Post
by Arthur » Fri Sep 09, 2011 3:57 am
It's a pretty decent effort, if no masterpiece : I found the Swedish part more interesting than the Holy Land segment, possibly because Scandinavian shenanigans and Swedish clan feuds are a more exotic and unusual subject matter than the Crusades - at least to me.
Your enjoyment of the film will largely depend on which version you're watching : Arn was originally shown in Sweden as a 267 minute epic spread over two films (Arn, the Knight Templar in 2007 followed in 2008 by The Kingdom at the End of the Road, and clocking in at 139 and 128 minutes respectively). The so-called international version is a drastically edited affair which splices both films together, bringing them down to a total running time of 139 minutes : that's the version you get on the UK Blu-Ray, so expect narrative flow and consistency to suffer as about 40% of the original material was excised.
High Fliers will be releasing a 200 minute DVD version of the film in the UK next week : that's the same so-called 'director's cut' that was released on Blu-Ray over here in France. It's a more satisfactory version of the film, although it still has a few problems of its own : The Kingdom at the End of the Road suffers from continuity problems since a fair bit of the narrative arc and character development obviously ended up on the cutting room floor during the re-editing process, resulting in awkward pacing and a general feeling that everything is rushed. Even without having read the novel, you can tell that significant chunks of the story are missing. In comparison, Arn the Knight Templar feels more assured and better structured, almost certainly because it suffered fewer cuts than the second act.
The 200 minute version is the one I've seen and it's quite good for what it is, although the battles in the Holy Land suffer to some extent from a lack of production values - think TV movie rather than Hollywood epic. Interestingly enough - and this will no doubt amuse or please Barry - quite a few scenes appear to have been shot on location in various parts of Scotland, including Lothian, Dunfermline and Glasgow.
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know.