Movie: The Sword in the Stone
Release year: 1963
Thoughts: Near the end of the opening song, which sets up the world of 6th century England (“A legend is sung of when England was young, and knights were brave and bold…”), Drew was like, “I have no memory of this song.” But I felt like my memories of this movie were all flooding back. When was the last time I watched The Sword in the Stone? A decade ago?
The DVD cover has Arthur pulling out the sword from the stone, which seems like kind of a spoiler, but I guess they can get away with it since the movie came out over 50 years ago.
Drew also pointed out about halfway through that there is basically no conflict in the film. There’s no king…but there’s also no deadline on when there has to be a king. Kay isn’t the nicest big brother, but he’s not all bad. Sir Ector seems pretty nice to Arthur, as 6th century foster fathers go. The pike is scary, as is the eagle, but neither of them is a threat once Arthur is human again. Madame Mim is scary, but then all Merlin does is make her sick and confine her to her bed…for a few weeks. What exactly is the conflict here?
Maybe that’s why the end is kind of weird. I think I recognized that as a kid…suddenly Arthur is the same 11-year-old kid, but wearing a robe and crown (over his regular clothes) and hanging out in a castle? What did he have to do to get to this place? Accidentally pick up a sword? Okay. And then Merlin comes back from 20th century Bermuda, which is funny because he’s talking about motion pictures and commercials, and Arthur and Archimedes are both like, “What’s that?” and then the movie’s over.
Don’t get me wrong – I liked it. It’s just easy to pick these things apart. And I like the Arthur legend – this makes me want to reread The Once and Future King.
The Cameraphone Diaries 