Factual error: I normally wouldn't bother with this sort of nitpicking, but this film specifically claims to be historically researched - and it's full of historical blunders. For a start, the film is set as the Empire withdraws its last troops from Britain - which was in 407 AD. Now Artorius Castus was a real Roman officer who really did command Sarmatian foederati at Hadrian's Wall, but he died around 200 AD. Cerdic was a real Saxon warlord who did go raiding the Britons with his son Cynric, but he did this in the early 500s. Pelagius really was tried for heresy, but he was acquitted and died of old age; the trial was a decade after this setting, and in the fifth century you couldn't be executed for heresy anyway. Also in the fifth century the Pope had no authority over Imperial troops. I could go on and on but that will do for now.
King Arthur (2004)
Plot summary
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Keira Knightley, Joel Edgerton, Ray Winstone, Ioan Gruffudd, Stellan Skarsgard, Clive Owen, Stephen Dillane
A young Arthur is living with his family in Sarmatia, a land conquered by the Romans. When the Saxons attack, Arthur's father is slain, and the young boy is saved by Sir Hector, who takes him to be raised in England as a Roman soldier.
Years later, Arthur (now portrayed by Clive Owen) has become the respected leader of a small band of knights known as the Sarmatian Knights. They are about to complete fifteen years of service to the Roman Empire and have been promised freedom. However, before they can be released, they are given one final mission by Bishop Germanius: rescue the son of a Roman nobleman trapped behind enemy lines in the north of Britain.
Arthur and his knights, including Lancelot (played by Ioan Gruffudd), Gawain (portrayed by Joel Edgerton), Tristan (played by Mads Mikkelsen), Galahad (portrayed by Hugh Dancy), and Bors (portrayed by Ray Winstone), embark on their quest. As they travel, they rescue Guinevere (portrayed by Keira Knightley), a Woad warrior who was being held captive by the Romans.
The group discovers that the Saxons, led by Cerdic (portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård), are planning a massive invasion of Britain, using the Roman withdrawal as an opportunity. Arthur decides to return to the Roman villa where he grew up, now abandoned, and use it as a base to defeat the Saxons. They arrive at the villa and prepare for battle.
The Saxons attack, and a fierce battle ensues. However, Arthur realises that many of the Sarmatian Knights, including Lancelot, Gawain, and Galahad, are fighting for a cause they no longer believe in. This causes Arthur to question his own loyalty to Rome. The battle ends in victory for the knights, but Lancelot is captured by the Saxons.
Arthur decides to negotiate with Cerdic for Lancelot's release. He offers himself in exchange but secretly plans an ambush. The ambush is successful, and Arthur stabs Cerdic, killing him. However, during the skirmish, both Tristan and Gawain are mortally wounded.
Returning to the Roman villa, Arthur and his remaining knights celebrate their victory. However, the victory is short-lived, as they receive news that the Saxons have regrouped and are planning another invasion on the night of the Battle of Badon Hill. Arthur and his knights prepare for the decisive battle.
On the night of the battle, the knights engage in fierce combat and manage to win the battle with the help of the Woads, a native warrior tribe led by Guinevere. In the process, Arthur is mortally wounded, but with his last breath, he proclaims that his Knights should be freed and given land in Britain.
The movie ends with Arthur being sent off on a river burial, and the remaining Sarmatian Knights and Guinevere leading the surviving Britons into a new era, establishing the foundation for the Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur's legacy.
Cerdic: You come to beg a truce, you should be on your knees.
Arthur: I came to see your face so that I alone may find you on the battlefield. And it will be good of you to mark my face, Saxon, for the next time you see it, it will be the last thing you see on this earth.
Cerdic: Ahhh. Finally, a man worth killing.
Trivia: Twenty years ago, there was a series on British TV called Robin of Sherwood. Will Scarlet was played by Ray Winstone. One of the other Merry Men (Nasir) was played by Mark Ryan, who was the sword master on King Arthur. The horse master was Steve Dent who is (you guessed it) horse-master on this movie as well.
Question: Throughout the movie, the Sarmatian knights shout the word "rus" at each other; Bors in particular says it a lot. Does anyone know what significance this word has or what it means?
Answer: Except the Norseman/Rus came much later than Arthur's time...so that's not it. Though more to the point is the Sarmatian /Scythian relationship and their dynamic with the Romans in respect to this timeline.
Norsemen invaded Britain in the 8th century but were around much earlier. Romans recruited from foreign lands and could possibly have recruited from tribes earlier than this. Rus vikings were first recorded around the 8th century but could also have existed prior to this. It is accepted that Viking history was from 800 AD. However the legendary king Arthur was allegedly invented by a 12th century french poet. The Roman Lucius Artorius Caster died around the end of the 2nd century. So it's all speculative.
Answer: Rus in Latin means country or land. The whole movie was based on winning freedom. Fighting and dying to win them their home, their country. Arturius chooses Britain as his land and his countrymen to defend. So Rus in this context, being they are Roman, their battle cry means 'for country', not Rome but Britain. For home.
Answer: They do not yell "rus", they shout as "rochs". In fact at first the pronunciation in the movie shows that. "Rochs" is a Sarmatian term, in fact it means "light" in modern Ossetian, the only remnants of the Sarmatians in modern world. There were three major Sarmatian tribes in history: Alans, Rochsalans (Rochs-alans or Latinized Roxalans) and Iazyges. Second one bears that prefix, and historically not Roxalans but Iazyges were forced to become mercenaries for Rome. So with that yell there is a little mistake in the movie but this is tolerable at the end.
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Answer: At the beginning of the film, we learn that young Sarmatians were drafted into the Roman military for a period of fifteen years. As the Romans lead young Lancelot away from his family, his father yells 'Rus!', the war-cry that is repeated throughout the film. 'Sarmatian' was the name the Romans gave the Rus, descendants of Norsemen who had settled in lands that still bear their name today: the River Rus (in modern Romania), Russia, Belarus, and Ruthenia. Culturally and geographically, these people were the Rus. So when they were inducted into the Roman army, their war cry of 'Rus!' identified them as being fearsome Rus/Sarmatian warriors, warned their opponents that the Rus were coming for them, celebrated their cultural identity, and symbolized their hope of returning home to the Rus. In the film Arthur honors them by yelling it back, signifying the unusual bond between leader and soldier exemplified in the Round Table, Arthur's respect for the Rus warriors, and his commitment to the idea that all men are born free and have the right to their own lives and beliefs.
Rus were a people combined of Vikings traveling between Denmark and Byzantium, and Slavic people. Sarmatians were before that, but from the same area and did intermingle with Slavs, so their blood is more than likely in there.
Rus was not from Denmark.
RUS is the word for Vikings who ruled the city of Kyev, and by the Ryrik family which assembled many Slavic tribes into "Kyev Rus", which is the name of state and foundation of modern Russia. Russia" as a ethnonim is similar to Rus but is not. Russian call themselves "I am Rus, I am ruski", and their language "ruski", but their country is "Russia" and they are RussiaNS, old name coresponding to Latin word "Ratio" (sense, mind) Race -of people...Sarmatians are Serbs, Serbs are Slavs and old Russians.
Ruthenia was the Roman name for what is now Ukraine. The main part of Rus i.e. Kyivan Rus is actually the land and people who are now known as Ukrainians. The Sarmatians were our ancestors.