ABSTRACT
First Knight (directed by Jerry Zucker for Columbia Pictures, 1995), described in its production information as a "new vision of King Arthur's Camelot," is noteworthy primarily for its radical representation of Arthur and its subsequent implications to the development of the Arthurian legend in twentieth-century America. In the film, Arthur (Sean Connery) is depicted as the aging ruler of a powerful and established kingdom who seeks to marry Guinevere 0ulia Ormond), the young daughter of his dead friend. Guinevere, whose lands are being terrorized by the renegade knight Malagant (Ben Cross), accepts his offer partly out of respect and partly out of politics. Lancelot (Richard Gere), a fortune-seeker who battles for money, wanders into the story, unaware either of Camelot and the great King Arthur or of the chivalry and honor his court requires. The film incorporates many of the narrative elements familiar to the retellings of the Arthurian romances, such as the marriage of Arthur and Guinevere, the Round Table, the accusation of treason leveled against Guinevere and Lancelot, and the final battle at which Arthur receives his fatal wound. The film also, however, introduces narrative material seldom included in other popular versions of the stories, rearranges events chronologically, and elides characters and characterroles.
