A movie poster for King Arthur. King Arthur is a 2004 film, dubbed as "The True Story That Inspired The Legend".
The makers of this film claim that they are presenting a historically accurate version of the Arthurian legends, from supposedly new archaelogical findings. While this is subject to debate, the film itself does provide a view of early British history, and the origins of the Arthurian legend from it, which has never before been showcased in cinema.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, Arthur (as portrayed by Clive Owen) is portrayed as a Roman officer, the son of a Roman father and a Celtic mother, who leads a military force of Sarmatian cavalry in Britain at the close of Roman occupation.
As Arthur and his men are expecting to be finally discharged from the service of the Empire, they are dispatched on a final and possibly suicidal mission to rescue an important Roman family from impending capture by the Saxons. In the course of this mission, Arthur encounters and rescues Guinevere (Keira Knightley), a Celtic princess, from the imprisonment and torture of the Roman citizen he is charged with rescuing.
In due course, Arthur and his remaining men forsake Roman citizenship and form an alliance between the Romano-British and the Celts to fight the Saxons.
It would appear that the Arthur depicted in the film is based most closely upon Ambrosius Aurelianus, the Romano-Briton who fought against the Saxons in the 5th century, and was probably the leader of the Romano-British and Celts at the Battle of Mons Badonicus, and events in the film are similar to speculations of those historical events. However, Arthur's full name in the film is Artorius Castus, suggesting a connection to Lucius Artorius Castus, a historical Roman active in Britain in the 2nd Century.
Despite a promising cast and production team, the film has opened to mixed reviews.
The movie was adapted by David Franzoni and directed by Antoine Fuqua. Besides the actors mentioned above, it also stars Ioan Gruffudd, Hugh Dancy, Ray Winstone, Stellan Skarsgård and Til Schweiger.
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