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Summary: Arn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Land as a knight templar to do penance for a forbidden love. (imdb)
Such a hassle to watch. You can tell there was too much content from the book(s) to fit into this film. Its got poor acting and highly uninspired music. Now I'm thinking well at least with a $30 Million dollar budget, I'll be getting some decent action sequences. Well that was an absurd request as the poor form only continues to disappoint you. How do you even mess up medieval action?
Arn suffers from an overly long amount of time setting up Arn's character. The first hour of the film is spent on his melodramatic upbringing which. It isn't bad but dragged out. However, once he becomes a Templar the movie really gets going and kicks some serious medieval-movie ass. Visually the film obviously borrows from Kingdom of Heaven but you can forgive them for that because that KoH was gorgeous. This is the most expensive Scandinavian movie ever and totally worth the money.
I have to say that there was a lot what I liked in this story. The budjet is visible in the screen. I haven't read the books, but the story is not necessarily the best thing in here. The backflash in the beginning (majority of the film) was important for the story but too long and a bit weak. And I was not all the time okay with Joakim in a leading role. But for the most expensive Skandinavic saga I have to say I'm looking forewards to see the sequel.
I thought this movie looked good, but the story was rushed as hell. Then I found out I watched some sort of international version that was actually this one and its sequel smashed together into a single movie. I'll try to watch the original when I get a chance.
Well it's great to see Sweden can make an even crappier version of Kingdom of Heaven. It's kind of a red flag if the only thing famous about the film is how expensive it was to make.
The biggest problem "Arn" has, is that it originally was a story made into two films. I watched the first part in Sweden and liked it very much, but I had also read the books before. Then I got hold of the DVD in Germany and was astounded why I remembered the film so badly because nothing was right. Then I realized this film here is the international version, one film made out of the two original theatrical releases. This fact should explain why there are story problems in this version.
Half in Swedish and half in English. The movie chronicles the life of Arn Magnusson. Sent to a monastery as child, educated and taught how to fight. Set up by a spurned admirer he is sent into battle over religious politics. He proves to be stronger than his challenges and survives. Parallel to this is the story of his true love Cecilia. The movie was engaging, had plenty of great moments, and held my interest to the end. Music was a little strange but worked.