pendragon is short for penned dragon?

[reverancepavane]

I suppose there have been worse portrayals of the Arthurian Romances than the BBC's current series of Camelot 30210 Merlin, but the reimaging of the myths as a teenage drama does leave a lot to be desired. Actually, there have been worse portrayals. I just remembered Mr Merlin (as in, he who can pull this crowbar out of this cement block is my true apprentice). Now I wish I hadn't. Just out of curiosity, what our people's favourite rendition of the Arthurian Romances. My favourite movie would probably have to be John Boorman's 1981 movie Excalibur, especially since it does such an excellent job of reconciling the two swords (the Sword in the Stone and Excalibur). As for books, I've always enjoyed Ian McDowell's take on the mythos, especially as it is written from the point of view of Mordred. Merlin's Gift and Mordred's Curse are the two novels that collect a large number of his traditional short stories, although I much prefer his high chivalry short story Chivauche. But the crown jewel of rendering the Arthurian Romances in a single form would have to be Greg Stafford's game of Pendragon.

Comments

[several-bees.livejournal.com]

Mm, it's pretty awful - which is sad, because the production design and costuming is decent (much better than the recent Robin Hood), the direction is mostly fine (though given that they've obviously choreographed the fight scenes perfectly well, I wish they'd hold the camera still and stick with one shot long enough to let us see what's happening...), the acting is at worst acceptable and at best really good - most of the actors have excellent timing and great understated-panto expressions. It's just the script, which just isn't trying hard enough: it's so incredibly lazy, with "he had to kill [snake-bitten knight], [snake-bitten knight] was winning!" a single line away from "he had [snake-bitten knight] pinned under his shield", which two statements, unless I'm really missing the point of sword-fighting, are just blatantly incompatible. And many other examples of similar things.

[several-bees.livejournal.com]

And oh, as for favourite versions - T.H. White, boringly I know.

[reverancepavane.livejournal.com]

After too many years in the SCA fighting heavy, you cannot help but wince at the typical actor's method of melee combat. Then again, there is nothing worse than attempting to use real martial artists on the screen. The director's comments to Equilibrium is worth watching, for an introduction to Nazi architecture, comments on how to make a small budget movie (of only USD$10M!), and his eventual realisation that the famous wuxia martial artists are all acrobats or dancers and not martial artists (such as he employed for his mooks). And nothing spoils a wuxia fight scene more than rapidly moving the camera (something which most South Korean cinematographers have yet to learn I'm afraid). The one thing I was thankful enough for in The Forbidden Kingdom was that the cameraman knew enough to stay out of the action between Jet Li and Jackie Chan went they went for it. And thanks for the viewing tip. Shouting out "he's behind you!" and "oh, no it's not" does indeed make it far more watchable.

[thealmondtree.livejournal.com]

I rather like Anne McCaffrey's take on part of the Arthurian stuff: "Black Horses for the King".

[molokov-au.livejournal.com]

I can't quite remember a) most of my Arthurian myth or b) what the best versions I've seen are... I can only recall what I've read & seen.

I do remember reading TH White's Sword in the Stone (but not the other books), and there's a great Terry Pratchett short story 'Once and Future' in which it turns out Merlin is a time traveller stuck in the wrong period of history, so he goes through with a charade to fake the sword in the stone so that Arthur will be king... except his young female assistant's friend Ursula ends up with the sword.... whoops.

I've seen Excalibur (which from what I remember was pretty good) and the musical film of Camelot (Proposition...?) and the rather awful Sam Neill Merlin telemovie, and the Roman King Arthur (poor Clive Owen, he's a pretty good actor but that film was just meh) and of course Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

No idea which one was best....

[rowlirowl.livejournal.com]

I agree with the 1981, so long as you are referring to the one with Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart. For some reason my memory includes Rutger Hauer but he isn't on the cast list, so it must be a faulty memory.