2004 Movie Titles
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2004 Movie Titles
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King Arthur
Starring: Clive Owen, Stephen Dillane, Keira Knightley, Hugh Dancy, Ioan Gruffudd
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Screenplay by: David Franzoni, John Lee Hancock
Release Date: July 7, 2004
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense battle sequences, a scene of sensuality, language.
Box Office: $51,882,244 (US total)
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
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Tagline: Rule Your Destiny.
Let me sing with inspiration
Of a man born of two nations
Of Rome and of Britain
Declaring his kingly rule and rightful place
Among the defenders of the Wall.
-6th century A.D. Celtic poem
From producer Jerry Bruckheimer (“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” “Black Hawk Down”), director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) and writer David Franzoni (“Gladiator”) comes Touchstone Pictures' / Jerry Bruckheimer Films' “King Arthur,” a spectacular, epic tale of one man's destiny to become king.
Historians have thought for centuries that King Arthur was only a myth, but the legend was based on a real hero, torn between his private ambitions and his public sense of duty. A reluctant leader, Arthur (Clive Owen) wishes only to leave Britain and return to the peace and stability of Rome.
Before he can, one final mission leads him and his Knights of the Round Table - Lancelot, Galahad, Bors, Tristan, and Gawain - to the conclusion that when Rome is gone, Britain will need a leader to fill the vacuum - someone not only to defend against the current threat of invading Saxons, but to lead the isle into a new age.
Under the guidance of Merlin, a former enemy, and the beautiful, courageous Guinevere (Keira Knightley) by his side, Arthur will have to find the strength within himself to change the course of history. Thrilling adventure, edgeof- your-seat action and historical grandeur come together in this unique look at the origins of one of the greatest legends ever told.
About the Film
“`King Arthur' is the definitive story of the leader and warrior who emerged to lead the Britons against the Saxons. It is the story of the man who became King Arthur,” says Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” and “Black Hawk Down.” “That's what excited me about this film - it's a new look at a tale that we thought we were familiar with. The truth is that King Arthur lived in a much earlier time period than you see in most of the movie versions - the Dark Ages. David Franzoni worked out a new approach to the subject matter that offered a more historically accurate story of King Arthur.”
“There's a moment in history that we can actually pin down,” Franzoni recalls. “There is a name and there is a battle. The name was Lucius Artorius Castus and the battle was the Battle of Badon Hill. This battle changed the face of Britain and created a legend which has survived for generations and has been reinvented many times. I thought it was a great opportunity to go back and try to find out what these people were like and to tell their story realistically.”
“I love going to the movies and watching big, epic films and I also love making films that change your perception through telling a story in a much more realistic way,” Bruckheimer explains. “That is what `King Arthur' does; it tells you the true story about what was going on during that period.”
“This is `King Arthur' as `The Wild Bunch,'” says Franzoni. “The Sarmatian cavalry or knights were the last Roman Special Forces unit with Artorius Castus as their commander; they are assigned one last mission in enemy territory. All around them, the Roman Empire is pulling out and collapsing. These men have ruthlessly and brutally suppressed everyone around them for the sake of Rome. There's blood all over them and their bond is that blood. It's a bond of what they have done and what they have known.”
To capture the unromantic, harsh essence of “King Arthur,” Bruckheimer sought Antoine Fuqua, director of “Training Day,” a starkly realistic police drama set on the streets of Los Angeles. “I had been a fan of Antoine's for many years through his videos and commercials,” says Jerry Bruckheimer. “He did a video for us for `Dangerous Minds' and I always wanted to do a movie with him.”
Fuqua, a native of Pittsburgh, grew up with the myths and movies of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. “I grew up watching stories like `King Arthur' - the big, epic historical movies,” Fuqua says. “Through the years, I have studied mythology and related matters and specifically the legend of King Arthur. As a kid, I used to play knights with my friends and then as an artist, I wanted to make a film like this. When the opportunity came through Jerry Bruckheimer to do this film, I didn't hesitate to make it.”
“I think Jerry thought I was the right guy for this film because I believe this movie is gritty - you can actually taste and smell the violence and death. You can feel the cold and the despair. It's very apocalyptic. In the world at that time, there wasn't a lot of hope - hope is what Arthur represents.”
This was to be the basis of “King Arthur”: an action drama that charted the bloody adventures of King Arthur and his band of knights. “It's much more reality-based as opposed to the fantasy,” says Fuqua. “It excited me because it's King Arthur as you've never seen him before. What appealed to me was that it was based on a sense of a reality. There was historical research done and there were some facts we found that we didn't know before. It's thrilling to discover that there is this hero that you grew up with who actually really existed. That's exciting.”
Despite his life-long interest in Arthur and the Knights, Antoine Fuqua had never heard of Castus until he read Franzoni's script. “I didn't know anything about Artorius or the Sarmatian knights,” he says. “But after reading the script, Jerry and I got together and we did quite a bit of research. We flew to England, visited Hadrian's Wall and spoke with some Arthurian experts, including John Matthews. I also visited the museums to see what the knights wore. As I researched, I found out that people of any nation who had been conquered by the Romans could have become knights. And I also found out that chivalry didn't exist then; these guys were very much about blood, guts, and no glory. These guys were fighting every day in the mud and the cold weather. They must have been the toughest guys alive.”
“I believe that `King Arthur' will give people a sense of the reality of the man; the person behind the legend,” says Antoine Fuqua. “Arthur wasn't just a legend, he was a real man: someone who sacrificed himself to become a leader and earned the right to be called King.”
“The reality of it is that it only takes one person to stand up and fight against evil,” Fuqua continues. “`King Arthur' is essentially about good against evil; it's basic mythology. You have to face the demons, you have to slay the dragons. You cannot run away. To me it's important that we stand up as individuals, as human beings. We have to face evil.
“You can't run away from who you are,” concludes Fuqua. “It only takes one person to step up and be ready to do battle and you'll be surprised at how many people will follow you. That's why I respond to this kind of material. Take `Training Day' and Ethan Hawke's character: someone had to stand up to Alonzo at some point. Otherwise you get beat down and we get dictators. As an actor, Clive Owen gets to the heart of what Arthur is about.”
“Arthur is the one who feels a sense of unfairness, a sense of responsibility to intervene and make the world a fair place. The knights, as loyal as they are to him, are much more like military machines - they want to do their thing and move on,” says Owen. “But that's why Arthur is the leader - they all recognize that there's something different about him and they can't help themselves from following him. Arthur has a line in the film: `You have your deeds, but deeds are meaningless unless they serve some higher purpose.' That's really what shapes Arthur: everything he does has to be for the greater good.”
About the Story
The story of “King Arthur” began many years ago, when screenwriter David Franzoni first heard about the Roman commander named Lucius Artorius Castus. “This was before I became a professional screenwriter,” Franzoni says. “I used to hang out at the library, and I picked up some student's paper that mentioned him as the possible genesis of the Arturian legend. It stuck with me.”
 Castus was sent to Britain by Marcus Aurelius, leader of Rome, which controlled the western world.“Usually, when there's a great myth, there's a great source,” adds Franzoni. The screenwriter was unusually involved in the making of the film, on-set every day was always ready there if the actors had a question about their characters or if the designers wanted to check the authenticity of their plans.
“If all David had done was to provide his excellent screenplay, it would have been enough… but he was way more involved than just that,” says Bruckheimer. “He was in the trenches, on the set. He has a personal investment in this movie. He was generous with his time and with the information in his head. I think that kind of commitment really inspired the rest of the cast and crew to achieve something great.”
“It's David's script - his take on the King Arthur legend - that really got me interested in this project,” says Fuqua, “and his commitment to the project inspired me. I think it's important for the screenwriter to be involved with the film, and I'm glad that David was so gung-ho to jump in with both feet. It made for the best possible production.”
“David Franzoni is a combination of mad genius and historian,” says Mike Stenson. “We had been talking about various ideas for about a year and suddenly he asked if we would be interested in the real story behind the King Arthur mythology. That was quite a hook!”
“Working with David Franzoni is a dream come true,” says Chad Oman. “He's a tireless researcher, a talented writer, and he's incredibly generous with his time, always available to give his opinion or answer a question. It made for a very smooth production of his incredible screenplay.”
Franzoni took the outline of his story from history: in Eastern Europe, in what would become Russia, there exists a warrior race that serves as one of Rome's constant and formidable adversaries, called the Sarmatians. They existed on the fringes of the Roman Empire until, in 175 A.D., they lost a key battle to Marcus Aurelius in the area of present-day Vienna. Marcus Aurelius offered the survivors a choice: fight for Rome or die. The Sarmatians chose to switch their allegiance to the Empire and were incorporated into the Roman army, with one unit sent to Egypt and another dispatched to Britain. These expert horsemen and professional soldiers patrolled these outposts for years, with fathers handing down their roles to sons, in exchange for peace with the government.
By the 5th Century A.D., Rome's light has begun to fade. Barbarian hordes attack the fringes of the vast empire. In Britain, the Saxons prepare to attack from the north and east.
A Sarmatian cavalry unit under the command of the half-Roman, half-British Lucius Artorius Castus, is assigned to protect Britain from the barbarian Saxons who were encroaching from beyond the great dividing line of Hadrian's Wall. Castus's crew, including Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, Bors, Tristan, and Dagonet, were a tough, merciless outfit, hated and feared by the native Woads, who were under the command of a mysterious shaman and guerrilla leader called Merlin.
Into this midst, Franzoni weaves the tale of one last deadly assignment for Arthur and his battle-hardened troop, a daring search-and-rescue mission, before they can return to the safety of Rome. Together with his troops, Arthur travels north through Woad country and deep into the heart of enemy territory. His mission is to rescue Marius, a Roman nobleman and his family, ahead of the advancing Saxon forces. After the rescue, the human convoy, including Guinevere and a number of Briton women and children, head south to Hadrian's Wall - which marked the end of the Roman empire - all the time one step ahead of the pursuing Saxons lead by their merciless commander, Cerdic. En route, Arthur is persuaded by Guinevere that he and his knights are all that lie between the pillaging Saxons and the massacre of thousands of innocents.
Ultimately, Arthur and his knights make a stand in a pivotal battle that would decide the future of Britain. The Battle of Badon Hill was a ferocious and bloody encounter between the massed forces of the Saxons, funneling down from the North, and Arthur at the head of the Samartian knights and the Britons. The outcome of this battle was to prove critical to the future of Britain. It was also the moment when Arthur realized his true destiny and fueled the birth of a legend.
Arthur and Guinevere
From the beginning Jerry Bruckheimer and Antoine Fuqua were intent on assembling an international cast that was true to the historical strands of their story. “I felt that it was appropriate for the subject matter to try and keep it as authentic as possible,” says Jerry Bruckheimer. “One way of doing that is to have representatives from various countries be part of this story.”
In order to assemble some of the finest actors from Ireland, England, Europe, and Australia, Bruckheimer and Fuqua enlisted the services of veteran casting director Ronna Kress (“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” “Remember the Titans”). “I wanted a whole new, fresh idea on the screen, and I wanted that reflected in the actors,” says Fuqua. “I wanted guys that were European, who were familiar with the history of the subject matter. `King Arthur' is their story: it's about a guy who is half-British, half-Roman. I sometimes think it hurts to see a famous face playing a role such as King Arthur when there are talented people who can give the role a certain authenticity.
“If you have a big star in the role, you're expecting Arthur to do what he does,” Fuqua explains. “With a face who's a little less well-known, you don't know what will happen to any one of them. They are much more human.”
The leading English actor Clive Owen was cast as Arthur, the commander of the Sarmatian knights. “I saw Clive in `Croupier' a few years ago and thought he was a really interesting and talented actor,” says Jerry Bruckheimer. “I wanted to figure out something to work with him on and then this came along and we thought it was just right for him. He has an authority and presence on screen that is just perfect for `King Arthur.'”
“Clive brings a lot of intensity, a lot of internal struggle, and a bit of mystery, all of which are perfect for Arthur,” says Fuqua. “I wanted a leading man who had presence, power, grace, and ability to pull it off, and when I met Clive, I just couldn't get him out of my head.”
Owen's interest was piqued not only by “King Arthur's” epic scale and narrative sweep, but by the character details and in particular the ambiguous nature of Arthur. “This movie is a journey of how Arthur changes, how he becomes a man of his own people,” Owen says. “In other words, Arthur discovers who he is. I have always seen this film as ending where the myths begin. There is a huge battle at the end of the film and it is at this point that Arthur becomes a leader and the stories really begin. So his character arc is that of a man who faces up to who he is and takes on the responsibility of himself and of his people.
“I'm intrigued by the duality of Arthur's upbringing,” says Owen. “He feels Roman, but as Rome changes and pulls out, he comes to identify with his British side more and more. As his beliefs and faith are challenged, he changes accordingly.”
English actress Keira Knightley (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) plays Guinevere, a tough, tenacious Briton who is very much a product of her time. Jerry Bruckheimer immediately suggested Knightley as the warrior. “Keira was fresh, extremely beautiful and a wonderful actress in “Pirates of the Caribbean,” he says. “She did an amazing job in that movie, it was a huge hit for us and we wanted to bring her back.” For Jerry Bruckheimer, the young woman was ideal to play the beautiful, Machiavellian Guinevere, a woman who is driven by an overwhelming ambition to liberate her people and will do just about anything to realize her goals.
“Keira is amazing,” agrees Antoine Fuqua. “She just lights up the screen. Jerry told me about her because he had worked with her on `Pirates of the Caribbean.' Then I met her and she was tough and funny and just a great person. When I put her in the film, she just blew me away. Her transformation from this young, spunky girl to this amazing lady is incredible. And Keira is as tough as nails. She did most of her own stunts. She worked out every day, got herself in shape, and never complained even when she got those bumps and bruises. I was more concerned than she was and would ask if she was all right or needed a doctor. But she was like, `I'm OK!' and would walk right back onto the set. I was like, `Wow!'”
Knightley admits that Guinevere is equally adept at manipulating Arthur to her cause as she is in the art of archery or the garrotte. “She's no damsel in distress,” says Knightley. “The only Guinevere we've ever seen is someone who gets passed from man to man and doesn't have much to say about it. Our Guinevere is a lot tougher than that. She's a fighter, a warrior, as much as any man - and she does have something to fight for. That's based on historical fact - the women did fight on equal standing with the men. That's never really been shown before.
“She would terrify me,” she says. “In fact, I hope that she will terrify everyone. We do show that there is a soft side to her; there has to be a soft side, but I think that has to be suppressed when there is a cause to fight.”
In addition to the unusual part, the chance to work with her co-stars proved an attraction as well. “Clive Owen is remarkable,” Knightley says. “He's been great, and so has Ioan Gruffudd - in fact, everyone fits their parts. I've got seven hunks in leather; what more can a girl ask for?”
The Knights
Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd plays Lancelot, Arthur's right-hand man and deadly killer. “Lancelot doesn't know anything else except being trained to be a killer,” says Gruffudd. “He is incredibly loyal, he's passionate and arrogant and cocky. He knows that he is incredibly skillful with his swords. I also believe that he is honest, he does show fear, and he is incredibly disappointed and torn between his loyalty to Arthur and his freedom when they have to go on this last mission. Because of his love for Arthur, he does start to grasp what Arthur is about and why he is committed to going on this final assignment.”
“Lancelot is Arthur's knight of knights,” says Owen, “and closer to Arthur than any of the others. If Arthur is always thinking about the bigger picture, his idealistic view of the way the world could be, Lancelot is the grounded one, the realist, always questioning Arthur. He even questions whether Arthur should be asking the knights to go on this last mission - but, of course, he follows Arthur nonetheless.”
Ray Winstone plays the pugilistic Bors, a fiercesome fighter, who is also the veteran of the pack: the oldest of the knights. “His specialty is hand-to-hand combat,” says Winstone. “He is down and dirty and all that fancy swordplay is really his thing. He fights with his axe and his fists. He likes getting in there but he is getting a bit old. He is slowing up a bit, a lot like me and he hurts a lot more. Bors has 5 children and 3 wives and could be kind of a big shot in his own town.”
In casting of the remaining knights, the filmmakers turned to Hugh Dancy (“Ella Enchanted”) as Galahad, Joel Edgerton (“Ned Kelly”) as Gawain, Mads Mikkelsen (“Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself”) as Tristan, and Ray Stevenson (“At Home With the Braithwaites”) as Dagonet. “All these guys are great actors,” observes Antoine Fuqua.
For Jerry Bruckheimer and Antoine Fuqua, these knights are the kernel of the story: specialized killing machines who are prepared to give up their lives for each other and Arthur. Each knight has his own story, but as a unit they are virtually unstoppable.
“At that time, in the fifth century, the knights were the closest things to a police force,” says Antoine Fuqua. “Then you have these guys, the `Magnificent Seven' or the `Dirty Dozen' or whatever you want to call them. These knights are tough guys and they are unpredictable as well. They would be walking around armed all the time, not knowing what is going to happen at any moment. They live in a world lit by fire, and they are out there in the elements. Rome came in and civilized the area by building these forts and Hadrian's Wall, but once you are outside that wall, you're free game.”
The Newcastle-born actor Ray Stevenson was cast as the formidable Dagonet: a traditionalist with a strong code of honor. “Dagonet comes from the old order of knights,” he says. “He knows that Arthur is the future; without him as a leader, they would just be a band of mercenaries. Dagonet is a quiet observer of things and he has a sense of place and time. He knows that we are reaching a major fulcrum in history but doesn't know what it is. He is someone who believes more in action than dialogue. Dagonet is a consummate warrior even down to the clothes he wears. You get hold of someone's face and can smash it into his studded jacket, which he uses to great effect as a close-quarter weapon.”
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen assumed the part of the mysterious and deadly Tristan. “Tristan is a lone wolf,” he explains. “He's the scout so that means he spends a lot of time by himself, with just his hawk as company. He doesn't believe in any god. He likes killing; he finds it interesting, and that is probably why some of the other knights find him a little disturbing. He is almost psychopathic, but you have that in almost every war. When you have spent 20 years of your life killing, I don't think you're that noble any more. He would care about the other people in his group, but not that much. He would care about the fight first of all.”
The youngest of the knights is Galahad, a fighter who dreams that some day soon he will return to his homeland. Hugh Dancy believes this is what impels his character. “Galahad is the youngest and the most passionate about returning home as he remembers it the clearest: it is still fresh in his heart. He probably doesn't have the same sense of family, of belonging to the group that the older guys like Bors would have. Bors has a family of his own in England and for Galahad that is a betrayal of his dream of returning home, a dream that he has nurtured in order to survive the situation that he is in.”
For Gawain there is no such dream of homeland. As Joel Edgerton sees it, Gawain's home is on the field of battle. “When Gawain hits the battlefield he's keen to take as many lives as possible and if he dies that's all right too,” says Edgerton. “The one piece of research that came to me, via another source, is that Gawain historically had two brothers. In my own imaginings I had the idea that both of those brothers had died on the battlefield, so that the lives that I am taking are the payback for them and if I die on the battlefield I'll be with them. So there's a certain acceptance of his destiny.”
The Antagonists
The acclaimed Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård (“Insomnia”) was cast as the ruthless Cerdic, the commander of the invading Saxon forces. “Antoine is a very talented director, not only visually, but also in terms of character development and working with actors,” says Skarsgård. The actor was intrigued by Cerdic, a man for whom the end always justifies the means, even if that could mean killing his own son. “Cerdic is intelligent, but he is also very pragmatic and he is evil,” says Skarsgård. “But at that time in the Dark Ages, if you had any power and wanted to survive you had to be pretty ruthless. This is almost one thousand years before Machiavelli; it was pretty tough times.”
Stephen Dillane (“The Hours”) was cast as Merlin, the mysterious leader of the Woads who eventually joins forces with Arthur and his knights against a common enemy. Merlin is a master of guerrilla warfare, a leader who has trained his fighters to melt into their natural environment after each, short savage attack.
The Production Design and Costumes
It was imperative for Bruckheimer, Fuqua, and Franzoni that, in telling this mythmaking chapter in the life of King Arthur, all details would ring true to the period and the place. With that in mind, the set locations were sourced throughout Ireland in the counties of Kildare and Wicklow; the set detail was fine-tuned to 5th Century Britain; very little Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) was used to replicate historical locations; and the costumes were designed to reflect the fashions of the day.
“We were always trying to base it on true historical evidence as much as possible,” says Jerry Bruckheimer. “In recreating the Battle at Badon Hill, it was imperative that we recreate it as best as we know how. Since this was the Dark Ages, there was not much written about it, but based on the information that we had and with our set designers, our cinematographer, and with our stunt co-ordinators, we worked out a way to photograph it that hopefully will show the way it actually happened.”
To corroborate the true-to-life emphasis of the script, the priority in terms of the production design of `King Arthur' was realism. This was to be a set that reflected the harsh naturalism of 5th Century Britain, with the major pieces constructed to exacting detail. Central to production design was Hadrian's Wall, the massive man-made division between Roman Britain and the barbarian North that stretched for 73 miles across the country, from Wallsend-on-Tyne in the East to Bownesson- Solway in the West.
To prepare to build the largest set ever built in Ireland, Antoine Fuqua and production designer Dan Weil traveled to the north of England to study the real Hadrian's Wall. From the outset both men were intent on relying on as little Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) as possible. Their Hadrian's Wall, which is featured in over 50% of the movie, was going to be real. “It had to be real,” says Antoine Fuqua. “Everybody relies so much on CGI; we wanted to do whatever we could so that when the actors walked on the set, they could feel the reality. I wanted people to walk on the wall and I wanted to be able to put the camera up there.”
The recreation of Hadrian's Wall was built in Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare. This life-sized version of Hadrian's Wall is 950 metres long and 35 feet high at its highest points. It is a double-sided structure featuring a 10-foot-wide walkway on top allowing the soldiers to patrol the wall. The structure is also punctuated with a series of turrets and incorporates a massive military fortress, home to both Roman legionnaires and local Britons. Its enormous main gate is 20 feet wide and 16 feet high. “The detail starts at the beginning of the wall and finishes at the end,'' says Dan Weil.
At the peak of its construction, the crew working on the wall totaled 300. By mid-July, 2003, both the wall and the fortress were complete and the cameras moved in. The fortress is an amalgam of various designs, and is essentially an army barracks, complete with the infrastructure that such a compound requires including shops, inns, market stalls, and residential quarters.
Assiduous attention to detail was paramount in all aspects of the set design. In addition to the Hadrian's Wall set, two Native villages were built in their entirety in Glenmalure, County Wicklow: one on the top of a mountain and one, the Marius estate, in a valley. Real thatch was used for the cottages and real stone was used in the construction of the peasant dwellings. “Any time we could use material that existed at the time, we did,'' says Dan Weil.
The centerpiece of the knights' hall was the legendary round table: a symbol of equality and egalitarianism. It is 28 feet in diameter with a space in the middle to accommodate a brazier. Forty seats circle the table, whose surface is made from pressed copper and inlaid with elaborate scrollwork.
* * *
For costume designer Penny Rose (“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”), the challenge of `King Arthur' was the challenge of the Dark Ages. Very little is known about the costume of 5th-Century England. “It is not called the Dark Ages for nothing: there is very little visual on it,” says Rose. “But we used the famous Danish book (The Bog People by PV Glob) that found the clothes in the peat dating from about the year 400 A.D. in Denmark. That gave us a pretty good indication of the cut.”
Rose employed three researchers who worked for six weeks, sifting through material at the British Museum and most significantly at Sutton House, a museum in Yorkshire.
Rose also worked closely with Antoine Fuqua and the writer David Franzoni. It was Franzoni who suggested that she contact a professor at the University of California who specialized in tribes in the years prior to the 5th century. Armed with this research, Rose and her team set to work. They traveled to Italy and Spain to source the various costumes and furs. Some, like the standard issue Roman centurion, could be bought off the rack from various warehouses. Others involved a certain amount of ingenuity and wizardry with a sewing machine.
For Rose, there were four principal factions to dress: the Sarmatians, the Romans, the Saxons, and the Woads. “I started off on the premise that I had to give those four groups a very definite identification,” she says. “For example: when I was buying furs, I decided early on which furs which group would have and I didn't allow the others to have any of those. So if I said that the bears, the boars, and the wolves were the Saxons, then I used smaller, less impressive skins for the Woads.”
For the movie, the key group are the Sarmatians: King Arthur and his knights, who in Rose's words look a little bit like “fifth century rock stars.” The knights had two basic sets of clothing: their everyday dress and their battledress. In each case their look was a hybrid of Roman and their homeland in Eastern Europe. “What we tried to achieve with the individuals is that they retained a little bit of their history and they also gathered other things en route in their adult life,” says Rose. “The seven of them are kind of fifth century rock stars. They should look sexy and strong and dynamic and interesting. Each one of them is completely individual in their performance and their look. They are kind of like the `Magnificent Seven' but are very, very individual.”
Dressing King Arthur posed a particular problem for Rose. “Arthur and Guinevere have always been portrayed in a medieval context. Obviously, I had to take Arthur and Guinevere away from that medieval vision. In terms of historical accuracy in movies, `Braveheart' perhaps comes closest, but I'm not sure that even that film was dirty enough. These people didn't have different clothes, whoever they were - whether kings or paupers. They had five or six pieces of garments and they just threw them on and wore them for years.”
Rose worked closely with the actors, assessing what clothes they felt comfortable with and listening to their suggestions. As King Arthur, Clive Owen had just one request for his wardrobe. “I wanted Arthur to wear a pair of black leather trousers,” he says; Rose gave him the trousers.
Otherwise, Arthur's costume was decided by his history. “The assumption was that Arthur had clung onto the visual identity of his dad and that he was very Roman” says Rose. “So Arthur's look is based on a Roman look. He has got metal sections in his armour and quite a lot of leather. He has got a big burgundy coloured cloak that is like his signature piece and in his battle armour he looks definitively Roman.”
Though Lancelot and Galahad match Arthur's Roman dress, Rose concedes that her decision on Bors and Dagonet's look was arrived at as a direct result of meeting the two actors who play the knights. “The two Rays (Winstone and Stevenson) had no hair and were both big lads. It evolved that they came from a similar village,” says Rose. “Physically, they looked the same, so we decided less metal and more butch, tough stuff for them. In fact, the fastest one to dress was Ray Winstone. We just tried three costumes and he knew immediately. He simply said, `This is good for me.'”
The remaining two knights, Tristan and Gawain, reflected a completely different look again. “Tristan and Gawain were long-haired, long-coated, hippie types,” says Rose. Both Joel Edgerton and Mads Mikkelsen were made up to look like deadly, long-haired, 5th Century killers.
Rose had worked previously with Keira Knightley on “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” “Keira was absolutely heaven to work with,” she says, as both worked through various wardrobe combinations that would effectively define Guinevere. “We first find Guinevere in the dungeon on Marius' estate where she is literally in rags,” says Rose. “She is then given a dress by Marius' wife. After that we had her adopting a battledress, a sort of warrior-princess look. She is wearing trousers and a Woad harness accoutrement and also a lot of armbands. She is laden with many weapons including a bow and a garrotte but she doesn't wear heavy armor or a breastplate.”
For the classic Roman soldier look, Rose could buy straight off the rack. “The Romans are very historically depicted,” says Rose. “In the movie, I have different types of Romans. I have adapted the Roman soldiers who look after the fort where Arthur lives because they are living in a cold climate. So we have added trousers and neck-pieces just to nod at the difference in temperature. Then there are the mercenaries who look after Marius' group. They are slightly different again because (a) they are mercenaries and (b) we feel that they are more like a thug's private army so they didn't need quite such a nod in the direction of Rome. My last group of Romans are the real bona fide Romans who accompany the bishop. These are the absolutely classic Roman soldier version.”
For the Saxons the look was more savage and scruffier: a barbarian cocktail that reflected the size of the men. “The Saxons are very big, ferocious-looking men,” says Rose. “We dressed them in strong leather, with lots of layers and great big furs. We made about a hundred of those outfits and rented others and put it all together in a different way.”
In sharp contrast to the Saxons are the Woads, guerrilla fighters who strike suddenly and melt back into the undergrowth just as quickly. As such they are a highly mobile unit that rely heavily on camouflage, live off the land and utilise the natural cover provided by their hinterland. In creating their functional and distinctive look, Rose decided to use blue body paint allied to a minimalist and rustic costume. “The Woads have this blue body paint which is worked out in intricate designs and I manufactured all of those,” Rose says. “But it is a fine line that they don't look like cavemen or barbarians. We started to make a combination of harnesses, braces, sarong and trouser shapes, all very roughly hewn out of leather. I wanted the actual base material to be something from the woods but we have ended up pretty much with mainly suede and leather. We called it the `eat and wear range,' so that they kill it, eat it, and put it on.”
Weapons of War... In 400 A.D.
“There isn't a single person in `King Arthur' who doesn't carry a weapon,” says armourer Tommy Dunne. “Everybody is armed: even Guinevere is armed to the teeth.” In “King Arthur,” that means 400 Saxons, 150 Roman soldiers, and up to 175 Woads. Even the villagers, using their agricultural elements as weapons, get involved in the action. Each faction fights in a distinctive way and with highly varying arsenals.
Harry Humphries, a specialist in international security and the training of tactical units, was special military advisor on “King Arthur.” The former Navy SEAL had previously worked on “Black Hawk Down” with Jerry Bruckheimer and with Antoine Fuqua on “Tears of the Sun.” “Warfare hasn't changed through the years,” says Humphries, who describes himself as the “technical conscience” of the military sequences. “The concepts of warfare today are exactly as they were in 5th-century Britain,” says Humphries. “They all used various versions of conventional warfare or unconventional, or guerrilla, warfare. The only difference is that the toys have changed but the tactics are essentially the same.”
Humphries was part of the team that researched the fighting techniques of the various factions in “King Arthur.” “The Saxons were very disciplined, very Germanic in their way of doing things,” he says. “They marched in relatively fine formation, not as exact as the Roman centurions, but they were regimented and had tactics. They often fought behind a shield wall, and enticed the enemy to come to them. As long as this shield wall held up the fighters behind the wall were able to decimate the attacking enemy. It was a war of attrition.”
The Sarmatians were a hybrid military animal, adapting to the Roman style of fighting when they arrived in Britain and yet retaining a certain distinctive Eastern code. “The knights have some sort of `wild' interpretation of how Roman warfare was conducted,” Humphries continues. “The Romans were not guerrilla fighters; they had a tactic about them. The knights are led by a Roman leader with his own singular fighting style, but they also tend to have their own unique individual bent.”
In short, they operated like a special forces unit. “Antoine's interpretation is that they are like a SEAL unit,” says Humphries. “We try to make sure that their mentality and fighting spirit is in that vein, as opposed to fatalistic or very courageous warriors selflessly giving up their own lives for the sake of others.
“The warrior mindset has never changed,” continues Humphries. “It is based on primitive instincts that we still have today in our society. The warrior mind is still here in modern-day society where some of us are warriors and some of us are not. There is always that element that will selflessly give their own lives for the sake of others and that's what the warrior is all about: fighting what they perceive to be evil.”
Just as the four main factions - the Sarmatians, the Romans, the Saxons, and the Woads - had to be costumed based on separate characteristics, so too did Dunne have to arm each group separately. These required weaponry specific to their military lineage, but the Sarmatian knights' weaponry was of a highly technical and individualistic design. “The knights are like a special forces unit with high-tech equipment while all the rest are pretty much standardised military outfits,” says Tommy Dunne.
Arming the various factions, Dunne had to stick fairly rigidly to the guidelines of the day. For the Romans, the armaments were already well known from history books and popular culture. “We are familiar with the Romans' shield, their spear and their sword, and the way it is worn,” Dunne explains. “These are very much the weaponry of a classic military fighting unit.”
Of all the fighting men, it is the Sarmatian knights who carry the greatest arsenal with each of the men, incorporating up to sixty pieces of individual weaponry. In addition, each knight wields his own distinctive arsenal.
“With the knights, we wanted to get a distinctive look that would be appropriate to each of them,” says Tommy Dunne. “We decided that each knight would have a long sword, a short sword, daggers, axes, larger axes, shields, and a lance. The knights' specialized weaponry reflects their complex history: Roman influence, Eastern aspects, and Celtic motifs. For the movie, each knight has, in total, an armoury of approximately sixty pieces, including their spare fighting weapons.”
Of the knights weapons the best known is Excalibur, the most famous sword in history. Dunne and the weapons-makers, in collaboration with Fuqua and Arthurian expert John Matthews, spent weeks on its design and decoration. “Excalibur, Arthur's sword, was designed from a drawing based on Celtic motifs,” says Dunne. “The blade bears an inscription, written in Ogham, an ancient form of Celtic lettering that says: `Defender of the Land.' It is the ultimate sword.”
But it was important to emphasise this ultimate weapon was not charged with special powers. For Clive Owen, this weapon was only as good as the man who welded it and the knight who wielded it. “It's not a magic sword,” he says. “Arthur is a superb fighter - it's the way he uses the sword that's more important. This film is not about the myths or the legends. Excalibur is his chosen, trusted weapon, and it gets invested with a power he gives it.”
Arthur's right-hand man, Lancelot, rides into battle with a pair of swords sheathed in scabbards that ride on his back. “Lancelot has two matching swords that he wears on his back and pulls them out over his shoulders,” says Dunne. “He fights in a spectacular, two-handed cutand-thrust style.”
Perhaps the most distinctive knight, in terms of his fighting style, is Tristan. “Tristan is unique in one respect,” says Dunne. “He is thought to have an oriental influence so he has got this curved sword like a sabre, an oriental style sword. He also has these throwing knives that are built into his chest plate.”
The evolution of Bors fighting style came through the actor who plays him: Ray Winstone. “We knew that Ray had been a boxer and we decided to get him something special,” says Dunne. “So we combined the idea of a kukri with a knuckleduster featuring punching spikes. Bors can do more with these weapons than the entire unit can do together.”
Of the other knights, Galahad's speciality is a shield that doubles up as an attacking weapon. “It is a small, razor shield that he uses in a slashing fashion,” says Dunne. “He uses that to great effect with his axe.” Gawain uses a small but deadly axe; but it is his mace that is his most effective weapon. “He manipulates this spiked mace with deadly dexterity,” says Dunne. “Do not get in the way of his mace.” As befits his size, Dagonet's principal weapon is a giant broadsword, which he wields two-handed.
The two other principal characters are Guinevere and Merlin, the mystical leader of the Woads. Guinevere, who is well-versed in the look (including the blue body paint) and the fighting techniques of the Woads, is a formidable adversary. “She is an expert archer and uses quite a different number of bows, from the reed curve to the traditional full-length long bow,” says Dunne. “Her weapons would be very much based on the Woads. She has short swords, a dagger, and a garrotte.” Rather than magic, Merlin relies on a more traditional way of defending himself: a good old-fashioned sword. “We built him a sword that he carries in a special tasselled scabbard that has amazing lattice-work rich with Celtic motifs,” says Dunne.
The Woads operated as a guerrilla unit, masters of hit-and-run encounters. As such, they travel light. “Their weapons are bordering on Celt in their design,” says Dunne. “They would have a battleaxe, a dagger and a short sword. Their axes would be small, personalized ones and they would be skilled archers. They were guerrilla fighters, able to blend into the countryside and they travelled fast and light. They have woven willow pattern shields and their belts are likewise. They scavenged and salvaged everything from the battlefield.”
Up against the Woads are the invading Saxons, “a well-oiled fighting machine.” Like the Romans, the Saxons' look and weaponry is well documented historically. “They had a particular-sized shield,” says Dunne. “They had specific weapons and wielded a large axe. A skilled axeman could do a lot of damage in the ranks, wielding the axe in a figure-eight rotation. They were hardened warriors.”
Training the Knights for Battle
Before they started shooting “King Arthur,” the actors spent time in England learning the skills of horse riding, as well as the choreography of fighting and the art of using various weapons. This was later followed by a twoweek boot camp stint in Ireland, just prior to the commencement of principal photography in June 2003.
Stunt coordinator Steve Dent (“Cold Mountain”) oversaw the training of the actors at his base in Rickmansworth, just outside London. “We quickly found out how good the actors were at riding and we assigned each of them to a particular horse,” Steve Dent explains. “Everyone can become competent if they have enough lessons. Of course, some of the actors needed more training than others.”
One of those was Clive Owen, who had to start from square one. “I couldn't ride at all,” says Owen. “I had done a bit of riding on films, but that was only for a few days. If you ask an actor if he can ride, he'll say yes every time. As soon as I got the part, I started lessons straight away - five days a week for seven weeks. Arthur is supposed to be a good horseman, so a big part of the acting challenge is how you feel and look and present yourself on horseback.”
Not only did the actors have to be competent horsemen, they also had to fight while riding in full battledress. For Antoine Fuqua, the key to the action sequences was having the knights on full alert at all time, so the mounted knights are in constant motion, always ready to fight and to defend themselves at a moment's notice. Consequently, this dynamism had to be part of each actor's horse-riding skills. “Antoine has got this thing in this movie where the horses are constantly moving; they are never settled,” says Owen. “He wants the energy, the momentum. We are always in dangerous situations, there's always a sense of urgency which means the horses are constantly moving, in a sense dictating the rhythm of the scene. The challenge is dealing with what the horse does meanwhile delivering the dialogue. Having spent a lot of time learning to ride, I got very comfortable wielding a sword in one hand and riding with the other.”
Keira Knightley spent time in Rickmansworth where she learned to ride and kept up with the men at boot camp. “I did archery and sword-fighting and a lot of boxing,” she enthuses. “Boxing was good practice, to learn how to get my center of gravity down so that I look more like a fighter and less like a ballet dancer. It did help, but when you have six foot four tall stuntmen hurling themselves at you, you tend to get your center of gravity down quite far.
“I did all my own fights,” she says. “Of course, I did have a stunt double, but if you are shooting an action movie it's really boring if you don't do your own action. I wanted to do as much as possible. All of those fights are me.”
Despite playing the title role in the adventure period drama “Horatio Hornblower,” Ioan Gruffudd had never experienced the intensity of preparing for an epic of the scale of “King Arthur.” He loved it, especially boot camp. “Every morning we'd ride the horses for a couple of hours, have a bit of lunch and then we'd do archery, practice fighting and do some weight-training. It was just like a boy's own adventure really. We also did a lot of social training in the evening and then come back the next day and work it all off again.”
Before “King Arthur,” Ray Winstone had learned to ride for his role in “Cold Mountain.” “I understand now why John Wayne walks like he did,” he deadpans. “But I love it. It's like being a kid - you're done up as a knight, riding about on a horse with all the swords and all that. It's like being seven again.”
Because of other commitments, Winstone didn't attend boot camp. “I didn't have a chance to go to boot camp, thank God, because I'm 47 years of age!” he laughs. “But it kind of makes sense. Bors isn't supposed to be the fittest man in the world; he couldn't be as fit as these young guys. People used to die before the age of 47 in those days.”
Ray Stevenson had previously done some horse riding for the TV show “Drover's Gold,” but was still a bit rusty getting back into the saddle. “I had done nothing of this scale, which involves fighting from horseback and onehand western style riding,” he says. “But it's the best gym in the world, big boys with toys. You tell your friends that you did two sword fights this morning, rode a horse into battle and all that, but at the end of the day you are knackered.”
Mads Mikkelsen admits that he had never been on a horse before. “On film you only ride for thirty yards and shoot it and do it again so it's not the same as boot camp, which was great fun. It was like going out to this great playground every day and getting paid for it. It was useful in terms of bonding with the actors and with the horses.”
Joel Edgerton's previous movie, “Ned Kelly,” involved a number of weeks riding around the Australian bush on horseback. “I had also done a bit of horse riding when I was a kid, about ten or eleven, in the pony club. For `Ned Kelly,' I learned a lot, but `King Arthur' took everything to another level. But I got comfortable on the horse. We spent almost every day on horseback; in fact, it was pretty rare to be off a horse.”
Weeks of dedication paid off for both the actors and stunt coordinator Steve Dent. “For me, the hardest shot in the movie was when all seven of them were galloping across a field with about five cameras on them,” admits Dent. “Of course, when they ride like this, all the horses are competing and it is dangerous. But it worked and it worked brilliantly.”
“I'd done little bits of archery before, but certainly no knife- or axe-fighting,” Knightley says. “I loved every second of it, and got rather good at it.”
Energy and Density: Shooting the Battles
“This is a picture that has more challenges than usual,” says veteran cinematographer Slawomir Idziak (“Black Hawk Down”). “It is an action movie, but it's also a historical piece, a costume film. Ultimately, the action drives the film, and Antoine had specific ideas about how he wanted to film it. It was an interesting experience.”
No sequence required more of the director and cinematographer than the film's climactic battle, Badon Hill. The Battle of Badon Hill was the last and most significant of Arthur's 12 victories over the Saxons. That crushing defeat routed the invaders and left them in disarray for years afterwards. To capture the ferocity of what was a bloody and primal encounter, Antoine Fuqua spent five weeks shooting one of the most brutal battles ever put on film.
At certain moments during shooting of the climactic battle, there were more than 19 cameras recording the action all over the battlefield - which would become a challenge for Academy Award®-winning editor Conrad Buff (“Titanic”). Apart from the mounted cameras, camera operators dressed as extras and shot intense scenes from the thick of the action. “We had cameras everywhere,” says Antoine Fuqua. “There were cameras on shields, cameras on swords and even cameras on horses. I wanted the audience to be in it, to be as deep in the action as possible, in an organic way without special effects. We talked about ways of making it unique, making it interesting and as entertaining as possible. So we created different cameras. It was great fun but hard as hell.”
“The action movie is a genre kind of movie in which two words are important to remember: energy and density,” says Idziak. “In your everyday routine of working with the camera, you cannot forget these two words. In `King Arthur,' to get more energy than usual, we shot the action scenes using many cameras which worked totally independently in the background. They shot some beautiful footage which I know will make the picture stand out on the big screen - it's not like anything you've seen before. The result is a rich, colorful film with a look all its own.”
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Clive Owen, Mads Mikkelsen, Ray Stevenson, Ray Winstone Hugh Dancy and Ioan Gruffudd in King Arthur.
