Movie Review: The Mists of Avalon

If you're a fanatic of anything and everything related to the King Arthur tale then this movie should be right up your alley. The Mists of Avalon was actually a mini-series that aired on the Turner cable channel in 2001 and is based on the Marion Zimmer Bradley novel.

What makes The Mists of Avalon different is that we get the King Arthur story through the eyes of Morgaine (Julianne Margulies) who also acts as the narrator of the story. Most King Arthur legends and stories tend to make the Morgaine character as evil while here in this movie we get an entirely different viewpoint that perhaps she wasn't such a bad apple after all.

We are taken back to when Morgaine is but a child. It is one day when she, her aunt Morgause (Joan Allen) and her mother are together in a room. All of a sudden, Morgaine becomes frightened as her mother, Igraine (Caroline Goodall) is in a strange trace...being a former priestess of Avalon she has the gift of foresight and magic of the old pagan ways that were taught there. She foresees the arrival of Vivianne (Anjelica Huston) the now high priestess of Avalon and Merlin. Vivianne reveals to Igraine that she is destined to carry the child that will unite England since there is an encroaching of the Christian religion to do away with the old pagan beliefs. Igraine is puzzled by this as her husband Gorlois (Clive Russell) is a devote Christian and can't understand how this can be as Gorlois is against the pagan ways, and forbids his wife to use any magical powers. It is further revealed however, that the father of the child will not be Gorlois, but the man who has a strange symbol on his arm.

Some days later, Igraine and Gorlois meet with several high heads of state to talk about affairs at a banquet. Suddenly the doors open with a clamor and in enters a man who has a rather rough and gruff manner, Uther Pendragon. The moment Igraine and his eyes meet each other they sense an almost psychic recognition, and is further acknowledged when by chance Igraine sees a tattoo on his arm...the symbol she was told about by Merlin and to be the father of her child. Gorlois is a suspicious and jealous man and senses the strange immediate attraction between his wife and Uther, and plans to attack Uther's army camp while they are sleeping. But in yet again another vision sent by Vivianne, she is told to warn Uther of Gorlois's intention to attack. In a trace, Igraine is able to transform herself and enters Uther's tent to warn him.

When Gorlois and his men, thinking he is to kill Uther, he is surprised to find that Uther is waiting for him. The scene transforms a few days later, when Gorlois comes home. He is met by his daughter, Morgaine who reaches up to his hand...but she notices something....that strange symbol and realizes that while the man does indeed look like her father, it is someone else...she keeps quiet about it however. Some more time passes, and up comes a wagon bearing the dead body of Gorlois and the truth is revealed of who the impostor really is...Uther.
Igraine does indeed give birth to a son, and names him Arthur. Morgaine and her brother have a special bond between each other, but their bond isn't to last, when one day, Vivianne and Merlin come to take the children away...Arthur to be taught by Merlin, and Morgaine to go with Vivianne to Avalon, where she will learn the ancient pagan ways.

Years pass and we see a grown Morgaine. Her final testing that she has acquired knowledge of the old ways is to be able to lift the mists of Avalon that shield and protect the island and does so. One day a visitor arrives....it turns out to be her cousin Lancelot (Michael Vartan) of whom is Vivianne's son. She feels an immediate attraction to him but it is not to be for he becomes smitten by a woman whose name is Gwenwyfar.

On the pagan celebration of Beltane, she must participate in the rites of passage, which is known as the "virgin huntress" and must make love to the masked man who represents the stag. Both are masked, thus neither know the identity of each other. She of course is hoping it is Lancelot. We later find out that the man she made love to was none other than her own brother, Arthur of whom she hasn't seen in all these years, out of that union, Morgaine will give birth to Mordred who will be raised by the ever scheming, plotting Morgause and her husband.

Morgaine realizes the truth of her "lover" that night, her brother, but she is given a further blow when her brother decides to marry Gwenwyfar, a super religious Christian woman and is against anything pagan like. Gwenwyfar tries to provide an heir to Arthur but never does not realizing that Morgause cast a spell upon her to make her barren.

Presented this way, this movie gives us a more dramatic sense of betrayal of loyalties between many of the characters it also signals that the power of Avalon, with the stronger dominance of the Christian church is at an end. Toward the end of the movie when a half dying King Arthur who was wounded in battle at the hands of his own son Mordred, Morgaine takes Arthur back to Avalon, but her way is barred...when trying to lift the mists of Avalon, for one moment one can see it, only to be shrouded in mist again, and they cannot enter....it has been lost.

For any fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley's book The Mist of Avalon, perhaps one of the newer classics of the King Arthur legend, and/or a fan of the whole King Arthur legend itself, one will love this movie.

Opinion: Another thing I want to point out here is the general interpretation of some of the main characters themselves: In most stories of the King Arther legend, both King Arthur and Gwenwyfar are usually depicted in a more "noble" ethereal manner. In this movie however the two come across as, well to be honest, wusses and rather namby pamby and rather weak. Therefore for some who view this movie may be bothered by this rather different interpretation of these two characters.

Did Avalon ever in fact exists? Maybe not, but I would like to think it did.

Cast:

Anjelica Huston----------Vivianne
Julianna Margulies------Morgaine
Joan Allen-----------------Morgause
Samantha Mathis--------Gwenwyfar
Caroline Goodall---------Igraine
Edward Atterton ----------Arthur
Michael Vartan -----------Lancelot
Michael Byrne-------------Merlin
Hans Matheson-----------Mordred
Mark Lewis Jones -------Uther
Clive Russell --------------Gorlois

Directed by Uli Edel
Writen by:
Marion Zimmer Bradley (novel)
Gavin Scott (teleplay)