If you haven't seen the new King Arthur film yet, catch it before it leaves the cinemas. It's an example of Umberto Eco's saying that a mediocre film contains clichés, while a great film contains nothing but clichés. In fact, it's pretty much set in Clichéa - there's even a place called The Darklands (where it's too dark). Here are some of the many tropes it exploits gleefully:
- The Chosen One
- The Dark Lord
- The Superweapon (well of course)
- Terrible Engines of War
- A king assassinated by his brother (Hamlet, anyone?)
- The Band of Loveable Rogues
- The Whore with a Heart of Gold
- The Dark Tower
- The Hot Sorceress
Speaking of versions, my wife (who as a Turk is not so well up on the Arthurian mythos) asked me how close it was to the original, to which I replied "Not at all," then realised that it's a meaningless question because there's no such thing as an "original" for the Arthur stories. I mean what would you take? The fragmentary references in Welsh and Breton poems? Geoffrey of Monmouth's fake history? Malory's Morte d'Arthur? Arthur is always being reinvented, and this is one of my favourite inventions to date, though not quite up to Boorman's wonderful Excalibur.
