Banished for Falling in Love

New post up for Arn A Knights Templar, enjoy...

Arn is the son of a Swedish nobleman and he gets sent to live in a monastery when he is young as his mother believes this is why God made him recover from his terrible illness. At the monastery he is taught many things, and to fight is what he shows he is best at. When he comes of age he returns home only to fall in love with Cecilia.

Cecilia is a young woman but has been promised to another man so when news of their love gets out they are both banished. Cecilia is sent to become a nun and as she is pregnant the baby is born and taken away from her. She has to spend 20 years here to do penance for here love. Arn is banished back to the monastery but he gets a reprieve and is sent to the Holy Land to fight in the crusades as a Knights Templar where he must serve for 20 years.
Arn and Cecilia vow to wait for each other but can Arn survive fighting in the crusades for 20 years and will they ever be reunited?

To be very honest, I was not looking forward to watching this film as it is not the usual film I would opt for and I really was not expecting much. I have to say I was very surprised by the film and really did enjoy it. The storyline was very good and I was not expecting the love story which we had. We do have a lot of battle and fight scenes but the underlying story is the love between Arn and Cecilia and this is what made it so watch able for me. The way the story was put across made it very easy to follow especially f like me you don’t have much knowledge of the Crusades, it does all get explained and is very easy to follow.
The acting was super from all involved. I was surprised to find the lead actors were all unknown to me as they did such amazing jobs with their roles. The lead of Arn was played by Joakim Natterqvist and he had me hooked from the moment he came on screen. He was strong and showed great courage and strength throughout even when facing death. He did show a softer side when on screen and talking about Cecilia and this made him seem more human and easier to understand and get to know. He delivered all of his lines with great ease and was a very believable character. I found he showed great timing and strength when it came to the battle scenes and he looked convincing throughout them. He worked well and had a good chemistry with the role of Cecilia, she was played by Sofia Helin. She was more of a softer character at the start of the film but her strength grew as the story moved on and I did start to think she was getting slightly boring but then she became more involved in the story and she developed more.

We had some great support actors who all made their role individual and believable. Actors included, Stellan Skarsgard, Simon Callow, Vincent Perez and Bibi Anderson. We had a good mix of people and they were all good and some managed to bring a small amount of depth to the story.
The film was set in the 12 Century and I found all of the costumes and props were excellently made and created for the film. From the very start of the film we could clearly see the year this was and the continuity continued throughout the film. We did get some wonderful shots of the countryside and over the mountains at times and they were very enjoyable to watch. The costumes were all very well made and looked authentic. I did however spot one of the men at battle wearing what looked like denim jeans but I cannot be certain if they definitely were but this is the only costume error I noticed. The music throughout was lovely and very orchestral and dramatic and did help with the emotions and settings of the scenes the tracks were used in.

There was a lot of special effects and CGI in the film and it was all to a very high standard. The fighting and battles were very good and a bit gruesome at times but they were interesting to watch and packed full of detail. There were no noticeably added backdrops and this is always a good things as it makes the film easier to watch and believe.
The DVD which we have does not contain any bonus features. The running time of the film is 130 minutes, I did think this seemed long at the start of the film but once I got into the story I did loose track of the time completely. The film has a 15 rate as there are parts of moderate violence and occasional gore and I do agree with this rate. The DVD can be bought for just a few pounds now. I paid just £5 for mine from Tesco about 2 months ago now.

I am happy to give this film a good solid 4 stars as it totally surprised me. There is a great story which has a love theme, the acting is superb and so to are the special effects. Definitely one I recommend.