Alfred the Great

Confession; I have not seen the movie, but I do have some interesting facts to share about the making of the movie: Many of the battle scenes were filmed in Ireland using Irish army regulars as extras. The men learned the marching chants and what you hear in the movie is at least in part the actual chants of the extras.

Some of the men earned extra money by doing some of the riskier shots (guys carrying kicking and screaming women for example; my Father was one such extra and earned his extra money by lying on the battlefield and permitting a horse to walk up to his 'body' and then circle around his head; some extras were unwilling to risk being stepped on, but my father's familiarity with horses convinced him that the horse would avoid stepping on a person).

The Viking ships were motorized with oarsmen acting to produce the realistic effects. One boat was offered to the local boy scouts at the end of filming, but was scooped up by a buyer before the deal was closed.

After days of shooting with large numbers of extras on the shores of the River Shannon near Athlone, the crew would repaint the brown grass using large buckets of green paint.

Although not a review, I hope this information is of interest to the site visitors, it comes from the recollections of my Father. Cheers!

During depths of Dark Ages various kingdoms find in England , the greatest results to be Wessex ruled by King Alfred (David Hemmins) . When in ninth century the Scandinavian Vikings or Danes (led by Michael York) invade England with bloodthirsty raids , the young leader Alfred (849-899) at 22 years old dreams with an united nation . Alfred the Great managed himself to unify the small Anglo-Xaxons states in order to battle and beat the invaders barbarians Vikings . Alfred vanquished the invading Danes and freed the London city , besides he promoted the Anglo-Xaxon culture and the civilized values such us learning read Latin.

David Hemmins makes an excellent interpretation along with Michael York as the brutal Danish chief and attractive Prunella Ransome as a princess wished on both sides , besides appears Sir Ian McKellen's debut as a brave outlaw . The great climaxes of the film are , of course , the spectacularly staged battles scenes which convey us a realist scenario . The sets are properly adjusted although no palaces , silks , satins at a court with no pomp and circumstance but simple cloaks and rags and living in wood-forts . This biography is a historic chronicle developing an enjoyable screenplay by James R. Webb . Sensational and glimmer cinematography stunningly reflected on the outdoors by cameraman Alex Thomson . The motion picture is well directed by Clive Donner . The flick will appeal to historic cinema buffs . Rating : Above average. Well worth watching.

A pretty decent film overall. "Chapters" in the story change with a gimmicky visual effect of Hemmings' face looking at itself in transition (from would-be priest to young king, from ruler to man on the run, etc.), it's sometimes hard to catch the names of the individual characters (and the final credits don't help much), and the battle scenes (though staged well) might be seen as overlong. But the film tells its story effectively, brings the characters and events to life and gives us a nice look at 9th century England, and how its people rallied around a king who learned from his early mistakes. I found the actors believable in their roles, the interpretation of events plausible and came away feeling like I knew something about King Alfred and his thoughts. Wouldn't take it as light entertainment, but would recommend it as dramatised history. --Of course, Hemmings' Alfred relies on cleverness, while York's Viking leader Guthrum leans mainly on bravado; familiar parts for both.

I liked this. Set in England in the 870s it tells the story of one of the great Kings in history. Hemmings does a great job as the complicated cynical Alfred who wants to be a priest but is forced into becoming King because his leadership qualities are badly needed against the marauding Danes. Hemmings Alfred is a formidable character but he's refreshingly no Hollywood hero. The battle scenes are excellent when you consider this was made on a low budget way back in 1969. There's a great aerial shot of a battle focusing on Alfred who's just come from the monastery to answer his country's call, giving off the impression that while he might prefer to be a holy man of letters, he can still effortlessly slide into the battlefield in an I can take or leave this manner. Hence his greatness.

This movie is dire. It paints England in the squalid colours of cliché and melodrama, where there should be character and drama. The script is mainly at blame here, with its stagy monologues and all-too-often speeches. But, "once more unto the breach" this is not. It is wooden and bereft of any real sense of emotion or motivation for the characters. As a result we are dragged through the major events of Alfred's life without any real notion of what made the man tick. What we have instead is a real Bastard - a man who is arrogant and tyrannical, self opinionated and full of self loathing. So you wonder if you care at all.

David Hemmings is as wooden as the script itself and poor Michael York suffers so much from being a stereotype that he might as well be a cartoon character. Nothing works here. It's long, it's boring, and Hemmings ranting in yet another tirade of opinion does nothing but annoy.

The battle scenes are awful - and I don't mean in the light of today's battle scenes. I mean these are terribly choreographed jumbles which, even when they are trying to be clever with military formations, just look like a load of soccer hooligans going at each other in a field. It's wholly uninspiring stuff! Bare in mind that Spartacus was 1960 and The 300 Spartans (which the film alludes to) was 1961, El Cid 1963, the list goes on... and while this film is an English and not Sword'n'Sandal Epic I see no reason why it could not at least aspire to set pieces such as feature in The Vikings (1958).

The Danes wander around chanting in formation and the chanting is nothing short of infuriating because it goes on and on and on throughout the entire picture. Also the depiction of these pagans is nothing short of ignorant. Yes, certain Gods are mentioned, but any understanding of how these people really thought of them and worshipped them is sold down the river for yet more clichés of the "evil-pagan" vs the "good-christian" - utter rubbish! There are no "real" scenes of Danes at all, and it is films like this that merely fuel ignorance, not dispel it. It all stinks of really bad direction and ill-thought out production.

The colour is drab and lifeless, and life is depicted as not much short of squalid, which we know it wasn't. I kept expecting the Monty Python team to pop up, "there's some lovely mud down 'ere" (a lá The Holy Grail). The costume department do seem to have been more on the ball, but the dull colours only amplify the banal palate of the picture, with it's uninspired wallpaper score and it's pseudo-theatrical pretensions. Even the photography and the editing are dull.

Only Ian McKellen appears to come out of this picture without egg on his face - and that's because he looks wholly uncomfortable in the film, probably wondering what the hell he's doing in this tripe.

And the "Gutts-Ache" of my title is a favoured saying of Alfred in the film awe inspiring script - "you make my guts ache"!!! Dross...