Thomas Drufke Arthurian lore is deep with fascinating mythology that has been explored many times in many different ways. First Knight uses that lore and twists it into a romantic drama of sorts, to mostly mixed results.With the new King Arthur film just around the corner I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at some of the many adaptions of the lore that we have gotten in film and television. First Knight is an okay film if it were some random medieval story with different settings and characters, but it rarely lives up to the deep mythology it's based on.In First Knight we find Lancelot, a wanderer who's struggling to find a place in the world for his skills with a sword and with women. After Guinevere, soon-to-be bride of King Arthur, is nearly kidnapped, Lancelot steps in and saves her life. Naturally, he falls in love with Guinevere, and there you have the central plot thread of the film. Richard Gere plays Lancelot about as well as you could imagine he would. It's a similar character to that of Sean Connery's James Bond from the 60's, mostly just showing off his looks and skills, rather than doing something of significance. Of course, I bring that up because Connery plays Arthur, albeit a much, much older King Arthur than we usually get, especially considering Guinevere is around 25 years younger.A lot of the film's plot is pushed forward by the romance. Not dissimilar to Braveheart being centered around William Wallace's love for two women, First Knight is clearly a romance first and foremost. The main difference is that Braveheart chooses to have the romance inspire a remarkable story, where First Knight is solely focused on Lancelot's strive for Guinevere's heart. It's not necessarily the wrong way to tell a story with Lancelot & Arthur butting heads, but it's certainly not the most interesting one. It's hard not to fall for Richard Gere's charm as Lancelot and Julia Ormond's innocent and beautiful Guinevere, but it's far from a great medieval war film.There really isn't much war to this film anyway. The main conflict comes by way of Prince Malagant, someone from Arthur's side who went Rogue for reasons that typically influence someone to go Rogue, power, greed, among other things. These battle sequences are trivial at best, even when they try to be big and bold. It all just seems silly in the end. I think to sum it up best is to say that King Arthur doesn't use his sword, not once.+Solid romance-But there's no reason to have that swallow the story-Silly5.4/10

DKosty123 After seeing this, I wondered why I did? This kind of touches on the real love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere but fakes it away from reality and tries to glorify the death of King Arthur in a battle that never took place. Easily the best quality in this movie is Julia Ormund as Guinevere. She is poised, attractive and hot. Those brown eyes sparkle. She looks as good on a horse as any woman ever has.The problems are - Richard Gere, who looks wooden as Lancelot and acts like a piece of pine wood for much of the movie. His action scenes are poorly done as well. Overall, this one is just Gere being cast in the wrong role. He should have been the court jester.Sean Connery - he is too old to play Arthur and while he speaks well, it is hard to believe a young Guinevere would want to marry a man who is her father's age. The only way I would recommend watching this one is if did a nudist version as Julia Ormund would look great in the buff when she did this one. It is overblown, and the final scene with the salute to the dead King Arthur was already done, when Spock died in one of the Star Trek movies. The good of the many outweighs the needs of the few. Few viewers will need this movie.

petarmatic I am not sure why this film received such a low grades, I do not think it deserved.Plot writers tried to reincarnate story of King Arthur and he knights of the round table. So little is historically actually known about it that all the film plot I consider pure fiction.Like all the movies of this kind it has rather good plot, which really caries us well into the film. It is interesting and dynamic although a little bit more made for the children then for the adults.Acting by Sean Connery is outstanding. These types of roles suit him so well, he truly shines so well in it. Other actors a little bit to be desired, I am sure that C.Z. Jones would fit better then Julia Ormond did.All in all if you have small children and you are int Anglo-Saxon history, this is a must see for you, otherwise you really should find time to see it anyways. ;)

amethystwings32 I love this movie,Richard Gere (Lancelot) was the hero, that won the heart of Julia Ormond (Guinevere).In this movie she was to marry the King.Which she did even though she loved the first knight.When they met he was just a common man that fought for money. That is my mom's take on the epic tale of King Arther and Lancelot. Mine I love this movie as well, it is one of the best renditions . About the legend of Camelot, I have seen it has adventure lust. And forbidden love , between Lancelot and Guinevere! But this tale of the sorted love triangle, has a dark side like all movies. It has a villain Ben Cross (Maligant) a cruel black hearted monster. Whose sole purpose was to dethrone the King and claim Camelot as his own! Until his untimely demise , by the sword of the first knight!