King Arthur: Director's Cut Blu-ray Disc Review

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Title: King Arthur: Director’s Cut

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Region: A

Genre: Sword And Sandal Adventure

Stars: Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd, Stellan Skarsgard, Stephen Dillane, Ray Winstone, Hugh Dancy, Ray Stevenson, Mads Mikkelsten, Joel Edgerton, and Til Schweiger

Writer: David Franzoni

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Feature length: 139 minutes

Extras: Audio Commentary With Director Antoine Fuqua, Alternate Ending With Optional Audio Commentary By Antoine Fuqua, “Knight Vision” Text Commentary Track, Blood On The Land: Forging King Arthur Documentary, Cast And Filmmaker Roundtable, Producer’s Photo Gallery, Movie Showcase, Blu-ray Disc Previews

Languages: English PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and English, French, and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Blue BD Case

Chapter Stops: 14

Sound: PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2004/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2007

Theatrical Distributor: Touchstone Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Touchstone Home Entertainment (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

In the early Fifth Century AD, Centurion Lucius Artorius Castus (Clive Owen) lead his Sarmation knights in defense of Britain from a tribe of invading Saxons and was victorious. This event recorded in the waning days of the Roman Empire, when it was forced to abandon the occupation of Britain in an attempt fend off tribes of barbarians getting closer to Rome’s doors, can be seen as the beginning of the post-Roman dark ages in England as well as some believe the roots of the Arthurian myth. King Arthur: Director’s Cut presupposes that this new evidence is indeed the origin of the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and then basically places key characters from the myth into the story with Artorius AKA Arthur being a progressive thinking Roman leader of English descent who believes in the freedom of all men, including freedom of religion for his pagan Sarmation Knights that include Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd), who like Arthur was conscripted by the Empire to serve 15 years defending Hadrian’s Wall against the fierce Woads, who use guerrilla tactics against the Romans to make the occupation of Britain a futile pursuit. They are lead by Merlin, who appears to be something of a mystic as well as a clever leader of his people. Guinevere (Keira Knightley) is a fierce Woad warrior and archer Arthur rescues from inquisition like Early Roman Catholic Monks who were sadistically torturing and condemning pagans to “save” their souls.

On the eve of the day when Arthur and the last surviving Knights of the Round Table are to be relieved of their duties and be granted free reign to travel as they will as citizens within the Roman Empire, Arthur and his men are asked to save an important Roman family living deep beyond the forest controlled by the Woads so that a young man who is “special,” but for what reasons are never made entirely clear, can be safely escorted back to Hadrian’s Wall where the retreating Roman forces will escort him back to The Pope in Rome. If they do not complete the mission, their service to the Empire will be forfeit and they will be hunted down and executed as criminals. Yet as the Saxons continue their bloody conquest of Britain, saving and escorting the Romans beyond the wall is little more than a suicide mission for anyone else, but Arthur’s knights. While on their mission, events continue to force Arthur to revaluate his allegiance to Rome, which conflicts with his own ideals and leads to a fateful confrontation.

While not a bad film, King Arthur lacks something in the overall storytelling and despite the excellent attention to detail and great action sequences, ultimately the story of the origins of the King Arthur myth lacks pathos and just doesn’t resonate as well as one would expect. I think the film would have made a better miniseries with night one being the film and night two being about Arthur’s rule as King of the Woads. Ultimately we know from history that the Saxons come back and the Vikings or Norsemen, who eventually along with the Saxons over the course of centuries integrate into the society of Britain, follows them. So could Camelot be the brief shining moment after the Romans pulled out of Britain but before more Saxon invaders arrived? A brief era of reason and freedom in the early dark ages would even out this new take on the tale. As it is, King Arthur: Director’s Cut feels like only half a movie.

Presented in a widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with 1080p high definition resolution here available, King Arthur: Director’s Cut is truly stunning to behold on Blu-ray Disc with AVC encoding to ensure the high quality gritty look to the film is preserved. The English Uncompressed (48 khz/24 bit) PCM 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is terrific with a much higher fidelity than the English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack that is encoded too. French and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks as well as English Subtitles For The Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded onto the disc as options too. Director Antoine Fuqua provides a very interesting and articulate feature length audio commentary track that also has optional English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired where he covers the problems that occurred when all of the shots and effects, and choreography was in place for an R rated motion picture only to find out just as production was about to begin that the film was to be released as a PG-13 film instead. He likens the Roman occupation and pull out of Britain to events over the last forty years that include the Vietnam War and the occupation of Iraq and he shares his view on Lancelot and explains why certain choices were made in the story regarding his character. Antoine Fuqua also provides an optional audio commentary for an alternate ending to the film presented letterboxed (4:13) and there is also a text commentary that can be activated while watching the film that gives production anecdotes.

Exclusive to the Blu-ray Disc release are three HD cinematic moments from the films to showcase to friends individually or as one reel (3:10). The other features are ported over from the DVD release and are framed for (1.33:1) televisions. These include a behind-the-scenes making of documentary (17:10), a cast and filmmaker roundtable discussion (15:01) and a still gallery that can be viewed manually or as a slide show (1:40). Before the film begins there are high definition Buena Vista Home Entertainment preview trailers for DeJavu (2:03), Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto (2:35), The Guardian (2:29), Invincible (2:33), The Prestige (2:30), and a Blu-ray Disc spot featuring clips from both Pirates Of The Caribbean films, King Arthur, Chicago, and The Guardian (1:26).

King Arthur: Director’s Cut is available on Blu-ray Disc now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Touchstone Home Entertainment.

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