The knight Tristan (Mads Mikkelsen) and Arthur (Clive Owen) in ‘King Arthur’ (2004). Image by KPA Publicity Stills.
Oddly enough, King Arthur and Michael Jackson have something in common. Both are films directed by Antoine Fuqua. The difference, of course, is that King Arthur has lots of horses in it.
‘KING ARTHUR’ – 2004
Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Clive Owen, Mads Mikkelsen, Keira Knightley and Ray Winstone.
King Arthur screened back in 2004; Michael has just been released in Australia. Its budget was $155 million. How it does at the box office remains to be seen.
King Arthur cost $120 million – and most critics hated it. But cast and crew enjoyed the experience. Actors turned up on time and remembered their lines; all the horses hit their marks and didn’t play up.
Shot in England, Ireland and Wales, this historical adventure features Arthur (Clive Owen) as a Roman officer rather than as a mediaeval knight. The producers wanted to market it as a more accurate version of the Arthurian legends – you won’t see any jousting and sparkling suits of armour, or Lancelot having his way with Guinevere.
But there are scores of horses in this picture and the actors had to do a lot of riding.
“I’d done very little before getting the lead,” admitted Owen who, in pre-production, spent two months preparing for the role. “Seventy per cent of the movie’s in the saddle so it was important I and the knights looked like we belonged on those horses.”
He and the others learnt on a property just outside London belonging to movie horseman Steve Dent who’s been a supplier of animals and vehicles for decades. He provided 60 horses to King Arthur.
Arthur (Clive Owen). Image supplied.
The picture’s very first frames are of the knights riding straight towards the camera and their mounts were mostly Dent’s Spanish Andalusians.
A light grey one named Bohemia was Owen’s horse. This handsome gelding, like many human stars, had his own stunt double. Named Conyo, he was used in battlefield sequences where he would rear or lie down as directed.
TRIVIA:
“Clive Owen is an excellent casting choice for Arthur – he’s handsome and noble and can express complex emotions without dialogue. He looks great on a horse or striding across a field with his Roman cape fluttering behind him.” — Reeling Reviews
Movie horseman Steve Dent provided 60 horses to ‘King Arthur’.
Ioan Gruffudd, playing Sir Lancelot, had a black Andalusian – an eight-year-old stallion named Aroma. “I had him for the whole shoot,” recalls the actor, who felt he became reasonably proficient as a rider after several months in the saddle.
“On the first day you’re using muscles you never knew existed but after a while you get used to it. You learn to use your legs more than the reins. And these were the Formula One cars of horses,” he adds. “They were so well tuned. I just had to sit on Aroma and he’d go to his mark.”
For most of the film he was covered in leather – trousers, boots and tunic, “and I had chainmail on my arms to make me look more masculine”. At a costume fitting the designer had put him in a kilt. “The actor playing Galahad (Hugh Dancy) had looked great but when she put one on me I looked like a drag queen!”
“It was a real pleasure as an actor to be outdoors all day because we were filming during one of the hottest summers on record in Ireland,” Gruffud says of his role as Lancelot. “I wasn’t sitting behind some desk – I was sitting on the back of a horse, breathing this fresh air. It was a real privilege. It was such fun it didn’t feel like acting. We learned how to ride and play with swords. I felt like a boy on an adventure.”
ANDALUSIAN WITH A CELEBRITY CV
On this set it was likely that an Andalusian named George had a more impressive CV than many of the extras. He had worked on The Headless Horseman; with Russell Crowe in Gladiator and, according to Petrie Day Mitchum in Hollywood Hoofbeats, “is one of the most sought-after horses in modern movies”. After finishing with the knights, George went straight on to be Orlando Bloom’s mount in Kingdom of Heaven, and later toRobin Hood.
In King Arthur he is ridden by Bors, a tough, savage knight played by Ray Winstone. The actor hadn’t attended boot camp. He’d learnt the basics some years before and, because of another job, wasn’t able to attend even if he had wanted to – which he didn’t.
Bors (Ray Winstone) riding the Andalusian named George – “one of the most sought-after horses in modern movies”. Image by Touchstone.
“It was like going
out to this great
playground every day.”
Another horse who had worked on Gladiator was Jabonero, a grey Andalusian stallion who this time was ridden into battle by Sir Galahad (Hugh Dancy).
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, playing the knight Tristan, had never ridden before going to Steve Dent’s boot camp. He immersed himself in the experience and loved making the film. His horse was Oscar, a dapple-grey Andalusian gelding.
“It was like going out to this great playground every day and getting paid for it,” he said.
Joel Edgerton (Gawain) had Rusty, a grey Andalusian gelding. The Australian actor had ridden as a youngster and on several films, but said “this bootcamp took everything to another level”.
The only non-Spanish mount was Goliath, a French black three-quarter crossbred with a white star who was teamed with Dagonet (Ray Stevenson).
According to Dent the hardest shot in the movie was when all seven of the knights were galloping across a field with about five cameras on them. “When they ride like this all the horses are competing and it’s dangerous. But it worked brilliantly.”
The horses were certainly stars in ‘King Arthur’. Image by RGR Collection.
As Mitchum says in her book: “Thematically King Arthur plays great homage to the noble horse. At the end when Lancelot and two of his fellow knights have been slain by the Saxons, three magnificent riderless horses cavort together, symbolising their fallen masters. It’s a profoundly poetic image that underscores the absolute importance of the horse to the Arthurian legend.”
“As far as cinematography goes, the film looks pretty great,” Truth Myth Media noted in its review. “There are tons of sweeping landscape shots of horses riding across mountain ridges or undulating hills.”
King Arthur can be viewed on various streaming services or on DVD, of which there are two versions: the one which played in cinemas and a director’s cut. According to Antoine Fuqua, his cut has extra footage of battle sequences as well as more scenes between Lancelot and Guinevere, whose traditional love triangle with Arthur is only hinted at in the theatrical version. The battles are also bloodier and more graphic.
Next time in ‘Horses & Movies’, ‘Horse Boy’ (2009). EQ
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