SWORD OF THE VALIANT (1984): Not Nearly As Good As The Director’s First Version

According to the numerous reviews of SWORD OF THE VALIANT, the majority are mostly positive although those that don’t like it REALLY don’t like it. Then there are those, like myself, who fall somewhere in the middle. However, of all the reviews, few mention the fact that director Stephen Weeks made an earlier version in 1973 called GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT.

That version starred Murray Head (of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR fame) as Gawain and character actor Nigel Green as (appropriately) the Green Knight. Although SWORD has the bigger name cast, GAWAIN is the more successful telling of the story. Check it out on YouTube after watching this version and then you can compare them for yourself.

In an interview director Weeks, who is also a novelist and a respected conservationist, discusses how the first film was altered against his wishes. 10 years later he tried again with a bigger budget and had the same thing happen. Although he was able to land such marquee names as Sean Connery, Trevor Howard, and Peter Cushing, he was forced by producers Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus to give the title role to Miles O’Keefe (Bo Derek’s TARZAN) instead of STAR WARS’ Mark Hamill.

While O’Keefe looks great, an actor he is not, especially when surrounded by the other veteran Brit performers. His blonde PRINCE VALIANT wig doesn’t help. When your title character has zero charisma, then you are facing a severe handicap from the start and the movie never fully recovers although Connery’s first appearance as the Green Knight is impressive. O’Keefe’s Gawain is essentially the same at the end as he was in the beginning. There is absolutely no growth in the character unlike the first movie.

SWORD was only 3 years after the hugely successful EXCALIBUR and this movie features a lot more sword fighting and jousting than GAWAIN did. As is often the case, the story stops dead for the action scenes which then go on too long. Israeli based Cannon Films were known for action pictures so this comes as no surprise. They also cut costs by using a synthesizer score by Ron Geesin which is bad even by 1980s standards.

Due to the TV screens of the time, this 2003 MGM DVD of SWORD OF THE VALIANT was released in a full screen rather than a widescreen aspect ratio. This means that the framing is wrong as the sides have been cut off and the movie is artificially full of close ups. The bulk of the positive reviews come from people who saw it in a theater. Hopefully SWORD will receive a proper Blu-Ray release in the correct visual aspect as every movie deserves to be seen the way it was intended.