Entertainment

Blu-Ray Review: First Knight (Special Edition)

Not even Sean Connery's elegant Scottish brogue was enough to bring this re-telling of the famed Camelot love triangle floating to the top of 1995's series of swashbuckling medieval movies. Braveheart and Rob Roy both captured the grittiness and feel of the time more faithfully, and had the benefit of making it out of the box-office gate first.

Like Lancelot, First Knight has fought its way through the Gauntlet… and is the first of the three released on Blu-Ray. With the disappointing box-office take a thing of the past, how does it stand up today? Well, Richard Gere hasn't really done another 'action' movie since. I suppose that says something.

Despite too-clean period costuming, a one-dimensional villain, and the out-of-place casting of Gere with his only occasionally appearing accent -- I found myself enjoying the two plus hours spent watching First Knight. Sure, there are moments of pure sap, forced dialogue, and questionable historical accuracy... but this Arthurian tale is easy on the eyes and paced well enough to make it a fun watch. The actors definitely carry the film – probably unaware they are not in the historical epic they probably believed they were when they signed on.

First Knight makes it's debut in HD with new cover art, new extras features, and a "Special Edition" banner. Given that the original DVD release of First Knight was basically a bare-bones movie-only release, it's exciting to see additions like… Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound in Thai!!! Seriously, they've packed quite a bit on this release – besides the aforementioned language, they include a French, Portuguese, Japanese and Spanish track. Did I mention English? Subtitles are available in all of the above languages along with Arabic, Chinese and Korean. It's obvious Sony didn't want anyone to miss out on this release.

DISC
Opens with Sony's promo for Blu-Ray. Still don't understand why it's there. If you're watching it on Blu-Ray, you're obviously already sold on the format. Next up are two Blu-Ray trailers: The Waterhorse and Knights Tale. You can't hit menu to skip these trailers, and can only pass by them by selecting next chapter during each one. Rather annoying. Menu is well designed and easy to navigate -- fits with the theme of the film.

VIDEO
The good news… as expected, this is the best First Knight has looked on home video. Colors are vibrant; some scenes pop the way HD should. But overall, it's a bit flat. Many scenes contain obvious grain. I'm not blaming the 1080P transfer, but seriously question the actual processing. There were some very odd lighting decisions made in the production, and I think it's possible the grain is part of the look they ended up with. Some scenes are gorgeous – the blacks are true, and bring out fine detail in some of the more dramatic scenes.

SOUND
Look at all the languages! Presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1, the 'audioscape' is impressive. Horse hooves, battle sounds, and cheering crowds thunder from all directions the way a good mix should. The late Jerry Goldsmith's masterful score is given time to shine… easily one of his best 90's compositions.

EXTRAS
Two Audio Commentaries -

1. Director Jerry Zucker and Producer Hunt Lowry - How refreshing. Not just your typical self-congratulatory affair, but one with a decent amount of humbleness. They are obviously aware of the films shortcomings, and have fun with the track and the film. No large egos here.

2. Arthurian Legend Commentary - Definitely dry, but an interesting take for a commentary track. It's nice to see a studio not censor someone pointing out accuracy issues with their film.


Four deleted scenes - (7:15 total) None of them add much to the story, but it's always nice to see the characters from another angle. All scenes are presented in very rough workprint HD (the only extras actually presented in HiDef.)

1. Stable Council: Wow! One of the other Knights of the Round Table actually has a few lines!

2. Horse Whisperers: Nice scene between Lancelot and Guinevere, but much of the discussion is covered during other scenes.

3. Swords & Words: King Arthur asks Lancelot to check out his sword. Good dialogue… but once again -- the material has already been covered elsewhere.

4. Home: Lancelot speaks of not having a home to go to. Unnecessary.


Three Featurettes -
Three featurettes are included, but in all honesty... are mostly disappointing.

1. "Creation of a Kingdom" (18:00) - SD - Covers set design, costumes, and the look of the film. Produced at the time of release, it contains on-set cast interviews and some nice behind the scenes footage. Not much more than a standard EPK. Definitely watcheable, and a nice inclusion.

2. "In Shining Armor - Knights in Training" (19:00) - SD - This addition gets my vote for the most worthless Blu-Ray extra so far this year. What does this 19 minutes have to do with First Knight at all? Swords. It features a guy named John Clements who is the Director of Renaissance Martial Arts at his school for the... 'gifted'. He trains students in the ancient art of swordfighting. Odd group, odd video, and a pretty good stretch as a Blu-Ray extra feature. They intersperse First Knight footage and Jerry Goldsmith music throughout the video in order to tie it to the film. Can you say, "skip"?

3. "The Quest for Camelot" (19:00) - SD - This would be a great featurette if I didn't feel as though I'd already watched most of it in the first featurette. This is Creation of a Kingdom's twin brother. They step on each other quite a bit, but still present a few different angles on the making of the film. This one jumps more into story and character... with many of the actors explaining traits of their characters that we already know from watching. It's still nice to see the actors on the set. I'm definitely an 'extras' junkie, so I'll take what I can.


FINAL RESULTS
If you're a fan of the film, raise your swords in celebration -- this is the best it's ever looked. The image is about as clean as I think we can expect, the audio rumbles in all the right places, and even though extras are not as strong as they could be… they are still a nice inclusion, and easily worth the title "Special Edition". Did I mention it even includes Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound in Thai?


Blu-Ray Specs:
Running time: 134 Minutes
Chapters: 16
Video: 1080p / 1.85:1
Rating: PG-13 (For Some Brutal Medieval Battles)
Blu-Ray Release: April 29, 2008

Erik A. Candiani is an award-winning senior producer / editor for CBS13 (KOVR) and CW31 (KMAX) in Sacramento, California.    Erik is also an instructor at the Art Institute of California – Sacramento, where he teaches students the art of editing.  He began his film career while serving in the United States Marines as a Motion Picture Specialist, and attended film school at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado.

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