| Camelot | | Cast : | Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave | | Director : | Joshua Logan | | Studio : | Warner Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen | | Released Date : | October 25, 1967 | | DVD Released Date : | July 28, 1998 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | G (General Audience) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | A Good Musical That Gets Too Drawn Out | Content
 | In school, we're doing a lesson on the Medieval times. So, for the project, we watched this 1967 musical on the much told tale of "King Arthur". I was a little apprehensive at first since it was long in length, but then I gained confidence when I saw that the cast was led by Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave, to very fine actors. Well, I watched the movie, and now I shall write a review on it.
I'm not going to bore anyone with plot details since anyone who knows the legend of King Arthur and Camelot knows the plot of the movie. What I will focus my review on is the music and the acting. The songs are absolutely fantastic. "If Ever I Should Leave You" remains a classic, but for me the standout performance was "The Lusty Month Of May". That song was superb. The rest of the songs were also very good. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the movie. The cast is so so. I felt that Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave took turns carrying the movie, since I couldn't buy Franco Nero's Lancelot. The two stars' talent are on full display, as without the film, this movie would have tedious and unbearable. I also felt the film could have been a lot shorter. I felt that it got drawn out towards the end (by the end, many of us were disappointed by the end) and could have cut out some stuff.
Well, 38 years have passed since this film were released, and three things are still abundantly clear:
1) The music is still superb.
2) Harris and Redgrave still shine.
3) It isn't as good as many remember it.
I'd really only recommend this movie to fans of the genre of musicals. Otherwise, nobody will find this film very interesting. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 30, 2005 | | Summary | AUGH! The terrible terrible singing! | Content
| Someone out there is going to hate me for this review, and so be it; we are all entitled to our opinions. And here is mine:
I knew this was a musical from the get-go, and I am not fond of musicals, but I decided to give it a chance since I do like Richard Harris, and any good medieval tale. I rented this out just to see how closely the thing rode out to the true King Arthur legend. It was WRETCHED. I suppose the costumes are great if you like watching gala balls or modern model wear for the rich elite of the 60s, but no way in hell does it come close to looking anything like the real time era it's attempting to depict. The styles are all over the place and everything from the armor, weaponry and castle decor are like a conglomerated hodgepodge of design from all over the world. I guess if you have enough faith that Richard Harris can sing, then you can muster up enough faith to believe that this disastrous fairy-tale kingdom really existed somewhere at some time, but if you're a stickler for realism and accuracy (even in fantasy tales) like me, it will drive you mad.
As for the singing, or I should say, "singing," the actors making goo-goo eyes at each other as they swell with exaggerated emotion is just flat out nauseating. Watching Harris reel around in disbelief making those soggy sad-eyes while crooning with a cracked voice just grated on my spine like fingernails on a chalkboard. Despite the stars in the cast, the acting is shallow, fake, and not very believable all-around. Probably the only outstanding performance was by a dashing young David Hemmings, decked-out in leather as deliciously evil Mordred, whom we hardly get to see very much of, but is actually a key player in the downfall of Arthur, his relationship, his position as king, and his knights. He's the only one in the cast that had any kind of singing ability, and that, unfortunately, ended up on the cutting room floor. What a shame.
The whole thing is a bloated bag of overblown, overlong and overdone pageantry. I guess if you like outrageous costumes and actors cast as singers who never had any vocal training, this movie will delight you. It seemed to drag on FOREVER (it even gives you a mid-movie intermission...to brew yourself some strong coffee and try to wake up, I suppose) and then ends abruptly, after leaving out big chunks of the actual legend. If I didn't know how the story went beforehand, I doubt the movie would have even made very much sense at all. The ending is so sudden, it feels as though they wanted to go on for another 3 hours but had to just wrap it up since they'd made it such a drawn-out, painful mess already.
If I'd seen this as an actual stage production, perhaps I'd have had a different opinion of it. If you saw all that pageantry in real life I imagine it'd have much more of an impact. On DVD, however, and even as a movie on a big screen, it's little more than a sparkly Christmas ball - decorative, but empty inside. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 29, 2005 | | Summary | Excellent Movie -- poor box | Content
| Camelot with Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave is a classic. The problem is with the Amazon box. You get a "security" box which means it won't close after you open it, and the cover is not protected in plastic. Amazon should be ashamed for shipping a poor quality box and getting retail pricing. I could have had an excellent copy from any number of local sources. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 19, 2005 | | Summary | Splendid! | Content
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I enjoyed "Camelot" from the very moment the title came onscreen, in big red lettering. The focus of the musical is on the destructive love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, and on the idealized and idyllic lost world that was once Camelot. Despite the sense of loss, it ends on a hopeful note, that one day, Camelot may rise again. Pay attention to the little boy at the end of the movie: his name is Tom, he is from Warwickshire, and he is knighted by Arthur. I'm pretty sure this is an allusion to Sir Thomas Malory, author of Le Morte Darthur, the indirect source for "Camelot," and who was also a knight and from Warwickshire. Moreover, Malory wrote "Le Morte Darthur" out of a nostalgic and idealistic vision of knighthood, so the idealistic little boy, who still believes in Camelot, almost certainly represents him.
Much of the story is told through the songs. The songs are wonderful, and I enjoyed all of them, but "The simple joys of Maidenhood," "I loved you once in silence," "The Lusty Month of May," "Then You May Take Me to the Fair" and of course "Camelot," (including its reprise at the close of the film, with different lyrics), are simply amazing. And it's not just the music. The lyrics are marvelous.
One reviewer writes that he is disappointed with the singing. I can imagine that after seeing the play with Julie Andrews in New York, one has every right to feel that way. Vanessa Redgrave is not Julie Andrews, to be sure, but she looks beautiful on screen, and her singing is more than OK, as is the singing of Richard Harris (Arthur. It could have been better, but it is enjoyable as it is. Incidentally, both Richard Harris and the young blue-eyed Franco Nero look very good, each in his own way.
This DVD has been digitally remastered, and as a result, the image is simply superb! The settings are splendid and almost overwhelming.
"Camelot" is so good, and so enchanting, that after watching it for the first time till the late hours of the night, I decided to watch some of it again for a while, I just couldn't part with it. Give yourself a treat and buy this DVD, you couln't go wrong with it!
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| Rating | | | Date | December 17, 2004 | | Summary | It Still Rocks! | Content
| I just don't even care what all these "Broadway Babies" think about the film version of "Camelot". I have seen this movie over and over and still love it. No printing presses in Medieval times? SO WHAT?! It's a movie. Get it? Movie- fantasy, fun, suspension of reality for a few precious hours.
Richard Harris is great as Arthur, very excited and ready to do good, Ginny is s very lithe and young, and ready to get into trouble, and Lance ready for a fall.
The costumes are SO cool. I didn't like them back in the 80's, but they wear well. The sets are pretty and the choreography is sweet.
Don't listen to the whiners and moaners. This is a classic, beautiful film! |
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