Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Stephen Weeks

Writers:

Stephen Weeks (screenplay) &
Howard C. Pen (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

17 August 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Romance

Plot:

Gawain was a squire in King Arthur's court when the Green Knight burst in and offered to play a game with a brave knight...

Plot Keywords:

Knight | Riddle | King Arthur | Remake | Magic

Cast

Thomas Heathcote	...	Armourer
Miles O'Keeffe	...	Sir Gawain
Leigh Lawson	...	Humphrey
Trevor Howard	...	The King
Sean Connery	...	The Green Knight
Emma Sutton	...	Morgan La Fay
Douglas Wilmer	...	The Black Knight
Cyrielle Clair	...	Linet (as Cyrielle Claire)
Lila Kedrova	...	Lady of Lyonesse
John Serret	...	Priest
Brian Coburn	...	Friar Vosper
Mike Edmonds	...	Tiny Man
David Rappaport	...	Sage
Ronald Lacey	...	Oswald
Peter Cushing	...	Seneschal

Also Known As:

Sword of the Valiant (USA) (video box title)
Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Gawain and the Green Knight

Runtime:

USA:102 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Singapore:PG | Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:16 | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

Caerphilly Castle, Caerphilly, Wales, UK

Company:

Golan-Globus Productions

Trivia:

The last feature film of Wilfrid Brambell.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Sir Gawain catches the arrow shot by Humphrey, he raises the hand that contains the end of the line upon which the arrow is traveling long before the arrow reaches the end.

Quotes:

Sir Gawain: I forgot to ask one question during my quick initiation into knighthood.
Humphrey: Oh? What's that?
Sir Gawain: How to relieve myself in this tin suit.

Movie Connections:

References Conan the Barbarian (1982)

A Magnificent, Humorous, Fantastic Vision

Yes, this film has weaknesses, notably Miles O'Keefe in the lead. It doesn't really hurt the film, being a hero type role, but it doesn't help, either. The film is a collection of episodes in a year of Gawain's life, which cycles through four seasons in the pattern of the Green Knight's life. The sense of time is rather peculiar, and it's unclear how Gawain rejoins his squire after visiting Leonesse, yet somehow it all fits. The film builds its vignettes around the game of the Green Knight's four part riddle. The film seems to have been botched in the editing room a bit, as the script is excellent, though with a great deal of joke cracking, notably one about a corkscrew that gets repeated an extra time, although it's the only one of the jokes that could be considered camp.

The film is sumptuously photographed, and the cast and the sets are wonderful to look at. Weeks planned to incorporate footage from _Gawain and the Green Knight_, but everything that the producers took out of that film they destroyed, this time hampered again by producers, who denied him final cut and forced him to cast O'Keefe after _Tarzan the Ape Man_ proved a box office success, despite being universally loathed.

The music score is rousing, but it was done on a computer, and so the timbres seem jarring. The humor and makeup effects are obviously jarring to some. Also jarring is the bright yellow bars letterboxing the credits of the video version. While the film suffers from being preserved only in pan and scan, I couldn't wait for the letterboxing to end since it makes the opening sequence more difficult to watch with the yellow glaring at you.

Don't let the bad reviews of this film dissuade you. This is a thoughtful film, buggered in the production process, but much of its glory still shines through. Know going in its a semi-comedy, and that some of the cast, including the aforementioned O'Keefe and Cyrielle, who is lovely but had to have all her lines dubbed, being a French speaker, and the likelihood you'll appreciate this film will go up. Most of the film works so well that I focused on that rather than its weaknesses. I also picked up Weeks's _Madhouse Mansion_ in the same closeout sale (Video Update went into Chapter 11 and is selling off the inventory from most of their stores in the area). That film has been equally poorly received by IMDb users, yet I have read (in _Video Watchdog_) that it is his best work. After having seen this, I hope to list it among the greatest film ever made. This is certainly one of the most entertaining fantasies I've seen in a long time. The other reviews I see here sound like reviews for _Wizards of the Lost Kingdom_ except that they mention Connery's Green Knight, which is certainly impressive. Other than that, it seems like we saw different films.

An entertaining film with weaknesses is still an entertaining film if it makes you think and rouses your spirits. Could have been better, but unquestionably worth seeing.