King Arthur

Deliberate mistake: When Arthur follows Guinevere to the meeting with Merlin, her and the trees' shadows point at the viewer. Only Arthur has two shadows, one points to the left. The source of the moonlight is below the next ridge, and it's bright like a floodlight. Later, when Arthur is talking to Merlin, his face is always illuminated, even after a 180°-turn. (00:59:00)

Deliberate mistake: When the horses shy to get their masters back to Arthur's aid you can see Bors pull the reins to provoke that action. (01:28:35)

Deliberate mistake: From outside, the dungeon where Arthur finds Guinevere has no windows. When the knights force themselves in, it is pitch dark. But in some scenes a window is to be seen in the background, although the jails are one floor down. Even better the cages, in which among others Lucan sits: they are lighted from below. (00:46:20)

Factual error: I normally wouldn't bother with this sort of nitpicking, but this film specifically claims to be historically researched - and it's full of historical blunders. For a start, the film is set as the Empire withdraws its last troops from Britain - which was in 407 AD. Now Artorius Castus was a real Roman officer who really did command Sarmatian foederati at Hadrian's Wall, but he died around 200 AD. Cerdic was a real Saxon warlord who did go raiding the Britons with his son Cynric, but he did this in the early 500s. Pelagius really was tried for heresy, but he was acquitted and died of old age; the trial was a decade after this setting, and in the fifth century you couldn't be executed for heresy anyway. Also in the fifth century the Pope had no authority over Imperial troops. I could go on and on but that will do for now.

More mistakes in King Arthur

Cerdic: You come to beg a truce, you should be on your knees.
Arthur: I came to see your face so that I alone may find you on the battlefield. And it will be good of you to mark my face, Saxon, for the next time you see it, it will be the last thing you see on this earth.
Cerdic: Ahhh. Finally, a man worth killing.

More quotes from King Arthur

Trivia: Twenty years ago, there was a series on British TV called Robin of Sherwood. Will Scarlet was played by Ray Winstone. One of the other Merry Men (Nasir) was played by Mark Ryan, who was the sword master on King Arthur. The horse master was Steve Dent who is (you guessed it) horse-master on this movie as well.

More trivia for King Arthur

Question: What does the Saxon who rallies the troops actually yell? He yells it twice: once, after Cerdic meets with Arthur in front of the wall and gives the order to "prepare the men for battle", and then a second time when Cerdic gives the signal after the only survivor of the first "wave" comes back through the wall. (And I don't mean his cry of "battle formation.").

Answer: I don't think it's supposed to be German. Probably Old Saxon. Could be something like "slahten fiand" - slaughter enemy.

Answer: He yells 'Schlachtet den feind!' (In very, very bad "German") - 'slaughter the enemy!'. And his army seems to yell: "Schlachtung! Schlachtung! Schlachtung..." - "Slaughter! Slaughter! Slaughter..."

More questions & answers from King Arthur

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