevere is also very different in the movies also. In the movie she is portrayed as a Celtic warrior who fights with King Arthur. In the original story she is portrayed as a damsel in distress and is King Arthur’s wife.
Guinevere isn’t a queen at all in the 2004 movie. In the end of the movie though, they do become husband and wife. They both become King and Queen by the end of the movie. There is no mention of Morgan La Fay in the movie and she is a dangerous enemy of King Arthur and the most famous. Sir Galahad in the movie is not Sir Lancelot’s bastard son in the movie and both of the knights are of same age. Merlin in the movie is the leader of the Woods, a indigenous tribe native to Britain who are rebelling against the Romans.
He is portrayed as a Druid in the movie and not a wizard who mentored King Arthur like in the original story. King Arthur and Merlin in the movie are shown to be bitter enemies as Arthur blames him for his mother’s death. In the movie his mother is a celtic woman and his father a Roman general. Compared to the original story where his father was Uther Pendragon, a Britain king and his mother was named Igraine and wasn’t a celtic woman. The legend of King Arthur is still a popular story and is still a relevant story for anyone to pick up. It has presented in popular culture forever. King Arthur is the most iconic character of medieval Britain. The story is easily recognizable right away when mentioning sword from the stone and the knight’s roundtable.
The story has been adapted to movies, video games and TV shows. The legend of King Arthur has also had a huge influence in other stories set in medieval times. The character King Arthur shows what a model knight is supposed to be. Honorable, courageous, noble, and protector of the innocent. These features of a character is what made King Arthur relevant and more people interested in reading about them. People fall for stories about characters with good morals, loyal and protects the weak.
They especially like it in medieval stories. The audience reads about King Arthur cause he is some kind of role model, people want to be like him. In the modern world, people lack the values King Arthur has and wishes more people would act like him. Audiences nowadays love reading stories about the good guys defeating the bad guys and this is what King Arthur is about. The knights of the roundtable have their own storyline and many movies, books and shows flesh them out or creates new ones and people still love to read and listen about them. The stories are very human and contain many human elements such as love and loyalty.
These stories relate to audiences on a personal level and sinks them into their own fantasy world. The story of King Arthur will always remain popular in the modern world.
