Pendragon: Sword of His Father

Amazing special effects/explosions looked around at least 8 Million in my opinion, but they did it for 80K, so kudos. Furthermore, 2 families dreamed this up in their basement and got volunteers to build a village (and then burn it down)--amazing vision, organization, and talent. (The final sword fight was one of the longest and best choreographed I have ever seen.) As for the plot, not bad--it felt like they were headed towards political intrigue and got side-winded towards more action instead--but still, very classic though a little hard to understand all the subtleties at times.

Main actors were good, but acting suffered most because 1. script doctor needed to tailor script to actors' personalities--not actors towards script 2. people acting because they had to 3. Acting with family members is difficult, especially when you're pretending to be in love with someone you're related to, which is a little awkward. 4. confusing storyline changes midway so the complex bad guy becomes simple near the end and some of the storyline nuances were lost.

But as for the historical inaccuracies, this film was remarkably accurate on several points: Firstly the realism (not hyper-realism with gritty and dirty people in undershirts) , Secondly the religious idealism of the Dark Ages (that many modern people do not understand), Thirdly the Roman-Briton civilization confronting the Saxon barbarians, (and putting the Saxon in their native tongue).

As for the religious element, it may make movie-junkies squirm--but the religious sentiment was quite different in the Dark Ages than it is in Hollywood now, and certainly shows a healthy form of idealism rather than the typical elitism found in critics' circles. My only complaint is that there could have been more Liturgical focus as is found in Catholic/Anglican churches, but still the historical effort was appreciated.

Overall, good film for the family but slightly violent for the sensitive at heart.