Watched Ivanhoe Today

     Watched Ivanhoe (1952) today. It had been on my watchlist for some time now. I had seen The Knights of the Round Table a little over a year ago, which is like the spiritual sequel to this film. Ivanhoe did have a lot of what I look for in this sort of romantic adventure film. Lots of very nice looking costumes, picturesque shots of castles and nature, nicely decorated medieval interiors. The spectacle of swordfights and jousting and archery. It's a pretty looking film, I ended up taking a lot of screenshots.

    I'd say the main theme that this film tackles is religious discrimination. Not very deeply explored, but there's something. I liked the acting a lot, though I had trouble understanding some of it. Sometimes it felt like they were just mumbling stuff. And the dialogue was written very wittily, some lines were very funny. Also, Robin Hood is in this film. They don't call him that, though, he's called Locksley (which is apparently from the book its adapted from). Ivanhoe's name is also actually Wilfred, I guess they all just go by where they're from. The story is kind of a Robin Hood fanfic starring an OC.


I'll say, there's this weird thing in the movie. SPOILERS HERE SPOILERS HERE SPOILERS HERE I guess. There's the character Wamba, who is Ivanhoe's squire, and a relatively important character. He then dies. And it goes completely unremarked upon. Ivanhoe makes a shocked facial expression when he dies, and that's it. No scene of people mourning him, or even mentioning his death even once. Not mention of it from Rowena who lived with him for years. Nothing from Cedric, who presumably lived with him his since he was born. It's just bizarre and breaks verisimilitude.

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