Prince Valiant (1997 film)

Prince Valiant
200px VHS cover
Directed by	Anthony Hickox
Produced by	Tom Rosenberg James Gorman Bernd Eichinger
Screenplay by	Michael Frost Beckner Anthony Hickox Carsten H.W. Lorenz
Story by	Michael Frost Beckner
Based on	Prince Valiant by Hal Foster
Starring	Stephen Moyer Katherine Heigl Thomas Kretschmann Edward Fox Joanna Lumley
Music by	David Bergeaud
Cinematography	Roger Lanser
Edited by	Alexander Berner
Distributed by	Fox Video
Release dates	1997 (1997)
Running time	119 minutes
Country	Ireland United Kingdom Germany
Language	English

Prince Valiant is a 1997 Irish-British independent sword and sorcery film directed by Anthony Hickox and starring Stephen Moyer, Katherine Heigl, Thomas Kretschmann, Edward Fox and Ron Perlman. It is based on the long-running Prince Valiant comic strip of Hal Foster, some panels of which were used in the movie.

Plot

The story is based on the myth of King Arthur. A young, inexperienced squire Valiant, masquerading as Sir Gawain, is sent to accompany the Welsh princess Lady Ilene, a guest at Camelot, on her way back home. Little he knows that, meanwhile, the evil sorceress Morgan le Fay has convinced the Viking warlord Sligon, ruler of the kingdom of Thule, to steal the magical sword Excalibur during a joust tournament. Valiant and the princess become part of the struggle of "he who holds the sword rules the world" which leads them both to love and Valiant to his princely destiny, as it turns out he is the rightful heir to the throne of Thule. The usurper is eventually killed by his brother Thagnar, who also captures Ilene. In a final confrontation, the villains are killed and Valiant rescues the princess and recovers Excalibur.

Cast

Actor	Role
Stephen Moyer	Prince Valiant
Katherine Heigl	Princess Ilene
Thomas Kretschmann	Thagnar
Edward Fox	King Arthur
Udo Kier	Sligon
Joanna Lumley	Morgan le Fay
Ron Perlman	Boltar
Warwick Davis	Pechet
Gavan O'Herlihy	King Thane
Anthony Hickox	Prince Gawain
Marcus Schenkenberg	Tiny
Francois Patrick Le-Hoang	Claw

Reception

Empire gave Prince Valiant two stars out of five and stated " a promising, swashbuckly romp is entirely scuppered by some indiscriminate broadsword editing, thereby removing any fun the name cast might have had, and leaving a poorly dubbed, effects-lacking film disappointingly limp". The editor took his name off after the German producers fired the director and recut picture taking out two main story lines and most of the humor.

External links

• Prince Valiant at IMDb
• Prince Valiant at Rotten Tomatoes
• Prince Valiant at AllMovie