As a cast member of two RenFaires, both of them, despite the name, medieval in setting, I am unimpressed with the sword work; I know teenage boys who could make mincemeat of these knights. But this version is greatly to be praised for one thing: it at least /tries/ to get the story right, within the limits of the Production Code. The characters remember that they are Roman Catholics, rather than Tennysson's Protestants, White's post-Christians, or modern pagans. The battles are also to be praised for displaying something like genuine medieval tactics. True, they are more the tactics of the Hundred Years War than of sub-Roman Britain, but the middle ages never gave a damn about anachronisms, so why should we? At least they /are/ tactics, which is more than can be said for the confused and confusing mess in the Keira Knightley film.
Oh, whatever that fake standing stone may be, I doubt it’s styrofoam. Probably canvas and/or papier-mâché over a wood and chicken-wire frame. (Actually, even if it were styrofoam, the frame would still be there.)
I do wish the word “sire” weren’t used interchangeably with “sir”. While it was indeed used that way in the middle ages, the entire script is in Modern English, and in Modern English, "sire" is strictly a term of respect, applied to superiors.
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