Dom Robinson reviews
First Knight
Distributed by
Columbia TriStar
Cat.no: CDR 99872
Cert: PG
Running time: 128 minutes
Year: 1995
Pressing: 1998
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 20 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Hindi, Hebrew.
Widescreen: 1.85:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Price: £19.99
Extras : Scene index, Columbia TriStar trailer (clips of many films coming
to DVD).
Director:
(Ghost, Top Secret, TV: "Police Squad" )
Producers:
Jerry Zucker & Hunt Lowry
Screenplay:
Music:
Cast:
Arthur: Sean Connery (The Avengers, Dr. No (and many other Bond films), Highlander 1 & 2, The Hunt For Red October, Outland, The Rock, Time Bandits, The Untouchables )
Lancelot: Richard Gere (American Gigolo, Internal Affairs, The Jackal, Pretty Woman, Red Corner )
Guinevere: Julia Ormond (The Baby Of Macon, Captives, Legends Of The Fall, Sabrina, Smilla's Feeling For Snow )
Oswald: John Gielgud (Arthur 1 & 2, The Charge Of The Light Brigade, The Elephant Man, Ghandi, Prospero's Books, Shine )
First Knight Richard Gere ), a
nomadic rogue, has no ties, no enemies and no fear...until he meets Lady
Guinevere of Leonesse (Julia Ormond ). However, she has promised to
marry King Arthur (Sean Connery ), not only because his armies can protect
her country, but because she truly loves him. But her chance encounter with
Lancelot, as she prepares to enter Camelot, stirs conflicting and powerful
emotions within her.
Arthur has further problems though. The most powerful of his knights, Prince
Malagant, has long been jealous of Arthur's glory and so the land was divided
again between those who rallied to Malagant, seeking the spoils of war, and
those who stayed loyal to the King.
The picture quality is very good with motion artifacts usually only in the
dark areas, and then only if you're really looking for them so to most people
the film will be pleasing to the eye.
The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1, is enhanced
for 16:9 widescreen televisions - thus allowing for higher resolution - and the
average bitrate is a so-so 4.30 Mb/s.
The sound comes in two formats: Dolby Digital 5.1 which will benefit all of
those with the suitable hardware and Dolby Surround for everyone else with a
surround setup.
Jerry Goldsmith's score is reproduced very well here, as are all the action
scenes plus chapter 6's "The Gauntlet" which is jam-packed full of
directional sound effects as Richard Gere dodges between the blades in such a
cavalier fashion.
Extras :
Chapters/Columbia TriStar Trailer :
It's confusing that the main menu has a "Play DVD trailer" option as you'd
expect it to be the trailer for this particular film, but it's not. It's a
collection of clips from various Columbia TriStar films coming soon to DVD.
Languages/Subtitles :
There's just the one language on this disc - English - plus subtitles in
English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Hindi and Hebrew. The English
subtitles summarise the dialogue quite well and never brings up more than
two lines of dialogue at once.
Menu :
The interactive menu works well. Just dragging the mouse pointer over an
option highlights it, although the menu is static. On playing the disc you get
the Columbia TriStar logo and copyright info before the main menu appears.
Overall, like Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves , this film is a two-hour
piece of romantic nonsense - entertaining, very watchable and very loud during
the action scenes. Plus it serves very well as a family-orientated film, so if
you're a fan of the film this disc is definitely worth a purchase.
FILM : ***½
PICTURE QUALITY : ****
SOUND QUALITY : *****
EXTRAS : *½
-------------------------------
OVERALL : ***½
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
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