Yep, the 2004 King Arthur movie starring Clive Owen and Kiera Knightly! It’s only sitting at a 6.4/10 stars on IMDB but I love this film- and I’ve talked to a few other writers and Arthurian nerds who do too!

First, to address the elephant in the room, I know, the historical accuracy of this film is about a C- at best. The opening scene that introduces Bishop Germanus would seem to place the film in either 429 or 447 A.D. The armor of most of Arthur’s men (not to mention the Picts) is pure fantasy, though Arthur’s (Clive Owen’s) armor at least looks sort of accurate… if this film was set in the 2nd century. Oh, and let’s not forget that the film is set during Rome’s withdrawal from Britain…which actually occurred between 401 – 407.

The film introduces two Saxons who go unnamed throughout the movie but are credited as the father and son combo Cerdic and Cynric, which the 9th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC) credits with showing up in Britain in around the 470’s. And then, laughably, they depict the Saxons arriving in northern Britain, near Hadrian’s Wall, rather than the southern coast, as the ASC details.

Finally, again according to the ASC, Cynric lived long enough have lots of kids, grandkids, etc. who went on to found the kingdom of Wessex… the same kingdom that later produced the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great… who went on to orchestrate the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

I’m sure there’s plenty of other flaws that even more knowledgeable historians could pick out- these are just the ones that jump out at me.

Now that I’ve acknowledged its flaws, here’s why I LOVE it. In just the first 15 minutes or so, the movie does an excellent job of showing that Arthur is a fantastic leader who cares deeply for his men and is willing to threaten a superior for endangering them. This loyalty is reciprocated later when we see Lancelot and Arthur have a strong disagreement, but Lancelot still obeys Arthur, and ultimately chooses to come and fight beside Arthur at Badon Hill near the end of the film. In fact, all of Arthur’s men choose to stay in Britain and fight, even after they’ve been discharged from the army and had the option to leave. So I loved the loyalty and camaraderie between Arthur and his men in this film. It’s an ingredient I hope to replicate in my own Arthurian stories. The humor and banter between Arthur and his men was totally on point, too! They sounded just like so many soldiers I’ve served with in the Army.

To go back to Lancelot, in a “historical” Arthurian story, he is really out of place here. Lancelot is a French name, inserted into Arthurian lore by a medieval French writer and I don’t use him in my own Arthurian narrative. Unlike some of the other knights like Kay, Bedivere, Yvain and Percival, there’s not even any good Latin or Welsh equivalent for Lancelot’s name. Another reason that I never liked Lancelot before was that I despise the love triangle between him, Guinevere, and Arthur. It just makes me lose all respect for Lancelot and Guinevere, and pity Arthur. So I love the fact that this film did away with that! They made an ever so slight nod to it in once quick scene, but then Lancelot backs off because, as I believe the director of the film, Antoine Fuqua, said in an interview once, friends just don’t do that to each other!

The action sequences were good as well. Good enough at least that there was no scene that just looked monumentally stupid and took me out of it… looking at you Game of Thrones!

So what does the King Arthur offer where it fails in historical accuracy (as most films do to varying degrees)? It gave us a depiction of Arthur as brave, kind, moral, and overall good man. It gave us coarse, crude, good-humored, loyal “knights” who fought and in some sad instances, died bravely. It gave us a strong but likeable female character in Kiera Knightley’s Guinevere, and solid fight sequences. And finally, it did something else that I haven’t mentioned so far. It’s because of this glorious film that I first learned as a 24-yr-old soldier and history nerd that the legend of King Arthur might actually have some roots in real history. And the unsolved mystery of that possibility intrigued me enough to dig into it further, and further, until finally, in 2024, twenty years after that film came out in theaters, Cannon Publishing gave me the opportunity to write the first of many books to come that depict Arthur and his men in early 6th-century Britain, where I believe the legend originated. I only hope people like my version of Arthur, and my stories, as much as I love Clive Owen’s portrayal of Arthur in the 2004 film.