a5c7b9f00b Arn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Landa knight templar to do penance for a forbidden love. I am American and we found &quot;Arn&quot; quite watchable even though it did not have English sub titles. We worked through the Swedish subtitles and came begin understanding many parts of the dialog. It did take a while to figure out how Arn actually knew Knut. The directors were on to something when they used the languages of the countries represented in the film, novel touch. ** Spoiler** The flash back scene in the beginning is almost half of the film, it does provide necessary context, but is long. Also a good depiction of medieval life. Some of the earlier reviewers indicated that they thought they were left hanging but the movie had many layers and I did enjoy it. Even with English sub titles I would recommend only to those with patience. On paper, Arn: The Knight Templar looks almost guaranteed to be an excellent movie. The story of the titular character is enough to get producers frothing at the mouth; he&#39;s a Swedish nobleman, raised in a monastery but trained to be a soldier who finds himself exiled to the Holy Land for twenty years. He fights in some of the most significant battles in the war for Jerusalem, meets the legendary Saladin, rises through the ranks and then loses it all and ultimately finds redemption through bloodshed and war. It&#39;s not surprising then that a film which promised to be the Swedish answer to Kingdom Of Heaven should attract such a large budget and several notable actors, so why then is it so rubbish?<br/><br/>Well, if you&#39;re watching this in England on DVD or Netflix, the short answer is because it&#39;s actually two films crammed into one. Originally running at over four hours, it&#39;s now just shy over two and the end result inevitably feels rushed. Key scenes have been cut, supporting characters drop in and out of the film for seemingly no reason at all and years literally flash past in a matter of minutes. <br/><br/>Why for example does Arn&#39;s father disappear without any explanation? Why is the incompetent Gerard De Ridefort suddenly made Lord Commander of the Knights Templar? Who is the Knight that can&#39;t take his eyes off Arn in the final climactic showdown? And perhaps most significantly of all, why in the name of heaven does Cecilia&#39;s sister claim Arn seduced her when her motivations are never established and it doesn&#39;t seem to benefit her in the slightest?<br/><br/>With so many gaps in the narrative, it&#39;s left to the musical score to tell the story rather than the film itself and sadly, it does so constantly. The film is accompanied by a big, booming orchestral soundtrack that tells the audience when to feel sad, triumphant, nostalgic and it never, ever ends. There&#39;s barely a moment when the thunderous clarion call isn&#39;t blaring out the speakers and it isn&#39;t helped by the rather lacklustre battle scenes either. The arrows and mud covered final battle isn&#39;t bad, but the rest are over ridiculously quickly, while the lack of wide panoramic shots demonstrates that the budget maybe wasn&#39;thighthey&#39;d want you to think. Even the Battle of Hattin, one of the most significant clashes of the crusader era consists of little more than a shot of galloping horses and Arn looking a bit concerned, before waking up covered in blood and grime.<br/><br/>All of which means that the English version of Arn: The Knight Templar is a frustrating and deeply disappointing film. It&#39;s been edited into the grave and switches scenes so rapidly that it comes acrossa nervous, jittery film. If you can track down the original version and its sequel Arn: The Kingdom At Road&#39;s End watch those instead, but this abbreviated halfway point is just awful.
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330 weeks ago