The Best Political Analyists are Film Critics, Part 2

Ty Burr at the Boston Globe reviews Antoine Fuqua's "King Arthur," which is apparently written specifically to piss off english majors, literary buffs and T.H. White. It seems that the Knights of the Round Table were Roman conscripts (?), Arthur -- ah, Artorius -- was a commander who had learned about equality and democracy from the Roman Empire (??), and Merlin a rebel chieftan (!).

When the Romans pulled out of Britan (!!), the evil Saxons began to overrun the island from the north (!!!), until Arthur and his knights teamed up with Merlin and the natives to stop them (♠♣♥).

Historical accuracy in films is a pet peeve of mine, but Burr keeps it in perspective:

What does any of this have to do with King Arthur? If you have to ask that, you're in the wrong multiplex.

Those last scenes are so well turned, in fact, that you may briefly forget a war movie is the last thing we need just now. I know, I know, it's silly to play geopolitical metaphor with a hunk of summer headcheese, but tell that to Bruckheimer and company, who happily position Arthur as an early adopter of all-American democratic values. He is us, they're saying. Funny, the last time I looked at the headlines, we were playing the Romans.

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