Camelot is based on T. H. White's book "The Once And Future King" and tells the story of Arthur (Richard Harris) who becomes the King of Britain after pulling a sword embedded within a stone. He marries the lovely Guenevere (Vanessa Redgrave) who cheats on him with one of the knights of the round table, Sir Lancelot Du Lac (played by Franco Nero, although the singing parts were dubbed by Gene Merlino). This treachery is exposed by King Arthur's illegitimate son, Mordred (David Hemmings), and King Arthur has no choice but to banish Sir Lancelot out of the kingdom and to sentence Lady Guenevere to death. To King Arthur's relief, Sir Lancelot returns in time to save Guenevere from burning at the stake. Finally, Guenevere turns to nunhood in one of the most egalitarian moves in musical history so that both men suffer the same pain of losing her. Or perhaps she just wanted to atone for her mistakes.

A movie musical like Camelot faces many challenges. Finding an appropriate backdrop to project a setting of medieval beauty would be one. Cramming decades of eventful years of history into a three-hour timeframe would be another. To compound matters for themselves, the producers and songwriters, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, decided to fill this previously stoic tale about the knights of the round table with witty and comical songs that create a more light-hearted mood in the movie. This is best exemplified in the song "Camelot" which does not take itself too seriously.

In the first aspect, Camelot meets with great success. Camelot is filmed against a stunning backdrop of luscious forests, open fields, magnificent castles, picturesque sceneries and beautifully hued-colored skies.

To address the second challenge, several cinematic techniques to play out events over a short period of time are used. These include flashbacks (For example, King Arthur's encounters with the wizard Merlyn (Laurence Naismith)) and narration by characters about past events (King Arthur recounting his story of the Sword and the Stone to Guenevere). More interestingly in this musical is the depiction of characters progressing through different scenes as they sing their songs. Within one song, a week can pass as in the song "Take Me To The Fair" or even a month - "If Ever I Would Leave You". While these "time-flying" techniques still make it clear to viewers about the existing timeframe, towards the end, the producers of the movie throw caution to the wind in their bid to keep the movie within three hours and simply make warningless time jumps. One moment the King's son Mordred makes his first entrance into his castle, the next moment, he has amassed sufficient support among the King's detractors to start a revolution. All this makes for a very confusing and sudden finale with a dramatic change of pace.

Once again, Lerner and Loewe combine to write another classic score with memorable and witty tunes. In the song "If Ever I Would Leave You", they have written one of the best male solos that surely ranks alongside other classics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein such as South Pacific's "Some Enchanted Evening" and Carousel's "If I Love You". Some other numbers like "I Wonder What The King Is Doing Tonight" and "How To Handle A Woman" also possess fine, sharp wit. Unfortunately, the story of King Arthur revolves around very mature and serious themes such as bravery, pride, betrayal, adultery, love and hope. The light-hearted songs in the initial stages when the story was developing were likeable and pleasant to listen to but towards the half-way mark, these same songs seem inconsistent to the main themes in the story and this incongruity becomes increasingly clear towards the end when a deluge of somber numbers start being introduced. Some other witty songs were interlaced into the middle and final portion of this screen musical to maintain a semblance of consistency with the starting songs, but disappointingly, they were either ineffective ("The Seven Deadly Virtues") or totally irrelevant and purposeless in advancing the storyline ("The Lusty Month Of May"). Lerner and Loewe have to be commended for their valiant effort in trying to make a serious story like that of King Arthur's more interesting but King Arthur's story was never dull in the first place. Sticking to a serious tone reflective of the main themes in the story might have yielded a better result.

Or maybe not. It is probably too difficult to speculate. After all, Camelot did win three Oscars at the Academy Awards for Best Art and Set Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Original Song Written For A Motion Picture (Ironically, this award went to "If Ever I Would Leave You" which was first written for the stage production and not the motion picture). If Camelot shows anything, it is that in spite of its flaws and restrictions, a strong and compelling storyline along with a top-notch score and filmography will always make for a good musical movie. Modern-day big-screen musicals may do well to follow in these footsteps. To quote a verse from "Camelot", "In short there's simply not, a more congenial spot, for happy-ever-aftering than here in Camelot".

Reviewed on 23 January 2004