Heather dale, "measure of a man"

[scottish2]

Well my fav movie has to be Brave Heart as far as historical style movies go. May not be 100% accurate but still a movie I like watching.

[free2Bme]

I agree about Braveheart - the love scenes are so tender, and the battle scenes are so vividly depicted! The overall theme of the movie is excellent, but as you have stated it is totally inaccurate in many many ways. I can never get enough Mel Gibson!!!  

[scottish2]

I guess in the Arthurian legend type films I would say I liked First Knight thought same as Braveheart it's been jazzed up by hollyweird. WOnder why it is they have a hard time portraying history properly.

[CelticRadio]

Ok, I’m going to fess up. Well, as you all know that “Mac” in Gaelic means “Son of” and as my last name is “MacArthur” it would seem that in Gaelic this means “Son of Arthur” – so it is true, I am the Son of Arthur and you can all kiss my royal hand!

Actually, I did some research on this as there are some in the Clann Arthur society I belong to that claim to have a link to King Arthur. In fact, there is a very well known book that places both MacArthur and Campbell in the decedents of King Arthur.

But, there is an equal if not more opinion that place this right up there with the legends, as well as most historians– which I  concur.

The legends of King Arthur make wonderful reading, right up there with Lord of the Rings. It would be nice if we saw a modern day movie with the visual effects as LOTR written based on the King Arthur legends. I wonder if they would consider me for a lead part?!?!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…its Friday!! Happy Friday everyone!

[free2Bme]

I thing for the longest time, history was presented as a series of dry, dull, and boring lectures, designed to put even the most astute college student into a mind numbing stupor of factiods, places, periods and dates.

Hollywierd and theater attempted to make history into something a bit livelier and exciting, more in keeping with the tradition of Shakespear. They took a LOT of "artistic license" to make the battle scenes better, the clothing more oppulent, etc. That is what they felt they had to do in order to get people to come in to the theater and watch the movies, and spend their money on tickets and concessions. I cringe everytime I watch "Gone with the Wind" because you can count hundreds of wristwatches in the Battle of Atlanta Scenes, not to mention the zippers in every single ball gown.

I think it is the same with music lyrics. If theatrical productions are allowed to make certain artistic embellishments with the facts, then the lyric writers should also be allowed some amount leeway in the manner in which the music and lyrics are written. Perhaps it is simply a matter of making the words to fit a certain rhythm or melody that makes an artist write something that is perhaps not as historically authentic as it could be.

I doubt very seriously if the words to "Davy Crocket" and "Daniel Boone" are authentically histocally correct, but you can sure bet that I still remember all the words!

[Welsh Guy]

I was in fact the script editor for a series of Russian films (Soyuzmulifilm Studios Moscow) based on the Arthurian Legends which were shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989 and broacast by the BBC

[free2Bme]

 Too Cool, Welsh Guy! So when you were working on the script, did you attempt to remain historically accurate, or did you write it more for artistry?

[Welsh Guy]

I biased towards the Welsh version as described in the "Mabinogion" but also sourced from Sir Thomas Mallory's "Le Morte D'Arthur" and Geofrey of Monmouth's work on Arthur.

Don't forget Arthur is claimed by the French, English and Welsh. And each country's version has subtle differences. Though he is reputed to be 5th century, the first use of the name Arthur was around 800 in "Historia Brittonum" by a Welsh monk called Nennius.

"Arthur" may be based either on King Riothamus or Ambrosius Aurelianus who led a revolt against the saxons.

Nennius's account is the only one which mentions a Modred, but that is interpratated by most as a protective  rather than filial relationship (In the Welsh account this is taken to indicate nephew). In fact some accounts suggest that Modred was in fact a amalgam of two characters "Anir"  "The Son" and Medraut (Annales Cambriae) .

The stories I worked on were firmly based in the Welsh tradition and were based on the ancient folk tales of the "Mabinogion", there are English translations of this and I would recommend a quick search on Amazon, it's worth a read.

[free2Bme]

Looks like I will be heading off to the local library in the morning to see if I can borrow any of the books you have mentioned, Welsh Guy.

Although I do like Amazon, I can't afford their prices!  

[Cabbagehome]

Wow! All the Authur information.  
I'm sure glad my tribe's hero was REAL, no guess work involved.