King Arthur (2004) - 38 mistakes

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.

Revealing: When Arthur is giving his speech before the last battle, in the background are three radio towers. You never know Arthur might need a radio to find out tomorrow's weather.

Continuity: In the scene where the knights are sitting at the round table near the beginning of the movie one of the knights has a plus sign shaped scar on his forehead. In the next shot,the same knight now has a sideways cross shaped scar. The scar changes almost every shot throughout the scene.

Plot hole: When the two Legionnaires open the gate of the Hadrian's Wall, they lean forward with their shoulders against the doors as if to push, but they are really pulling.

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.

Revealing: At the beginning, when the Woads are attacking the Bishop's Carriage, Lancelot is hitting one of the Woads. The sword isn't even touching the Woad.

Continuity: When we see Tristan's bird for the first time, the shots changes between close up and distance. In the distance shot you see both of Tristan's arms out in the air, but in the close ups both before and after, it's only one arm out in the air.

Continuity: During the battle at the end of the movie, the first wave of Saxon infantry is sent through the open door in Hadrian's Wall, and then it closes behind them. Mayhem ensues. All but one of the soldiers escapes after the Wodes fire arrows at them while the Knights ride them down. The single survivor staggers through the opening doors (which open just a crack, enough for the guy to slip through), and then stands there, and in that shot we see the doors behind him are now closed. An instant later, it cuts to the hillside where the Knights are standing on their horses looking down at the wall, and we see the doors both standing wide open. Scene cuts back, and we see they're closed again.

Visible crew/equipment: When Arthur is riding with his knights in the open field, there's a front shot of the cavalry line. When the camera lowers down to where we can see the legs of the horses, the trail of the camera stage is visible on the ground.

Factual error: In the beginning, which is around 400 A.D., it shows that the saddles have stirrups on them. Stirrups were not introduced in Europe until centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Revealing: In the shot where Guinevere and Arthur are kneeling over the slain Lancelot after the battle with the Saxons, you can see molded rubber soles on Guinevere's shoes.

Factual error: Tristan's bird of prey is a Harris Hawk - a species native to Southern America and thus unknown and unavailable in Europe at the time the movie is supposed to take place.

Audio problem: When the Woads are surrounding Arthur and his knights, one of the knight is shouting something, but nothing comes out of his mouth.

Audio problem: When the Woads attack in the beginning of the movie, after the knights have pretty much won the day, Bors hold up his fist knives, sticks out his tounge, and yells a sort-of war victory yell which sounds rather comedic. At the end of the movie when the knights and their horses charge into the Saxons out of the fog, you can hear Bors' exact same yell once again.

Factual error: The major Saxon invasion (the one we see in the movie) was set around 400 A.D. After a short time in the film, the battle of Badon Hill starts. This battle occurred in 512 A.D. Arthur must be VERY old.

Revealing: When Lucan draws the ring of dead Dagonet's finger, you can see the finger move and keep its position.

Continuity: The knights reach the outpost beyond the wall. One of the knights reports to Arthur that the Saxons are approaching. During the exchange he's shown with his hair pushed off his face, then its covering one side of his face, then its off again.

Continuity: In the scene by Arthur's father's grave, Guinevere places her hand on Arthur's cheek. As the camera shot moves from front to back you see her thumb move from on his cheek to off again several times from one shot to the next.

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.

Factual error: At the very beginning of the movie, the voice-over tells us it's around 300 AD. We see Roman soldiers, carrying shields and standards with the Chi Rho symbols. Those weren't introduced around 300 AD, but much later. Legend has it that emperor Constantine ordered his men to paint the symbols on their shields before a battle in 312, but Constantine's Arch in Rome, which depicts his victorious soldiers, doesn't show any of these symbols and the symbols in the movie are made of iron, not paint.

Factual error: The scene in which the two armies confront each other on the frozen lake contains several flaws. First, when thick ice is broken with a sharp object like a pickaxe, you merely get a hole through the ice, it will only fragment into large pieces if it is thin. Clearly, this is not the case, as the armies are able to walk on it. Second, ice does not shatter in the way depicted in the film, with cracks travelling outwards a great distance, but just crumbles around the area where force is applied. Third, if cracks did radiate outwards, they would propagate sideways and backwards as well as forwards (like glass does when it is punctured by a small, sharp object), meaning that both armies would end up falling through the ice.

Factual error: Arthur and his men are charged with passing Hadrian's wall and taking the Roman family to safety; yet at that time in history there is no way a Roman family would be in Scotland; they certainly wouldn't have had a castle (no matter how small) and a peasant settlement. Missionaries or not, the Scots would have driven them out.

Audio problem: When Arthur is telling the knights about their final mission, just after Bors storms out, he says, "Venora'll kill me.", but his lips don't move.

Factual error: Two things are wrong about the trebuchets. While Romans did have siege engines, like the catapult and the ballista, the trenches apparently is a Chinese invention. In any case, it wasn't introduced in Europe until the Middle Ages. Also a trebuchet is a complicated device, much more difficult to operate then it looks. Firing it is easy, but hitting a target certainly isn't. (With modern reconstructions, even when using ballistic calculations, it still takes days of practice to get to a point of some accuracy.) When the Roman army left, the trebuchets were completely useless. In the final battle the Woads nevertheless use them to great effect - impossible.

Continuity: When Cedric holds wounded Tristan to show his triumph to Arthur, the underdog is standing (you see his head at the height of Cedric's), next (when he looks at his falcon) he is kneeling, and when Tristan receives his deathblow, he's standing again.

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.

Other: The movie starts with scenes from a battle between Romans and Sarmatians. For a few seconds, we see a (very dark) shot of a warrior holding a severed head in his hand. That very same shot is used later in the battle between the Woads and the Sarmatian knights protecting the Bishop. Director's cut only.

Factual error: The Romans left England in 410 AD and the Anglo-Saxons didn't arrive in England until the late sixth century. Between these times the Britons were in control of the island.

Continuity: When the knights & the Bishop are around the round table, the Bishop's assistant is heard saying to Jols (after introducing Bishop Germanius), "A round table? What sort of evil is this?" and he is not on screen. Jols, however, is and he stands as though there is no one talking to him. In the very next shot he is looking at the assistant and speaks to him as though they were talking the whole time.

Revealing: Just before the battle of Maldon, the British spy climbs into the big tree and you can see the tree is fake. The spy isn't actually climbing the tree (by grabbing branches), he's using some kind of ladder.

Continuity: When Cerdic is about to kill Arthur on the final battle, look at Cerdic's hair which changes position on his forehead during close-ups.

Factual error: The artillery in this movie are counterweight trebuchets, a type powered by a falling weight. The Romans had many spring and torsion powered artillery, such as scorpions, ballistas and catapults, but did not have trebuchets. By the 3rd century BC the Chinese had the "torsion trebuchet", similar to a trebuchet but powered by men hauling on ropes instead of a falling weight; it didn't reach Europe until the late sixth century. The pure counterweight trebuchet as shown in the movie sometime in the fifth century AD probably didn't exist before the late 12th century and the first one in Britain was built in 1216 AD.

Continuity: In the shot of Bors (during Venora's singing), Galahad is shown in the back with Gawain being the closest knight to him, a stream directly behind, and a wall far behind. Cut to Lancelot, then to Tristan who is near a wall, then to Galahad with Tristan right behind him and the wall closer.

Factual error: The Saxons are seen invading to the north of Hadrian's' wall. In reality, they invaded to the south of it, and that is the reason why they managed to take control of Southern England.

Revealing: At the start of the film when the Bishops convoy is ambushed by the Woads Arthur stabs his sword at the ambusher, totally missing but the Woad still falls as if stabbed.

Continuity: In the ice battle scene, after the Knights unsuccessfully attempt to make the Saxon army cluster to break the ice, Arthur tells the Knights "It's not going to break". But if you look at Arthur, his lips aren't moving when he says it.

Revealing: Despite at least two days of near blizzard conditions there is never more than a few inches of snow on the ground. The amount of snow we see falling should have left well over a foot of snow.

Continuity: When Cerdic calls for the main body of the Saxons to go through the door Cynric is shown drawing his sword, waving it over his head and yelling. In the next shot seconds later his sword is sheathed and he is walking calmly beside his father.