Volume 22 Number 3 Article 6 10-15-1999 King Arthur 'Lite': Dilution of Mythic Elements in Arthurian Film Eleanor M. Farrell Independent Scholar Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Farrell, Eleanor M. (1999) "King Arthur 'Lite': Dilution of Mythic Elements in Arthurian Film," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 22 : No. 3 , Article 6. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol22/iss3/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Concentrates on films and television that use elements of the Arthurian legends, rather than retellings of the main story. Additional Keywords Arthurian myth—Film and television This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol22/iss3/6 A Journal of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams and Mythopoeic Literature 55 King Arthur 'Lite': Dilution of Mythic Elements in Arthurian Film Eleanor M. Farrell THE legend of King Arthur, as it exists today, is enormously complex. Themes, characters, and individual episodes have been incorporated from such sources as the early Welsh triads, the medieval British ‘history’ of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien de Troyes’ courtly romances and the spiritual quest epics of Wolfram von Eschenbach, up to the compilations of Thomas Malory, Alfred Tennyson, and their literary successors until the present time. Each new version has chosen selected elements of the story and added to them to make the tale relevant to a new audience— a trait that is continued today by a twentieth-century genre of storytelling, film. Movies about King Arthur and his knights have been made since the creation of the cinematic media. Filmmakers have generally chosen to focus on a specific aspect of the Arthurian legends, such as the quest for the Holy Grail, the tragic love story of Tristan and Isolde, the adventures of Sir Gawain with the Green Knight, or (and most often) the love triangle of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere. Since the publication of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur in 1485, incorporating elements from the French romances and the European Grail material into the Arthurian corpus, the romance between Arthur’s Queen and his best knight has remained one of the central themes of Arthurian legend, along with the quest by the knights of the Round Table for the Holy Grail and the incest between the young Arthur and his half-sister Morgause, which results in the birth of Mordred and the destruction of the Round Table and Camelot. There are a handful of movies that stand out as efforts to do justice to the Arthurian themes and mythos. Although no two devotees will agree on which these are, Robert Bresson’s Lancelot du Lac, John Boorman’s Excalibur, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail are highly considered by many fans and scholars. Rather than discuss films such as these, whose aims (whatever their success) are specific retellings of the legends surrounding Arthur and his knights, this paper concentrates on films, particularly recent ones, that use the tales in different ways. 56 Winter 1999 Volume 22.3 Mythlore: In addition to retelling the major events of Arthurian legend, the setting of King Arthurs court is often used by filmmakers to set the scene or tone for a secondary plot. Two examples of this usage are The Black Knight and Prince Valiant (both released in 1954, with a new version of Prince Valiant in 1997). The Black Knight is essentially a medieval Western, with the blacksmith John (played by Alan Ladd, quintessential hero of the Western genre) thwarting a plot by Palamides and his Saracens, assisted by King Mark of Cornwall, to take over Arthur’s kingdom. John, a commoner, thus raises himself to the rank of knight and hero, and can marry Linet, the daughter of Lord Yeonil, whom he loves. In Prince Valiant, the title character, hero of a long-running comic strip by Hal Foster and portrayed here by Robert Wagner, is an exiled Viking who finds refuge in King Arthurs court. Valiant protects Camelot from invasion by conquering the evil knight Sir Brack, while befriending Sir Gawain and winning the hand of the princess Aleta. Both movies introduce characters and incidents unfamiliar to any Arthurian scholar, but the central hub in both of these films is the court of Camelot, serving as a standard of order, chivalry, and justice. Arthur, his Queen, and his knights are present, but usually have a minor, if any, role in the central conflict. The plot of the more recent Prince Valiant includes the theft of Arthur’s sword Excalibur by Morgan Le Fay, a common Arthurian element. As in the 1954 film, however, Valiant, rather than the usual cadre of Round Table knights, is the hero. Films based on Mark Twain’s 1889 novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, also use the Arthurian setting in a similar fashion, although Twain’s story is more complex than a mere tale of adventure. In each of the many filmed versions of this story, all is not well in Camelot when the American from the future makes his (or her) arrival. The court is corrupt, Arthur impotent, and a bit of Yankee ingenuity is needed to set things right. Twain’s book and the films based on it, however well they succeed, are comedies, and poke fun at the inanities of culture, past and future. The juxtaposition of a ‘modern’ man in the medieval Arthurian world is the crux of the story. In several recent versions, the savior of Camelot uses modern technological gadgets, such as a portable compact disc player or a mountain bike, to foil the villains (whatever their incarnation). Twain based his novel on Malory, but made changes in the plot to suit his own purposes. In turn, each of the films based on Twain’s novel have made further modifications. In A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995), Merlin arranges A Journal o f J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams and Mythopoeic Literature 57 Calvin’s trip through time and advises the youth of the kingdom’s need for him, but the wizard only appears in a well, and is no longer physically present in Camelot. King Arthur, old and saddened by the death of his wife Guinevere, has lost interest in ruling his kingdom, which enables Lord Belasco to become powerful, oppressing the common people and demanding the hand of Arthur’s oldest daughter in marriage. (The king here has two daughters, Sara and Katie.) Before Calvin’s arrival, the people of the kingdom have only the mysterious Black Knight as their protector and provider. In a particularly ’90s ‘equal opportunities’ twist, the Black Knight is finally revealed to be Arthur’s daughter Sara, who is in love with Kane, an untided sword and horse master. A Kid in King Arthur’s Court actually has more in common with The Black Knight than with the themes of Twain’s novel, although the general plot of Connecticut Yankee is followed. Two other new television films based on Twain’s novel introduce African-Americans to Camelot: the 1989 TV movie A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court brings a young girl (Keshia Knight-Pulliam) to Arthur’s realm to teach Guinevere and her ladies in waiting martial arts techniques, while Whoopi Goldberg’s visit as physicist Dr. Vivian Morgan (A Knight in Camelot, 1999, also for television), orchestrated by Merlin, introduces the steam engine but more importantly steers Arthur in the right direction to ensure the establishment of Camelot’s virtues for future society. Going a step further, several recent films have taken Arthurian elements out of context and used them to enhance plots that may be only marginally related to the Arthurian themes. In the 1989 film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy and his father, Professor Henry Jones, Senior, search for the Holy Grail, which has been the elder Jones’s lifelong quest. The plot centers on the presumed ability of the Grail to give everlasting life, and since the story is set in 1938, Indy and his friends must prevent the Nazis from obtaining the sacred cup. Despite the serial-adventure setting, the film incorporates many historical references to the Grail, its origin, history, and status as an object of quest throughout the centuries, as well as adding some original history. In the film, the Grail, which had been lost for over a century, was rediscovered by three knights of the First Crusade; one of these is chosen to become the Grail’s guardian until another knight comes to release him from his task. The riddles involved in reaching the Grail reflect those in the medieval literature: penitence, knowledge, and faith are all required by Indy before he can achieve his quest.